Philotic Web

'Tis less than a month till Christmas!

I must watch the following movies/shows during this season:

The Muppet Christmas Carol
Charlie Brown Christmas
The Grinch (cartoon, not that bloody awful Jim Carrey monstrosity)
Love Actually
Little Women (at least the first hour of it)

I will decorate this Sunday (the first of Advent), and this year I need to buy and embroider a stocking for Ginny!


What are your Christmas traditions?

Watching "A Wonderful Life" over and over and over and over again... It's one of my favorite movies overall.

Also, apparently traveling to North Dakota to see my dad's family. We're doing it again this year. Hopefully we won't get stuck in Bozeman like we did on one year.

watching the snow fall and waiting for the world to finally fall silent

Movies to watch:
A Christmas Story
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Home Alone 1 & 2
various versions of A Christmas Carol (1984, 1999, Mickey's)
Miracle on 34th Street
The Santa Clause

The only three traditions we have are to see a movie Christmas day (Curious Case of Benjamin Button this year), make biscochos (mexican sugar-cinnamon cookie; Michael says they're like snickerdoodles but I've never had those, so I can't say if the comparison is accurate), and for my brothers to watch the 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story, even though 2 have the DVD. A sub-tradition is that I sit in the room while they're watching the movie and pretend to hate it, all while quoting it and telling them to change it. (Don't tell them, but I secretly love it.)

Sometimes, we all hop in the car and look at the two major Christmas light displays: one an entire street where it's required for the owners to decorate, and the other, a home owned by managers of something having to do with electricity.

Last year, I was sort of put in charge of our decorating so I'll be doing that whenever I get around to it. Whatever it is, you can count on me hanging a lot of things that are of the sparkly and snowflake nature.

Movies we'll/I'll watch?
The Santa Clause (my favorite Christmas movie)
Love Actually
a Harry Potter movie (doesn't matter which one, though some years it's the newest one)
You've Got Mail
The Holiday
The Family Stone

What are your Christmas traditions?

Die a little inside every year from being exposed to too much A Christmas Story. I swear, when is that movie going to finally go away... or at least the damn 24-hour marathon every single year... or at least my family not watching several hours of the marathon every single year.

For Christmas i usually scan the tv programs looking for every single version of "A Christmas Carrol"... i have seen it all... maybe only one i am lacking is a sci-fi themed version

Then the Christmas shopping which must include spanish traditional christmas sweets.

Also, the Christmas lottery is a big tradition on the 22nd!

many of you all should be pleased with December's slate of christmas movies in the film club.

my favorite christmas movies:
Christmas Story
The Santa Clause
Christmas Vacation
It's a Wonderful Life
A Christmas Carol (thirties version)
Nightmare Before Christmas.
Love Actually
Christmas in Connecticut (forties version)
Die Hard
Home Alone
Holiday Inn
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated)
Charlie Brown Christmas
Meet Me in St. Louis
The Family Stone
Elf
The Shop Around the Corner

What is everyone's favorite Christmas songs in general, and which ones can't you stand? This is always an interesting question.

I think that I love "The Christmas Song," "O Holy Night," and the "Charlie Brown Christmas" song the most out of any Christmas songs. I listen to the last one year-round, actually, and it always makes me happy. As for hating, there's this one that plays almost non-stop on the local Christian music station my parents listen to, it goes something like "Happy birthday, Jesus," only it's sung by little kids, and it just gets stuck in your head.

Wait. Scratch that. It's that one line. That one line just repeats over and over in your head.

best instrumental christmas album - George Winston - December

never have decided on best vocal christmas album. I got a Nat King Cole one that is excellent, I have Josh Grobin - Noel, and I've got a mix with a lot of legendary performances, none are as good as me making a mix of all my favorite versions of various carols. the one I want to buy this year is Emmy Lou Harris' christmas album, Light in the Stable or something like that.

'O Holy Night' and 'Carol of the Bells' are my favorites.


I also really like singing the one line I remember from my school's Christmas program the year I was in 5th grade:

"I've got no mannnn, no man but a snowmannnn."

