The Xmas thread

[tracilicious]

So what do you want? What are you getting others? Do you have any spectacular traditions, or do you wing in each year?

I want a new turntable, a booklight, and a really sharp chef's knife.

I'm getting Michael a Dinosaur Comics gift certificate, a really cool set of transformers (Chewbacca and Han Solo who combine to make the Millenium Falcon), and a random assortment of other things. The kids are getting toys and games and books. The few family members I have are getting hand knit scarves and fudge. A few friends are getting fudge as well.

Not sure about the traditions yet. I'd like to find some spectacular things to do each year.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Hurrah, your first Christmas!

I can't really think of anything I truly want this year. Pardon the mush, but I got a little misty listening to Christmas music in the car today because I realized it would be my first Christmas where I'll get to be with Tom the entire time. No "All I Want for Christmas is You," no "Blue Christmas," no "I'll Be Home For Christmas." We'll be together from the trek up to his family, to the Christmas Eve redeye flight to Michigan, to the ringing-in of the new year with my parents. How could I want anything for Christmas? I already have exactly what I want.

And as for traditions and memories, I'm going to paste in a fun survey posted on the board I moderate (along with my answers.) Anyone else game?

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Nog, but only thinned 5:2:1 nog:water:booze

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Neither, silly. Santa's ELVES wrap them. And I wrap the ones I give, usually something fun like brown paper with elegant fabric ribbon, or silver bags with an ornament hanging as a bow.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
White, please. White battery-op candles in the windows, white spotlight on the green wreath. Elegant! I miss having a house, though-- we live in a condo with no-exterior-decorating rules.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
*smooch* *smooch* *smooch* I'm sorry, did you say something?

5. When do you put your decorations up?
The Sunday following Thanksgiving, generally with my collection of holiday specials on DVD playing in the background. It's almost time!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert.)
Excluding dessert? What kind of a holiday eater ARE you? Holidays are dessert-eaters' high holy days. Hmm. I guess holidays are also religious high holy days. But, priorities!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
The first Christmas both of my older siblings were in college, I missed them terribly. The night we were expecting them, the Sound of Music was playing on TV as my mom mulled cider on the stove. She'd put her array of holiday cookies (noel nutballs, polish butterhorns, church windows, fudge, date balls, and the all-important pressed cookie dogs and stars and trees and wreaths) out on a tray and I munched as we put up the tree. Then, at 10:00 PM (late for a seven-year-old) they rolled in the door, snow-covered and bearing gifts. And suddenly we felt complete again. You can mock me for saying this, but just typing this memory out made me feel a little misty.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
Hey! The truth about Santa is that he is in all of us. And I always knew that. (The logistics were revealed to me when, on Easter night in second grade, I asked and found it to be true.)

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Just one, and it's almost always pajamas. Except for that one year, when it was a trip the next day to New York City. Yay, Mom and Dad!

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
My parents bought us one ornament every year. So I've amassed a quite a collection. As I got older, I veered away from the Hallmark keepsakes (though I still hang them) and I started selecting my own baubles, a lot of royal blue with pretty white piping, some neat stained-glass mosaic ones. Now Tom and I pick one out together. Ooh, and though I grew up stringing popcorn and cranberries, it's not as much an option in toasty SoCal... but I use this great silver and blue fabric ribbon as a garland encircling the tree.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Miss it! A little. So I go back to Michigan for a week every December, and then I don't miss it again for another year.

12. Can you ice skate?
Poorly as a child, not at all now. When did I get to be clumsy? I'm graceful enough on my feet.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Yes, and it also became my least favorite. I really, really wanted the talking Cricket doll (a little girl doll in the style of Teddy Ruxpin.) I thought I wouldn't be so lonely (this was also the year my siblings were both away at college.) But it didn't really interact, and so I was still kind of lonely at home... not to mention terrified, once I saw Child's Play and requested that my parents put her up in the attic.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Gathering and celebrating with family and friends.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Aha! Here it is. I love to make my pumpkin cheesecake with pecan crust... but you also can't go wrong with an assortment of homemade holiday cookies.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
We're pretty tradition-oriented, so there are a lot of them. And I love them all! Especially the present order: one on Christmas Eve after midnight mass, then bedtime. Then stockings, breakfast, and the rest. Ahh, the torture! I'm a little sad, though-- this year, Tom and I will be flying from his family (northern CA) to mine (MI) on Christmas Eve, and so we'll miss every part of this.

