Christmas traditions

[fireheart]

So it's that time of the year again.

What are your Christmas traditions?

I have a few that I've kept up since moving interstate. Because it's just me and my partner, we aren't doing a tree (we're also spending Christmas interstate), but I do plan on doing the following:

-Getting myself a Christmas present (this year I plan on getting either Tropico 5 or a Mario 3DS game)
-Watching the carols on TV (either Carols in the Domain or Carols by Candlelight-I can't watch them in person this year because I'll be interstate)
-Buying new makeup (this tends to come post-Christmas sales, when everything's cheaper, but I will often buy a makeup "gift pack" as I can get around $80 worth for $20)

What are your Christmas traditions?

[Sapphire Silk]

I've got to get my tree and other decorations up; been out of town the past two weekends so havn't had time to do it.

This is the first year I won't have the Evil Princess or the Evil Prince help me put up my tree, because they moved out of state We would put up the tree and make cookies.

I'm starting to get Christmas cards from friends; they get taped to the mantle as decoration for the holiday season.

I'll soon be making my Favorite Christmas Cookies. They are a basically a sugar cookie surrounding a Hershey's Kiss, with white frosting and colored sprinkles. I'll give some to friends at work, and eat the rest

I'll also be driving up to Maryland to spend Christmas with Mom and Brother.

[Kittish]

One that I've been doing for 6 or 7 years now as finances permit is the cookie boxes. They seem to be well received.

Homemade pizza on Christmas Eve and lasagna on Christmas day, though this year they'll have to be rescheduled due to work schedule conflicts.

That's about it really.

Sapphire- that's basically what my Christmas tree cookies will be, with green coloring in the cookie dough. They'll be stacked two high, and decorated with icing, colored sugar, and candies.

[fireheart]

I'm going to be flying interstate to spend Christmas with my family, which will either be my close family or my extended family, mum's gotta confirm.
For the last couple of years, we've decided that it'll be my family for Christmas lunch, then SO's family for dinner. Sometimes we do an extended get-together for boxing day. His grandparents are nice: I get a present from them every year (usually something from Avon, his grandmother is a consultant)

I always love watching the carols on TV every year. At the bare minimum, I will watch either Carols in the Domain (Sydney) or Carols by Candlelight (Melbourne) on TV, if I can, I do try and get both. The only time I tend to skip an act though is if it's either Hi-5 (think children's entertainers who are WAY too bubbly ) or if it's a particularly droning rendition of a song.

[XCashier]

I haven't gotten my tree set up yet, either. I hope to do so this week.

I also hope to bake some cookies; I love baking cookies. I want to try making gingerbread cookies and others I haven't done before.

There are a few movies we like to watch around Christmas: TSO's The Ghosts of Christmas Eve, A Christmas Carol (Patrick Stewart version) How The Grinch Stole Christmas (the Chuck Jones version, naturally!) and Scrooged. I'm hoping to get a copy of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Plus, there's BlackAdder's Christmas Carol and the two Christmas MST3Ks.

I like Christmas music, but not the tired old crap they pipe into stores. Give me TSO or Mannheim Steamroller. I'd like to get a good orchestral version of The Nutcracker Suite and Handel's Messiah.

I'm not sure what I'll be making for Christmas dinner; I'm thinking beef stroganoff. I saw an article on how to roast a chicken with a Bundt pan; I might try that, instead.

[MadMike]

When my grandma on my dad's side was still alive, we'd always go there for Christmas Eve. She used to have a set of small candle holders in the shape of choir boys. Each of them held a book with a letter on it, spelling out "Noel."

My dad used to rearrange them so that it said "Leon." My grandma used to get so mad at him when he did that, but when he moved out, she missed it. So naturally, when he started going back there on Christmas Eve, he started doing it again.

[mathnerd]

Cookies!

This weekend we baked candy cane cookies (a sugar cookie that's been dyed, twisted and shaped to look like a candy cane), chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal/peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies, ginger snaps and gingerbread men. The boys dyed the kitchen green and red decorating their gingerbread men, but it was fun.

We'll have another cookie baking weekend right before Christmas.

[Jester]

My family doesn't have many holiday traditions, and now that we are scattered to the winds, most of them are pretty impossible to do. But they were still fun, and I'm sure we'll come up with more.

