What do you do? & (now) Where Are you Christmas

[Damari]

What you doing?

I’m a big fan of Christmas. Even the overly commercialised parts of it. I love the joyfulness of it. I’m a big sucker for the vibe and giving of this holiday. I throw myself into being with my family and enjoying this ‘connection’ with home and hearth.

When I lived in the US the traditions were so completely different. I loved them just as much for what they were. Mostly Church-centric, candlelight services and Church breakfasts. Chilly evenings at town strolls with hot wassail and red noses. Big trees, twinkly lights and bigger family get-togethers that were noisy and gift-centric, rowdy and touched by frost covered trees.

This year I’m trying to get extended family to meet for a day on the beach on Christmas Day. Find ourselves an alcove of summer sun and sit in it all day. Have a bbq, hang with cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles – drag my parents along and whichever sister is in town (this is our off year – so my immediate family thing isn’t until New Years where we spend a week at the beach) Maybe drink a beer or two while watching the kids in the surf.. I’m not sure when we’ll fit in gift giving, but knowing my daughter, probably at the crack of dawn THEN the beach.

Just curious and keeping it holiday specific. What are you doing for the holidays? What are your family traditions? Where do you go? What do you do?

[Damiana Jones]

Well...my brother and I are getting older, (I'm 19 going on 20 and he just turned 21), my parents have decided to give us one gift each and then give us 200 bucks to spend on whatever we wanted. What I liked about Christmas as I'm getting older is that it's been...more directed toward my parents. They've done and gave so much to my brother and I over the years, I'm just so happy that we can just begin to spoil them for a change. I mean...they're not really old. Both of them just turned 40 this year. But for twenty-one years of their life,they've been making Christmas awesome for me and my brother.

So the giving back to parents thing is my favorite. This year, we're opening gifts before we go to IHOP for breakfast. And after IHOP we're going to go catch matinée and go see Sherlock Holmes since it comes out on Christmas. I'm quite excited for this Christmas. My brother and I are going to go buy new ornaments and decorate the tree.

[Idony]

For Christmas, I'm just going home I don't need anything else. I've been across the continent for the last 3 months, and it's only when I'm away that I realise how much I like my home town and its weather, even if the UK is awesomely pretty and more rainy.

We have awesome winters. Very harsh, dangerously cold, and typically with snow about 2 feet tall. I hated falling down and fearing I broke something, or having to struggle just to get from A to B, or the feeling and actual smell of sharp, cold gusts of wind. I'm derailing >.< But yeah, I miss all that stuff, and that's what Christmas has always felt like for me.

We're not going anywhere this year; never have. I'll just be home for a month with my parents and my cat, and my warm home and home cooked meals and cookies from grandma <3 Sometimes they get my presents, but paying for my time at uni is enough, so I don't want anything in recent years XD
Just my room with my bed. And fooood. We have awesome food (oh yes, for those who don't know, I'm from Romania). We have pork, and the pig was traditionally cut in the person's back yard (sort of a tradition), but now we just buy it in town (especially since most people live in apartments)... Still tastes good. Particularly the skin. And there are all sorts of traditional Christmas foods that I don't know the name of in English. Most of them involve meat, of course.

We get small groups of children singing carols and we give them sweets of money; some sing well, some eh don't. It's the tradition that counts.
I don't know if we're getting a tree this year. I used to love decorating the tree when I was little, but now as I've grown up I just notice all the mess it makes. Haven't had artificial trees yet; I personally don't care for them either. The natural trees may leave a mess, but they did smell nice. Still, I don't want a tree.

For New Years, we watch television... My parents may go to a party with their co-workers. But at midnight, my father opens a bottle of champagne. Even when I was little, I used to drink champagne at New Years; it was the only alcohol I had for a lot of years, because I don't like wine or beer >.>

And I think I've rambled enough... I'll go be nostalgic somewhere else now lol

[Airey]

Oh oh, lemme be the first to say something depressing.

Though maybe I should explain my family first...I have a mother and a father, like most normal people. Don't talk to either of them anymore though. I was going to school out in Iowa, but that's a different story, now i'm with my Aunt and her kids in Kansass. They don't celebrate Christmas because about three or so years ago now, my uncle-her brother, stated that Christmas was a pagan holiday and we shouldn't celebrate it, or eat pork, or do anything on the weekend. So that pretty much nixxed out the whole, "Santa Clause" thing.

