What are some of your favorite winter holiday traditions? 🕎 🎄 🎅 🎉 🥳 🎆 ❄️ ☃️
@Green_Eyes I like to send some really nice chocolate to my friends’ kids through the post so it lands just in time for the start of the Christmas holiday. I think it must be a thrill as a kid to get an unexpected parcel through the post addressed directly to you (I’ve done this for a few years now, so I guess the surprise element has gone. Next year’s surprise is no chocolate 😀). My friends are not so thrilled about the dental impact or the sugar highs but I get to be a bit irresponsible. This year it was chocolate pizzas: slabs of chocolate fashioned into pizza shape, stuffed and topped with all sorts of goodies and packed into faux pizza takeaway boxes. Pretty sure I’ve smashed it out of the park and pretty sure they will go nuts when they see it.
Mine is to hunker down and wait until January. And never go to a store without music ready. Especially if a certain hate group with bells that give me migraines is set up at the front door.
I also like rewatching Hogfather this time of year. It seems appropriate.
Back when Y2K was the talk of the own, I and a friend decided to celebrate 2000 in Times Square NYC. It was a blast. We had so much fun we decided to return to Times Square in 2001, particularly since technically that was when the millennium actually turned. With that as a beginning, we did Chicago next, then Cancun, then the Bahamas, then St. Louis. In short, for the last 22 years, I've spent New Year's Eve someplace other than my hometown Los Angeles. (During the pandemic, I spent NYE in Westlake Village, just outside LA to keep the tradition alive.) Last year, I spent NYE looking down the mouth of a volcano that is now erupting.
@homeboy that’s the way to celebrate in style, what’s the plan for the forthcoming nye?
3 dozen chocolate croissants. 3 dozen apple cinnamon croissants. In 2019, I made 6 dozen of each.
I will roll out the dough and freeze it this week. That's the time and labor intensive part.
Then during the holidays, friends and family feast on them. This year I expect a much smaller gathering.
Also, the holidays are not complete without A Christmas Story's full size leg lamp in the front bay window. It stops traffic on my street.
Shopping for Christmas presents, sending out Christmas cards, visiting the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center, going to Chris Botti’s Annual Christmas residency at The Blue Note, Christmas Lunch or Dinner with family, going to Dyker Heights for the over the top Christmas decorations and watching all The Christmas Cartoon specials especially A Charlie Brown Christmas and Watching “Elf, A Christmas Story, It’s A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol. And once in awhile “Home Alone” Also listen to Christmas songs non-Stop and donate to charities like Angel Tree which sends a present to children whose parent is in Jail. The present is “from” the parent. Basically you adopt an Angel, kids needing clothes, presents or anything and the charity sends the present addressed from their incarcerated parent with a letter from them and a visit from the people from the charity and they also give them a Bible if one is requested. I’ll also hand out money to any red Kettle from the Salvation Army.
binge watching all the Christmas classics 🎄 🎁
@LondonHug Charleston, SC for a few days, then to Savannah, GA for actual NYE. (I wonder if platonic cuddling happens in Charleston or Savannah.)
@Sideon Speaking of food, I like gingerbread and fruitcake (with more cake and less fruit).
@homeboy doesn’t look like there is a whole load of cuddling in those areas given the relative few profiles in the immediate vicinity. Still you should have a good time in both places
@Green_Eyes Gremlins, Die Hard nothing invokes the spirit of the season quite like John McLean once again saving the revellers at the Nakatomi Christmas party
I'm surprised. I thought this thread would be super popular with people talking about what they've done and what they plan to do. A friend of mine goes to church on Christmas Day.
Hot cocoa 🍫 Picking a Christmas tree 🎄 Christmas music 🎶 Making Christmas cookies 🍪 Driving around to look at Christmas lights Watching Christmas movies 🎥 Hiding a special ornament and whoever finds it gets a little gift 🎁 Each opening a gift on Christmas eve 🎉 Aebelskivvers and coffee for breakfast Christmas morning 🥣 ☕
@homeboy usually Christmas Eve service for me. Not many churches have Christmas Day services.
