Christmas, Thanksgiving and other festivals

[charliechaplinfan]

I love the tradition of Christmas. It really doesn't feel like 4 weeks off but it is and I need to get into a Christmassy mood.

The tradition in our house is for the kids, my parents and me to go to Mass and carols at 8 o'clock at night. Then at whenever the kids get up (usually well before 7) we go and open a few presents, then we have a cooked breakfast, then get back to opening presents which takes ages. Then the doors open for sundry relatives who might pass by.

We make sure that most of the unwrapping is done before the Grandparents come by, then they won't throw out instructions we need whilst filling the bin bags with discarded wrapping. Grandads are usefully employed unpacking toys, getting all those blasted wire ties out of toys and putting batteries in toys.

Christmas lunch is a set menu for many of us. A light starter followed by turkey, sausages wrapped in bacon, stuffing, cranberry sauce, roast potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots and peas then and this is what really finishes everyone off, Christmas pudding, a rich fruit pudding made with suet and plenty of brandy or rum, pour some more brandy over the top of the pudding, light it very carefully and serve with liberal helpings of brandy butter. All this is washed down with plenty of wine, if you are over 18 and not in charge of the washing up afterwards the challenge is to stay awake, but if your eyes do close be prepared to have a kids climb all over you, or if you are luckier, a cat. Take note, this meal does in no way slow down the children, the thrive on it and become even more excited than they were.

The evening meal if you're lucky is leftover turkey and a sherry trifle made the day before. If you are me, you skimp on everything else so that you have plenty of room for the trifle that I just can't leave alone (it will be my breakfast the next day if I'm lucky )

Then if we're lucky the kids will be tired and go to bed by 8pm, it's harder to get rid of the grandparents though who have drunk all the wine and are finding it difficult to get the energy to move, they talk all over the evening programmes telling us how they are recording it to watch later and how quiet it is once the kids are in bed. Whilst we who have been up early and gone to bed late the night before, look absolutely shattered.

God bless I love every minute of it.

I loved reading your Thanksgiving thread, does our Christmas compare to an American Christmas or other Christmases? Does anyone here celebrate other festivals?

[markfp]

Very nice hearing of your Christmas celebrations. I think while we each may have our own variations, overall they are very similar. You didn't mention Boxing Day. Are there special celebrations too or has it just become a day to recover from Christmas? We don't celebrate it here, but December 26th has become a day with everyone packing the stores either to return gifts or spend money or gift cards received. This goes on through New Years.

About 12 years ago, my wife and I spent two weeks in London in December. Fighting the crowds and doing our Christmas shopping on Oxford Street, in Harrods, Liberty and at the little shops in and around Covent Gardens is something we will always remember. We've been to London a couple of times since, but Christmas in that city is really special.

[charliechaplinfan]

I've never spent Christmas in London. I'm very much a homebody at Christmas and in the run up to Christmas.

It's such a shame that Christmas Day is the only day that the stores close, cinemas, pubs and MacDonalds, Dominos etc open later. If you do go out on Christmas morning you will only see the people who are going to church or the people travelling between relatives.

In our house Boxing Day is for recovery, no cooking and enjoyment of the presents we've got. We usually go out for a nice walk, weather permitting. Some of the stores are open, the grocery stores stay closed but furniture stores start their sales, why they have to start on Boxing Day is beyond me.

The 27th is madness if you chose to venture to any stores. Of course, internet sales start on Christmas Day.

When I was a child, thirty years ago, sales didn't start until New Years Day, the week between Christmas and New Year was a holiday for many and was spent relaxing and indulging in family activities. I think it was better that way.

We seem to be driven by sales profits these days and every minute of shopping time is precious to the stores.

[movieman1957]

So it is here. Yesterday all the madness begins for Christmas shopping. People line up in the evening on Thanksgiving because there is something they just have to have. People rush in at 4 or 5am to get what they want. I didn't hear any real problems unlike last year where a Walmart employee was trampled to death. You couldn't get me to a store yesterday with money.

After Christmas sales begin the 26th. It is not as bad as the day after Thanksgiving but people are looking for bargains. We get to rest in January because people can't afford to go anywhere because they spent all their money for Christmas.

It's nuts.

[charliechaplinfan]

Sounds like Thanksgiving makes it doubly worse. Do you give presents on Thanksgiving?

Like you Chris, you can't pay me to go to the sales, I certainly wouldn't get out of bed in the early hours.

[moira finnie]

Sounds like Thanksgiving makes it doubly worse. Do you give presents on Thanksgiving?

Like you Chris, you can't pay me to go to the sales, I certainly wouldn't get out of bed in the early hours.

I don't know of anyone who gives presents on Thanksgiving, but I suppose that could be the next marketing ploy of our consumer culture (God forbid).
On a more positive note, while those crazy stores seem to have had Christmas items on display since just before Halloween, many people seem to put up their own Christmas decorations around their homes just after Thanksgiving. Some people also buy their live Christmas tree this weekend after Thanksgiving, though many people now have nice looking, if fake trees too. Our live trees around here are running between $15-$32 apiece now, which isn't bad. They were about $40 a few years ago, when the weather was too dry during the growing season and the economy was chugging along at full steam.

