Christmas stuff
Dec. 15th, 2011 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestWell, the concert was this evening, and despite being a bit vague on the organisational front, it went very well. Atmosphere was nice, so the fact it was a little bit casual actually worked well. I'm pleased to report that my Latin pronunciation (in 'Gaudete') didn't falter—though I won't claim it was necessarily correct—and my German verse of 'Stille Nacht' likewise went well. The starts of the evening were certainly the Youth Group, whose rendition of 'One Day More' from Les Mis (which they are to perform in January) earned a standing ovation. Must book tickets.
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Neither, really. Egg Nog is a lot nicer than it sounds, but I've only had it at my sister's house. Hot Chocolate made properly is likely to send me scurrying to the loo (too much milk input), so, no. I'm more likely to quaff a glass of wine. Not mulled, because mostly mulled wine is nasty (honourable exception to the glass I had atnopseud's house not long ago).
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
We have no truck with Santa in this house. Father Christmas leaves a wrapped present for everyone under the tree, along with the other presents. Father Christmas, incidentally, properly wears a long red robe with a hood, not a jolly suit with trousers and a gnome hat, although regrettably the latter has become prevalent these days.
3. Coloured lights on tree/house or white? White, for preference, or possibly red. We don't always put lights on the tree. We don't ever put lights on the house, but I have been known to put glasspaintings up on the windows, which provide awesome decoration for inside in the daytime and outside in the evening.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No.
5. When do you put your decorations up? When the children are home—used to be after school term finished, now it's when they come home for the Christmas period.
6. What is your favourite holiday dish? I'm kinda fond of the main Christmas Day feast of turkey, stuffings, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, cranberry sauce, red cabbage, carrots, gravy. Nom. Although a panettone is also nice.
7. Favourite holiday memory as a child? Don't really remember any Christmases. I think I sat on my dad's knee and we tried singing along when "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" came on the radio, but I don't exactly remember it.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? No idea.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No, but my father always used to sneakily open all his presents after the midnight service, when everyone else had gone to bed. And he'd eat the mince pie, too.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Red, gold and green baubles—I have enough of a collection of very pretty ones now that the cheapest and nastiest don't tend to make it onto the tree any more. Long strings of red or gold beads, also long string of gold snowflakes and long string of red bells. Glass droplets and glass angels; a couple of very fancy red velvet stockings.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Snow is fine in its proper time, which means 'when I don't have anywhere to go'.
12. Can you ice skate? Ahaha. No.
13. Do you remember your favourite gift? I… actually, no.
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Seeing smiles on my family's faces.
15. What is your favourite holiday dessert? I made an utterly fabulous Buche de Noel one year, chocolate and froth and yum. It's not exactly traditional in this house, though. Last year we had cheesecake with mincemeat swirls instead of mince pies or Christmas pudding, which was definitely an improvement.
16. What is your favourite holiday tradition? Playing board games—a relatively new tradition for us, but it's nice. Also I like giving anonymous presents—I used to do the shoebox thing, but discovered that the particular charity being collected for in our area was anti-abortion, so I gave that one up. This year I picked a couple of children from the tree at Tesco.
17. What tops your tree? A star.
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving. Stressful but fun. Oh, I have *so* *much* *glee* about one of my Christmas presents this year!
19. Candy Canes? Er, what about them?
20. Favourite Christmas show? Doctor Who Christmas Special.
21. Saddest Christmas song? Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, as sung by Judy Garland.
22. What is your favourite Christmas song? I really don't know. I enjoy singing quite a few real carols, and listening to a surprising number of pop Christmas songs. Let's say, Bruce Springsteen's 'Santa Claus is coming to town'.
23. Favorite Christmas movie? I'm fond of The Muppet Christmas Carol, but I don't know that I'd put it among my favourite movies. My sister's regular tradition is to watch The Sound of Music at some point, and I can see that.
24. How long do you leave up Christmas decorations? Er, well. Taking them down counts as 'tidying up', and I'm not good at tidying. When Beast wants to get rid of the tree, I suppose.
25. What kind of cookies do you leave for Santa? For Santa, see q2. Really, Santa is not a universal tradition. Bah, humbug. Incidentally, Christmas cookies are not a tradition here, either, although I kinda wish I had the time and talent to bake them, as the onesquiet000001 gave me a few years ago still linger pleasantly in my memory.
When I was a child, we used to leave a mince pie and a glass of sherry for Father Christmas. These days we do not bother. Though I do toy with the idea of leaving trails of reindeer poop on the carpet...
