Hahaha, an Xmas meme... ignore it if you're a hater
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
beautiful wrapping paper and shiny, shiny curling ribbon!
2. Real tree or Artificial?
I am going to channel my grandmother here, and say "I don't understand the preference for artificial trees"... though nowadays people will make an environmental argument, and in the past, I don't know what it was. My great-aunt had one of those aluminum trees. It was silver, or white. It scared me.
3. When do you put up the tree?
I haven't ever had a full sized Xmas tree of my own... two years ago I got a little one in a pot, which was nice. My sister puts hers up the first week -- we decorated it last night, in fact, and my brother-in-law gave me shit for throwing marxist materialism out the window for December. I don't see how I do that: it's not like I believe in the baby Jesus or Santa Claus. I just like all the gaudy trimmings, quite literally.
4. When do you take the tree down?
I guess my sister does it right after New Year's. My mother has been known to leave hers up for QUITE A WHILE.
5. Do you like eggnog? I like the IDEA of eggnog, and I like eggnog liberally dosed with brandy or rum. By itself, not so much.
6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Oddly, I think my favorite gift as a child was a particular teen-aged barbie doll where when you circled her arm around, she got taller, her hair "grew" long, and she developed a bosom. I loved that thing. My sister got a blond one, and I got a brown-haired one. I have never been able to find even a NON-functioning one of these on eBay, though there are entire landfills full of pristine, NIB Sunshine Family Dolls. Which I love, don't get me wrong.
7. Hardest person to buy for?
I think my sister is the hardest person for me to find a gift for, followed closely by my brother-in-law. Sorry, y'all, but it's true. What do you want?
8. Easiest person to buy for?
Buying presents for my mom is a no-brainer. She likes anything I like. It's super easy to buy for M., too, and apparently despite being really broken up this time, we are still going to exchange Xmas presents this year. I wasn't assuming that, but he sounded alarmed when I asked, having already got me thing(s), apparently.
9. Do you have a Nativity scene?
Ha ha, no.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
E-mail Xmas cards? What the hell is that? Jesus (not the baby Jesus) I have a hard enough time buying them and not making them by hand. My niece looked at me sadly when she heard me say I might buy them last year. She is a total convert to my family's credo that "if it's not handmade, it's not love. Or art."
From a couple of years ago:
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
I used to get some very odd shampoos in bottles shaped like women in antebellum hoopskirts.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I feel like this is utter cliché, but I adore both A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Later, rather than earlier. Not quite as late as my dad, who tries to cram in a trip to the Barnes & Noble on Christmas Eve. But pretty late.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Nope.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Xmas cookies that are frosted and decorated...
16. Lights on the tree?
As gaudily colorful as possible, all the colors of the rainbow, more than are "necessary", and a mix of the new cool bigger ones and the cheap-assed old tiny ones. Never the kind that go off and on and induce seizures.
17. Favorite Christmas song?
Hm. "Children Go Where I Send Thee" by the Kingston Trio. Every other Xmas song by the Kingston Trio. "Good King Wenceslas"
18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home?
Virtually always back to Chicago.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's?
I guess so.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star, though I did make an Xmas card one year with a hammer-and-sickle on top of the drawn tree. Angels make me ill. See above, for the imaginary hammer-and-sickle tree-topper.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Xmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Um, nothing at all?
23. What theme or color are you using?
I hate color themes; they make me ill. I like gaudy and mismatched trees.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
My family doesn't do Christmas dinner, really. We gather at my dad's on Xmas Eve and eat lots of good cheese and crackers and cookies and sandwich stuff and drink eggnog with alcohol and play board games and have one or both of the referenced films on in the background. But otherwise... sometimes we get fresh bagels on Xmas morning.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Okay, now I get boring. What I want for Xmas is a bunch of Borders and Barnes & Noble gift cards. Seriously, there's pretty much nothing else I want. I will love whatever my nieces give me, and whatever books or CDs M. gives me.
26. Who is most likely to respond to this?
What does "respond to this" mean? Comment on it? Why would anyone, necessarily? Although anyone is welcome to! Adopt it as a meme? Huh. Possibly florence_craye might, I don't know. Or maybe john_b_cannon? I don't know, y'all, surprise me! mistersmearcase won't because he hates all this crap, which is fair enough.
27. Who is least likely to respond to this?
I don't know.
26. Favorite Christmas Tradition?
I am ridiculously in love with Xmas traditions, though none of them are that important by themselves. But everything I've written here -- from decorating the tree at my sister's, and my mother's, to listening to carols, to making cookies and Xmas cards, to wrapping presents... I like all of it enormously.
beautiful wrapping paper and shiny, shiny curling ribbon!
