Favorite Christmas Traditions
(for the December posting meme- 
degrees )
I'm actually skipping to this one, mainly because it would be well into January before I got to it otherwise and that just feels wrong, so I'm doing it now before I forget. :P Also, this one's going to be link-heavy. Fair warning.
Favorite Christmas traditions!
The thing about this question is that there isn't a lot that's survived childhood. After my grandparents died when I was a teenager, everything basically fell apart and there's really nothing that's done consistently as a family anymore. Plus I worked Christmas every year for nearly ten years, unless I just happened to have the day off normally anyway... so basically what I'm left with are a bunch of personal things that I'm not sure I'd call "traditions," but we'll go with it for the sake of the question:
⛄ (the one thing that I -have- retained) HAM DINNER! :D I usually just buy a package of ham steaks, though last year I cooked a half of a boneless ham with pineapple and cloves. I probably won't do that again, it's WAY too much for just me. It was delicious, but I was eating ham till I was sick of it. XD But yeah, ham with pineapple slices, mashed potatoes, broccoli, rolls, and maybe pecan pie if I can find it. Done.
⛄ As far as gift exchange, things usually go like this: Kelly and I will go out for a nice dinner or something in lieu of gifts, not ON Christmas but sometime after, usually. Also sometime after Christmas, Stef and I give each other gift cards and proceed to go shopping, though these days the gift cards tend to be via Amazon (after this Christmas, I should have enough to almost pay for a basic Kindle without the special offers. :D)- so we go to Walmart or Barnes and Noble or wherever else we might need, and go to lunch and generally just spend time.
⛄ Christmas required reading: The 12 Steps of Christmas (note: Original, not fanfic- also NSFW!) and Toys in Boyland (note: Hikago fic, NSFW)
⛄ I pull out one of two trees, depending on how lazy I'm feeling. One is a two foot thing that's completely made of white wires and lights (think like this, except not as tall because it doesn't have all that "trunk", and not as pretty because I can't shape a tree for shit and it always looks lopsided XD), and I have decorations and a star for it and everything. If I don't have the energy to deal with that, I have a little plastic tree that plugs into my usb and changes colors that's basically this except it doesn't light up quite as high on the tree. It's cute. :D I would actually prefer a fiber optic one, but it was what was available at the time- and considering that it probably would've gotten crushed by now, it's just as well. XD
⛄ Christmas music! Now... thanks to working in retail for so long, I've heard most Christmas music enough for about five lifetimes, but there's some of it I can still stand. The versions of Silent Night by Enya and Boys II Men. Anything Chipmunk. At Christmas by Hanson is a longtime favorite (IT'S PRETTY, DON'T JUDGE ME), and I love Christmas Eve Sarajevo by Trans Siberian Orchestra (even though it makes me tear up if I think about it for too long) and We Three Kings by Kamelot. There are others, but those are the essentials for more "traditional" music.
Many of my favorites, however, fall under the heading of parody, and the number one on this list is Ho Ho Fucking Ho by Kevin Bloody Wilson (obviously NSFW XD). Other favorites in this vein mostly come from Bob Rivers and include The 12 Pains of Christmas, The Chimney Song, The Twisted Chipmunk Song (not really SFW either- and yeah, I know, the video is dumb, but it's the only one I found that didn't have sound issues), and the best follow-up to that song ever: Chipmunks Roasting On An Open Fire. :P
⛄ Christmas movies! I don't really have a "set" tradition here, but typically I'll watch at least one Christmas movie during the season. It's usually something like Charlie Brown, Frosty, The Santa Clause, Muppet's Christmas Carol, The Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph, that sort of thing. Between stuff I've bought and stuff I've downloaded, I actually have a TON of Christmas themed movies. One of my favorites too that I actually found again semi-recently is a little short Disney did in the 50's called "Pluto's Christmas Tree."
