Christmas/Yule/Name-your-winter-holiday Meme
From citabria:
1. What do you want for Christmas/Yule this year?
To RELAX. To hang out with good folks and bake cookies and eat good food and sing and have a little time to be quiet and notice the magic of it all. Snow would be lovely.
2. Do you decorate a tree?
Yes, absolutely. My household has a bunch of the ornaments that were in my parents' house while I was growing up, a number of which were gifts from significant people. Lots of tradition invested in that.
3. Does it snow where you live?
Yes. Snow by Christmas is not to be counted on, but it happens often enough. I used to get pretty invested in wanting snow when I was a kid. It still makes me very happy when it happens.
4. Are you staying home or visiting family?
Visiting R's family this year. It's a fairly big crowd, which was an adjustment for me after spending Christmas with just me and my parents for years. But I love it now.
5. Are you putting up Christmas lights?
We'll have the tree in the bay window with lights on it. Not sure if we'll make it to lights outside this year.
6. Do you make gingerbread houses?
Haven't yet. Might try someday.
7. Do you even like gingerbread?
It's not my favorite, but it's OK.
8. Do you get real Christmas/Yule trees or fake ones?
Real. I've tried to talk myself into fake once or twice, but they just don't do it for me.
9. Do you still believe in Santa Claus?
In an abstract way, I guess.
10. What's your favorite Christmas song?
Criminy, I don't know. (More recent blather from me about holiday music here.)
Top three, for today:
Chariots
Hot Buttered Rum
Over the Hill and Over the Dale
11. Do you ever have Christmas/Yule/Holiday parties?
After Nowell for the past couple years we have had people over to decorate our tree with us, which can conveniently double as a birthday party for me. (If you're reading this, and you're local or in the neighborhood, consider yourself invited this Saturday evening!) Also we just have people over more often in December. And we do New Years parties sometimes, which I consider to be part of the same season.
12. Who do you usually spend Christmas/Yule with?
My partners and some combination of our families. We alternate which family gets us for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, and see the others sometime within the week before and after. Sometimes we've managed to get more than one of our families together at once, and they seem to do pretty well with that, luckily for us.
13. Is Christmas/Yule your favorite holiday?
Yeah, I think so. I don't focus a lot on having favorites of such things, but I can't think of any I like more.
14. What's your favorite part of Christmas/Yule?
The entire month has always felt like a bit of a festival, partly because it also includes my birthday on the 14th. Also, this season has deeper roots in my psyche than other holidays. I'm lucky that the traditions I grew up with have a lot I can happily hold on to and pass along, despite the changes I've gone through. The season has its own set of music, diverse and enjoyable enough that I can get from the first Sunday of Advent through January 6 listening to almost exclusively holiday music, without getting sick of it. And there's a lot that speaks to me in the various religious meanings of both Christmas and Yule, too. All that adds up to a time of year that really does consistently manage to be magic for me, whether I'm looking for it or getting snuck up on in the middle of busy-ness and chaos.
That's the sort of abstract answer. A more specific one: I love being able to slow down and just enjoy the season with my family, snuggle on the couch and look at the lights on the tree with music on, and there's no place else in the world I'd rather be.
15. Do you have any special traditions?
Every day adding something to the Advent calendar my Grandma made for me, and the music of course... Every year since I was a baby, my family has gone to hear Nowell Sing We Clear in concert. And most years we go to a wonderful singing party called "The Wassail" on the Saturday night before Christmas, which doubles as the family holiday gathering for the folk music community I grew up in. This is why I've missed so many Yule celebrations scheduled for the closest weekend to the winter solstice. My problem in December is *too many* traditions!
Also we have often had a tree-trimming party. At said party or at some approximately similar gathering, homemade eggnog must be made according to my father's special recipe. It is the best and only eggnog worth drinking, IMHO. (Hey chezjake, you should post that recipe!)
