lol anyway for christmas i will probalay go to teh beach and what ever. I don't know.

wow! Christmas is coming SO fast this year it seems!
well, Merry Christmas, ya'll! (I don't care if it's early! lol! )
where I live, the weather doesn't feel like it's supposed to be Christmas! (I live in Nashua, N.H. USA)!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I have 3 Christmases. On Christmas Eve, my mom's mom comes over and we have a low-key celebration with food and presents. We usually watch "A Christmas Carol" in the evening. My grandma stays overnight, and on Christmas Day we bring her back home. Then I go to my dad's parents' place, which is quite a big celebration. We do regular gifts and/or white elephant gifts . There's usually wii games going on, or table tennis, or pc games. Then on Dec. 26th we have a just-family celebration with presents in the morning and cinnamon rolls. In the evening we open the small presents in our christmas socks.

For Christmas dinner we have ham, corn, scalloped potatoes, favorite rice (really Uncle Ben's Broccoli Rice Au Gratin), rolls

And that's exactly what we eat on the 26th except for the rice, wow

But first comes 3 weeks of nightmares at school with finals and stuff.

lol i have 3 weeks left of the school year and the reports have already been done. so we won't be doing much execpt watching movies and math and science work for next year. I can't wait until this weeks over because the karate classes at school will be over. I am also getting a new phone for christsmas.

This is what happenes on christmas day

I wake up and open all presents execpt my aunties and uncles one

we stay at home until around 11 and then we go to my aunties and uncles house play games ect and then go home at 3 and they come to our house at 6 and leave around 9.

Let me share the "Standard" Christmas family event that I grew up with, so that you understand that while I love it very much (it's my favorite holiday) my family turns into a big, wet blanket.

It begins Christmas Eve. No one wants to put up the tree because it's big and a real pain. We've used a plastic tree time out of mind. During my childhood my dad kept ours in the basement. My mom referred to it as the "Toilet Bowl Brush" tree. It was one piece and big and gaudy and plastic, and indeed looked like what my mom said. Then we replaced it in the very early 80's with a slightly upgraded version. This one had branches with alpha-numeric codes on them. You'd feel like you were playing Battleship when you were putting it together as one of my brothers would sort through the box containing the branches.

Me: "I need B4"
Brother: "Um...I have D2"
Me: "Bah! You sank the Christmas tree!"

Then in 1986 my parents opted to get an exchange student from Denmark. He was utterly amused by our fake tree. We did it up perfect that year. I mean it was looking as sharp as we ever made it look. And then the unthinkable: the tree teetered, tottered, and WHAM! Fell over on its side. Christopher (our exchange student), who had no experience with this kind of thing, said, "Is this normal?". My dad went out and got a real tree that year, but my mom is neurotic and would only allow the lights to be on the tree for 15 minutes at a time lest the house burn down. It's the only time we've ever had one in my life.

So ever after my folks got this ultra-deluxe plastic extravaganza tree with lights already built in. And they procrastinate every year until the last minute to put up. One year we did get it up on the evening of the 23rd...that almost warranted a National Day of Celebration in itself! Then, as we've gotten older, all of us started to sleep in later and later until sometimes the opening of gifts didn't take place until 11am. I usually get camcorder duty and insert my sarcastic wit into the commentary, and the videos usually get a lot of replay time after Christmas, plus everyone gets to see that yes, we were all skinny at one time. My dad forgets gifts in the bedroom closet that have been there since June and my mom gets riled up so my dad disappears into the bedroom for 30 minutes at a time trying his best to excavate gifts without the use of a backhoe.

My one brother, Matt, tends to give a discourse on chemical properties of things, including the Christmas candy you're eating (I'm not joking) for an hour or so, my brother Andrew gets presents he's way too old for, and my dad typically gets a jacket of some type, as well as a stockpile of flannel shirts. Mom gets cooking implements and my sister Liz gets crocheting acoutrements and coffee and/or tea, and sometimes on a good year a Starbucks gift card. We all used to tease dad about his lack of hair and claiming that each of his unopened gifts contained replacement hair, but now my brothers are both balding and I'm the last one with hair so I don't want to tempt the fates too much. Phew! Dodged a bullet there, eh? My dad is impossible to shop for...if you get him something he can't use it goes into the mythical "Pile of Christmas Gifts Past" in the closet. It's a pretty huge stack!

Still it is a great deal of fun and all's well that ends well, eh?