I chuckle at how wrong it seems now to have made the entire female population at the school sing a song full of sayings just like that.

"Carol of the Bells" is my favorite to sing, just beating out "The Christmas Song".

I am so in the mood to watch Love Actually.

the saturday after thanksgiving is fraught with tradition in our family.

First, and most important, is The Great Hunting of the Christmas Tree. In which we must track down our elusive prey from the appropriate farm, cut it down where it stands, secure it with bonds and return home victorious with our bounty.

this year took longer than almost any other year. we first drove thirty miles out to the farm where we've recently found success for the last three years or so. alas and alack, it had no good trees that met our standards. after much good natured bickering and squabbling and quoting of Christmas Vacation we left the farm and the drizzle for the warmth of the car. my sister had seen that there was another farm about twenty miles west of there, so we started in a general direction. after driving the approximate distance we stopped and asked and were informed that farm had not been able to maintain their trees this year and wasn't open this year. We turned around. My sister got upset, I questioned whether or not the man was lying to us and my dad got mad that I would even think that, my sister mentioned another farm not far from here but she didn't know precisely where it was, nevertheless she logs onto the internet via her phone and finds a phone number. we pull over. my dad calls. answering machine.

but we turn back around anyway ready to go the additional 10-15 miles beyond where we've already gone. my sister intrepidly starts searching the internet for driving directions to where we're going. The internet is imprecise in the driving directions as we are looking for a gravel road, but it gets us in the right direction. We call back, get a response, but it's a kid, wait to get directions, get directions, we're only a couple miles away. We make it, we drive by the very small farm with mostly small trees but one awesome tall tree that catches our eye immediately from the road. We mention this when we get out, it's the farm owner's tree for this christmas. we quickly inspect all the trees, that big one is by far the best. we find half a dozen other worthy trees, none as tall as we like (only about 7.5 ft when cut) but they will do, especially after all the time it's taken). we get our tree, head home. and get home.

Four hours later.

I think the only other comparable trip was more than ten years ago when we drove around to four or five different farms, all unsuccessful, only to wind up buying a pre-cut tree from Food-4-Less. But the tree was great. First tree since above mentioned that was light enough for a single person to carry. Most of our trees are hard to get through the door even when bailed (last year we cut off most of the branches inside in order to get it out of the house after christmas).

Second tradition is Dad cussing the tree up. usually the language is not too vehement, it has nothing on me yelling at angelenos who are also part of the traffic jam I'm stuck in, but it is stiff enough to help hold the tree up. because the tree was smaller than usual, the cussing up of the tree did not involve tying it to the wall, or to the floor, or using a chainsaw (in the house sometimes) to slim the trunk down so it'll fit into the cast iron tree stand we have. It simply dropped in and tada! and when we cut open the bailing it was actually positioned correctly in the stand so we didn't have to go moving the stand and tree around afterwards (usually involving more cussing). all we really had to do this year was let it dry for a few hours in the garage (it was drizzling all day), and then drill some holes in the bottom of the trunk so it can draw water (the sap will have sealed off the bottom of the tree by this point). so this tradition was not very fulfilled, but the extensive search seems to have made up for it.

Third is we watch Christmas Vacation while we decorate the tree. Simple, easy and the only conflict was whether or not my USC game was more important than having the proper movie on for the trimming.

Fourth is we order Chinese take out delivered from a particular chinese restaurant we like a lot. This tradition was also followed.

Fifth is that I wrap presents after or during the latter part of the trimming. I won't wrap any of the presents I've bought until that point, so I have to be discreet about whether or not I have brought any with me to deter my nosy sisters. usually my mom will also abscond to her room to wrap presents for hours, but since we had to let the tree dry, she did that earlier.

So anyways, after all that, here is our tree, both before and after:





Adam

Any animals of the rodent nature jump out of that tree yet? (Perhaps, of the singing and dancing variety?) What about cats; any accidents involving cats and your tree?



Do be sure to share if any of the above occurs.

