Last week I wrote about trying to ditch my hate on for Christmas. I was making some strides! I was singing Christmas carols in the car with Will. I finished my shopping. I considered sending cards and then said…let’s not go all crazy.
Then this weekend. Well – first off some old bag in Shoppers made a really snarky comment to me as I wrestled with a tantruming toddler and I … well I yelled at her. Not very holiday’ish (but holy crap it felt good). Then Sunday morning, as I attempted my first night of uninterrupted sleep while Will slept at my sister’s house…the crash. Yup…my tree started like this….
..and after I cleaned up the carnage (forgot to take picture!)…it now looks like this…
So suffice it to say, my newfound Christmas spirit was heading down the toilet. But the amazing thing…the only things that broke were the new ornaments that I bought…and remaining on the top of the tree was a dove that I put on the Tree of Light at City Hall last year in remembrance of my mother. So, I’m not throwing in the towel completely.
But – I want to hear some of your Christmas memories and traditions so maybe I can pillage some for my upcoming years…so I’ve put together my own Christmas quiz. Share your answers in the comment section! I wanna know…
Your favourite Christmas tradition! Mine was stockings. Santa (aka my dad) was always in charge of stockings and we’d sit in our jammies around our parents bed and open them. Lots of the things he found during the year, you’d have to guess what the hell they were.
Your least favourite Christmas tradition! Interestingly, I’ve been sitting here trying to think of one. And I can’t really. This is a good sign!
Your favourite Christmas movie! Hands down – The Family Stone. Yes, I love Love Actually but there really is something about the Family Stone that gets me everytime. Maybe it’s the dysfunction of the family or maybe it’s just Owen Wilson? I won’t lie the ending essentially kills me and I weep for hours after but still….
Your favourite Christmas tv show! I have to say – I love them all. I’m a huge fan and I was psyched to sit with Will and watch a bit of Rudolph last night. But my favourite is Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Santa is a ginger. There is a warlock. And there is a crazy German mayor who wants to stop Christmas and he looks and sounds EXACTLY like my old boyfriends dad. Second place – Rudolph’s Shiny New Year…I can relate to that baby…my brother used to mock me about my big ears all the time. I feel we’re bonded.
Your favourite ornament on your tree! I should have been more proactive and taken a picture! I inherited my family’s Christmas angel. She is old and dirty but priceless. After the tree crashed on Sunday morning, and I was too tired to clean it up….all of a sudden I pictured her lying in a puddle of water and sprinted down the stairs to save her.
Your favourite Christmas present! I honestly don’t remember. I will say that the first year my stepmother was in our lives she got me the most hideous broach I’d ever seen. It was so bad I actually told her that I’d never wear it and that she should keep it. A couple of years later she got me the most beautiful amber bracelet and she could tell how much I loved it when I opened it. I think the fact that we both understood how much better she knew me was the best part of the present.
Your least favourite Christmas present! Can anything be worse than the nail clippers I mentioned before?
Best piece of Christmas advice! If your child still believes in Santa and asks for a guinea pig year after year, do NOT have Santa write her a letter that says Santa can’t take live animals on the sleigh….because if the kid next door gets a puppy…she’ll always wonder wtf she did to make Santa lie to her. *sobbb*
Let’s share…
This is such a great seasonal post!
You seem much less against Christmas as I read your answers.
Here goes…
Fave Christmas tradition: It’s not rally one thing but I love that we do it up big on the 24th for Sean’s German mother – turkey dinner, presents et al! And then we do it up big at our place Christmas day. The kids look so forward to both days!
Least Fave tradition: This one’s my fault but I end up wrapping presents on Christmas Eve until the wee hours. They are the gifts that have been hidden out of sight of little eyes and brought by the big man in red. I have to wait til they’re alseep before I can do it. This year they’re being done ahead of time and I am going to enjoy White Christmas with my hubby. Which brings up to….
