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Christmas My Way

I saw this list over at Beth’s yesterday and thought it would be perfect for today. I know it’s kind of long but I hope you’ll read it. I also hope you’ll answer the questions on your own blog because I think lists like this are fun!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper with homemade bows if it’s something in a box. Gift bags for the oddly shapped stuff.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real because Dale insists but I grew up with artificial and wouldn’t mind switching over. They are easier to care for, don’t require an annual investment of $35-$50 and don’t involve lots of pine needles so I’d really prefer artificial.
3. When do you put up the tree? Right before Christmas because we have a wood stove and that dries the tree out pretty quickly.
4. When do you take the tree down? As soon as possible. Please see numbers 2 and 3.
5. Do you like eggnog? I can take it or leave it.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I remember getting a play house that was all set up when I came down on Christmas morning. I don’t know if it was my favorite gift but I remember it clearly. And then I announced that I was going to open all my gifts inside the play house. That idea was vetoed pretty quickly by my mom.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Definitely my father-in-law. What do you get for an 82 year old man? I usually pawn this one off on Dale but I don’t feel too guilty about that since I do all the other gift selections myself.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Dale. I usually remember things he says throughout the year, plus he’s really easy to please.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, I cross stitched one on paper years ago. It’s held up pretty well.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? We mail them but this is probably my least favorite thing about Christmas.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? My ex-husband gave me some pretty bone-headed things over the years but I can’t think of anything specific.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite but we always end up watching A Christmas Story at some point. I really like Elf, too.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I pick up things year round if I see something special for someone but I shop in earnest in October and November.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don’t think so. Maybe some wine or something.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Polish Tea Cakes. The recipe is on my blog here.
16. Lights on the tree? Of course! They are colored lights because all the other lights (in the windows, around the doorways) are clear.
17. Favorite Christmas song? My favorite religious one is “O Come All Ye Faithful” and my favorite pop one is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” The part about through the years we all will be together makes me cry every time I hear it.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We stay home as all our relatives are in the area.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Sure, but I’d have to sing to do it.
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We used to open one on Christmas Eve and the rest in the morning but we’ve pretty much saved them all for Christmas morning the last few years.
21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Christmas commercials! Every kiss beings with Kay . . . need I say more?
22. Favorite ornament theme or color? I’m pretty traditional and things are red and green at my house. I have a snowman collection so I guess that’s a theme.
23. What do you want for Christmas this year? I’d like a flash for my camera. You got that, Dale?
24. Angel on the tree top or a star? It used to be a Father Christmas but now we have an angel.
25. Favorite Christmas dinner? I really like to have beef for Christmas dinner. Pass the prime rib and yorkshire pudding, please!

This Post Has 37 Comments

  1. So is all your Christmas shopping done now? I went to start mine last night. The malls are disappointing. I am going to probably end up getting my gifts in little boutiques or handmade shops this year.

  2. You haven’t had Camille’s Uncle Pop’s Egg Nog, 😉
    I love It’s a Wonderful Life. We don’t really DO Christmas.

  3. I can’t believe it’s so close. The boys have started telling me exactly how many days are left at dinner. It’s just weird this year. We usually put the tree up on the 1st or that weekend but I was exhausted from my trip so we’re doing it Saturday. Maybe it’ll feel more like Christmas then…

  4. I’m coming to your house for Christmas dinner because that was the same exact answer I had when this list was e-mailed to me last week! I love prime rib.

    Good idea about putting the list on the blog – that will be one of my posts for next week.

  5. I totally agree with crying over “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Now I know I’m in good company. 🙂 Do you happen to get teary-eyed when the Rockettes dance in the Thanksgiving parade?

  6. Oh! I like your list, Carole…I’ll have to do this one, too – maybe tomorrow…
    Hmmmm…sounds like maybe you’ve got marshmellow insides? If you cry at lines in pop holiday songs? (Me, too!)
    (((hugs)))

  7. Fun! I completely agree with the commercial songs (the Kay one makes me verge on violence). And hurrah for yorkshire pudding! I make that every couple weeks with sausages or beef.

  8. It’s a great list even though I don’t actually do Christmas. I do have a copy of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. I’ve always love that show. Believe it or not, one of my favorite memories is of decorating a Christmas tree each year. It belonged to my mother’s childhood friend and every year my family would make new handmade ornaments to add to it. Then we’d go over and decorate it and eat chinese food and latkes. Super fun!