My family has a lot of Christmas Eve traditions, not so many for actual Christmas day.

Christmas Eve, we go to church. Fortunately, we've managed to avoid membership in church's with a midnight service thus far. When I was a kid it was the children's program, so we got a bag of goodies afterwards. My parent's current church holds a candlelight service.

Afterwards, we go drive around and look at Christmas lights (whilst eating the goody bag, back in the day. Mom got about half of the Junior Mints).

Then we go home and have our own little service. We read the Christmas story from either Matthew or Luke, depending on our mood. Used to be, at this point, we'd then each open one present. (This is because in my Mom's family, they had presents on Christmas Eve, and my Dad's family had it on Christmas morning. So this was the compromise. However, in recent years we've scrapped it because, mostly, we don't really have that many presents under the tree till Christmas morning.) Then Mom plays guitar and I play the Christmas songs I've been practicing, and we sing our favorites. Usually Dad and brother fade out eventually, but Mom and I can keep going for awhile.

Then we all scurry around and find a private corner and wrap presents and put them under the tree.

Christmas morning we get up and I hand around presents and we open them and thank each other. Then we hang out in our pajamas and read/play with/watch our new presents. Eventually, Mom and Dad make dinner (ham or turkey). Usually by this point we are all tired and a bit surly. Which is the perfect mood in which to play cards.