Speaking of Christmas, I like big trees with lots of colorful lights, large garish blinking ones outside the house, and maybe even a fake, plastic light-up Santa to put on the lawn. I always felt like having one of those color-free tree setups was kind of boring. They're pretty in their own way, but are kind of...sterile. There's no fun, no sense of festiveness, just...plain. What are you guys take on that?

In my family, we go to our church's Christmas production on Christmas Eve. We come hope and open our presents while listening to some Christmas music, talking, and eating and drinking. Then we go to bed. We wake up on Christmas morning and go to church, then have Christmas lunch at home or at our uncle and auntie's place with some of our relatives. That lasts for several hours to half a day. Often we don't need to eat tea/dinner because we're so full.

Normally, we don't pay much attention on christmas, like you guys in America. Of course we go to (a) church and we mostly have a christmas tree, but that's it. But since I haven't been believing St. Nicholas (some kind of Santa Claus, children believe in. It's celebrated on december 5th) I have been paying more and more attention to christmas. So. I play christmas Carols on the piano and violin, we put of course up a christmas tree with real candles and every night the candles at the table are lighted.
At christmas day, we mostly go to my grandmother and eat there with the whole family.

This year is a bit different. I'll go from the 24th until the 26th to my grandmother because my parents have to help my other grandmother cleaning up, because she has to move to another elderly house, the 27th, I don't want to be celebrating christmas between boxes and so, so I'll go to my other grandmother. I think we are going to have a sociable christmas eve and on christmas morning I go with her to the church. Then I'll help preparing the christmas meal and in the evening we'll have it We don't have presents (of course not, here in Holland ) but it'll be really cool

These are the some of the questions from last years Christmas thread. I change a couple of them.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial, again. We were going to get a real tree, but there isn't a tree farm near here.
3. When do you put up the tree? The day after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? After Epiphany (January 6).
5. Do you like eggnog? Yep.
6. Favorite gifts received as a child? Everything, of course.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My big brother.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Any of my younger siblings.
9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? A bad Christmas present, never.
10. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I usually make presents, starting in October.
11. Do you have a nativity? Around a dozen, including a Playmobil one for my young siblings.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? It's A Wonderful Life.
13. Favorite Christmas book? Okay, this one's kind of hard to answer. It's either Gideon's Gift by Karen Kingsbury or O Little Town by Don Reid, for the time being.
14. Favorite Christmasy dessert? Homemade sugar cookies!
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Homemade sugar cookies, fudge, and beef stick with cheese and crackers, etc.
16. Lights on the tree? Colored or white? Definitely! This year, we have white lights.
17. Favorite Christmas songs? Lamb of God by Nicole C. Mullen, Born in Bethlehem by Mac Powell, and Joy to the World.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? I think so.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither, we have a ornament that says "Jesus is the Reason" and under that baby Jesus.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning, stockings before breakfast and everything else after breakfast.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Everybody asking what is annoying this time of year.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Theme? There is no real theme or color to our ornaments.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Everything!
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A Conspiracy of Ravens by Gilbert Morris or The Swiss Courier by Tricia Goyer and Mike Yorkey.

SnowAngel

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Wrapping paper.

2. Real tree or Artificial?
We generally get a real tree but for the last two years we've used an artificial one.

3. When do you put up the tree?
About 5 days before Christmas Eve.

4. When do you take the tree down?
About 6-10 days into January.

5. Do you like eggnog?
No. Raw egg is wrong.

6. Favourite gifts received as a child?
Art supplies, toys.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
Dad and mum.

8. Easiest person to buy for?
My brothers.

9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Incredibly boring, saccharine and badly-written Christian novels from relatives.

10. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Ah, a bit late. Several weeks before Christmas.

11. Do you have a nativity?
Yes.

12. Favourite Christmas Movie?
Most are rubbish and shallow. Probably It's A Wonderful Life. The Nativity Story is also quite good.

13. Favourite Christmas book?
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

14. Favourite Christmasy dessert?
Frozen mango and coconut ice-cake.

15. Favourite thing to eat at Christmas?
Prawn cocktails, but probably everything.

16. Lights on the tree? Coloured or white?
Yes, coloured lights.

17. Favourite Christmas songs?
Hmm... I don't know. Most of them get overplayed.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
We used to often travel for Christmas. Now it's generally done at home or a close relatives place.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
No.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
A star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Eve (German tradition).

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
All the commercialism and materialism, the bad movies and carols.