  9. I have to say that living my selective media lifestyle (no tv, only “new music” public radio) really helps me out here – no Christmas commercials, no overplayed songs…

  10. I’m chuckling over Hillary’s “chinese food and latkes” comment – doesn’t she know you’re supposed to go bowling, too, to make it a trifecta? Since we have a Jewish household, I don’t have answers for a lot of these questions, but one enduring childhood memory I have is of my parents bickering when my dad tried to get the tree straight in the tree stand. It’s the only time I ever heard them fight, and it stopped the year we got an artificial tree!

  11. Mmm, I think I’ll come to your house this year. I’ll bring the eggnog. I love eggnog.

    Great list, and now I have something to blog about today. Thanks!

  12. I have to say, since I stopped watching TV and listening to the radio, I am amazed at how many commercials I DON’T see/hear. Friends will say “have you seen that commercial…?” Nope, I haven’t. Of course, the Kay commercials are so old that when you said that, the jingle immediately popped to mind…thanks for that. 😛

  13. It’s totally freaking me out that Christmas is as close as it is. I’ve been like, “Oh…Christmas is AGES away” but um, no, it is not. Yikes.

    And I have to say that your list actually has me feeling festive for the first time this season (how’s that for some alliteration?)

  14. My husband insists on real as well. My parents always has real when I was a kid but switched over later on. I’d kind of like to set the tree up now and enjoy it for the month of December rather than waiting. We used to live in North Western Ontario and the trees were always shipped in from Quebec. It was usually -45 Celsius…(that’s cold for you Fahrenheit folks). The trees were frozen so stiff that you had no idea what they looked like until they defrosted for a day and then typically they were missing one whole side but we always managed to decorate them to hit the deformities. Last year we cut one down at the neighbours lot and even though we have a cathedral ceiling I swear we had to cut 2 feet off of it and it had a huge diameter. It just took up too much space and I couldn’t rate to get it out of the house. I’ll be more choosy this year. Even though I’m not nearly ready I’m sure looking forward to the kids coming home to visit and some time away from work!

  15. We have an artificial tree. We run my husband’s toy train around it.

    I like it because I think it’s selfish to chop down trees for Christmas. The huge one at Rockefeller Center makes me particularly sad. Living in the city, we don’t have the option of planting the tree subsequently.

    Similar to you, we have roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. But we also have sticky date pudding with whipped cream and caramel sauce for dessert. It doesn’t get more decadent than that.

    Now, back to the knitting.

  16. i did a list like this a couple of years ago. i might be time to recycle. heh.

    i haven’t started thinking about christmas. it’s this month, isn’t it.

  17. great list!
    it brings to mind some of my favorite songs… It came Upon a Midnight Clear was always my favorite carol, and for pop Christmas songs, I must say that I’m torn between “Til the season comes ’round again’ (by Amy Grant or “My Christmas Prayer” by Bebe Winnans.

  18. My husband always insisted on real too (and it IS what I grew up with) but we have forced air heat in our house and the thing would be dry in a day or two. And for years we travelled to either his parents in Michigan or my parents in Florida, so I refused to have a tree because I refused to put up a fire hazard and then go away! So a few years ago I convinced him to get an artificial tree and it’s the best thing we ever did. It came pre-lighted, so all we do is set it up and decorate it with ornaments. It is a beautiful tree, and once decorated no one who comes to our house seems to realize that it isn’t real (especially because I have Yankee Candle “Christmas Wreath” candles that smell just like real pine. Oh, and I am sooo with you on those commercials.

  19. mmmm…yorkshire pudding….R had to go to a call and I haven’t had dinner yet so I’m STARVING and all I can think of now is yorkshire pudding. Thanks. ;op

  20. heh – my Polish grandmother used to make those Polish teacakes, along with a whole bunch of other special cookies, every Christmas. Never had a name for ’em, though – it was always “oo the ones with the jam” or possibly “mine!”

    And a merry and a happy and all that stuff 🙂

  21. We are doing what I’ve wanted to do for years – skipping Christmas. Heading out of Dodge, no tree no presents. We’ll put up the stockings and the little ceramic tree for now. The kids even agreed, but they are going with us.

  22. Thanks for the great idea – I posted the meme today on my blog. And I “borrowed” your response to naming Santa’s reindeer – I had to do the same thing!

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