I think I like Bach’s Christmas Oratorio much better now than when I first heard it.  It has some music in it which was later converted into hymns, e.g. the song O Sacred Head Now Wounded (usually more of a Good Friday/ Easter song), but it uses the same tune. The CD’s I have do not have the English printed anywhere so you have to go online for the original German translated into English.  But it is very beautiful singing by the Kings College Choir, which is considered one of the world’s best choirs.  Listening to their singing has helped me to appreciate hymns much more. This piece of music has grown on me in recent years. I have always liked Bach’s music even though it is not always easy listening, but some talented choirs have mastered it. 🙂

I haven't visited this thread, properly yet, what with one thing and another, but Merry Christmas to everyone tomorrow. It is now 9.00 pm on Christmas Eve, 24/12/2025, Australian Daylight Saving Time. 

And a Happy New Year to one and all.  

In New Zealand it's now 2 am on Christmas Day.  A joyful and Blessed Christmas to you all! 

🎄

[I am, however, in England right now, and it's only 1 pm on Christmas Eve here.]

I've just been reading through this thread. I plan to be at home next Christmas, so I want to list a lot of the recommendations from everyone. Music, baking, etc.... haven't had a real Christmas since 2022.

A little late to this so I won't answer everything, but I'll give it a go.

Gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Day! Usually don't open presents till the afternoon.
Real or artificial Christmas tree? Artificial. Having a real tree is lovely, but fake has its benefits.
When do you decorate? December and usually not till a couple of weeks in or so.
Favorite movies? Muppet Christmas Carol and Home Alone are my fave Christmas films. I don't necessarily watch them every year, though.

Okay, that's enough for now 😛 .

Merry Christmas, All!  

Merry Christmas (or Christmas Eve) to all!

Lately I've been watching some of the Doctor Who Christmas specials. Here is a quote from their take on Dickens' A Christmas Carol. To be sure, it's a secular approach to the day, and not necessarily profound, but I like it anyway. And perhaps part of its attraction is the way it's delivered by actor Michael Gambon as the episode's Scrooge character (though he follows it up with a sort of 'bah, humbug').

On every world, wherever people are, in the deepest part of the winter, at the exact midpoint, everybody stops, and turns, and hugs, as if to say "Well done. Well done, everyone! We're halfway out of the dark." Back on Earth, we called this Christmas, or the Winter Solstice.

A Merry Christmas to All! 

As always, my favorite Christmas movie is the George C. Scott Christmas Carol - just watched it last night, as Christmas Eve became Christmas morn. The clock even struck One in real life just as the first ghost appeared! 

We switched from a real tree to a fake tree, after too many years of vacuuming up pine needles...

Hope everyone had a great celebration, despite the fact that the U.S. had a bizarre holiday heat wave. Got up to 75 where I was! Here's to a snowbound January (for those still in need of one lol!) 

Anyway, MERRY CHRISTMAS! LONG LIVE THE TRUE KING! 

Just wanted to share an interesting fact that a part of Australia did actually (surprisingly or not so surprisingly) have a white Christmas yesterday, Australian time.  Mount Wellington (above the Tasmania's capital city of Hobart), the Wellington ranges and the Cradle Mountain ranges in Tasmania both had snowfall yesterday in time for Christmas!

I mentioned it was not so surprising, because this is not an uncommon occurrence in Tasmania, in fact, when I was living there in the early to mid 2000s it snowed on Mount Wellington on Christmas day one year then also.

MERRY CHRISTMAS again!  

I had a pretty great Christmas but I'm also pretty glad it's over.  

I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my parents, my grandmother, an aunt and uncle who live in the neighborhood and my brother and his wife. We had great food, great presents and great singing. But I'm not really a people person and most of the presents I received were books so I would have liked more time to myself to really enjoy them.

If you're interested, those books were Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (Brian Hooker translation), A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz and Old Tales Told Again by Walter de la Mare. I also got a new pair of gloves (my old ones have had a big hole in them for a while) and a nice assortment of candy. 

I hope to spend most of today relaxing because I'm going to have to go to another family party tomorrow. That makes it sound like I hate my family and I really don't. I'm actually looking forward to seeing some of my relatives (on my dad's side) tomorrow whom I don't see often. I just can't really socialize and relax at the same time. 