Yule, the winter solstice, marks the return of the sun. On the darkest day, Yule is the reminder that there is always light. Decorate a Yule log with cinnamon sticks, ribbons, pine cones, even berries. Make and drink mulled wine. Toast your friends and loved ones, near and far. Some years I go with friends and families to their respective churches on Christmas Eve or Day. @homeboy - these are my usual "rituals".
A winter walk just after Christmas dinner and just before the Christmas pudding. The brisk air wakes you up from the carb overload. Also nice to get a glimpse of various families enjoying their day together.
Warm mince pies. Are these a thing in the US? My old stateside colleagues seemed pretty unfamiliar with them. Usually a sweet and spiced, dried vine fruit mix in a short crust or puff pastry and a dusting of icing sugar. Delicious warm with cream or custard
A couple of ales with old school friends. Since I rarely drink, the mix of the joy of catching up with friends and the rapid alcohol hit feels great
@Ironman294 Since my friend is very religious and he seems to always be in church for something or other, I assumed he went to church on Christmas Day. But based on your comment, I just called him and he says he doesn't, and concurred with your comment that most churches don't have special Christmas Day services unless Christmas falls on Saturday or Sunday. He said that his church went caroling in the neighborhood yesterday.
@homeboy caroling oh wow now that would be a lot of fun, probably could only do it in a small town where everyone knew each other. These days if you go on someone’s porch it would be dicey!
It’s very common in the UK to have a Christmas service. Most churches offer both a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day service regardless of the day of the week. There’s a famous televised Carol service from Kings College Cambridge every Christmas Eve.
My mom and dad were born during the Depression. Mom always said they didn't get much for Christmas, maybe some fruit and candy and a new pair of shoes. She said my grandma always wrapped the shoes in the comics pages from the newspaper because they couldn't afford wrapping paper. When mom and dad first married money was tight, so she wrapped my gifts the same way. So here I am in 2022:
Honestly? My life is chaotic most of the time, and Holidays kinda get overwhelming. One of my favorite traditions is taking a self care drive after dinner and hopefully meeting up with someone for a session. Its amazingly cathartic.
Y'all! Today is National Gingerbread House Day! My kids' homeschool advisor sent this to me last week... so sweet!
"U.S. Gingerbread House Day is on December 12! An Armenian monk, Gregory of Nicopolis, brought gingerbread to Europe around 992 AD and taught French Christians to bake it. The gingerbread house's popularity rose when the Brothers Grimm wrote the story of Hansel and Gretel, in which the main characters stumble upon a house made entirely of treats deep in the forest. It would be a perfect idea to read or reread Hansel and Gretel on this day "
@sillysassy has recently helped me shift my focus of keeping all of the same traditions with my kiddos and making ALL NEW ONES! WHO KNEW YOU COULD DO SUCH A THING?! I didn't, until she planted that sweet little seed in my head and I realized I'd been doing this mom thing all wrong for 10 years! 😆😊🤗 Here's to an entire thread of new traditions I can cultivate this year!
Hoodies and sweaters and jackets oh my
@CallMeMikey I haven't wrapped anything with the comics in a long time but I think it's great. The comics makes pretty wrapping paper and it is original to some people
There are so many great responses here! 😃
We would always go to my grandparents' house on Christmas Eve and then go to other relatives' houses on Christmas Day to visit. I lost all 3 of my grandparents at the age of 20 (my 4th grandparent passed away a couple years before I was born). After my grandparents passed away, we moved the Christmas Eve celebration to my aunt's house. As an adult, I love watching the babies open/play with their gifts. 😍 I've always loved giving gifts. I don't think that will ever change.
Watching Gremlins with my son. It’s a holiday movie 😁
I’m not into any of the winter holidays so it’s just another day for me but on New Years I always enjoy watching the Honeymooners right after the ball drops.
Christmas movie marathons, gingerbread house decorating, Wagilia (Polish Christmas Eve), the smells (pine, cinnamon, the cold).