17. What tops your tree?
A blue stained-glass star sculpture. I love it, it's my favorite decoration.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
I love giving. Receiving is pleasant, but it's not as fun as thinking about the people you love, imagining what would make them happy, and making that happen.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Judy Garland's heartbreaking recording of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
In moderation, thanks.

[Snowflake]

I'm having a tree for the first time in a few years, so I am excited about decorating it.

I'm baking, as always and must start soaking the chocolate now (in liquor) for my death by chocolate cookies.

Funnily enough, I don't really have a gift wish list for myself.

It's going to be a quiet Xmas this year, just my roomate and myself at home for dinner. So I will probably do simple dinner, roast pork stuffed with fruit and a port wine sauce, roast veggies and Xmas eve will be champagne and dungeness crab (manna).

Then go see my Mom and enjoy some time with her.

Gifting my roomie with some spanish lessons from Pimsleur which is what she wants. And probably a gift cert somewhere else. My old boss (how I miss him) is getting a versace crystal wine stopper. My new boss, a lump of coal....

[Stan4dSteph]

Is this where we shamelessly include a link to our Amazon Wish Lists?

[Prudence]

Ooh! Survey time!


1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
What is this "or" you speak of?

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Wraps!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
It depends. I like to mix it up. Multi-colored one year, clear the next, blue and white the next. Different shapes, sizes, I love lights!

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Anything that resembles a plant gets dismantled by the cats. They'd get it somehow. So, no.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
(sigh) Late. Usually not until after finals. (sigh).

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert.)
Inside-the-turkey stuffing. Seriously. I am a stuffing fiend.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
Hmmm...I don't know that I can pick one. I don't think I have any amazingly stuning memories. There are lots of really good ones. Here's a cute one: One year my cousin got a $50 bill for his birthday in August from my grandparents because at some point he had said that he'd never seen one. I pointed out that I'd never seen a $100 bill. I got one for Christmas. Oh - also from the same grandparents (although entirely my grandfather's doing that time) I got a deck of cards. Which was wrapped and inside another box, which was wrapped and inside another box....all the way up to the starting box, which was formerly a case of Tide.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
When I was in Kindergarten, a classmate revealed the truth about the Tooth Fairy and I quickly extrapolated. I was then threatened with grievous bodily harm if I ever told my brother, who believed for a really long time.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Sometimes. The rules have varied - sometimes one, sometimes two, sometimes all the ones from relatives, sometimes none. In BT's house growing up, Santa came on Christmas Eve and all the presents were opened then so the parents could sleep in the next morning. This causes some "discussion" now.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
It's kind of a mish-mosh. We used to get an ornament each year as a kid, and then I started collecting some of the Hallmark series (Wizard of Oz is the big one) but that one's getting out of hand and there are just too many of them and they just keep coming! So I've started collecting but not displaying them. Lately our tree has been very Disney oriented. I go nuts buying ornaments at the park. We have a Mickey/Minnie tree skirt, character ornaments, those mouse head colored glass ornaments, and so forth.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Mixed feelings. Here? Dread, because we have lots of hills and lots of morons. It's really pretty if I'm going to be at home anyhow, but if I have to go out it's just impossible. If I'm elsewhere, though, where they actually plan for and deal with snow, it's nice.

12. Can you ice skate?
Nope.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Nope.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Traditions.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
The cookies my mom makes. Those are the ONLY holiday dessert.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Hands down, the traditional Christmas Eve dinner make-your-own-sandwich cold cuts buffet at my folks'. That is the one thing I can't miss. And my dad making his "cider", which consists of redhots melted in apple juice in a pan on the stove.