16. Who do you want to be stuck under the mistletoe with?
M and/or R would be delightful. There are a couple other folks I could think of, too, but I won't borrow such trouble for now. ;-)
1. What do you want for Christmas/Yule this year?
To RELAX. To hang out with good folks and bake cookies and eat good food and sing and have a little time to be quiet and notice the magic of it all. Snow would be lovely.
2. Do you decorate a tree?
Yes, absolutely. My household has a bunch of the ornaments that were in my parents' house while I was growing up, a number of which were gifts from significant people. Lots of tradition invested in that.
3. Does it snow where you live?
Yes. Snow by Christmas is not to be counted on, but it happens often enough. I used to get pretty invested in wanting snow when I was a kid. It still makes me very happy when it happens.
4. Are you staying home or visiting family?
Visiting R's family this year. It's a fairly big crowd, which was an adjustment for me after spending Christmas with just me and my parents for years. But I love it now.
5. Are you putting up Christmas lights?
We'll have the tree in the bay window with lights on it. Not sure if we'll make it to lights outside this year.
6. Do you make gingerbread houses?
Haven't yet. Might try someday.
7. Do you even like gingerbread?
It's not my favorite, but it's OK.
8. Do you get real Christmas/Yule trees or fake ones?
Real. I've tried to talk myself into fake once or twice, but they just don't do it for me.
9. Do you still believe in Santa Claus?
In an abstract way, I guess.
10. What's your favorite Christmas song?
Criminy, I don't know. (More recent blather from me about holiday music here.)
Top three, for today:
Chariots
Hot Buttered Rum
Over the Hill and Over the Dale
11. Do you ever have Christmas/Yule/Holiday parties?
After Nowell for the past couple years we have had people over to decorate our tree with us, which can conveniently double as a birthday party for me. (If you're reading this, and you're local or in the neighborhood, consider yourself invited this Saturday evening!) Also we just have people over more often in December. And we do New Years parties sometimes, which I consider to be part of the same season.
12. Who do you usually spend Christmas/Yule with?
My partners and some combination of our families. We alternate which family gets us for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, and see the others sometime within the week before and after. Sometimes we've managed to get more than one of our families together at once, and they seem to do pretty well with that, luckily for us.
13. Is Christmas/Yule your favorite holiday?
Yeah, I think so. I don't focus a lot on having favorites of such things, but I can't think of any I like more.
14. What's your favorite part of Christmas/Yule?
The entire month has always felt like a bit of a festival, partly because it also includes my birthday on the 14th. Also, this season has deeper roots in my psyche than other holidays. I'm lucky that the traditions I grew up with have a lot I can happily hold on to and pass along, despite the changes I've gone through. The season has its own set of music, diverse and enjoyable enough that I can get from the first Sunday of Advent through January 6 listening to almost exclusively holiday music, without getting sick of it. And there's a lot that speaks to me in the various religious meanings of both Christmas and Yule, too. All that adds up to a time of year that really does consistently manage to be magic for me, whether I'm looking for it or getting snuck up on in the middle of busy-ness and chaos.
That's the sort of abstract answer. A more specific one: I love being able to slow down and just enjoy the season with my family, snuggle on the couch and look at the lights on the tree with music on, and there's no place else in the world I'd rather be.
15. Do you have any special traditions?
Every day adding something to the Advent calendar my Grandma made for me, and the music of course... Every year since I was a baby, my family has gone to hear Nowell Sing We Clear in concert. And most years we go to a wonderful singing party called "The Wassail" on the Saturday night before Christmas, which doubles as the family holiday gathering for the folk music community I grew up in. This is why I've missed so many Yule celebrations scheduled for the closest weekend to the winter solstice. My problem in December is *too many* traditions!
Also we have often had a tree-trimming party. At said party or at some approximately similar gathering, homemade eggnog must be made according to my father's special recipe. It is the best and only eggnog worth drinking, IMHO. (Hey chezjake, you should post that recipe!)
16. Who do you want to be stuck under the mistletoe with?
M and/or R would be delightful. There are a couple other folks I could think of, too, but I won't borrow such trouble for now. ;-)