Christmas is pretty much like any other day where I am, so she's going to Europe to see my mom, and I am more than likely going to end up in Chicago with my ex fiance that's not really my ex' anything.

Sooo yeah! I get my Christmas for the first time in like...almost four years. Needless to say, i'm happy...

That wasn't too depressing was it? And on a side note...why drink Egg Nog? It's horrible....

[Juliana]

I'm hosting at my house this year. Not that I dont mind as long as they dont all bring hand saws and throw them at me this year. Were good, I get to play a trick on the kids this years as its my family tradition, who finds the pickle gets the present on the ceiling fan, or whatever i decide to do. Shove a wrapped banana down the garbage disposal, maybe toss it into the street. Whatever shocks them. Then give them a real present. We do it every year. We also do a pinata. I mean it is Texas, but we did it in michigan as well. So all the kids are happy, Its going to be loud noisy and joyus.
I love all my little nieces and nephews. They are what really makes my holiday, as well as my daughter.

[Crys]

I'm going to my Uncle's house in Charlotte, North Carolina for Christmas Eve to have dinner with them, and then I might--and it probably won't happen this year--go to Tifton, Georgia to see my Dad's side of the family for Christmas day. I haven't seen his side of the family since I was 8 (that's when we moved to Japan, and then my parents divorced, so the only family I've seen has been on my Mom's side.) If we don't go to Georgia, and we probably won't, my Mom will be doing what she always does and that's making a HUGE Christmas dinner and inviting her Marines over. (The ones that are in barracks away from their families.) It's always fun to see how crazy her young Marines act-- and how funny she acts around them when she's not in her "I'm in a higher rank than you, you will listen to me." mode that she has to be in at work. I love that my Mom let the Marines play beer pong at my high school Graduation. I won't forget how laid back she was, lol. But that's away from Christmas. SO! I might have a lot traveling goin' on.

edit - spelling error.

[Nemesis]

We dont do a whole lot. Since our daughter grew up and moved out we dont even bother with a tree or lights. We do have one tradition that the le brat still honors, and that is on Christmas eve we are all together, the three of us. We have hot chocolate or sparkling cidars, or in my case, wine, and we all sit together for a platter of specialty cheeses and meats with breads and crackers. Its been a tradition while I grew up, and the le brat really enjoys it, so she forgoes Christmas Eve with her fiance and spends the night with us. We also watch movies.
In the morning its present time then off she goes to spend the rest of her time with her manboything.

I suppose when they marry and start their own traditions me and the troll will just sit in front of the fire staring at one another, or, he'll be watching football and i'll be trying to make his head explode telepathically.
And I dont forsee any grandkids anywhere in the near future thankfully, cuz i'm not one of those kid peoples. Troll however will make a fine and dandy gramma! He'll bake cookies and set up a tree.......ok, so i went off topic and drove into the future a lil bit.

yeah.............so.....I hate this time of year.

bahhumbug. and i mean that with all my lil itty bitty heart.

[Jean DeVenn]

For the first time in quite a few years, I've (sort of) won the annual argument about Christmas. Every year for goodness knows how many, we've doen Christmas with the in-laws. Now don't get me wrong, my wife's family are lovely, but they do Christmas in a hugely manic way, with loads of people all shouting over each other, swapping TV channels every few minutes, and generally making the day exhausting. Of course, I have to do the driving, so I can't even have a glass of wine with Christmas dinner.

This year, we've moved house, and finally got somewhere big enough to be able to host Christmas here. Yippee ! So I get to see some of my family - my father, half-brother, sister and her partner will come over, and we can do what our family does - a nice mellow Christmas, without all the shouting and fuss. It helps my sister, who is just coming out of 18 months of being seriously ill and hasn't really got the strength to do... well, anything.

But I still won't be able to drink - the compromise is that I'll drive us over to one of my wife's family do's in the evening.

It's all good, though. I'll be able to spend the day with some of my family, and there's an excuse to put up a HUGE tree (yes, we disagree about that, too...). More importantly, it'll be the first Christmas for years that I'll be able to spend all day with Tabbycat rather than leaving him all alone and lonely all day

[Louvain]

Well, due to our whole situation, we're not really 'doing' Christmas this year, we're doing a very small Secret Santa so everyone has at least one present, no decorations (because we don't know when we're getting shoved out of the house, it'd be silly to put them up and have to take them down in a rush) or anything like that. We are still going down to my respective grandparents' houses for Christmas eve.

