Do you realize it’s only about a week until Christmas?
I’m not exactly sure what happened. I was thinking I still had a month or so.
So today was a little bit of a panic as I hit the cyber malls and began wielding my credit card with great ferocity and panache. And as I rest here, sipping my Bailey’s Irish Cream and watching White Christmas, I feel well-satisfied. I did three quarters of my shopping in one fell swoop. Tomorrow I’ll drag Mr. Thrilling out to get the Christmas tree, and this time tomorrow evening I should be feeling much more the thing.
The thing that is Christmas.
I admit that working at home…I sort of lose track of time. I feel insulated in my creative cocoon. I’m spending a lot of quality time with the people in my head, and I don’t know that it’s the healthiest thing on earth — as much as I relish their company.
Speaking of other people, real and imagined, does anyone still send Christmas cards? I mean the old-fashioned ones that you get in the mail. I know some people do, because I still get them — but fewer than in years past. That could be because I’m always late in sending my own out.
As I clicked and tapped my way down my Christmas list today I was thinking of various holiday traditions — and how they evolve through the years. I really don’t bake much anymore — oatmeal cookies for my father are pretty much the extent of my efforts these days. I used to bake every cookie I could think of, along with pies, cakes — I was a nut for cooking around the holidays. But now that I’m more health-conscious, I feel a little uneasy stockpiling the goodies.
My sisters and I used to go Christmas caroling every year. We lived way out in the boonies, and we would get together with friends and drive around all evening in the backs of pickup trucks, stopping at houses and singing a few songs, eating cookies and drinking cocoa (ahem), and freezing our hintermost padding off along the way. That’s my clearest memory: how cold it was in the desert at night.
These days my sisters and I have dinner at our favorite quaint French restaurant. We do still sing Christmas carols, but it’s usually Christmas Eve, and merely for our own amusement.
I must say…White Christmas is a very silly movie. But that too is a tradition. Certain movies must be watched around the holidays. It’s just not Christmas for me if I don’t have a couple of viewings of Christmas Carol, Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, and White Christmas.
There’s something nice and comforting about holiday traditions. Even the goofy ones. Even the ones that make you sigh as you anticipate the effort involved with them. Mr. Thrilling and I haven’t been married long enough to have a lot of traditions, but establishing traditions is part of the process of building a family.
Anyway, feel like sharing some of your holiday traditions? Both the ones you relish and the ones you would wriggle out of if you could?
-
Christmas cards for me means a letter and photo sent via email to family and friends. Finished it up yesterday and must send it out today. Baking is limited to a to-die for fudge and Christmas cookies, unless I’m hosting Christmas dinner, then I do more. I stay far away from carol singing since I’m musically challenged. As for movies…check Wednesday’s blog for my holiday flicks.
by Sara on December 17th, 2007 at 8:32 am
-
As for movies…check Wednesday’s blog for my holiday flicks.
Will do! A friend told me that RtRRNR is now considered a cult classic, by the way. Who knew?
Drat, I didn’t get the Christmas cards filled out yet. So hopefully everyone can feel those Happy Holiday vibes because that’s probably as far as I’m getting…
by Diana Killian on December 17th, 2007 at 10:46 am
-
I’m always late.
We should get a tree tonight and I have to get my cards done (I make them myself and have for decades) by Wednesday.
As for shopping, we don’t go crazy at Christmas. It’s almost all books, music and food.
I love it.
by David Terrenoire on December 17th, 2007 at 11:35 am
-
The night we trim the tree, we always watch Christmas Vacation. On Christmas Eve, I fix everyone’s favorite entree, and we all get to open one present. We started the present tradition when my daughter was born, because her present that she gets to open is a pair of Christmas jammies.
by Tricia S. on December 17th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
-
I did Christmas cards this year. My best friend tallies who sends cards or not like you wouldn’t believe. I really don’t mind either way, because I don’t know what to do with the ones I get. Where do I put them? It seems so insensitive to throw them away. I try to think of them as kind thoughts sent through the mail, and the card as the package. So I can discard after the holidays without guilt. Supposedly.
DH and I cook a big, big dinner, just the two of us. We watch Christmas movies all day, and that night we go to a movie at the theater. I can’t wait!
by spyscribbler on December 17th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
-
Just baked dozens of cookies and supervised the kiddies making presents for aunts and uncles and grandparents this weekend. I almost didn’t do either this year, what with working full-time outside the house and all but, let me tell you, the kiddies let me know what’s what where Christmas traditions are concerned.
That said, I’m still on the fence as to whether or not I’m sending actual cards this year or not - firstly, the 41 cents per is a bit outrageous. Secondly, I have an email address for just about everyone I send to and what I usually include is a Christmas letter and that can be emailed, so…I was pretty much on the email side of the fence.
Then, in the attic the other day, I came across the super-cute cards I picked up last year on clearance - frogs in Santa hats.
Need I say more? Gotta send them.
by Regina Harvey on December 17th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
-
When I was a child, my family always baked tons of cookies and made fudge for the holidays. Several years ago, I resumed the tradition with my own daughter. We make boatloads of treats and then give them out as x-mas presents. =oD
by B.E. Sanderson on December 17th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
-
and I have to get my cards done (I make them myself and have for decades) by Wednesday.
That’s so nice — I love it when people make their own cards or ornaments.
As for shopping, we don’t go crazy at Christmas. It’s almost all books, music and food.
That’s us as well — speaking as someone who just spent a small fortune on lots of holiday goodies in anticipation of several nights of enjoying the fireplace, the Christmas tree, and the SO.
by Diana Killian on December 18th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
-
On Christmas Eve, I fix everyone’s favorite entree, and we all get to open one present. We started the present tradition when my daughter was born, because her present that she gets to open is a pair of Christmas jammies.
Oh my Gosh! This brings back such memories! This was our tradition growing up as well — and, YES, to my annual dismay, almost without fail the present turned out to be jammies!!!
by Diana Killian on December 18th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
-
I really don’t mind either way, because I don’t know what to do with the ones I get. Where do I put them? It seems so insensitive to throw them away. I try to think of them as kind thoughts sent through the mail, and the card as the package. So I can discard after the holidays without guilt. Supposedly.
Oh! I so hear you! I keep the really beautiful ones for bookmarks — I’ve been doing that for years, and now it’s kind of cool to open a book and find a card from my now gone grandmother or even (maybe I shouldn’t admit this) an ex-boyfriend. They bring back a lot of happy memories.
I like your Christmas day tradition as well!
by Diana Killian on December 18th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
-
firstly, the 41 cents per is a bit outrageous.
It’s unfortunate, true enough. In the old days, didn’t the post office discount the Christmas card rate? Or am I fantasizing? Wouldn’t that be a lovely and civilized gesture? Because I fear that the exchange of Christmas cards is probably an endangered tradition.
by Diana Killian on December 18th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
-
B.E., this was the same in our family — loads of goodies, and we really did hand out a lot of stuff to neighbors and friends.
Now of course I wouldn’t recognize my neighbors if I saw them in a lineup — and they’d probably be equally wary of eating anything I brought over in a tin.:P
by Diana Killian on December 18th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
-
Oh, but my daughter loves the jammies. She still makes a big deal out of shaking the package and “trying” to guess the contents…and she’s 28. (and I always stuffed a little trinket in the box, like a movie). This year she gets nice cozy fleece jammies, because she just moved to Minnesota, but I also hid a gift card to her favorite restaurant.
by Tricia S. on December 18th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
-
Ah, Tricia, you’re a mum who knows how to turn PJs into An Occasion. Well, and truthfully, I became more interested in jammies after I got older.
by Diana Killian on December 19th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Loading ...
