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Where will you be this Christmas?
Where are you spending Christmas this year and who will you be with?
Family?
Friends?
On your own?
What aspects of Christmas are important to you?
Do you regard it as just a holiday or does it have significant meaning to you? (I think it can have meaning that is significant to you even if you aren't a Christian. We all have our own rituals and symbols that accrue meaning through many layers.)
We'll have the family round.
Our normal Christmas customs are for presents opened one at a time so that we can all see what everyone else is getting. We always have a supply of wrapped stocking fillers which are used to pad out if anyone is getting fewer presents. We also use them instead of crackers - as they have far more interesting contents. I usually do a raid of Hawkins Bazaar and various charity shops to get an interesting random selection of small puzzles, rocket balloons, wind up toys, etc. They're also handy for when the nephews come round. As everyone knows, the stocking fillers are often more fun than the actual gifts, especially if you already know what you're getting.
We don't watch any telly as a rule, though we're making an exception for Dr Who this year at the request of Lindsey and Carrie.
I'll watch Xmas TV before and after Xmas day. I have my favourites, "Miracle on 34th Street" (the original, not the remake), "It's a Wonderful Life", "White Christmas".
I also love Christmas carols - as a folkie athiest, I just regard them as a form of traditional music and enjoy them on that basis.
I do think of Christmas as time out, to relax and to be with people you love. Sometimes we have extra people round. A couple of times we've invited people who would otherwise have been alone for Xmas - and they've fitted in very well.
We eat all the usual Christmas stuff. Richard makes his own Christmas cake and mince pies, but we usually buy a Christmas pudding. We probably tend more towards veggie stuff than most people (and buy organic veg from Riverford as we do all year round) , but we do have a roast of some kind. This year, it will be duck.
With Richard having a new job, this will be a good Christmas for me. I can relax and enjoy it. It's also making me more organised beforehand - I'm tidying the lounge and clearing out stuff that's been there for years. The decorations are relatively low key, but the tree looks lovely and there's lots of holly as we've been cutting back the holly tree in the garden.
I don't do outside lights at all - I regard them as a totally unnecessary source of CO2 emissions, and horribly tacky to boot.
My Christmas tree decorations have been used many times over. I tend to collect them individually and most of them come with memories attached. There's a reindeer from Sweden and a Shinto temple bell from Japan, items I picked up from charity shops, a real variety. (Less from overseas now, as I gave up air travel a decade ago - I found I couldn't square my conscience with the carbon footprint)
I try not to spend a fortune on presents. The house rule is that second-hand is perfectly okay when it comes to things like books. Reining in spending is partly a reaction to a long period of having to be careful about money, but also a feeling that the day should be about the people you're with and not about how expensive the gifts are.
It's sad that one can never be with all of one's family, but we live too far apart for that and for the older generation, it's getting harder to travel. Neither my parents nor my mother-in-law want to do the long trek at Xmas and I can understand that at their age. We'll go and visit Richard's mum some time over the next few weeks, and my parents will have other family members to be with them.
In conclusion, may you all have a joyous holiday with those you love and a day of peace and relaxation.
Family?
Friends?
On your own?
What aspects of Christmas are important to you?
Do you regard it as just a holiday or does it have significant meaning to you? (I think it can have meaning that is significant to you even if you aren't a Christian. We all have our own rituals and symbols that accrue meaning through many layers.)
We'll have the family round.
Our normal Christmas customs are for presents opened one at a time so that we can all see what everyone else is getting. We always have a supply of wrapped stocking fillers which are used to pad out if anyone is getting fewer presents. We also use them instead of crackers - as they have far more interesting contents. I usually do a raid of Hawkins Bazaar and various charity shops to get an interesting random selection of small puzzles, rocket balloons, wind up toys, etc. They're also handy for when the nephews come round. As everyone knows, the stocking fillers are often more fun than the actual gifts, especially if you already know what you're getting.
We don't watch any telly as a rule, though we're making an exception for Dr Who this year at the request of Lindsey and Carrie.
I'll watch Xmas TV before and after Xmas day. I have my favourites, "Miracle on 34th Street" (the original, not the remake), "It's a Wonderful Life", "White Christmas".
I also love Christmas carols - as a folkie athiest, I just regard them as a form of traditional music and enjoy them on that basis.
I do think of Christmas as time out, to relax and to be with people you love. Sometimes we have extra people round. A couple of times we've invited people who would otherwise have been alone for Xmas - and they've fitted in very well.
We eat all the usual Christmas stuff. Richard makes his own Christmas cake and mince pies, but we usually buy a Christmas pudding. We probably tend more towards veggie stuff than most people (and buy organic veg from Riverford as we do all year round) , but we do have a roast of some kind. This year, it will be duck.
With Richard having a new job, this will be a good Christmas for me. I can relax and enjoy it. It's also making me more organised beforehand - I'm tidying the lounge and clearing out stuff that's been there for years. The decorations are relatively low key, but the tree looks lovely and there's lots of holly as we've been cutting back the holly tree in the garden.