All growing up, we had a pretty simple Christmas routine.

We would always put up our decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. We have boxes of ornaments my mom's been collecting for thirty years, and each one has a story and a little memory behind it and we all climb up into the attic as a family, form a line, and start passing boxes down and sharing the stories. We always have a tree that's covered in lights and our special ornaments, although for the last few years we haven't put up any of the special ones because the cat liked to attack them. Since she's dead this year, if we weren't losing the house we could have actually put them up. We'd spend hours and HOURS just decorating the house from the tree to the stockings to the villages my mom and my sister both collect. They love their villages, and I think they're insane. The house would be filled with Christmas music and conversation and eventually we'd get into some argument about something silly and throw empty boxes at each other.

Christmas eve, we'd hit up my mother's parents house and then my father's, carry bagfuls of Christmas present back home, sort them under the Christmas tree, and go to sleep. When I was younger, I used to be the first one up on Christmas morning and I'd pound down the door at 2 AM because I was so excited about Santa. Last year, I decided to wake them up at 2 AM just because I wanted to see what would happen. I got yelled at.

Now that everyone's moved out, we still go to my grandparents' on Christmas eve and retrieve the mounds of presents and sort them and lay them out, but now we get up later and it's a bit harder to get everyone together both to decorate the house and to have Christmas. Everyone comes from their own houses on Christmas morning now, so we all get to sleep a bit. We spend Christmas day together as a family, talk, eat, watch the inevitable DVDs we give each other for Christmas, and crash.

This year, I don't know what we're doing besides Christmas eve. We might just get together, exchange our Secret Santa, and be grateful that things are still goin' good. We don't get snow either, so none of that fun stuff. I wish. I would looooove some snow. Send me some, dude, seriously. I am buying my Kev a plastic fireman's hat. He's gonna whine about the present, but I don't care. <.<

[Louvain]

And Heather, we used to do the pickle thing too.

[Elektra]

I've started one of these topics before on VNN, I think... But Damari was banned. BAHA. >.>

Anyway, I've not celebrated Christmas with the family since 2004, which is why it gets me when people complain about the holidays with their parents. Hey, at least you've got family to celebrate it with! Sure, friends are around, but it's just not the same. I'm actually wishing I could be home, doing Christmas baking (for the first time), and filling the whole house with the smell of gingerbread and butter cookies. And a Christmas log! OMG. I want to bake one of those...

But I digress.

Back home, we would always go to departmental stores to see the Christmas decorations and Metrojaya would have different themed trees on the top floor (where all the ornaments and stuff are). It makes my heart sing, really, to see them all decked out so prettily. Most times our relatives will throw Christmas parties and invite us as well... The tradition was that on Christmas eve, we'll open ONE present, and the rest on Christmas morning after church. Oh yes, our church will have events as well, with prayer nights for the coming new year. But mostly we'll just sit around at home, watching Christmas movies and just spending time with each other.

Over here, though, we do things differently each year. It's not an official holiday here because their Orthodox Christmas is on the 7th of January, so we sometimes don't even get a day off from class - it almost made me cry one year. If we're lucky, Christmas Eve is a half-day of classes. ~.~ Don't take your holidays for granted!! >.> But yeah, last year, Reuby and I single-handedly prepared a feast for 30 people, complete with turkey and roast pork. That was massive. This year, though, others decided to chip in (prolly felt bad for us, lulz) and we're gonna do something like that again, mebbe on a bigger scale because this is our last Christmas here, I don't know. Haven't exactly planned things out yet (which is why I prefer being the organiser >.>). I have Reuby's present and I'm really psyched, I know what I'm getting for Christmas so I'm psyched about that too. LOL.

I still miss Christmas back home though.

[Tyra]

Christmas Eve, mum, dad, nan and myself have dinner at our place. We don't put up the tree much because we can't be bothered (though we might have last year or the year before - can't remember). We don't usually have Christmas at our place.

Between Boxing Day and Christmas Day, we go to different houses. Not sure what's happening this year. My sisters live up the coast, and we usually go up there on one of the days, but I think we aren't this year. Both may be busy.

My brother lives about half an hour away, and we end up there for one of the days, and usually his partner's family is there too, so it's pretty fun. My niece and I run around taking myspace photos because we're such bored kids haha.

