posted on December 12, 2000 04:27:39 PM new
I was wondering if any of our AW posters could share something special with me for the holidays.
I want to know if you (and/or you family and/or friends) do anything special during the December holidays. It can be Christmas, Chanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice or anything you celebrate during this season. It can be traditional, odd, way out there, charitable, silly, a special decoration, a dish your family ALWAYS has .. I don't care, I just would love to hear about it and share.
One of the things we do that comes to mind is that Mr. Nobs takes me for a drive through a lot of the local towns to look at the Christmas and Holiday displays. Where I live, home decorating is very popular and I just love to ooh and ahh over the decorations ..
silly huh?
We have a few other things we do every year (or I do) but that was the first that came to mind.
posted on December 12, 2000 05:17:42 PM new
Hello Nobs
Every Christmas eve, we open ONE present each. We also have our special Christmas dinner that night, too. Thanks to HellCat, I will be fixing some real goodies, i.e. goose and side dishes (I saved that thread for printing out later, with all the great recipes).
posted on December 12, 2000 05:42:15 PM new
I think one of my favorites is that we all still get a stocking. My immediate family has 16 people. Can you imagine filling 16 stockings? It's lots of fun though.
This year my husbands family will all be here (at my house) for the 23rd and 24th. I'm doing stockings for all of them too. My husband's family never did stockings, so this will be different for them.
posted on December 12, 2000 06:04:25 PM new
The tom ALWAYS bakes Snickerdoodles and I ALWAYS bake the pies. If the tom is around, he puts the lights on the tree while I supervise. Everything else is flexible.
Oh-and I insist upon having Christmas music playing on Christmas morning.
I miss the kittens' helping me with the tree, a tradition we'd had when they were younger. Now they're "too old" to help their ancient mother make decorations and decorate the tree. This year I did it all, except get the tree in the stand, and it wasn't as much fun as in years past.
I think I'm gonna unilaterally start a new tradition: Since I had to do the tree and the house all by myself, I'm not gonna cook a huge dinner on Christmas day. We either eat out, they cook, or everyone forages on their own.
posted on December 12, 2000 07:13:01 PM new
Hi nobs! We have an Open House with a buffet every Christmas Eve. We started it about 10 years ago because my husband and I don't have family that is close to home, and they don't spend the holidays with us. It started with a few friends that also didn't have family and over the years it just kind of grew from there. I "do" Christmas Eve buffet, and another friend "does" Christmas Night dessert, so we all see each other twice, Christmas Eve and Christmas Night. Many of these friends we don't see much during the year due to busy schedules, so it's neat to know that we will always get together at least once a year. I always make sure there's something under the tree for each of the kids that come too!
Also our neighborhood puts out luminarias on Christmas Eve. We all line our yards and driveways and when someone new moves in, they always get notification of how and what time to do it. If a neighbor is going out of town, another neighbor will put the luminarias out for them. This has been a tradition in our neighborhood (about 3 streets) for 30 years. It's just magical and we get alot of cars driving down our streets on Christmas Eve to see it, but we don't mind at all. Just as an idea, we use about 60 bags and candles for our house alone!
posted on December 12, 2000 07:17:31 PM new
Hail, nobsmom, drive by...
When I was a little one 7987 years ago, we used to celebrate tomorrow (December 13) by making St. Lucy's cats. They don't taste wonderful, but the tradition was meaningful.
St. Lucy was a young Sicilian girl martyred for her Christian beliefs in AD304. After her death it is said St. Lucy became a bright star in the sky. Another legend says that St. Lucy brought food to people during a famine, her head haloed in light.
ST. LUCY'S CATS
The feast of St. Lucy, patron of school girls, on December 13, marks the opening of the Christmas season in Sweden, where Leissi
Katter or St. Lucy's Cats are a special treat.
