What little holiday traditions do you look forward to?

I still enjoy stuffing my 29 year old daughters original Xmas stocking. A big red velour stocking with white fur trim and a cute little stuffed puppy peeking out of a pocket on the side. I also enjoy making my famous cranberry relish and while I don’t put up a tree anymore I do hang cool lights in the house. I just strung some neon blue LED lights across my front window.

being home alone.

Near my parents’ house, there is a cul-de-sac where every house does a full blown, over the top holiday display for Christmas every year. If I happen to be home for Christmas I’ll usually go check it out. Google Images link

Rum butter.

I like seeing the decorations around town and the local Christmas parades. Nutcracker suit was something that I went to see every year as a child in NY. I go once every few years now. A few times I’ve taken a friend or family member and her children with me to introduce them to the ballet.

I love eggnog and the smell of spiraled citrus peels punctured with cloves hanging throughout the house. The smell of pine. The smell of glögg, a kind of hot sangria spiced with cloves, cinnamon and allspice. The smell of gingerbread, banana and pecan bread and cinnamon coffee cake, moist from extra butter in the recipe.

I like the the family and family friends getting together at one, long table groaning with my favorite food. I like seeing people I haven’t seen in at least a year., sometimes many years I like to receive a very thoughtful and handmade gift from a friend or family.

When I lived in the proper climate, I loved quietly sitting next to a friend or cherished family member at a hearth staring into the fire, sipping a good brandy in a toasty house filled with the aroma of the kitchen. I like greeting the new family members, those that have joined mine as spouses and SOs and seeing my little nieces and nephews.

Many of these people have passed now or joined the households of their in-laws and what is left of my generation dispersed over many thousands of miles. I only have the memories of these things at Christmas. We have conference video calls but, of course, that is not the same. I try not to let it get to me too much and work to stay busy during the holidays.

Sleeping in.

I love being inside in the warm and seeing the snow come down outside. We have this room in our apartment now that has a lovely long row of windows, and also has a baseboard heater and a couple of comfy chairs. Best thing in the world is to sit bundled up in a blanket in a chair with the heater on, and watch fluffy white flakes come down all around you.

Most of the other stuff, I haven’t really done much since I was a kid…

Everything! I just love Christmas.

@AnonymousAccount8 Oooh, I love those. It looks so awesome! The city where i study decorated the centre. I went there yesterday, it looked magnificent. I found out that there is a winter festival. Through December and January, there will be some sort of manifestations in front of the city house in the centre. My classmate showed me some pictures she made, looks like a fairytale! You have a bunch of stands with various foods and drinks, the streets are all decorated, various concerts and this time, they arranged a ride in a fiacre through the city, for the first time after 50 years. It starts late in the evening, so I didn’t have the time to see it myself, but in Monday, I’ll have classes until very late, so I’ll go see it (even if it means coming home at midnight). Can’t wait! I especially want to through the main street and see the fiacre.

Yesterday, there was a small concert, and the giant Christmas tree is put up. The churches were illuminated with various lights, the sinagogue was decorated as well. It all looks so mesmerizing. I bet it will be even better when the snow falls.

Besides that, my college organizes a charity. Students are invited to donate some goods, like candies or school stuff like notebooks similar. It will be sent to kids in Kosovo. Still figuring out what to bring.

Christmas lights. I think they look cool.

Turkey sandwiches!!!

Have to admit it’s a bit of a tough time for me as it was one of my favorite family of creation holidays and now the kids and the hubby are gone. I find other ways to spend the holiday but it’s not what it was.

The subway/L holiday train!

I’ve been at a station underground, full of workaday commuters when Santa arrives and the crowd SCREAMS with joy!

Santa rides outside on a flatcar. Even when it’s 0 degrees F, he’s out there waving. (He has a big electric blower providing heat, I asked him). The train is decorated every inch outside and inside with lights and prints.

Santa

Train interior

Train exterior

<—- Covering the cat in Xmas lights.

@Coloma You belong in Google image search ‘Putting stuff on my cat’

Ordering the Christmas pizza.

@Call_Me_Jay Actually that is an internet pic but…I have a big cat that would sit that way and let me string him up. lol
I looked at some of the pics in your link. Too funny!