As for presents, sometimes I get one, sometimes I don't. My birthday is on the 17th, so sometimes it is mixed in together. I've been telling my mother what I want, because she often gets me both. Only the kids really get presents, so that's me, my nieces and my nephews, but I'll be out of that age bracket in two weeks. Haa.

My Aunty and cousin live in the US, so they call at some point. My dad calls my Uncles and Aunty, who live up in Armidale (or they call us), also whenever that happens.

My boyfriend wants to go Christmas Light searching at some point, which I have no objections to.

I'm just hoping this Christmas is not horridly hot. Stupid Australian weather.

[Juliana]

Dec 1, 2009 17:47:36 GMT -8 Louvain said:

And Heather, we used to do the pickle thing too.

I'm passing the tradition down to my nieces and nephews. I thought it was a blast when I got to do it. we got snow here in texas, but Its not even enough for a minni snow man.

[Damari]

Dec 1, 2009 21:08:11 GMT -8 Elektra said:

I've started one of these topics before on VNN, I think... But Damari was banned. BAHA.

Yes, well, we’ll not get into a discussion about my love of the chocolate fiasco. I’m not a fan of their site or of their administration model.

Dec 1, 2009 21:08:11 GMT -8 Elektra said:

I still miss Christmas back home though.

When I lived in the US we used to try and fly back every other year… there’s nothing like being at home and while our traditions here are very different from the US, they both appealed to me. Now that I’m home, beach and sun, surf and fun are my Christmas moments. But I’m usually in the US for a week before Christmas anyway so it’s the best of both worlds with the bonus of being able to escape the cold and don my togs for hols.

[Beezil]

Hmm.. well, this year we might not have Christmas at home. We might lose our house... I just learned this a couple of days ago. Yeah, it sucks. Everything bad always happens right around Christmas it seems. o.O

But as far as tradition goes... when I was growing up, my mom went crazy over Christmas, decorating, cooking, baking, for days. She always made the best mince meat pies, and custard pies. YUM! And her turkey was always perfect. Sweet potatoes... I haven't had my mom's cooking in too long. We also used to watch A Christmas Carol every Christmas, mom's favorite movie. My dad bought my sis and I both pink Barbie Corvettes one year, (The hotwheels ones) and we spazzed. Other than that, there were tons and tons of presents piled around the tree, but we focused on the giant pink cars, obviously. That year was one of the best I can remember from my childhood. Mom and dad were sweet to each other and doted over me and my sis so much. We didn't spend more than 10 minutes in the Barbie Corvettes because my mom gave us 2 tin dinner trays to sled down the hill in our backyard. Fun times. We sled all day. Then we came in for hot chocolate with marshmallows.

Now that I'm grown, I don't see my mom as much. She lives in S.C. now, but she will be visiting for Christmas. She doesn't cook anymore though. We usually go to the hubbin's grandparent's house for dinner and a gift exchange. Dinner there is awesome, but not as good as my mom's. hehehe >.>; There's usually about 40+ people there, and it's very chaotic. My son runs around like a maniac playing with his cousins, and all the adults get tipsy from the wine / egg nog. It's good fun, hectic, but fun. I am always exhausted by the end of the day. I just hope we can afford to get presents this year... ><;


ETA: I also went to England one year to visit my family there for Christmas. It was great, despite the fact I had the flu for all but 2 days. They have also come to visit us, and we went to stay in a beautiful cabin in the mountains. My cousins were 3 and 7 at the time, so adorable. Kirsten dropped her fudgesicle in the hot tub and I thought it was poop. >.>; My aunt and uncle are awesome. I love them so much and miss them like crazy, but they live in Australia now, so not much chance of seeing them any time soon. My mom is going to visit in January - lucky her! I am so happy for her, she needs a good vacation. Christmas has always been a time of joy and peace for me. Even when my life is really crappy or something... I dunno. I just get happier around this time of year. One more thing I remember, just because it touched my heart. One year, on Christmas, a few months before my dad passed away, he gave my sis and I each a rock collection that he put together himself. It was simple, but one of the sweetest things he had ever done. He labeled each rock with the scientific name and the common name... I wish I still had mine... and the 1885 silver dollar he gave me. (100 years before my birthday.) He was an awesome guy. I think of him every Christmas.