17. What tops your tree?
A clip-on spangled "partridge."

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
Again with the "or"!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Toss up between "O Holy Night", which I like to sing, and "The Christmas Song", which I like to play. Which reminds me that it's time to drag out my Reader's Digest Christmas Songbook.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
I must get them, but I don't eat them.

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

1.Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
I love Egg Nog but it’s got to be at almost a freezing temperature. I would pick Hot Chocolate over it any day, though.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Santa!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
I bought a ton of Blue lights that I was going to put up, but not this year. Maybe in the windows.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Why?

5. When do you put your decorations up?
Probably nothing more than something in the window. No tree.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert.)
Currently LOVING the Uele Log at Disneyland


7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
I didn’t start celebrating until I was about 20, but I do remember driving around town as a child and looking at all the lights. Those always impressed me. I would always make drawings of houses and with my crayola’s I would create my own light decorations. Of course my parents would find the drawing and get pissed. But..

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
Never had to. Always knew it wasn’t “real.” Got my nieces and Nephews going though. They believe.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
No, not at all

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
Last year I did a 50th Christmas tree. Cold ears at the top, gold balls and blue and white lights. It was cool.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
It’s ok.

12. Can you ice skate?
Tried it once and didn’t work.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Last year I got a large magnetic “53” that is beyond cool. It would be on my car but I fear it would be stolen, so it now graces my fridge.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
It’s nice to be able to give stuff to the kids.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Love sugar cookies with the thick frosting on it. Pumpkin pie. And the Uele Log over at Disneyland!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
When I was sharing the condo with my sister, putting out presents after Ty went to sleep and getting up early. Otherwise, nothing real traditional at all.

17. What tops your tree?
Last year was Gold 50th Mickey ears.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
Giving is always good.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
The Christmas Song by far. Noel is another good one.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Yum!

[Not Afraid]

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Egg Nog. It's the only time of year I drink it. Although, I do miss my MIL's thick, thick boozy nog.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Wrapping is part of the fun (and a PITA to do without your spouse seeing you.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
I've been a white girl for a long time, but if I were to put lights on the exterior of the house, I'd go with the old fashioned large colored ones.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No. It's VERY poisionous to cats.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
When I can find the time. Sometimes never. I've gotten lazy as I've gotten older - and we don't do Xmas Eve here any more.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert.)
Pick one? No way. Stuffing, potatos, yams all rank high.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:

As a child, I don't know, but my favorite contemporary memory comes from last year. On Christmas day, we had already opened all of our gifts and were just relaxing when the doorbell rang. A delivery man was standing on the porch with a very mangled box in his hands. I signed for it and brought it in the house. The box had obviously come from somewhere in Asia and had had a rough trip. Chris told me to open it. Inside, still in great condition, was a remote controlled Nekobus (from Totoro) that he had ordered from Japan. I spent the rest of the day playin with it, knowing that I was the only "kid" on my block to get one of these cool toys for Xmas.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
Probably about the same time I learned my Dad was not my siblings dad.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Xmas eve is the big day in my German household and, since my parents are both gone, it remains the big event.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
White lights and lots of blown glass ornaments - I especially like antique ones. My tree is very colorful and covered in unique ornaments that I've collected over 20+ years. Each ornament seems to have a memory attached to it.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
What is snow?

12. Can you ice skate?
NO! I hate it.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
A complete child-sized pink kitchen.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Taking a break from busy life and enjoying others.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Pupmkin Cream Cheese Pie with Pecan topping or my Cranberry Orange Plum Pudding with home made sauce.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
We've changed our traditions so much over the years I can't say there's one thing that remains consistant and a favorite.

17. What tops your tree?
A gold leafed angel.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
Giving is best, but more difficult.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
How can I possibly pick just one? Must Be Santa by Mitch Miller and his Orchestra has always made me happy and the Bing Crosby/David Bowie duet of Little Drummer Boy is fantastic. I can't choose just one.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Just ok.