1 cake yeast 1/2 cup currants
1 tblsp. sugar 2 tblsp. saffron
1/4 cup warm water 3/4 cup hot water
1 cup milk 1 tblsp. chopped citron
3/4 cup sugar 6 cups flour
4 tblsp. shortening 1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup raisins 1 beaten egg
Add yeast and sugar to warm water. Scald and cool milk. When yeast mixture bubbles add to milk. Beat in shortening, sugar and two cups flour. Cover and let rise. Put saffron in three-fourths cup hot water one hour. Strain and add liquid to dough only for color. Combine fruits, flour and salt. Let rise again. Shape into oval buns with round heads. Add a tail if you wish. Use raisins
as eyes. Brush with beaten egg and water and let rise again until it doubles its bulk. Bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees) for 30
minutes.
*********************************
Another thing we did (and still do) has to do with good deeds during Advent. When you do a good deed (we are not overly harsh in our interpretation of these) during the season, you are awarded a piece of precut yarn, and lay it over the top of the creche.
On Christmas eve, the yarn is collected and braided into a rug for the Christ child. The rug grows year by year, with new braids sewn on, and eventually overshadows the entire creche, particularly if done skillfully, which ours never were... (However the clumsiness of our creations are made beautiful by the love that goes into them, which is worth a good deal in a world gone unexpectedly cruel.)
Love ya, nobsmom...hope your Christmas is warm and as full as love as your sweet heart.
posted on December 12, 2000 07:30:50 PM new
Hi Nobs,
Great idea!
I guess ours would be selecting our tree and decorating it and the whole house. Our's has changed a bit because all of my children are grown except my husband. He is still a kid when it comes to Christmas.
Instead of going on a trek into the woods to select our tree we now go to a tree farm and choose. Big discussion. One or the other points to a tree and it gets a heads up or down. We finally make the selection and then head for home.
Since the kids are grown I now have a tree decorating party with as many of them as I can get which is usually all but the oldest.
Dh and S put the tree in the stand and do the lights with much directing from me. Then, dh sits back and watches the rest of us decorate. We have collected many special bulbs over the years. Some expensive and some cheaply but lovingly made at school. Everyone helped do the decorating. We would then hurry to turn off all the house lights and stand to admire our work and without fail eyes shining, exclaim it to be the prettiest tree ever.
Now, I thought some years it would have been fun to have a "theme" tree or specially done ribbon instead of that garland or beads and would love to lose the icicles. I really detest them. I thought I wanted a decorator tree. A perfectly decorated tree.
Year before last everyone was gone so it was just dh and I. He did the lights but did not suit me so we took them all off and wrapped lights around each individual branch. I left the garland off and the icicles and we did our usual of turning the lights off and it was awful! It was the ugliest tree I ever saw. I looked in dh's eyes and saw the same dissapointment so it was back to work. I added the garland which I have now added beautiful beads and put the icicles on. Not one by one as I would preach to my son who thought more is better but I put bunches on. It was better but not the same.
Last year I started having a small decorating party . Nothing fancy like Christmas Eve but I make a few goodies, some spiced tea and coffee, turn the Christmas train on, all the music boxes wound and the carousel playing music. We had such a good time that I plan to do it as long as I can.
We have such fun laughing and the noise level is high but GS, 22 mo old had the best take on our work. When the lights went off and the tree lights turned on he said, WOW granny and GD, age 4, was jumping up and down pointing to different decorations and the rest of us a contented look and the statement of the best tree ever. No, I will never have a Martha Stewart tree but ours is even more beautiful.
Even with the noise level, the work and stress I hope we can always have the children or grandchildren to help us decorate. It is not the tree so much as the togetherness that makes it special.
We have such a lot of Christmas goodies to put out and the kids, dh and gk's love them. We started last year buying them a Christmas snow globe and went shopping for several goodies to give them so they could start having special things to enjoy putting out at their houses. They enjoy but we enjoy it more.
posted on December 12, 2000 07:32:08 PM newKatyD
Mr. Nobs and myself got to my girlfriends house for Christmas Eve - she does a buffet and the nice part is it is International so I get to eat a lot of food that I don't cook but adore.
Diana
I am dying to get a good recipe for these traditional Polish Crispy pastry things with powdered sugar - they are light and so good. I forget what they call them (I think it starts with a K).
S-kitty
That is exactly why I went to a smaller tree that I can do by myself (with Mr. Nobs putting on the lights).
FrannyS
I bet your dinner will be fabulous! I like that idea of opening one gift.