2. Real tree or Artificial?
I am going to channel my grandmother here, and say "I don't understand the preference for artificial trees"... though nowadays people will make an environmental argument, and in the past, I don't know what it was. My great-aunt had one of those aluminum trees. It was silver, or white. It scared me.
3. When do you put up the tree?
I haven't ever had a full sized Xmas tree of my own... two years ago I got a little one in a pot, which was nice. My sister puts hers up the first week -- we decorated it last night, in fact, and my brother-in-law gave me shit for throwing marxist materialism out the window for December. I don't see how I do that: it's not like I believe in the baby Jesus or Santa Claus. I just like all the gaudy trimmings, quite literally.
4. When do you take the tree down?
I guess my sister does it right after New Year's. My mother has been known to leave hers up for QUITE A WHILE.
5. Do you like eggnog? I like the IDEA of eggnog, and I like eggnog liberally dosed with brandy or rum. By itself, not so much.
6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Oddly, I think my favorite gift as a child was a particular teen-aged barbie doll where when you circled her arm around, she got taller, her hair "grew" long, and she developed a bosom. I loved that thing. My sister got a blond one, and I got a brown-haired one. I have never been able to find even a NON-functioning one of these on eBay, though there are entire landfills full of pristine, NIB Sunshine Family Dolls. Which I love, don't get me wrong.
7. Hardest person to buy for?
I think my sister is the hardest person for me to find a gift for, followed closely by my brother-in-law. Sorry, y'all, but it's true. What do you want?
8. Easiest person to buy for?
Buying presents for my mom is a no-brainer. She likes anything I like. It's super easy to buy for M., too, and apparently despite being really broken up this time, we are still going to exchange Xmas presents this year. I wasn't assuming that, but he sounded alarmed when I asked, having already got me thing(s), apparently.
9. Do you have a Nativity scene?
Ha ha, no.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
E-mail Xmas cards? What the hell is that? Jesus (not the baby Jesus) I have a hard enough time buying them and not making them by hand. My niece looked at me sadly when she heard me say I might buy them last year. She is a total convert to my family's credo that "if it's not handmade, it's not love. Or art."
From a couple of years ago:
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
I used to get some very odd shampoos in bottles shaped like women in antebellum hoopskirts.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I feel like this is utter cliché, but I adore both A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Later, rather than earlier. Not quite as late as my dad, who tries to cram in a trip to the Barnes & Noble on Christmas Eve. But pretty late.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Nope.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Xmas cookies that are frosted and decorated...
16. Lights on the tree?
As gaudily colorful as possible, all the colors of the rainbow, more than are "necessary", and a mix of the new cool bigger ones and the cheap-assed old tiny ones. Never the kind that go off and on and induce seizures.
17. Favorite Christmas song?
Hm. "Children Go Where I Send Thee" by the Kingston Trio. Every other Xmas song by the Kingston Trio. "Good King Wenceslas"
18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home?
Virtually always back to Chicago.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's?
I guess so.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star, though I did make an Xmas card one year with a hammer-and-sickle on top of the drawn tree. Angels make me ill. See above, for the imaginary hammer-and-sickle tree-topper.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Xmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Um, nothing at all?
23. What theme or color are you using?
I hate color themes; they make me ill. I like gaudy and mismatched trees.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
My family doesn't do Christmas dinner, really. We gather at my dad's on Xmas Eve and eat lots of good cheese and crackers and cookies and sandwich stuff and drink eggnog with alcohol and play board games and have one or both of the referenced films on in the background. But otherwise... sometimes we get fresh bagels on Xmas morning.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Okay, now I get boring. What I want for Xmas is a bunch of Borders and Barnes & Noble gift cards. Seriously, there's pretty much nothing else I want. I will love whatever my nieces give me, and whatever books or CDs M. gives me.
26. Who is most likely to respond to this?
What does "respond to this" mean? Comment on it? Why would anyone, necessarily? Although anyone is welcome to! Adopt it as a meme? Huh. Possibly florence_craye might, I don't know. Or maybe john_b_cannon? I don't know, y'all, surprise me! mistersmearcase won't because he hates all this crap, which is fair enough.
27. Who is least likely to respond to this?
I don't know.
26. Favorite Christmas Tradition?
I am ridiculously in love with Xmas traditions, though none of them are that important by themselves. But everything I've written here -- from decorating the tree at my sister's, and my mother's, to listening to carols, to making cookies and Xmas cards, to wrapping presents... I like all of it enormously.