[sleepyjeff]

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Nog.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Under the tree unwrapped but with a bow. Also in stocking unwrapped over the fireplace.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White on tree and solid green on house(that way if I want to leave them up till March everyone will think its because of St Pattys day)


4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No. I carry it around in my pocket for convenience .

5. When do you put your decorations up? First Sunday of December for outside decorations and the following Sunday for the Tree and inside stuff.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert.)Scalloped potatos.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Driving from Oregon to Illinois thru a blizzard in Nebraska.....our whole family nice and warm inside the station wagon anticipating seeing our grandparents and cousins at Christmas time. "Convoy" was on the radio and even though it wasn't a Christmas song I always think of Christmas when I hear it(oddly enough that song was written and arranged by one Chip Davis).I was 7 years old and can't remember a happier time in my life.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
Mid-July I was playing with a toy 747. I neighbor girl asked me where I got it and, well, the rest is pretty predictable.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? I let my son open one on Christmas Eve but I myself like to wait.


10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Brass or glass is the rule for our tree. White lights that slowly fade in and out. A few non brass/glass ornaments that have sentimental value are allowed on what is otherwise a somewhat formal tree.


11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love it at Christmas time but that has happend only twice durring my lifetime.

12. Can you ice skate?
Yes, quite well as I played a lot of hockey in my younger days.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Johnny West buckboard wagon.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Noel.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
My own homemade almond rocca.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Getting up at 4am to open presents then having that long 4 hour nap in the late morning with Christmas programing on TV, son playing on the floor near my couch, wife getting everything ready to go over to relatives.....same every year but I love it.


17. What tops your tree?
Angel.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
Giving. I have never much liked recieving and I am not sure why.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?Sing Hossana by the New Christy Minstrals.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Love the spearmint Green and White. Not too fond of the Peppermint Red and White.

[Alex]

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
I like egg nog. But only one glass a year. And I've already had my glass this year. I've never had it with booze, but I'm only a social drinker and have never had egg nog in the presence of friends who are.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
If you're giving them, wrap them.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
I've never had or decorated a Christmas tree but far prefer multi-cultured Christmas lights to monochrome.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Never have. Have never kissed or been kissed because of mistletoe. I come from good Germanic stock, interpersonal contact is to me avoided at all costs. Kissing means you have to marry the person.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
The most extensive Christmas decorating I've done is hange a wreath that was a present from my dad on our front door. Currently our front door is metal so that won't be happening.

If I were to decorate, decorations should go up over the weekend after Thanksgiving and come down by the first weekend after New Year's (this is inherited from my grandparents; the only people in my family who decorate for Christmas).

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert.)
I don't have any dishes I consider "holiday dishes." Egg nog is the closest but if it were readily available in July I'd just as likely have my annual glass then.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
We were practicing Jehovah's Witnesses but Christmas was the one time of year my extended paternal family was in town (my maternal extended family all lived within a couple miles of each other). So, while we didn't celebrate Christmas, us kids were sent over there.

We had asked (and even then I truly didn't like receiving gifts completely independent of religion so I was happy to ask) not to receive Christmas gifts.

When we got there my grandmother took me back into her bedroom

Spoiler:

AND RAPED ME!!! No, not really, not that kind of story

and said "this isn't a Christmas present, just a we love you present" and gave me a backgammon board. Somehow the fact that it wasn't wrapped made it not a Christmas present. That was when I first realized that some of the family members I loved could be pricks. Also, apparently she only loved me on Christmas and my birthday.

I know that seems odd for a "favorite" but really that is an important lesson for children and I look back on it fondly.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I have no specific memory of it, but do know that when I was 7 I helped my mom put out the presents and stuff the stocking for my sisters.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Not unless the only visiting would be on Christmas eve. That happened more as the number of households I was obligated to visit for Christmas (both of my parents remarried and then my first wife had a very large local family) expanded.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
I don't. I considered getting a cheap tree this year just to watch the cat play with it, but if I do I probably won't decorate it.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love it as long as I don't have to watch other people try to drive through it.

