Christmas - How do you celebrate?

[Nix]

So Christmas is fast approaching. How do you celebrate it? Do you have family routines done every year? What plans do you have for this year?


This year we are going to my ex's parents so Abbs can spend it with her little nana and family. This upsets a few things I normally do but I will still do my best to keep some of the routines like her showing me her Santa stocking presents before everyone else wakes up and such like. On Boxing Day we will have the rest of the presents and our Christmas with just the 3 of us. I always miss my Mum at Christmas so I have a decoration on the Tree that she gave me in her last few weeks and this always goes up near a radiator as its a pine tree smelling one which makes the living room small nice and makes me smile, as my mum used to have one the same as a Kid on our old family tree. I also bought one for my brother a few years ago and he does the same.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

We put up the Christmas tree at my parents' house last weekend. Hopefully their new cat will not destroy it.

My brother, his wife and two sons (and two dogs) come up from Virginia to spend Christmas week. I take the week off from work and we usually do various day trips and things. On Christmas Eve my parents have the whole extended family over for a snacks buffet and socializing. On Christmas morning my parents go to church early, then we meet at their house to open presents.

During the season I try to listen to as much Christmas music and watch as many Christmas specials as I can. I've already watched "Frosty the Snowman" and "Elf." Gotta get Charlie Brown, the Grinch, Rudolph, and a couple of others in there, along with at least one version of "A Christmas Carol."

And I hope for a white Christmas. Been pretty disappointing so far this year... we can't seem to eke out more than an inch of snow at a time.

 

[white avenger]

One of the biggest traditions in our family each Christmas season is

"What do you want for Christmas this year?"

"I don't need anything. Just get something for the kids."

"I didn't as what you NEEDED, I asked what you WANTED."

"Well, I've got everything that I need. Just get something for..."

"Keep arguing with me about this, and you're gonna be a Black Eyed Guy, and I'll get you something that you both don't need AND don't want. Remember that talking reindeer head last year? They make a fish that sings Barry Manilow hits..."

"I need socks! I need underwear! I need a cover for my Kindel..."

"Say, whatever happened to reindeer head, anyway? I was gonna hang it over the mantle..."

"I need new books! I need a new Blu ray player!"

Christmas day we eat way too much, then all sit around sleeping while "Christmas Vacation" plays on my wife's new Blu Ray player (it's regular DVD. We don't have any Blu Ray discs, but that'll make it easy to find something for our son's birthday in February)

But, seriously, we have a live Nativity scene at our church, and we stand in that at least one night each year.

Merry Christmas folks!

 

[Kurai]

My family hosts Christmas at our house every year. We usually have my aunt and uncle on my mum's side, my Grandma and my mum's aunt, and my nan over for Christmas dinner and presents. Then they come over again on Boxing day for lunch. My Grandma, my mum's aunt, and my nan all stay overnight on these two days, and go home after a cooked breakfast the next day

 

[VisionGirl]

We're Italian-American, so we have fish on Christmas Eve at my mom's. We don't always have seven different fish dishes, but we try. 🙂 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_the_Seven_Fishes

Christmas Day is often over at our house, but that depends what my husband's grandma is doing. If she's doing Christmas Day at her house, then we go. If we do it a different day (to accommodate out of town relatives & working relatives), we do it at our house. Then we invite friends too, which drives my sister crazy heh-heh. It's not Christmas if you don't irritate your family! 🙂

 

[Vamp Jenny]

We usually have dinner at my aunts for Christmas night. Only the girls and my aunt's husband, though. And on New Year's Day, the entire family eats brunch at my uncle's. But other than that my father will eventually find a date to pop-up at my house (usually a week and a half after Christmas) and give me my gift.

My mom and I don't celebrate much by ourselves, except that we eat turkey and pie for a whole week afterward XD

Oh, and I have a party with the girls this year. Think it's on the 19th.

