It doesn’t feel like Christmas to me until I have a tree up, and I’m sipping egg nog from a cute little Spode Christmas Tree mug, while watching A Christmas Carol (Alistair Sim, Muppets or Mr Magoo).
Similarly: on Dec 1 I fished my advent calendar out of storage so I could start the countdown, even though we weren’t ready to start full-blown decorating yet.
(I’m a grown-ass middle-aged man, btw)
So I thought I’d post a poll. I just threw together all the possible traditions I could think of. I didn’t see a way to limit the number of choices, so pick the 5 (or so) that you can’t live without. If it’s very child-centric and you no longer have children around the house … answer as if you did.
Ha, yes! That’s the one thing I truly look forward to every year. It’s really the only slow time I get at work and I am taking an extra week of vacation to celebrate!
I voted for egg nog in the poll because that’s the one thing on the list that also comes around only at this time of year that I enjoy.
I’m agnostic but baptized RCC. We never did the advent calendar. I won’t do the church stuff. I like eggnog but it isn’t important. The family get together is the best part. I enjoy decorating the tree and outside.
I try to be embracing and inclusive, but if you don’t celebrate Christmas (either in a religious or secular sense) I don’t know why you’d want to participate in a poll about Christmas traditions that are important to you. There’s a term for that, but I’m not a junior mod.
I definitely would have included mistletoe if I’d thought of it. I also meant to include “Driving around neighborhoods where everybody decorates, and look at their lights” but forgot. And I don’t see a why to modify a poll.
It doesn’t feel like Christmas to me until I’ve listened to my collection of Dr. Demento’s Demented Christmas songs. It also doesn’t feel like Christmas until I’ve finished submitting my grades for the semester, which I just did this very day. Let the whiny complaining emails begin!
You said “High Priority”, so I said giving and receiving gifts. To me that’s a demonstration and reception of affection and caring and extremely important. Items on the list of lesser-but-nonzero importance are:
Decorating the tree (I participate in decorating my mom’s (she lives in town) but don’t do my own)
Decorating the house (I don’t do this, but my mom does and it would be strange if she didn’t)
Christmas dinner (I go because it’s offered, but would eat alone if it wasn’t)
Christmas music (it’s all I’m listening to this month but I don’t consider it a tradition)
Watching christmas movies (we’re watching several of those, but again it’s not really a tradition)
I forgot to check “other”, but here are some traditions that weren’t on the list:
Spending time with family (including in-town and out-of-town family)
Taking time off work (two weeks!)
Making a gingerbread house (and breaking it new-years)
All of the above. If I had to pick a least favorite off the list it would be the Advent Wreath and I still like those. Most of the list I don’t get to do anymore but for those I can — come snow or high water I am in it to win it.
Other. After 30 years in retail:
Celebrating the fact that my tree has been up since November 1st, 2002(it’s not sloth anymore, it’s Tradition!)
Listening to Fairytale of New York
Festivus*.
[sub][sub]*I GOT A LOT OF PROBLEMS WITH YOU PEOPLE, AND NOW YOU’RE GONNA HEAR ALL ABOUT IT![/sub][/sub]
Honestly, none. I am not a Grinch about how anyone else does their Christmas, but to me it is just another day. I don’t decorate, nothing. At most, maybe buy presents for others.
Other. I learned several years ago that Christmas is all in the mind and if I ignore it it will simple cease to exist for me. Annoying Xmas music is no worse than any other annoying music. Xmas advertising is just as irrelevant as most ads are at any time of year. The Xmas displays in department stores are neither more nor less difficult to bypass than women’s fashion and soft furnishings. I have no expectations, no regrets, no stress. The day itself lasts 24 hours, just like any other.
Nothing since my mother died 20 years ago. We don’t have kids, family is small and scattered and we’re all 50s to 70s in age. I’m not remotely religious, and I abhor the commercial feeding frenzy and false cheer.
A lot of my apathy also coincides with a move to the south the year after mom died. As a New Englander at heart it’s really hard for me to get excited about Christmas, even with pretty lights going up, when it’s still warm enough for me to be barefoot and wearing T-shirts. Add in a husband who wants all the Christmas cheer but will do nothing to make it happen and I’m well and truly over it.
I really didn’t do anything except attend a family Christmas feast if one was close until we had a kid. Now it’s very different . . .tree, presents, advent calendar, Christmas cookies (I don’t see decorating cookies or making tamales up there. We do the former, not the latter, but the latter is common)
There are certain foods I associate with Christmas, because I rarely make or eat them otherwise: mince pie, sugar cookies, Bourbon cake, and fudge.
Having lived near the Great Lakes or New England for 95 percent of my life, I don’t think it can ever really feel like Christmas unless there’s snow on the ground.
Artificial Christmas trees don’t do it for me. They have to be real. It’s more about fragrance than appearance. Preferably you go out as a family and cut your own.
I used to like eggnog with rum at Christmas. Now the drink I associate with Christmas is the Cuba libre. That’s what my parents drank at Christmastime (and only at Christmastime), though I’m not sure why.