Posted by: @col-klink

I had a pretty great Christmas but I'm also pretty glad it's over.  

It's just beginning here...my mom has a family gift for every day through January 6th. We still got more Christmas puzzles to do, there's still a few Christmas movies left on the list to watch this year, and I haven't made my grandma's chocolate turtle cookies or great-grandma's brown sugar cookies yet.

Books, very nice. I was surprised and delighted to find two Luke Short westerns in my stocking. I also got The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett from one of my sisters, adding to the Continental Op collection. There were a number of books given yesterday, my older sister and I gave our parents three books and then I gave her several Perry Mason novels which I'm looking forward to finally reading. My youngest brother received The Lord of The Rings: Weapons and Warfare, he was so excited. One sister got a Robin Hood book, another brother got Against The Waves by Jon Harris, it was quite the collection of titles.

In addition to the plethora of books, there were gifts of coffee, teas, chocolate, wool socks, notebooks, and a couple of records for the family collection, Legacy by Michael Card and Awake The Dawn by Brian Sauvé. I also got A Charlie Brown Christmas CD in my stocking, very surprising, but fun. My nephew greatly enjoyed listening to it while playing Go Fish using my Snoopy playing cards.  

It was a good Christmas here. Too warm for snow, we got a little rain/mist/fog.

Christmas lunch was cheddar chowder, relish plate (featuring my sister's carrot pickles, very yummy), tart cherry jello, and sourdough bread. Not our normal Christmas meal, but it was very good. Oh, boy, did we eat our way through Christmas afternoon, five kinds of cookies and two flavors of marshmallows to go with hot cocoa and coffee. A few board games were played and a very hard Thomas Kincade Christmas puzzle was started as well. 

Today it's continue on with the puzzle (it's a really hard one), eat leftovers, listen to the new records, try some of the coffee, and if that puzzle ever gets done, maybe play some more board games.  

I just thought I'd pop in to say I enjoyed my party with my dad's side of the family though it did get a little noisy for my taste. 

I’ve enjoyed reading this thread, so even though it is New Year’s Day, I’ve decided to jump in. It is still within the 12 days of Christmas, after all!

Gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? It used to be that we opened them on Christmas Day. Afternoon, to be specific, because even on Christmas Morning we were none of us early risers. At some point we switched it to Christmas Eve and I really think that was a great decision. These days we don’t do many gifts for the adults, (only if something really jumps out to us, and then it doesn’t have to be saved for Christmas Eve) in order to prevent obligatory gifting and it’s been even better.

Real or artificial Christmas tree? I would kind of like to experience a real tree at some point, but that won’t happen as long as we continue to decorate when we do…

When do you decorate? Sometime in mid-October. This has something to do with some of us in the family being in retail and some in food service and all having evening shifts. There wouldn’t be time for us to enjoy our lights and decorations if we waited till December, or even November. Things get so busy since none of us get extra time off other than the day itself (and sometimes not even that for the ones in food service). Quite the opposite!

Favorite songs? I’ve been really loving Hark, The Herald Angels Sing, and What Child is This and The Wexford Carol lately, as well as many of the songs from my favorite albums below

Favorite music album? Michael Card’s The Promise and Michael W. Smith’s Christmas and Christmastime, and Enya’s And Winter Came and nearly anything by Mannheim Steamroller.

Favorite movies? a few Hallmark movies (December Bride, Next Stop, Christmas, The Mistletoe Inn) and A Charlie Brown Christmas, and for many years my family had a tradition of watching the BBC’s Narnia on Christmas. I loved that.

Favorite books? The Father Christmas Letters by J. R. R. Tolkien. I do think of LWW as a good book to read on Christmas (see above tradition) but I also think of it as an Easter book too. 

Favorite tradition? the aforementioned BBC Narnia one even though we haven’t done it in a while. 

Favorite foods or recipes? I love it when my sisters make christmas cookies. These include both cutout sugar cookies and gingersnaps, and they’ve experimented with chocolate crinkle cookies. They’re the bakers in the family. 

Colored or white lights? I like both! White can be pretty and elegant, while colored can be pretty and joyful. I do edge slightly towards the colored ones.

Do you celebrate Advent? Not really, no. Not even an advent calendar these days. 
What do you want for Christmas? Okay this one is a bit late, but a LotR marathon, and also some extra time to knit and read would be lovely.