23. Favourite ornament theme or colour?
Theme? I don't know. Something tasteful.

24. Favourite for Christmas dinner?
Everything.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Some good books, CDs and/or movies. Heads On and We Shoot (Making of Where The Wild Things Are book) would be very cool.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial
3. When do you put up the tree? The weekend after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? A couple of days into January
5. Do you like eggnog? Absolutely not! It's thick, off-white, and viscous. It could be liquid mayo for all I know. And nothing makes a day worse than mayo.
6. Favorite gifts received as a child? That's a toughie...at age 7 I got a Green Machine. At age 9 I got an uber Huffy Thunder Road that beat the pants off of all my friends bikes. That's a very tough call!
7. Hardest person to buy for? Dad, by a country mile
8. Easiest person to buy for? My brother Andrew
9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? When I was 7 my Aunt Connie got me a set of pajamas that was 3 sizes too big and didn't fit for almost 2 years. I needed suspenders!
10. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Early December, although I get my best shopping done the week of Christmas
11. Do you have a nativity? None, although that'll be corrected before the end of this coming week
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? It's A Wonderful Life
13. Favorite Christmas book? How to explain this? My sister got me my first set of the Chronicles of Narnia (the now rare American version) in the early 80's, and I read the whole thing every December to commemorate it.
14. Favorite Christmasy dessert? Gingerbread cookies of any type. Does hot mulled cider count?
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Steak. Actually that's my favorite thing to eat all year long.
16. Lights on the tree? Colored. Always. White is soulless and emotionless. The blingier the better!
17. Favorite Christmas songs? O' Holy Night, O' Little Town of Bethlehem
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Only after a few cups of coffee. Does Rudolph count?
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Rude customers at the mall
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I've always been partial to blue ornaments, but any will do!
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Depends on what Maternal Figurehead is cooking...sometimes it's homemade lasagna, sometimes spiral cut ham, sometimes turkey. Personally I'm always down for turkey!
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Couple of books, boardgames, and DVD's. I'd love to get an adult sized Green Machine, but I'm not holding my breath.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Gift bags. I'm terrible at wrapping.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real; and I really like those Rosemary trees they have.
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the week before Christmas...blame my dad, not me.
4. When do you take the tree down? Day after Christmas...and again blame my dad.
5. Do you like eggnog? You know, I don't think I've ever had it.
6. Favorite gifts received as a child? Each and every one?
7. Hardest person to buy for? Most of the time it's my brother.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Dad.
9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? a sweater that was so not me!
10. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever something leaps off the shelf, screaming out the name of somebody on my list.
11. Do you have a nativity? A couple.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Charlie Brown Christmas.
13. Favorite Christmas book? The title is completely escaping me.
14. Favorite Christmasy dessert? Gingersnaps.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cranberry sauce. Yum!
16. Lights on the tree? It's kind of hard to put lights on a real tree, but colored.
17. Favorite Christmas songs? O Come O Come Emmanuel and What Child Is This?
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Both are fine.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? That depends on whether or not I'm reading 'em off a list.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? The Fat-Bottomed Angel. Long story.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? All the commercialism going on.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I like Scottish bows and music!
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Um...I don't know. This year the menu will be very different as the family (including me) has gone mostly vegan.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Money for tuition, please. And maybe a new Paperblanks journal.