 

[Blaze]

Me and my family don't celebrate much, I think we've all sort of been put off by Xmas because of extenuating circumstances. I'm just starting to get over that now. I'm going to do my Xmas shopping on Saturday and I'm VERY excited about that. I sort of hate receiving gifts (because I grew up in a poor family and I knew that my parents were buying things that we couldn't afford, and I hated that), but now that I'm older I love trying to give back to them, it makes me very happy! Most importantly, I'll be visiting my family that I haven't seen in a few months, so it'll be very nice!

Every year, I also either go eat with my father's family or with my mother's family (and then alternate on New Years). I think this year it will be Xmas with my dad and New Years with my mom. My cousin just had his little baby too! So I'm excited to meet the little guy!

As for Xmas Eve, as always we'll open the presents and drink beer while getting fat on cheetos. Yah, we really don't do anything fancy as you can see.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

I doubt that I'll be doing anything at Christmas, just sat by the computer writing another poem.
But I certainly won't be cooking anything. It is 6 pm here and I'm still sweating and summer has only just started.
I might get myself a cold chicken, as long as I don't have to chase it to far.

 

[sleecin]

Nothing too much for me on xmas. I do the present thing ,mostly becouse my 5 year old son enjoys it. cook come nice food is also nice. And we watch the swedish disney xmas show on TV.

 

[Steven123]

Christmas has become just a bit of a normal every other day for us the past few years. Our German Shepherd recently passed away so that's put us on a downer this year, although we are hoping to adopt another German Shepherd for Christmas.

We usually put the tree up at the beginning of December, and I've gone all out for presents for family and my girlfriend and her family this year, so I'm hoping it's going to be a bit more special, we are a tight knit family, more so me my mam and dad, so we'll be spending the day together, probably visit my grandma on Boxing Day too.

 

[Robynrainbow]

I'm so lucky in December, especially this year, as my birthday is on the 19th. It was my 21st this year so on Friday, the last day of term, I went out with friends from uni before they all went home for christmas and was forcefed a lot of champagne, then on Sunday I had family over for a birthday/christmas meal and cooked the whole Turkey, pigs in blanket etc meal for the first time for TEN people in my tiny student house, which I managed to actually pull off and then I was again forcefed champagne. My parents are separated so on the 21st I'm off home for a meal out with my dads side of teh family for my birthday/Yule which he celebrates instead of christmas (BBQ ribs, chicken wings, cheesecake omg) and then I'm at my boyfriends mums Christmas eve, my mums christmas day and my boyfriends grandparents on boxing day.

That's 5 Christmas meals altogether, and my liver is very unhappy, but YAY DECEMBER!

 

[Tueuse de Vampires]

My parents are going on vacation over the holidays. Not that it matters much, as I have to work on the 24th and 25th anyway.

Yup.

 

[November]

This year is still a bit up in the air... Im supposed to be housesitting a few hours drive down south, I could go down christmas day or boxing day, not sure yet. I didnt think we would get invited to any family things but now there are 2 family get togethers on chrissy day, with possibly a third. Usually the families get together for various meats and poultry with heaps of fresh salads, we all sit around in the heat and drink. When it gets too hot everyone escapes into the pool, down to the beach or back to hibernate in their own houses with food babies.

 

[Kanazaka]

I usually spend Christmas with family either here in Indiana or in Wisconsin with my Mom's family. This year, however, I'll be in Orlando for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, then on a three-day cruise to and from the Bahamas. It should be very fun, and I'll definitely take a lot of pictures!

 

[Ianigsy]

Today was the first completely free day I've had for a couple of weeks, so I've put my tree up and tied a few bits of tinsel here and there.

On Tuesday I'll go back to my folks after work and come back on Friday- it's very hard to get time off at my work because we have to book the whole year's holidays at once. We don't do very much (this year there isn't even a football match to go to on Boxing Day) and try to avoid big family gatherings so it's usually just the three of us.