And that's about all I can think of, though I think this entry is already quite long enough anyway. :P
---
This has been crossposted to my DW account. You are free to comment either here or there, if you'd like to comment. Preferably here, but it doesn't really matter. Whichever one works for you. :D
degrees )
I'm actually skipping to this one, mainly because it would be well into January before I got to it otherwise and that just feels wrong, so I'm doing it now before I forget. :P Also, this one's going to be link-heavy. Fair warning.
Favorite Christmas traditions!
The thing about this question is that there isn't a lot that's survived childhood. After my grandparents died when I was a teenager, everything basically fell apart and there's really nothing that's done consistently as a family anymore. Plus I worked Christmas every year for nearly ten years, unless I just happened to have the day off normally anyway... so basically what I'm left with are a bunch of personal things that I'm not sure I'd call "traditions," but we'll go with it for the sake of the question:
⛄ (the one thing that I -have- retained) HAM DINNER! :D I usually just buy a package of ham steaks, though last year I cooked a half of a boneless ham with pineapple and cloves. I probably won't do that again, it's WAY too much for just me. It was delicious, but I was eating ham till I was sick of it. XD But yeah, ham with pineapple slices, mashed potatoes, broccoli, rolls, and maybe pecan pie if I can find it. Done.
⛄ As far as gift exchange, things usually go like this: Kelly and I will go out for a nice dinner or something in lieu of gifts, not ON Christmas but sometime after, usually. Also sometime after Christmas, Stef and I give each other gift cards and proceed to go shopping, though these days the gift cards tend to be via Amazon (after this Christmas, I should have enough to almost pay for a basic Kindle without the special offers. :D)- so we go to Walmart or Barnes and Noble or wherever else we might need, and go to lunch and generally just spend time.
⛄ Christmas required reading: The 12 Steps of Christmas (note: Original, not fanfic- also NSFW!) and Toys in Boyland (note: Hikago fic, NSFW)
⛄ I pull out one of two trees, depending on how lazy I'm feeling. One is a two foot thing that's completely made of white wires and lights (think like this, except not as tall because it doesn't have all that "trunk", and not as pretty because I can't shape a tree for shit and it always looks lopsided XD), and I have decorations and a star for it and everything. If I don't have the energy to deal with that, I have a little plastic tree that plugs into my usb and changes colors that's basically this except it doesn't light up quite as high on the tree. It's cute. :D I would actually prefer a fiber optic one, but it was what was available at the time- and considering that it probably would've gotten crushed by now, it's just as well. XD
⛄ Christmas music! Now... thanks to working in retail for so long, I've heard most Christmas music enough for about five lifetimes, but there's some of it I can still stand. The versions of Silent Night by Enya and Boys II Men. Anything Chipmunk. At Christmas by Hanson is a longtime favorite (IT'S PRETTY, DON'T JUDGE ME), and I love Christmas Eve Sarajevo by Trans Siberian Orchestra (even though it makes me tear up if I think about it for too long) and We Three Kings by Kamelot. There are others, but those are the essentials for more "traditional" music.
Many of my favorites, however, fall under the heading of parody, and the number one on this list is Ho Ho Fucking Ho by Kevin Bloody Wilson (obviously NSFW XD). Other favorites in this vein mostly come from Bob Rivers and include The 12 Pains of Christmas, The Chimney Song, The Twisted Chipmunk Song (not really SFW either- and yeah, I know, the video is dumb, but it's the only one I found that didn't have sound issues), and the best follow-up to that song ever: Chipmunks Roasting On An Open Fire. :P
⛄ Christmas movies! I don't really have a "set" tradition here, but typically I'll watch at least one Christmas movie during the season. It's usually something like Charlie Brown, Frosty, The Santa Clause, Muppet's Christmas Carol, The Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph, that sort of thing. Between stuff I've bought and stuff I've downloaded, I actually have a TON of Christmas themed movies. One of my favorites too that I actually found again semi-recently is a little short Disney did in the 50's called "Pluto's Christmas Tree."
And that's about all I can think of, though I think this entry is already quite long enough anyway. :P
---
This has been crossposted to my DW account. You are free to comment either here or there, if you'd like to comment. Preferably here, but it doesn't really matter. Whichever one works for you. :D