Upinthehills
i can't imagine all those stockings - you must have a large mantle. We still hang four stockings every year - one for Mr. Nobs, myself and each of my grown children. I love stocking stuffers
Well, I have to get offline for the evening but I will be back tomorrow (hope there's some more goodies to read) I'm gonna tell another one tomorrow
I have to get up at the crack of dawn and I can hear that bed calling nobsy ....nobsy come and get between these nice fresh sheets
posted on December 12, 2000 07:37:48 PM newShar
You snuck up on me
I think I would love having a large family and having a decorating party. But I also like my little intimate tree decorating too.
We are down to a 4-5 foot tree now so it is not too difficult
posted on December 12, 2000 07:45:33 PM newNobbsie: I did the others by myself but the tree in the living room was big enough to require much stretching and muttering, and moving the footstool around to get the lights on the upper branches.
posted on December 13, 2000 04:08:12 AM new
Well, after having a couple of rough years with money and a separation it's nice that we get to be traditional for the second year in a row around here! Even better that my parents are here with us too. Hubby usually puts up the tree (now an artificial since the whole house is allergic to a real one ) and puts the lights on. I put on most of our hodge-podge collection of prnaments. Hubby will come by and put one on here and there and maybe Mom too. No tinsel in a house full of 7 cats now, but we use ribbon for garland which is a new tradition for us.
Hubby also puts the lighted garland over the dining room archway and this year instead of plain balls we have cute little teddy bears to put on the drooping parts. We don't have human kids yet, but my hubby is like a kid at Christmas too. He calls himself a Griswald, from the movie National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (his personal favorite).
We always have dinner on Christmas eve. The people who come over get to open all of their presents, but those of us who live here only open one so we still have a Christmas morning to look forward to! Oh, and we do stockings too
That's about all I can think of for now. We're still a young family trying to decide on what our traditions will be.
posted on December 13, 2000 05:00:20 AM new
My mother was a wonderful cook. Every holiday she prepared a feast..... except Christmas. My mother wanted to be able to spend time with her five kids and husband on that day not working in the kitchen. So our traditional Christmas dinner was always spaghetti and meatballs.(she made the sauce and meatballs the day ahead)
When my kids were young and still living at home, our tradition was to go to a newly released movie matinee on Christmas Eve day. The theater was always empty except for us. We were able to laugh or cry out loud at the movie without anyone being annoyed. The "down" side to this was that the popcorn was stale. They refused to make fresh for just us.
posted on December 13, 2000 05:47:55 AM new
It's great reading how others enjoy their holidays with friends and family. Thanks for the thread Nobs!
Decorating the tree and the house (inside and out) was always a fun family time for us. We always played x-mas music and the two we kept repeating were 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and 'Deck The Halls'.
Christmas eve dinner was a pan of lasagna as it could be made ahead of time.
One tradition that has held stedfast through the years was that of reading 'Twas The Night Before Christmas' story starting when our first son was born. We still have the original story book (1969) we've used since then. Each x-mas eve, after dinner, baths and opening just one present each, we'd take turns reading the story. As the years progressed we'd have one person hold the book while the others took turns reciting the story from memory...with prompting from the book holder if needed. When our granddaughter was old enough to read, she'd hold the book and laugh at us as we stumbled our way through the story.
Last year, our new D-I-L was the one who held the book while she laughed and laughed as each of us recited a part the story, as best we could.
Way back then....we never realized how reading that story each x-mas eve would become a time we all looked forward to as adults.
posted on December 13, 2000 05:56:06 AM new
I just love hearing about all the holiday traditions - the traditional and the not so traditional. I remember one year my family voted on Spaghetti and meatballs for Christmas dinner. I made a nice salad and a platter of some shrimp and garlic bread and to this day they talk about how great it was.
I am hoping that someone posts something really different or odd - those are the traditions that tickle me. I would also love to hear about some Channukah celebrations and Kwanzaa too!
And I wonder if our male posters have any traditions or holiday stories they want to share.
Off to work my one day a week (no pay - I help my son at his restaurant ) but I will be back to share another holiday tradition later this afternoon.
posted on December 13, 2000 06:03:59 AM new
We drink globlets of mead, sacrifice a virgin and dance naked around the tree.