I don't do outside lights at all - I regard them as a totally unnecessary source of CO2 emissions, and horribly tacky to boot.
My Christmas tree decorations have been used many times over. I tend to collect them individually and most of them come with memories attached. There's a reindeer from Sweden and a Shinto temple bell from Japan, items I picked up from charity shops, a real variety. (Less from overseas now, as I gave up air travel a decade ago - I found I couldn't square my conscience with the carbon footprint)
I try not to spend a fortune on presents. The house rule is that second-hand is perfectly okay when it comes to things like books. Reining in spending is partly a reaction to a long period of having to be careful about money, but also a feeling that the day should be about the people you're with and not about how expensive the gifts are.
It's sad that one can never be with all of one's family, but we live too far apart for that and for the older generation, it's getting harder to travel. Neither my parents nor my mother-in-law want to do the long trek at Xmas and I can understand that at their age. We'll go and visit Richard's mum some time over the next few weeks, and my parents will have other family members to be with them.
In conclusion, may you all have a joyous holiday with those you love and a day of peace and relaxation.
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[1] charity presents.
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We send some cards, and card the neighbours, and the cards are hung from strings in the hall, but we haven't bothered with a tree or decorations this year.
It's such a relief not to have to deal with family, particularly as I really hate the Christmas season. I will celebrate New Year with real Champagne and watch the locals set off fireworks.
This hasn't got much to do with being an atheist as I am normally happy to celebrate other people's rituals, so long as they don't expect me to take them seriously.
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We make our own puddings (Grandma's recipe), cake (Margaret Patton) and mincemeat (Delia Smith). The turkey is usually local and free-range, the veg from the garden.
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It makes life easy when you use the same one every year.
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I have already decorated the house with mistletoe and pine and fir twigs, I put special Christmas tablecloth on the big table, the cakes are prepared, the presents are wrapped and several minutes ago I finished our rich potato salad. A lovely pine tree is waiting for me now, I will decorate it. My son is at work overnight and my daughter will arrive tomorrow morning from a town near Prague where she lives and works now.
Early in the morning I will cook our traditional fish soup and prepare the carp for frying (a three-cover system like Wiener schnitzel: flour-egg-rollcrumbs). This will be our Christmas dinner together with delicious white wine from Moravia. I listen to nice music, Czech carols but also English ones (that lovely CD from you) or just orchestral arrangements. I am not Christian but I have my own ways...mostly pagan -like ones. I am always ready to cry, especially when I see or hear or read something lovely...it is a nice releas, you know.
Now I am leaving for living room to decorate the Tree. We have always had a green coniferous tree - a pine or a spruce, so this year a pine. My son brough it from the forest - no harm done, people here take only the trees that grow wild and it is a common agreement (everyone owns at least a small part of the forest here). I still have glass baubles from my childhood and also some straw decorations. We also put there small chocolate shapes there - my 28year old son insists that he would not have true Christmas without these!
Also our Tygr is interested in my activity, I am sure he will assist me.:-)Good night!!!
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Joe is back from the USA, so all my little chicks are back in the nest and my mum lives next door, so it will be our usual family Christmas this year. It starts with going down to the Christmas tree in the village to sing carols with the neighbours. There are usually over a hundred of us. Like Watervole, I'm a folkie atheist and I see carols as part of the tradition, not specifically religious. I usually make mulled wine to warm us all up when we get home.
We open presents on Christmas morning - one at a time - usually helped down by a nice glass or two of Tio Pepe. We rarely light the open fire in the living room, but Christmas is an exception and we have a nice traditional Victorian fireplace which looks particularly Christmassy, especially when the mantel is decorated with greenery.
I'm the chief cook, but Mum generally offers to peel potatoes and prepare sprouts the day before. In truth with a bit of prep work, the actual cooking doesn't take too long. And the cooks never clear away or wash up, so after dinner is over I just walk away from the remains. Yay!
Christmas dinner (usually around 3 p.m.) starts off (always) with prawn cocktail. I know it's terribly passe, but I make a fantastic prawn sauce (the secret ingredient is horseradish) and everyone insists on having it every year. Main course is usually a turkey and a ham because BB likes turkey and I prefer ham. I make yummy roast potatoes and we have all the trimmings: stuffings (2 kinds); bread sauce; sprouts & chestnuts; roast parsnips; honey glazed carrots. This year instead of cranberry we have home made crabapple jelly. I always do a Christmas Pud, but most people are too stuffed to partake. After that we collapse in front of the telly (depending on the film) or play games. At some time over Christmas - probably the evening - we have a monster game of Risk which can go on until the wee small hours. This year I've also bought Bananagrams a fantastic word game a bit like speed Scrabble.
I try to watch Doctor Who, but sometimes the rest of the family gets in the way, so I have to catch it on the repeat. If anyone wants anything else to eat they can help themselves to the leftovers. Once dinner has finished the kitchen is closed.
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