Favourite Movie: Sean and I always watch Christmas Vacation once or twice – it’s a tradition for us. I also love White Christmas and I laugh my ass off at Elf every year! “You stink. You smell like beef and cheese. You don’t smell like Santa!”
I have never watched Love Actually or The Family Stone. I just put them on my list for this year.
TV show: I feel more bonded to you after reading yours! Santa Claus is Coming To Town has always been a favourite of mine because the ginger Santa is exactly how I remember my Dad looking when I was little. He even had the same chin strap beard.
And NOBODY I ever takled to knows what Rudolph’s Shiney New Year is when I try and explain who Happy The New Year Baby is. I remember crying when I saw the tear roll down his cheek.
Ornament: It’s a beautiful glass angel with green and white swirled glass and there is a clover hanging from her hands. Very whimsical and Irish…
Present: I still remember how excited I was to get a Speak & Spell when I was little. I also remember getting a doll that I just loved and I named her Amanda.
Least fave present: Probably a sweater that Sean gave me that was thick and stiff and ugly and dyed my skin and everything else it touched black.
Advice: Do what makes you happy and don’t try to please everyone. I hear so many people complain about having to make a decision as to where to go, who to spend time with, disappointing family members, doing things they don’t want to do…when we had our first baby we decided that year that we would spend every Xmas day at home and people could come to us. It’s worked out great every single year. There could be some issues this year, but we are sticking to our plan and doing what makes us and our children happy.
Can’t wait to watch those 2 movies!!
I think it’s a great idea to make the lead up to Christmas fun with special outings that everyone will enjoy…To me it’s all about the season before and after, and it takes the emphasis off of the actual day…Leave enough time in between outings for rest and relaxation…not too much at once…
An annual visit to your favourite garden centre to buy the tree where you might see some other lovely smelling things to fill up the home with… I started doing that instead of just racing off to a tree lot…the smells alone are like aromatherapy and put everybody in a good mood…and there are usually some beautiful decorations and trees to look at…(kid friendly)…collect some pine cones for baskets…I used to get the kids to help me collect pine cones in baskets from the tree next door…(neighbours were great!) If there are no pine cones, even some dried branches work…kids love finding natural things to bring into the house…cut a few sprigs off of your fur tree in the yard if you happen to have one…collect some dried berries off of trees…I always try to find a mountain ash tree because it has lovely dried berries…
My kids always knew Christmas was coming when the annual oranges and
grapefruit would arrive from their grandfather in Florida…nothing like biting into
a juicy orange in the twilight of a December day!!
Going to an annual children’s carol/pageant service is fun for kids…you don’t have to be religious for them to learn what brought the season about…
A pre-Christmas skating party is fun…our downtown Olympic Plaza had ice
each year and we would bundle the kids up along with a couple of their friends
and go down for a special night of skating and hot chocolate…the kids loved
it and would whiz around on their skates playing tag and teaming up…
Buying some toys together for a special Christmas tree for the less fortunate and wrapping and bringing them down…my son used to help me at a depot for the “Adopt a Family” program where he would help move the boxes in for needy families…Kids love the idea of helping and it teaches them the spirit of the season…
Putting a child in charge of one aspect of the Christmas decorating. My father always put me in charge of the door wreath every year. In those days,
I would cut a few branches off of the bottom of the Christmas tree. I would take
great pride in making that wreath every year, and my parents would always say
nobody could make a wreath like me. It’s a confidence builder!! By the time
I was twelve I was decorating the whole house for them…were they smart or what??