Humanity I love; it's people I can't stand
posted on December 13, 2000 06:35:02 AM new
we always ate bouillabaise on Christmas Eve, it was the one night of the year my dad would cook. Why bouillabaise, I don't know, we never ate it otherwise.
we would get our presents on christmas eve from Santa, my older brothers would go out in the snow and make footprints in the snow, stomp on the roof, then come in and tell the little kids that Santa just came, you just missed him, didn't you hear the reindeer on the roof? I was in awe.
posted on December 13, 2000 06:49:05 AM new
I couldn't resist. Hubby and I do Chanukah. My parents always did Chanukah. A gift a night for eight nights and then the family would get together on the Sunday during the holiday to exchange gifts. Now Hubby and I exchange a gift a night for eight nights. Hubby never did that as a kid and absolutely loves it now...even though it is hard to keep him out of the pile of presents. Part of you wants to open all of them at once and the other part loves being able to spread out the joy!
I collect Menorahs so part of our tradition is deciding which ones we'll use. We usually light two of the menorahs a night during the holiday and then on the last night we light them all. Right now that's about 8 or 10. I figure as the collection gets bigger we'll have to narrow down how many we light on the last night!
I always make Latkes a couple of times during the holiday. Yum...with sour cream they are to die for. The only problem is the whole house ends up smelling like fried food. Yuck. But they are worth it!!!
Now I'm hungry and I can't wait to open presents!!!
posted on December 13, 2000 07:06:51 AM new
Good Morning Nobs,
This was a great idea. I hope someone will start a thread of Favorite Christmas recipes. I know we did that earlier but a Christmas Favorite would be nice.
Don't work too hard.
I am also wondering if anyone has a Wilton cake decorating book from the '70's? I need to check out my butter cream frosting for the Sugar Cookies. I wonder if Hellcat might have that one in her vast collection of recipes?
Linda k.
Reading that story is a beautiful tradition. I bought GD that book which is so beautifully illustrated. Dh reads it right before he takes the gk's out for a ride to look at the neighbors outside Christmas decorations. It just so happens that is also the time that Santa comes to our house on Christmas Eve and we open the gifts when they get back.
We are having to push ours up a few hours so Son and family can go to DIL's too.
We collect musical Christmas snowglobes too and try to add one or two each year. I would love to find one that played "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas". It's such a festive song.
Savoyking,
I can't remember what mead is? I wanted to ask a question about finding your other topic but won't.
posted on December 13, 2000 08:01:58 AM new
Mead is a fermented drink made from honey. I believe it was the alcholic drink of choice during the middle ages. I don't know if it's commercially availabe now. It just seems more suitable for pagan rituals. After all the christians actually took over the original pagan winter solitice holliday. I say lets go back to traditional celebrations.
Humanity I love; it's people I can't stand
[ edited by savoyking on Dec 13, 2000 10:53 AM ]
posted on December 13, 2000 10:41:23 AM new
Yes, Shar it is. See that you too have grandchildren to enjoy. What I find most enjoyable is watching our son with his daughter, doing the same things we did with him when he was just a little guy. Brings back lots of wonderful memories while, at the same time, creating new ones.
Okay....I'm willing to start the x-mas recipe sharing thread, if one's not already started. Have an absolutely (to die for) sweet roll recipe that has been our x-mas morning breakfast for the past 32 years.
posted on December 13, 2000 01:20:27 PM new
Well, that does it, I absolutely have to make some latkes this year! A close friend, who now lives far away, would always make them for me when we lived right next door to each other. She made the best and I would make home made apple sauce to go with them. And a nice dollop of sour cream ... heaven
I just got home from a long day and I am gonna go snooze (and dream of latkes) and then I will come back and share a story I heard today about my son's girlfriends Mother's boyfriend (her first love - recently reunited) - his Christmas tradition really touched me
. Everything else is flexible.
) and puts the lights on. I put on most of our hodge-podge collection of prnaments. Hubby will come by and put one on here and there and maybe Mom too. No tinsel in a house full of 7 cats now, but we use ribbon for garland which is a new tradition for us.