Some of the "traditions" we had in the past, such as they were:
--Cooking! Everyone in my family cooks, and it became somewhat of a tradition in the last few years for my older sister to throw my mother out of her own kitchen and just take over, as Older Sister is known to do in, well, almost everything. Before I got as into cooking as I am now, Christmas was one of the few days where I would help my older sister out with whatever chores she needed in the kitchen, such as making the salad, setting the table, etc. Why was I so subservient to her? Simple. At the end of the meal, when we were all stuffed, she would look around the table, and assign the washing of the dishes to my little sister and stepbrother, who had done nothing to help her. I really hate doing dishes. So do my little sister and stepbrother, but they never caught on to this little trick of mine.
--Movies. On several occasions, after all the gifts and food were done with, my little sister and I would hit the cinema. We've seen some classics together on Christmas, including JFK and Jackie Brown. Fun times! As she is now in England and I am in Florida, that doesn't really happen any more,
--The Elf. As the littlest one, both age-wise being the youngest, and physically being all of 4'11", Lil Sis every year designated herself as "The Elf," distributing all the various gifts to each person to be unwrapped. I wouldn't doubt that she still plays Elf every year with whatever gathering she is at.
--George Carlin. No, seriously. Whenever there was a new Carlin album out, as the resident Carlin aficionado of the family, it was just duty to bring said album to the gathering, where at some point the whole family would gather around with whatever drinks they had and listen to it. Even my mother, who's a bit on the staid side, would enjoy it immensely. And I'm sorry, but sitting there watching your mother laughing at George Carlin's blowjob jokes is truly awesome.

The only one of those I'm gonna be able to do this year is cooking, but I've been invited to a friend's Christmas party the Sunday before Christmas, for which she and I are already conspiring on the menu. It's gonna be epic. Of course, a third friend of ours will probably do the baking, as the hostess is like me, in that she cooks but doesn't bake. So basically, three of us will be whipping up various delights for a whole group. Should be fun!

As for new traditions, I generally work on Christmas Day, though when I've had it off, I've enjoyed the hell out of it, generally by being out at bars, drinking beer, listening to live music, and enjoying the sandal and shorts weather we usually have for it. This year, my regular schedule has me off Christmas Eve but working Christmas Day, but I am going to request to work Christmas Eve as well. Why would I do that? So that I can request the Saturday after Christmas off to watch my Sun Devils in their bowl game, which is at 2 pm, right in the middle of what would normally be my day shift. After all, football is another one of my family's traditions, much to mother's exasperation. (She's never been much of a fan, though the rest of us all are.) I'll also have New Year's Eve off, due to NYE falling on a Wednesday, which is one of my usual days off, so I'll get to watch the evil Wildcats of Arizona lose in their bowl game at 4pm before taking part in various festivities of the drinking variety, and somehow managing to get to work by 10 am on New Year's Day to open The Bar. Fun!

[Food Lady]

I don't really have traditions, but I always have to decorate the bathroom before the rest of the apartment. I put knicknacks on the sink and holiday towels in the basket and get a holiday soap pump--stuff like that. We don't have any specific food traditions outside of wine; we always have wine.

[Jester]

I forgot one personal tradition. For the last couple of decades, I make a point of being the first person at whatever place I work to don a Santa hat, which I usually do immediately after Thanksgiving, and wear it all the way through Christmas. I did it again this year, of course, starting on Wednesday, which was technically a day off, but was our decorating party, which I attended, and helped whip The Bar into holiday mode. And I've been wearing the Santa hat at work every day since, except for Friday, when I wore my NASA hat in honor of the Orion launch that morning.

The fact that I am usually the only token Jew at my job makes it more amusing, at least to me, especially since sometimes I am the ONLY one to wear a Santa hat the entire time leading up to Christmas.

[mjr]

We started one when we moved into our house a few years back.

My wife likes to cook Thanksgiving dinner, so I do Christmas. We usually go with roast Rack of Lamb, and some Risotto.

The Mrs. is making a few batches of different types of cookies.

We'll just do like we usually do...stay home and watch our son open his gifts.

[KellyHabersham]

My sister and I used to have a tradition with buying each other the most tacky/gaudy Christmas ornament we could find......we called it the "ugly ornament contest". (being as she's no longer speaking to most of the family though, I'm hoping to get that started up again with my daughter)

[Elspeth]

is blind panic a tradition?

Since i have been with my hubby, 23 years, I have spent Christmas morning with his family and then the afternoon with my family.

My family usually has a mountain of food. I have to make fudge and our special cauliflower, otherwise I am not allowed in the house.

[crazylegs]

I used to have a rather nice tradition of sharing smoked salmon sandwiches and champagne with my mother. Unfortunately my body has decided that it no longer tolerates salmon in any format and I now puke for about 10 hours after

[cindybubbles]

I'm now making it a tradition to visit the Toronto Christmas Market at least once a year.

Yesterday, when I was there, I stuffed myself full of beer nuts, nachos, hot chocolate, chocolate coins and meat from a giant turkey leg! Mmmm..........