I love going to a carol/candlelight service on Christmas Eve as my parents always took me as a child…even when I had parties to go to that night as a teen, I always made sure I hit the Christmas Eve Candlelight service at church…I find Christmas Eve is a very magical night…Everything is in place and the chaos of wrapping paper etc isn’t in sight…the Christmas lights are on…the regular lights are dimmed…things are twinkling…we used to read “The Littlest Angel” when our kids were little…we often had a few families over for a big ham…then various goodies such as the best cheeses in town…shrimp…dips, french bread and a few salads thrown in…Christmas fatigue hasn’t hit yet and it’s a wonderful night…Everybody goes home early to get ready for the next day, but it’s a lovely way to spend a few
hours…
On Christmas Eve, just as we put the kids to bed, we used to ring Santa’s sleigh
bells outside their windows…One of us was always in the house while the other
would go outside and ring the bells…of course they would run wide-eyed into the kitchen to tell whichever of us was there…
We always make sure to have a homemade seafood chowder one night over
the holidays with friends…I make it every year and it’s a wonderful lighter dinner after so much turkey and ham…
when I was a kid, we hung our stockings on our bedposts…my brother and sister and i would sleep in the same room on Christmas Eve…then we’d wake up in the morning together and open our stockings…while our parents (the tired elves) caught a few more winks…
I think Christmas should be treated as a season…lighten up on the Christmas
Day side and just enjoy the season with little treats and outings thrown in throughout…with just enough down time to be relaxed…this year we have a friend visiting, so we are going tobaganning up in Banff…followed by a swim at the hot springs and dinner by a roaring fire at the Rimrock…another day we will do the zoolights…then a brunch at an old ranche etc…but we’re making sure we have enough relaxation time in between to enjoy some reading/a cup of tea/a nice liqueur/a glass of wine and some good conversation…and a movie thrown in the mix!!
Laura – give me your sister’s email…I’m a gonna beyotch slap her!!!!
I love that part in the movie too! HOnestly I love the whole thing…I love the scene with the fight and the slipping on the floor ‘what’s so special about you guys anyway’….I think I have to buy it this year for myself…
I second your love of The Family Stone. I am always a huge fan of Elf. Will Ferrell, dummy that he is, gets me laughing every time.
Great post! I also love the Family Stone – although I don’t think of it as a Christmas movie. I love the scene at the dinner table when SJP puts her foot in her mouth abut homosexuality and Diane Keaton (love her!) just flips out. Brilliant.
So 3 years ago my siblings (six of us plus 4 spouses) decide to draw names so we don’t have to buy so many gifts. Sounds good right? Except my siblings (none of which had children at the time of the decision, and one of whom lives like a rock star in NYC) decide the gift should be $250. WTF? So this year my husband and I are spending $500 on TWO freakin gifts for 2 of my siblings.
Oh, and then my sister (single and childless) announces that she is only going to buy gifts for her tiny nieces and nephews (ages 3, 10 mos and 1 month old) and not give gifts to MY three children (ages 12, 9 and 7) because my kids have had their turn. WTF? So when we get together with the family on Christmas day my three kids will see that their aunt gave gifts to her tiny nieces and nephews (2/3 of whom won’t even know what’s going on) and excluded them.
Most favourite part about Christmas – my kids on Xmas morning, turkey dinner with all the trimmings, watching Elf, making my dad’s shortbread (he passed away in 2008), midnight mass, all the Carols, the silence and stillness of a snowy night, saying Merry Christmas to everyone, getting Christmas cards in the mail.
Least favourite part about Christmas – my siblings!
Nancy – I was going to say that about drawing names!! Why don’t people do that! We now only buy presents for the kids….
My tree fell over last year and I wanted to sleep through Christmas and miss it altogether.
I love “twas the night” it is a series of interviews with little people all talking about their love of gifts and santa and when they have seen him in the night. I cry it is so adorable. My children’s favourite too. Least favourite tradition is that no one in my family likes to draw names – so I buy for 45 people like an idiot. Financially devastating. What I love? well the rest of it – the food, the family and the magic. Sorry- I have to hold onto that!
Love this post, Sara! Fave show is definitely Santa Claus is Coming to Town – we’ve already watched it 5 times (picked it up on Saturday). Santa has a retro Prince Harry vibe about him. Which brings me to fave ornament – hippie angle playing the banjo. My sister snagged it and I’m still bitter…
Can’t wait to see you next weekend…please don’t yell at Santa 😉
Lori