@RedDeerGuy1 Have yourself a merry little christmas pie. Now I will be singing that in my mind. lol

My country doesn’t celebrate Christmas. I could have been excited for Santa’s presents as a child but not now. I’m more looking forward to New Year. This is when we really celebrate. No more school work, no more staying up late and early morning rise. I get to induge in my favorite hobby of sleeping without any complaint. New Year is also time for all kinds of good food that don’t resurface at any other time. I don’t like cooking, but I just feel happy to help the family with preparing for New Year meals.

But the most exciting thing of all is the money giving time. It’s a tradition that adults give children money during New Year. Technically I’m too old for money but my family kind of break the rule in this respect, and beside I have no stable job. That’s the most painless way to earn money ever.

@Mimishu1995 You lucky bastard. ~ When I was a kid, I’d get a plastic sack full of candies and one colouring book.

@Coloma That is by far my all-time favorite Christmas song. My favorite version is sung a capella by 17 year-old Nora Sagal. It’s not perfect and “professional” and she sounds like she’s about to cry at the end of it and has to slow it down. It’s human. She was George Clooney’s wedding singer and he liked her so much, he put her in the movie he was making at the time, The Monuments Men. This one is for you, @RedDeerGuy1. Merry Christmas, pal.

@Espiritus_Corvus Awww…snif, snif.

Charlie Brown Christmas.

Vince Guaraldi music all the time.

I like making a Christmas cake with my husband. We do it together. It’s a new tradition we’ve adopted in the last couple of years.

Trifle. We have to have trifle for dessert on Christmas Day.

Stockings. My kids still get a stocking with little gifts, fruit, nuts and a coin in it.

Hearing Xmas songs I grew up with, eggnog, getting cards in the mail from longtime friends…and after all the weeks of hustle and bustle leading up to Xmas eve, that amazing lull of Xmas day and night.

I woke up this morning to a roar like non-stop thunder. I forgot today is the Toys for Tots motorcycle parade, on a street about 200 feet from my apartment. The price of admission is a toy for charity.

One year it was unseasonally warm and there were 70,000 bikes. I could hear them non-stop for 4 hours. They say typically 50,000 bikers participate. Today it’s 30 degrees F so attendance will probably be down..

Lots of bikes

Santa, Rudolph, and a plus-sized elf

The Grinch and Cindy Lou Who

Truckloads of toys

Personally I like “Feliz Navidad”, was singing to that the other day, among a few other traditional carols like ‘hark the Herald.” Catchy tunes even if I am an Atheist. haha

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMtuVP8Mj4o

Christmas pajamas. As a kid I got a new Christmas nightgown every year. I hated them. Nightgowns are evil.

When I was old enough to have a semi-regular income, I started buying myself Christmas pajamas. Love them. Wore a set last night and love them so much I wish I could wear them around town today.

So, in my Santa letter I wrote some “real wishes”, since I don’t really need toys.

My wishes were that my sister in law would survive cancer, that my family would move to a nicer house, and that the Water Protectors at Standing Rock would be safe and successful.

Looks like Santa is One for Three so far!

All of a sudden I am craving a candy cane in hot chocolate. lol

@Coloma I miss egg nog candy canes.

I love Xmas!!!!!! We have lots of traditions. I like sending postcards to my friends and to even unknown people. I also make some decorotions myself. I like handmade. every year we buy a new toy for a Xmas tree.

I only have 2 traditions from my childhood I still celebrate and both are from my Swedish roots. One is throwing a Christmas Eve party dinner with Swedish food and desserts. I am the only one left in my area on my side of the family, so most of the guests are from my wife’s side and they are all Jewish. I still serve a ham but new tradtions have replaced old including serving Matzoball soup! The other tradition I have preserved is making Glug from a hundreds year old family recipe. THough now I make 2 pots, one fully leaded with the booze and another for me and the kids that is alcohol free. The smell of the spices simmering on the stove brings back years and years of great Christmas memories.

Almost forgot a 3rd tradition and that is making Swedish pancakes for breakfast Christmas morning! Yum!

Edit: The past few years I started a new tradition with my sons. We head over to the local Salvation Army location and get an Angel Tree Christmas “wish list” of a boy and a girl and go shopping together. Last year I was truly humbled to see this teenage boy and all he asked for was an alarm clock and deorderant. The teenage girl just wanted nail polish. This is now my favorite part of the Christmas season for me.