12. Can you ice skate?
In the sense that I can go around in circles and not fall down, yes.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
For one glorious Christmas one relative (my Mom) actually accepted the fact that all I wanted were books or money with which I could buy books. That Christmas (I was 8, I think) she bought me a leatherbound collection of Twain. I thought it was the most impressive book in all the world. I think it is the only Christmas present I have ever received that I still own. Of course, now I realize that it is just a cheap pleather Barnes & Noble edition-type book. But then we were poor. But it was the best Christmas gift I ever got.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Absense of obligation. I don't celebrate Christmas because I am not a Christian and so when I am doing something Christmas related it is through some other sense of obligation. I enjoy the idea behind Thanksgiving but feel no obligation to spend it with my family or even friends.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Again, I don't really think of any desserts as tied to a holiday. The closest would be pumpkin pie and Halloween (but really that is pumpkin pie and Lani's birthday). My grandmother makes a chocolate upside down cake that I love and vaguely associate with Christmas but only because that was when I was most likely to have it. When there were family picnics at other times of the year I had it then as well.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Over my time as an adult I don't think I have any. I have now spent two Thanksgivings out of four at the Tuscany Suites Casino in Las Vegas so maybe that can be one. The first time I was playing blackjack there when I learned my father died. This time, so far as I know, nobody in the family was killed by my sin of gambling so that element of the first one is apparently not a tradition.

17. What tops your tree?
See above.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
Giving. But I find that if I give, others feel obligated to give back. So I try to give gifts at "non-obligatory" times and as a surprise. I like the idea of someone giving me a present on July 23 and simply saying "I saw this, thought of you, and thought you'd enjoy it." I hate getting presents that are essentially "a couple centuries of social engineering have pressured me into buying a gift to give you today; if it weren't for that you'd never get one from me."

Plus, I'll admit to having a bit of a psychological problem with receiving anything that feels like charity. And I know that isn't how it is meant but to a small part of me that is still how it feels.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Don't have one, though I can think of dozens of really annoying ones.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Look nice, taste awful.

[Snowflake]

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Nog, striaght up, no liquor

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Mrs. Clause wrpas them, and me.


3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
I'm in an apartment, so nothing outside. On the tree, I love colored lights. My roomate takes all the blue lights out, though and replaces them with white. Control issue

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Nope, garlands of green, though

5. When do you put your decorations up?
As soon as I get the tree, ususally the first weekend in December

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert.)
Steamed dungeness crab and my Mom's snowball cookies

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
Learning to ride the bike my Dad gave me. I remember him running along side to make sure I was okay. Also, how pleased he always was with any golf-related gift.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
My sister told me there was no Santa when I was 6. fortunately, I did not believe her.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
My parents always allowed only one gift, we were allowed to pick.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
Always enough lights to light 3 threes and glass ornaments, always. I have many from my childhood and I treasure them. I've added on to the collection over the year by adding at least 1 per year. I also hang a special ornament to remember the friends and loved ones I now miss.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love it, but I did not grow up in it and learn to hate it. The 7 years in VA, I never had a real white Xmas which was dissapointing. But, in the winter weather, I do not miss the ice, that's truly awful.

12. Can you ice skate?
Nope, I've never gotten over the trauma of that snotty 3 year old skaing rings around me, incredulous I could not skate. Roller skating, another story.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
The year I received a puppy. A great dog and I miss her still now that she's gone to dog heaven.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Celebrating with family and friends.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
My Mom's snowball cookies.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Christmas carols

17. What tops your tree?
An Italian angel

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
I love giving. I love to pick a gift and wrap it and make it beautiful.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Bing Crosby, White Xmas. I've never had Xmas without hearing it.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
They always look better than they taste. So I guess that is a yuck. I prefer a really strong peppermint and candy canes are more sugary, but they look good on trees.