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Neither, really. Egg Nog is a lot nicer than it sounds, but I've only had it at my sister's house. Hot Chocolate made properly is likely to send me scurrying to the loo (too much milk input), so, no. I'm more likely to quaff a glass of wine. Not mulled, because mostly mulled wine is nasty (honourable exception to the glass I had at
nopseud's house not long ago). 2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
We have no truck with Santa in this house. Father Christmas leaves a wrapped present for everyone under the tree, along with the other presents. Father Christmas, incidentally, properly wears a long red robe with a hood, not a jolly suit with trousers and a gnome hat, although regrettably the latter has become prevalent these days.
3. Coloured lights on tree/house or white? White, for preference, or possibly red. We don't always put lights on the tree. We don't ever put lights on the house, but I have been known to put glasspaintings up on the windows, which provide awesome decoration for inside in the daytime and outside in the evening.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No.
5. When do you put your decorations up? When the children are home—used to be after school term finished, now it's when they come home for the Christmas period.
6. What is your favourite holiday dish? I'm kinda fond of the main Christmas Day feast of turkey, stuffings, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, cranberry sauce, red cabbage, carrots, gravy. Nom. Although a panettone is also nice.
7. Favourite holiday memory as a child? Don't really remember any Christmases. I think I sat on my dad's knee and we tried singing along when "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" came on the radio, but I don't exactly remember it.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? No idea.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No, but my father always used to sneakily open all his presents after the midnight service, when everyone else had gone to bed. And he'd eat the mince pie, too.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Red, gold and green baubles—I have enough of a collection of very pretty ones now that the cheapest and nastiest don't tend to make it onto the tree any more. Long strings of red or gold beads, also long string of gold snowflakes and long string of red bells. Glass droplets and glass angels; a couple of very fancy red velvet stockings.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Snow is fine in its proper time, which means 'when I don't have anywhere to go'.
12. Can you ice skate? Ahaha. No.
13. Do you remember your favourite gift? I… actually, no.
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Seeing smiles on my family's faces.
15. What is your favourite holiday dessert? I made an utterly fabulous Buche de Noel one year, chocolate and froth and yum. It's not exactly traditional in this house, though. Last year we had cheesecake with mincemeat swirls instead of mince pies or Christmas pudding, which was definitely an improvement.
16. What is your favourite holiday tradition? Playing board games—a relatively new tradition for us, but it's nice. Also I like giving anonymous presents—I used to do the shoebox thing, but discovered that the particular charity being collected for in our area was anti-abortion, so I gave that one up. This year I picked a couple of children from the tree at Tesco.
17. What tops your tree? A star.
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving. Stressful but fun. Oh, I have *so* *much* *glee* about one of my Christmas presents this year!
19. Candy Canes? Er, what about them?
20. Favourite Christmas show? Doctor Who Christmas Special.
21. Saddest Christmas song? Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, as sung by Judy Garland.
22. What is your favourite Christmas song? I really don't know. I enjoy singing quite a few real carols, and listening to a surprising number of pop Christmas songs. Let's say, Bruce Springsteen's 'Santa Claus is coming to town'.
23. Favorite Christmas movie? I'm fond of The Muppet Christmas Carol, but I don't know that I'd put it among my favourite movies. My sister's regular tradition is to watch The Sound of Music at some point, and I can see that.
24. How long do you leave up Christmas decorations? Er, well. Taking them down counts as 'tidying up', and I'm not good at tidying. When Beast wants to get rid of the tree, I suppose.
25. What kind of cookies do you leave for Santa? For Santa, see q2. Really, Santa is not a universal tradition. Bah, humbug. Incidentally, Christmas cookies are not a tradition here, either, although I kinda wish I had the time and talent to bake them, as the ones
quiet000001 gave me a few years ago still linger pleasantly in my memory. When I was a child, we used to leave a mince pie and a glass of sherry for Father Christmas. These days we do not bother. Though I do toy with the idea of leaving trails of reindeer poop on the carpet...
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-16 05:10 pm (UTC)I want to see pictures of your tree. It sounds so lovely.
My sister also watches Sound of Music every Christmas!
*snicker* I bet Socks would be very intrigued :-)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-16 05:46 pm (UTC)I think Father Christmas is a lot less Ho Ho Ho and a lot more paternally kindly.
I'll get my phone out and take a pic or two this year. I think I did last year, but the camera died.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-16 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-16 08:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-16 10:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-16 02:12 pm (UTC)I remember years ago when my godkids were still little (they are all grown up now), I found a bootprint kit at one of the local stores. It came with stencils of boot prints and a pine scented powder...
When the kids got up Christmas morning, there were boot prints leading from the chimney to the tree and back again...
Hehe, they were so excited!
I may have to make my own this year... Vickie is 12, but it would so mess with her head lol.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-16 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-17 07:12 pm (UTC)My sister found out about Santa ( sorry *g* ) when she saw that Santa's magic footprints had toe prints in them. She could not be persuaded he'd taken his boots and socks off at the door.