1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Eggnog – definitely eggnog! And no I don’t usually spike it – well, unless there’s a lot of the more stressful family members around…then I throw some Kahlua in it. LOL
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Our gifts to each other are in reusable fabric gift bags but Santa wraps his – in Santa wrapping paper.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Yes! (smooch!!!)
5. When do you put your decorations up? First Sunday of Advent is when we begin.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? I love the whole traditional turkey dinner with the trimmings but probably my favourite dish that I only ever get to have at the holidays is creamed peas.
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Every year Santa would bring me new clothes for all my baby dolls (with sewing assistance from my mom). He’d put the new clothes on all of them and line them up under the tree for me to see as soon as I walked into the room.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I still believe! 🙂
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? My family background is German so we opened all our gifts on Christmas Eve. Now, my daughter has always had the choice – she would be given the honour from Santa of being either the first one on his route and we’d open gifts on the Eve or she’d be given the honour of being his last delivery and we’d open them in the morning.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? We usually have more than one tree. Our “family tree” is always filled with homemade ornaments and those special ones that my daughter received every year to signify something that had happened that year. Then we have other trees that tend to be more on the “elegant” or artsy side.
11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Despise it, except right on Christmas Eve/Day….if I could stay cozy in my house and never have to get it shovelled or plowed away and never have to go out in it, I wouldn’t mind it because it is pretty…well until that stage where all the cars have been driving through it and it’s now black instead of white.
12. Can you ice skate? Nope, never could…but I roller skated when I was younger.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Hmm, I have to pick a few favourites. My dad gave me his prized Canon camera because I was so interested and inspired by photography. I still use that camera and it’s almost 40 years old. I always loved dolls too and one year my mom built me a doll house for my Barbies. I also remember the year that I got my prized Newborn Baby Thumbelina (which I still have). Every time I smell that vinyl baby doll smell, I instantly think of Christmas.
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Spending time with my family.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? I don’t know that I have a favourite one. Some years we’ll have pie (usually cherry or apple cream), some years cheesecake (candy cane, eggnog, or pumpkin), some years it will be something else.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? One of my favourites was when I was little was that after church on Christmas Eve, we would take the long way home and look for the prettiest Christmas lights as we drove. Then, we’d arrive home to find that Santa had been there and we’d open our gifts. My mom always prepared a midnight feast of hors d’oeuvres and we’d have that as a snack, usually while playing some new game we got. When my daughter was little, our favourite was always going to see “Bethlehem Live” – a re-enactment of the Nativity story complete with live animals. We got to “walk through” the town of Bethlehem ending up at the stable. It was always so special to us. They stopped doing that production quite a number of years ago but we did find a living Nativity Scene this year. Ever since I became a Catholic, I’ve always really loved the lighting of the Advent wreath too.
17. What tops your tree? A star….always a star.
18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving because I love to see the looks on their faces when they open something that I know they feel is really special – that they know I put a lot of thought into….but it’s fun to see what those close to me choose for me too.
19. Candy canes: yuck or yummy? Yuck if they’re the traditional kind. I like weird new-fangled flavours like eggnog.
20. Favorite Christmas show? Miracle on 34th Street
21. Saddest Christmas song? I’ll Be Home for Christmas
22. What is your favorite Christmas song? Breath of Heaven (The Gift Goes On is a close second. As a child, my favourites were always Do You Hear What I Hear and Little Drummer Boy and I still love those too)
Adding on my own question to you – do you do stockings? We always have so it always surprises me that I meet more and more people who don’t!
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