Basic Holiday talk.

[JustJack]

Welp, I guess the holiday's are uppon us. Yeah! It's time for some to be greedy, & some to be giving. I'm a little from both.
Anyway, just some basic stuff to talk about..

For those of us who celebrate Christmas, how soon do you put up your tree's? I have a friend who said "day after Thanksgiving". I was like, "Dude, you can't put it up till December!" Sheesh. For me, I prefer to put it up around..December 10. That works for me.

What does everyone want this year? You can be a little greedy..it's all right. :D

What are everyone's usual Holiday activities?
My family has a Christmas Eve "tradition" of having an "appetizer diner". hahaha, basically crackers, cheese, meats. You get the picture. It's odd, but it always puts my family in the christmas spirit!

Happy Holidays, all!!

[Cyclops]

My favorite tradition is going to my grandparents (my mom's parents) every Christmas Eve. There we have Mexican food since my grandparents are Mexican. Tamales, bean, rice, jalapenos, and molae (I'm not sure if this is spelled right). And the best part is, we don't have to drive a long time to get there since they live right across the street (literaly).

[TuffyCatt]

We always put up our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. My mom has a rule that we're allowed to do nothing Christmas oriented until Thanksgiving dinner is over, but as soon as everyone is done eating, we begin Christmas with full force. This year, while everyone was sitting at the table trying to digest, my mom went and turned on some Christmas music. Then, a couple hours later, while we were eating our pumpkin pie we all gathered around the TV and watched The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. :)

Christmas eve has to be my favorite day (besides Christmas day itself). We have a holiday party at my parents' veterinary clinic with food and presents. Then in the evening we go to the early church service. After the service, we head back to the animal hospital and we sing Christmas carols to the animals who are boarding there. :) Yeah, I know my family's a little weird, but we've been doing this for as long as I can remember. The pets can't be with their families for Christmas, so we feel like we should do something for them...

Then, being in the choir, I have to go back to church for the 11 o'clock service. It's a really nice way for Christmas day to begin, leaving the church and hearing all the bells of the different churches striking midnight...

[Nightflower]

We used to put up a tree, but my family doesn't really care about that stuff, so I did it every year. Unfortunately, I had to stop because of lack of time.

No traditions... but my mom makes my brother and me only open one gift a day after Christmas. :(

[optimal321]

My family used to have a whole bunch of traditions that are kinda fading away because everyone is growing older.

We used to put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. We'd put it in our living room right by the window so that when we turn the lights on, everyone outside could see it.

We used to go to mass on X-mas eve, because the religious education program my siblings and i were in got to participate in it. Then we'd go home and have pizza for supper and finish the evening driving around looking at X-mas lights.

We used to wake up really early in the morning to open presents. After all that was done, it'd be too early to eat breakfast, but we'd be too excited to go back to sleep. So we'd play w/ our new toys for awhile. Then we'd have a good breakfast.

We used to go to my aunt's house for either X-mas lunch or diner, see the family and open more presents.

But i don't know what traditions still stand this year. I know that we're putting up the tree today. Ah well, those were still good memories.

[JustJack]

I think that's a good subject..

What's more important to you now, that you're grown up? Continueing the traditions, or the wonderful memories of how they began?

Oh, and TuffyCatt, I gotta say it's a cool thing that you do, singing to the sheltered animals! ;)

[Danielle]

First Chanukah post, everyone. I even got an avatar. If you can't see it, it's Slappy...

Anyway, the first item on my list is a file cabinet. Yes, a file cabinet. I need SOMEWHERE to put my pieces of dre--er, writings. :D

A tradition? We always go out to the zoo. It doesn't matter what zoo, it doesn't matter how big. It doesn't even matter if it's closed; we just sit outside in the car and play games and stuff. And....that's it. Does eating a lot count? ;)

[Oracle]

The tree usually gets put up whenever there is time. It could be anywhere from December 15 to the day before Christmas Eve. The day after Thanksgiving our family gets together to wrap gifts that we buy for needy families. We celebrate St. Nick's Day, too and get a small present then along with a stocking full of candy and oranges. On Christmas Eve, we go to mass, and then head on over to one of my relatives house where the children exchange presents and my grandmother gives everybody money. We eat and play games or do whatever comes to mind.
On Christmas morning my brother and sister and their families come over and we eat breakfast, open gifts, and watch 'A Christmas Story'. Then we eat a big dinner and play Trivial Pursuit.
Usually sometime during the holidays my immediate family will go to the Krohn Conservatory to see the manger display and all the poinsettas inside. When I was younger my mom, dad and I would go downtown to see the window displays and sometimes go the The Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo. I think we're going to go to the zoo this year.

[Trent Lane]

Over the past three or four years, I've been the one in charge of putting the tree up, and my mom insists it goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving. That means getting on a shaky ladder and attempting to get boxes upon boxes of Christmas items down. Woohoo!!! I don't mind decorating, but putting lights on the tree is a &$%#@!!! I work Christmas Eve until 6 PM, so we'll probably have a small meal. Then Christmas day, both my parents are most likely going to have to work :( That means me, my brother and sister have to go to my grandparents house sans parents, something I'm not totally looking forward to. They were our means of escape! :p