Happy Holidays Collage
Dave got it from Keith, and I’m answering here and linking up to them. Please feel free to join in in answering in any fashion you wish. The more the merrier!
1.24th or 25th? The 24th was always when we’d go to maternal grandparents’ house when kids, with the potluck and opening of the gifts with a really large group of extended family. I remember my great-grandma giving each one of us kids a shiny 50c piece and oh did we feel rich. By the time the ex- and I had our kids, the grandparents had passed on and we stayed home on 24th and went out to my folks’ house later on the 25th. Christmas morning was the special time when we had our private gathering. I would pack the kids’ stockings with stocking stuffers to keep them occupied until we woke up and joined them for the other gifts. My ex-, an emergency room nurse, never worked Christmas morning while we were married, but when we divorced we alternated Christmas mornings with each other and he worked on his one where he didn’t have the kids. Nowadays, my younger son and his wife spend the 24th with her folks and both kids come here for the 25th.
2. Real or Fake? I prefer real and that’s what we grew up with. The ritual of looking for and finding the right tree Charlie Brown style was part of the season. Yes they are inconvenient, the needles fall off if you get an old one that hasn’t been watered well, and oh the needles pick and irritate. Yet I love the smell of the real ones and knowing it served a special purpose before it was cast out to the curb after New Year’s Day. That said, for probably 30 years we’ve had a fake one, and it’s the one we still have. Unfortunately it has remained in its box in the garage the last 5 years or so. Why? The Christmas spirit flew the coop for various reasons. One big one is not wanting the hassle of pulling all of that stuff out and spreading it around the house for a couple of weeks every year when it’s mostly just me here.
3. White or Green? White white white. I love snow in wintertime. Look at the poem I wrote on Tuesday about winter light.
4. Colored Lights or White Ones? I like all white ones on lawn ornaments of deer or sleighs or peace doves. Other than that color color color. Makes things look festive.
5. Eggnog or Hot chocolate? I make it a point to drink eggnog at least once a year, be that straight, spiked, or an eggnog flavored shake. Yummy! I also love hot chocolate in the dead of winter when nothing else can warm my bones.
6. Turkey or ham? I haven’t eaten pork in 30 or more years, they are too much like humans in appearance, intelligence, and sensitivity to eat. Turkey is good, cheap, serves a lot (not my kids as they are both vegetarian) and is quite delicious when brined first.
7. Gift cards or Gifts? Gifts. Very cool on the Roxy Music mag.
8. Christmas Story or Home Alone? Are those the only 2 choices? Christmas Story is one I’ve only seen a few times but enjoy very much. My favorite Christmas movie is “The Snowman.” I also have grown to really like the Netflix movie, “Klaus.”
9. The Grinch or Charlie Brown? Charlie Brown, hands down. I’m not a fan of The Grinch in any way, shape, or form, even though I like just about every other Dr. Seuss character out there.
10. At home or clocking in? HOME ONLY when kids were little, for both me and my ex-. After my sons grew up and moved out, I’d work any non union-paid holidays around Christmas so co-workers with small children could have the time off to be with their young’ns. The office was on a skeleton crew (the norm nowadays with covid remote workers) and the calendars were light. Kind of a peaceful coast to the end of the year.
Thanks for the questions and answers. Nice to get to know each other a little better.
Tao Talk 
great answersLi!
🙂
happy holidays!
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Thanks!
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I’m with you on the tree…what I would like to do starting next year is to get a live tree and replant it…I wouldn’t feel as guilty then.
Like I told Dave… 24th or 25th… we have a small get-together on the 24th and the next day Bailey finds his gifts… When I grew up it was always on the 24th…we would go over to my grandmothers and that night when we made it home (that was the longest trip though only around 10 miles) and Santa had come…it was glorious…when we had Bailey we started to do it like we do now…party on the 24th and presents on the 25th.
Hope you have a great one Lisa!
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Max, thanks for sharing your holiday traditions. I may yet buy a small live tree, keep it outside with lights, and plant it in the spring. You too, buddy.
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Ok – I will go expand my answers …. LOL
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🙂
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Thanks for your answers & reposting Lisa! Your winter poem was very well done…but I still don’t miss the Great Lakes winters. We did have about a 6 inch snowfall here 2 winters back & it lasted over a day, it was fun getting a few photos & seeing some kids around who’d basically never seen any before in their life. Hope the Christmas spirit makes a return engagement to your place this year!
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My pleasure, Dave, and thanks, with my little granddaughter I’m sure it will.
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My wife is a Jehovah’s Witness, so I haven’t celebrated Christmas for more than 25 years. However, when I was growing up in Germany, Christmas was a pretty big deal. The following answers refer to that time:
1. We celebrated on the 24th in the evening. This is how most Germans do it. In my case, we always drove to Heidelberg and gathered at my grandma’s (from my mom’s side) house. My dad picked up his parents who lived in Heidelberg as well. In the early evening, just before exchanging presents, we would sing Christmas carols.
2. Always real! My grandma didn’t do anything “fake”, not even mashed potatoes and sauerkraut, even though you could buy both fully prepared in the supermarket, and they had pretty decent taste.
3. I like snow, though on the 24th at night my mom, my sister and I would go to late-night mass (in truth, mainly to make my grandma happy!), and snow could make that a messy experience!
4. We never had decorations outside the house. On the Christmas tree, there were always real candles. I loved the smell of the tree and candle wax!
5. Neither eggnog nor hot chocolate was a thing in my family.
6. Turkey was our traditional Christmas feast on the 25th and 26th. On the 24th in the evening, we always had smoked pork chops (Kassler Rippchen) with potato salad and sauerkraut – a fairly simple but tasty dinner!
7. Always gifts!
8. Neither. On the 24th in the evening, the TV would stay off entirely. On the 25th and 26th, it would be a variety of movies or Christmas shows. I don’t recall a specific movie we would watch every year. Plus, we didn’t have a VCR or TV on demand, so relied on whatever was shown on the three public channels. And you know what? Having three channels only was just fine!
9. Again, neither was a thing in Germany, at least not in my family.
10. N/A 🙂
This Christmas is going to be different. I will visit my parents in Germany. Usually, my sister and family do that, but this year they can’t, so in some regards, I’m filling in. My parents are in their mid-80s, and it literally would be their first Christmas all by themselves – not an option!
Looking forward to it, even though it’s going to be very different from my childhood days.
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Christian, you are describing what you will be going back to (with some changes, it sounds like) with your parents this year. I’m so happy you’ll get to spend Christmas with them, especially since you haven’t celebrated it for so long. I do love the idea of real candles on the tree and have never seen that for real. Your tradition of singing carols together before opening gifts is so wonderful.
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Great answers
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Thank you, Sadje.
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Most welcome
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Fun reading your answers! Some things we do the same, some different. I love a real tree, but it’s been many years since we had one. They smell so good.
I think I’ll do a post of these questions, too. 🙂
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It’s fun to share the merriment this way. Looking forward to reading yours, Barbara!
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