It's Beginning

bluesleepy wrote about her Christmas tree and decorating today, and Yankee Chick
(and others) did a Christmas survey, so I'm inspired.

Let me remind you that I have been celebrating Christmas only for the last 32 of my 54 years, since I joined the Hubs' family, but still, that's a pretty long time. So we have plenty of long-held Christmas traditions here in our family, although any references to childhood gifts and the like refer to Chanukah.

I love Christmas, and I love having a Christmas tree, especially. 32 years ago, when the Hubs and I were only dating, I handmade a couple of ornaments for his mother, needlepoint cubes on plastic canvas. And I made a couple for us, too. For many years, one of our tree traditions was that I hand made at least one ornament per year. Although that first year on our own, 30 years ago, I handmade a lot of cheap ornaments from kits to fill the tree up. We only still use one or two of those.

I also made sure to get an ornament, or something I could use as an ornament, from anyplace we traveled to. Some of these are very cheesy -- I went to Maine, I got a stuffed lobster -- and some are neat, like the shell I got on the beach at Cape May that was the perfect ornament shape.

We have many ornaments that the kids made, either in school or at home, and several that I made with their annual Christmas pictures in them or on them. I got at least one ornament for each child in the family from one of those mail order places that engraves names on cheap ornaments, so that's one each for my kids and for each of their cousins.

We have lots -- LOTS -- of Disney or Hallmark character ornaments. We have a really terrific Hallmark that clips onto a branch instead of hanging and is Horton Hatching the Egg from the Dr. Seuss book.

And I love glass ball ornaments. I had a set of six that I bought that first year, just clear glass balls, like bubbles, and by now, they are all gone. But when the girls travel, especially K, I get a glass ball ornament from wherever they go. I have one from Venice that is particularly beautiful.

So, as you can imagine, I have enough ornaments for three or four trees. Many years ago, I was home sick the week before Christmas, and I took the opportunity to put a bunch of ornaments we didn't use anymore into two of those big popcorn cans, to be starter ornaments for each of the girls when they need them. Over the last few years, I've distilled down into two canvas boxes the ornaments we do use, and the others are packed away in the basement. We have a very rigid routine for decorating the tree. The Hubs brings it upstairs and puts on the lights and the topper. Every ornament is hung by the girls. I take each one out of the box and make sure it has a hook, and then hand it over to one of them. Certain ornaments "belong" to each one of them, and even now, a fight will break out if the wrong sister hangs one of those particular ones.

So there ya go. Here's the survey.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both, mostly bags.

2. Real tree or artificial? It's real. We bought it in a real store. (Okay, artificial.)

3. When do you put up the tree? 2nd or 3rd weekend in December

4. When do you take the tree down? First weekend in January

5. Do you like eggnog? Love. It. Good with a little Kahlua in it, too.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I got a life-size doll too, but it scared the crap out of me. I got a stuffed animal Quick Draw McGraw that I wanted very, very much and loved the fur off of over the years.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No. The MIL does, though, and the grandchildren would always play with it, move stuff around, and so on, and I commented once that this was a very sturdy nativity set to have withstood all those years of her own children and then grandchildren playing with it. She said "Are you kidding? If my own children ever touched it, I would have broken their arms." Ah, the wonder of grandchildren. I believe she bought the set at Woolworth's the year she was married.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Husband

9. Easiest person to buy for? Both of my kids are fairly easy to buy for.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Endless years of pink sweaters from the MIL

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Neither. I stopped sending cards 16 years ago, when I had a brain tumor in December. I figured no one would mind if they didn't get a card from me, and they would probably just cry if they did.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I like It's a Wonderful Life, of course, but I'm a sucker for the Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol that was on when I was a kid. I also LOVED as a kid Amahl and the Night Visitors, which is never on anymore, hasn't been in nearly 50 years. And of course, the You'll-Shoot-Your-Eye-Out-Kid movie. The Hubs and I were big Jean Shepherd fans even before that movie came out, so it totally delighted us, and still does.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I used to start making a list and picking things off in August, but now I won't start until after Thanksgiving, unless I happen to see some perfect thing before. And I did most of it online this year.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not the way the question means, like re-gifting something. On the way home from my ILs, I offer whatever the MIL gave me to my kids, since it's generally something I would never use or wear.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I don't think I have a favorite. Traditionally, we have an antipasto when we arrive at the ILs, and our first course is Holiday Soup, which I believe is more commonly known as Italian Wedding Soup. And I like a cannoli for desert, although they're not so good for me anymore. Everything in between soup and cannoli is pretty standard.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Colored lights that blink. The ones we have came with six (I think) programs for different light settings. I have no idea how they work or how to make them work; either the Hubs or R sets them.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Least favorite song is that Burl Ives one: Holly Jolly Christmas. It makes me want to rip my ears off. There are many Christmas songs I like, and I generally like Christmas music as long as I don't have to hear it 24/7 for a couple of months. Since the movie Love Actually, I'm very fond of All I Want for Christmas is You.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We travel a couple of hours each way down and then back up the Garden State Parkway to the in-laws.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s? Yes. Yes I can. And at one time, I could recite "The Night Before Christmas" from memory. (The actual name of the poem is "A Visit from St. Nicholas", I believe.)

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We have a snowflake that I made many years ago with plastic needlepoint canvas, white yarn, and white beads. We're very attached to it, but each year I wonder if it's going to make it just one more time. It's become very fragile. There are no angels or stars anywhere on our tree.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? The girls give each other one on Christmas eve. The rest Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The endless commercialization, and music overkill. Also, I'm very freaked out by those reindeer lawn ornaments that slowly move their heads up and down or back and forth.

23. What I love most about Christmas? I like giving gifts to people. I like the tree and all the ornaments. When the kids were little, I loved their excitement. (I also loved that, until they were grown, they never realized that the year Daddy became a vegan, we left juice for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer instead of the traditional milk and cookies. We explained that Santa was finally watching his weight.)

Have a Wonderful Christmas Everyone…..


WATCHING HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE :: ENTRY #1637