Last year I was at my boyfriend's for Christmas Eve/Day, which was fun, too, to see how his family does it. His mom pretty well lives for Christmas. Her house is decorated within an inch of its life. Boyfriend was pretty appalled that I have only two ornaments (one of which he gave me) and no decorations. So, we went shopping on Saturday and bought a tree and some trimmings for the season. We'll hopefully go to Texas this year to be with my family, but if not, that's okay.

~~~~~~

I don't have a favorite Christmas song, yet, this year. For a long time it was "Joy to the World" because of the third verse. The past two years it has been "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" because I like the line about "ris'n with healing in his wings." However, haven't quite found one. It will be a hymm, most likely. Other than "Silver Bells" I'm not crazy about commercial Christmas songs.

And I abhor Burl Ives "Holly Jolly Christmas." I've hated that since 2002. This year I'm beginning to hate "Home for the Holidays" as it gets stuck in my head really, really badly. Particularly "From Atlantic to Pacific/Gee! The traffic is terrific!" which are perhaps the most irritating lines in the whole thing.

We have lots of Christmas Eve traditions, too. The most important and long-standing of which is Chinese food. The exact same menu. Every year.

We also get a new pair of pajamas on Christmas eve that we are expected to wear that night and much of the next morning. Yay new pajamas!

I've always wanted new pajamas to be a tradition on Christmas eve for us, but no one around here feels the same.

We open all our presents Christmas eve. Normally it would be after we've all piled in a car and drove around town to look at all the christmas lights, but we all have someone with us for christmas and it's made the one car thing impossible.

Christmas is for lounging around and cooking dinner.

Christmas Eve, we go to church...midnight service

This reminded me, most years we try to make it to the midnight mass but it's not a hard and fast tradition.

I know every year I look forward to it and every year I'm disappointed by it; it just can't live up to what I had as a child in CA. There, they would shut off all the lights and all the columns would have a lit candle, plus some candles scattered throughout. There would be poinsettias -real, not plastic- all over the place, not to mention a good dozen or so (fake) Christmas trees. A choir would be there, singing throughout. It was perfect.

At my church here, they have maybe one tree, electric candles (but the overhead lights are kept on), and some of the worst good singers -that make up this wannabe choir- I've ever heard.


Also, first time I heard of the new pajamas thing was on a commercial this year, just a few days ago. It seems kind of weird, but cool.

I'm going to be away from home for Christmas again this year...

On that note, I would like to lodge a formal complaint: not being at your house for Christmas. We have plenty of family in our city that we have Christmas traditions with. For the record, ours is the only family of those families that occasionally goes out of state for Christmas, despite the fact all of the other families have family out of state. And, despite the fact that we visited the family we will be having Christmas with this summer, my parents have decided to schedule a week out of my Christmas (or winter) break to travel to North Dakota. In the winter. In nostril-freezing weather.

This might also be saying something about my complete inability to look forward to schedule-breaks.

As someone who wintered in North Dakota for five years and celebrated Christmas in North Dakota last year, I salute you and your family. You utter fools.

*is enjoying weather that gets above freezing every single day she's been here*

Because it is still just as awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

and I bought their christmas album the other day and it's very very good.

I can be such a grinch and a humbug--if only because some REALLY ridiculously horrific things have happened to me on Christmas in the past (how many consecutive years running did an estranged family member attempt to murder you and the majority of your relatives on December 24th? I bet my number is a lot larger than yours!) but I just put up Christmas lights and I'm listening to Christmas music (which I NEVER do this early in the season, ever) and it's all so lovely and actually quite romantic and I'm sort of charmed by the spirit of the whole thing.

This happens every year, even though I'm always positive that I'll hate Christmas until I die. It's a welcome surprise, though.

I have lights hung on the outside of my house and my tree is up and decorated!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

My room mate and I made a wreath of cedar boughs to go on the table and two of our Advent candles are in it (I need to go out and buy at least two more candle holders... probably four so that they all match).

I'll be home next week. Fitting for Gaudete Sunday! I'm almost done my Christmas shopping, and I've been to a couple Christmas parties yet. So there is some Christmas happening around me, but it won't feel properly like Christmas until I'm home.

watched the first half of Love Actually today (as anyone checking the film club would realize) such a great modern Christmas movie.

After Fred reminded me of the date early this morning, I was motivated and spent 3-4 hours decorating today with the 'help' of my youngest nephew. Basically, he got in the way for a bit, talked a lot about nothing, and asked a hundred times if it was going to be his birthday soon.

I think it came out well. And given that it's also freezing (for us) finally, it's beginning to feel like Christmas time. Now to keep the annoying family and their drama from ruining my quiet Christmas...

Last year we let my nephew decorate the tree. He was only 5 at the time, so the bottom half of the tree looked awesome.

I can't get my boyfriend to watch any of the Christmas movies that I want to watch with me (Love Actually, White Christmas, etc.) yet whenever the TV is on I am subjected to the Hallmark channel's utter holiday drivel. When I make attempts to change the channel, I am accused of lacking Christmas spirit.

I find this immensely irritating.

For the people who were dreaming of a white Christmas in North Texas/South Oklahoma, they got it. Except now the roads are so icy that we can't drive!

My favorite Christmas movie is White Christmas. It's such a wonderfully perfect movie! I guess it helps that Danny Kaye is one of my favorite actors of all time!

Last week, we made puppy chow (or muddy buddies) and this week I want to make popcorn balls. On Sunday evening, we drove around with hot chocolate and looked at Christmas lights. Tyler loves the light! Every night when it gets dark and he can see the lights through the windows, he says "It's Christmas Night!!!" It's adorable.

Next week, we're going to the Zoo Lights (and Casa Bonita, but that's not Christmas, my nephew just wants to go there while he's in town) and we'll be with my family for Christmas Eve. We eat soups and snacks, play games, watch movies, sing songs, etc. It's better than Christmas day! Now that there are some grandkids around (aka my kids), my parents have Santa stop by the house that night with a book. It's fun!

Christmas morning, we'll be at our house for stockings, presents and breakfast. Then we'll drive to Colorado Springs for dinner. We'll be there for the next several days so we're sure to have plenty of time with both of Brian's parents and we can go to our niece's baptism. It's way to busy to have this much family around!

I don't really like Christmas, but I still find this series of comics (ends here) of the best Christmas-y things I have seen. I think I've posted this before, but whatever; I still feel like posting it.

Thanks for posting that possibly again; I haven't seen that before and thought it was perfect, really. I wish more people were like Arty towards the end, only all year round, not just near Christmas (or Thanksgiving).


ETA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY1otyfwu1o

I love that version of Carol of the Bells.