Some of this will be a bit of a repeat from my first post, but a lot of it is new.
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper for family gift bags for friends / acquaintances (That way I can just fill a gift bag with cookies and other goodies.)
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial
3. When do you put up the tree? The day after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? I try to convince my family to leave it up until Epiphany, but I think we usually take it down around New Year's Day.
5. Do you like eggnog? I have never tried it but it sounds nasty.
6. Favorite gifts received as a child? An American Girl doll
7. Hardest person to buy for? That is a hard one. My dad is hard to buy for and my grandparents (we get them a gift from our family). The past couple of years we have participated in the Giving Tree (buying presents for people in our community who can't afford them). We are choose a few people to buy for and are given very general suggestions as to what to get. (For example, scarf and gloves) We have no idea what the person likes / doesn’t like, so it is hard to know what to get.
8. Easiest person to buy for? My sister
9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? My grandparents got our family a scale.
10. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Right after the previous Christmas (there are great sales ). Whenever we find good presents for people on sale we buy them. Then for birthdays and Christmas we go to the “Mom Store.” (my mom’s closet where she hides the presents)
11. Do you have a nativity? Yes. This year I’m going to try to make one out of gingerbread. I’ve finally found nativity cookie cutters.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Hm, does LWW count? It has Father Christmas in it. I like a lot of Christmas movies. It is hard to pick. Some that I really like (in no particular order) are A Muppet's Christmas Carol, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Carebear Nutcracker, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The Christmas Box, I Want A Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown, and Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.
13. Favorite Christmas book? The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas by Madeleine L' Engle
14. Favorite Christmasy dessert? I like cake and ice cream (The cake is shaped like a Christmas tree or gingerbread man)
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Christmas cookies! (sugar, peppermint, snicker doodles, gingerbread, but not chocolate or anything with nuts)
16. Lights on the tree? Yes, colored, we use the same lights that my mom used growing up. They have plastic things that fit around them in the shape of snowflakes or something that kind of looks like a flower but has four points.
17. Favorite Christmas songs? Go Tell it on the Mountain
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes, we often sing the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer song with introduction. It lists all the Reindeer. (We never forget Blitzen because on of our cats is named Blitzen (we didn't name her that but the name stuck. She came to the Humane Society around Christmas and they gave her and eight other animals reindeer names.)
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? My sister and I each open on Christmas Eve and then we open the rest on Christmas morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Over decorate yards, especially ones with inflatable decoration.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Hodgepodge! We put up whatever ornaments we have including homemade ones from when I was in elementary school. We have so many ornaments that it is a bit of a challenge to fit them all on the tree.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Well, we always have ham, corn, scalloped potatoes, favorite rice (really Uncle Ben's Broccoli Rice Au Gratin), rolls that we bake in the shape of a Christmas tree, and cake (or pie) for dessert. Personally, I’d rather have a repeat of Thanksgiving but may be with chicken instead of turkey and definitely something besides corn (not that I don’t like corn but I like it better on the cob or mixed with something)
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Letters to Children by C.S. Lewis, Christmas silverware (it has little snowmen on the handles), the reprint of LWW from the original, DVDs

5. Do you like eggnog? Absolutely not! It's thick, off-white, and viscous. It could be liquid mayo for all I know. And nothing makes a day worse than mayo.

YEs! finally someone who agrees with me.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper
2. Real tree or Artificial? real cause they smell good
3. When do you put up the tree? Saturday after thanksgiving
4. When do you take the tree down? hehe depends. one year it was up til the end of february
5. Do you like eggnog? NO
6. Favorite gifts received as a child? I remember liking everything
7. Hardest person to buy for? my mom
8. Easiest person to buy for? my little brother
9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
10. When do you start shopping for Christmas? usually the week after finals, but this year I'm already almost done, online is the way to go
11. Do you have a nativity? well I think us kids broke too many of the glass figures while playing with it
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas Vacation (the Griswolds)
13. Favorite Christmas book?
14. Favorite Christmasy dessert? ginger snaps, M&M's
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? all the goodies
16. Lights on the tree? yeah colored
17. Favorite Christmas songs? all the traditional ones
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? travel
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? no never could
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? I think both, I'll have to check lol
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? both
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? houses with no lights up!
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? the blue and green
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? the ham
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? money, movies, a new watch

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial all the way!
3. When do you put up the tree? It depends every year. Usually sometime around the week after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? Early/Mid January.
5. Do you like eggnog? I've never had it before and don't intend to try it either.
6. Favorite gifts received as a child? Umm.... everything?
7. Hardest person to buy for? My dad.
8. Easiest person to buy for? My mom.
9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't recall ever getting a bad Christmas gift....
10. When do you start shopping for Christmas? July.
11. Do you have a nativity? Yes.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Ehmm.... idk.
13. Favorite Christmas book? Idk about this either.
14. Favorite Christmasy dessert? Chocolate pie my dad makes for Christmas dinner.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Beef logs, cheese, crackers, spreads and dips, and almost anything you can find in Swiss Colony.
16. Lights on the tree? Colored or white? Yes, and coloured.
17. Favorite Christmas songs? Carol of the Bells is one of my number one favorite. I also like tons of others but if I listed them all on here that would take all day.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home!!
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Perhaps.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The crowds, long lines, an wrapping gifts (because I CAN'T wrap gifts )
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? My favorite colour theme has got to be purple and silver all over the tree. But my family tree I adore because it has no theme. It just has all the ornaments we love on it.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Turkey, stuffing, rice, potatoes, cheesy rice and broccoli, corn, rolls, etc...
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? An ipod , an American Girl Sonali doll, a Jewelry box, a Hermione Granger wand, pointe shoe posters to hang in my room.

I took a picture of our Christmas tree from last year if anyone is interested in seeing it. It looks the same every year so you won't be missing out on anything from this year.