Since the days are quite short now and an extended period of dusk begins around 3:45pm in this part of the world, it is a real pleasure to see some of the twinkling lights and more restrained displays. I'm very fond of the little blue lights that people drape their pine trees and bushes with (while the blue lights are often just an aesthetic preference, sometimes they are also meant as an homage to the eight day festival of Hanukkah too and may be accompanied by a menorah on the lawn with each candle being lit over the course of the festival of light). That celebration of the miracle of the oil that lasted so long in the menorah, which is one of the traditions that one can read about here, is from Dec. 11th-19th this year. While many Jewish kids my age grew up in a culture that shoved Xmas down their throats at every turn, prompting some indulgent parents to even buy a Christmas tree and call it a "Hanukkah Bush", that trend seems to have eased in recent years and, while the gifts that are showered over the course of the festival may sometimes be extravagant, most of the traditions among my family's Jewish friends tends to be on a more modest, and fortunately, have avoided over-commercialization so far.

My favorite holiday decoration are probably the small, multi-colored lights that people use to decorate their trees and bushes and house as well as the very simple nativity scenes (without the baby Jesus until Christmas Day) that some people put up too. My favorite Christmas decoration may be the small single candle that people put in the window, and sometimes in all their windows. It gives the house a cozy feel and seems such a nice, restrained touch to me. Of course, some people go mad and over-decorate their homes, trying to outdo one another in their neighborhood--though I suspect that many of these people only succeed in alienating them and racking up a horrendous electric bill for December. Many people have started to put large, inflated, cartoony decorations in their yards. Some are a bit much, but some are really fun too.

[charliechaplinfan]

Moira, I love Christmas lights. I love to see the twinkling lights in people's windows, they do look so enticing and welcoming.

Are most of the Christmas decorations up now in America. I refuse to put our up until December, so that probably means next weekend, as the kids love to help to. We have a good looking artificial tree but it takes me ages to lock the branches into place and then bend the branches into shape, every year I buy something new to go on the tree, it isn't colour coordinated, just choc full of ornaments in various shapes and sizes, I absolutely love my tree. So Friday or Saturday night that's what I'll be doing putting the tree up and the next day the kids will get really excited hanging all the decorations, don't know what Charlie the kitten is going to make of it, Claude just likes to hide under it and then drags ornaments off when he comes out from under the tree. I feel better about using an artificial tree but I do miss the smell of a real Christmas tree.

Does anyone have a preference in trees, real or artificial?

[knitwit45]

When I was a child, my dad was in charge of the Christmas lights. The first thing he got each year was a new box of fuses, because we always blew them out on a fairly regular basis. Think the extension cord in "A Christmas Story".
My favorite decoration was the electric light, at the top of a candle surrounded by a red wreath that hung in each of our windows, 5 in all. Coming home at night from some festivity at school or church, those "candles" were so welcoming.
I now have those wreaths, and have added to them over the years, finding them in flea markets and "antique" stores. I've re-wired them, but still think of those plunges into darkness, when Pop would yell "Time me!" and race to the basement with fuse in hand....

[charliechaplinfan]

I remember our tree lights doing that when I was small. Our tree when I was a child was a silver artificial one with loads of tinsel and home made decoration. It was certainly a clash of colours, I loved that tree.

[markfp]

While many people don't have their houses decorated yet, certainly the stores do and most of the street decorations are up. With the Thanksgiving holiday on the last Thursday of November, the Christmas season seems to begin the next day. Although this year many stores started weeks ahead. It seems like the "back to school" sales had only just ended and the stores were putting out their Christmas goods. Around here, we even had one radio station start playing nothing but Christmas music , 24 hours a day, on November 1.

[Professional Tourist]

Here in Skyscraper National Park, one of our best-known public decorations is the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, which started back in the 1930s and is, of course, of skyscraper proportions. There is generally an official lighting ceremony the first Wednesday of December. This site has a review of Christmas trees past.

[jdb1]

I've been surprised that those families in my neighborhood who generally already have their lights (and sometimes even their Christmas trees) up by the Sunday after Thanksgiving do not have anything out yet. I'm thinking this is going to be a rather subdued holiday for most people. Just as well, since I've felt that the whole lights and trees and gifts thing has gotten so very out of hand over the past 20 years or so.

As a multicultural kid who had both Christmas and Hanukah with the Jewish and Italian sides of my family, I can tell you that Hanukah has always been more restrained than Christmas, if only because there has always been less of a media blitz in NYC surrounding Hanukah. If you do get eight gifts for the eight nights of Hanukah, they tend to be small things -- there is also a tradition of giving money to children on this holiday -- Hanukah Gelt (gelt is money). You also get chocolate coins wrapped in silver and gold paper as Hanukah Gelt.

One of my nicest childhood memories is going to a Hanukah celebration at the home of the grandparents of my twin friends, Laurie and Lenny. Their family really knew how to make kids happy, and it was a much nicer party than any I had been to at any of my own Jewish relatives (a dour bunch). There was Bubby and Zaide (Grandma and Grandpa), as well as assorted aunts and uncles, and us three kids. It was great -- we ate the traditional potato pancakes, we played guessing games, spun the dreidel, and we sang traditional songs and song of the Yiddish theater, which the aunts and uncles performed -- that's when I learned about Fanny Brice and her song the "Ballad of Sadie Cohen." At the end of the evening, we were each given a whiskey glass, and we passed among the elders, who put real coins in the glasses (we were also given sips of wine, but we weren't supposed to tell our parents). We were treated as honored guests, and we talked about our grownup Hanukah party for weeks afterward.

I must say that Christmas with my Italian family was always pretty cool -- lots of eating and singing and dancing and laughing. Probably the only time of the year that my mother's side of the family laid aside their internal wars and relaxed with each other. I know for me, it was really the only time I looked forward to being a part of their festivities.

[rohanaka]

Hi Ms. CharlieChaplinFan,

To answer your question about how your Christmas (across the pond, ha) compares to ours over here, I have always felt we Americans (in general) tend to OVER-do Christmas. At least it seems like that to me. It has become so commercial, with decorations and displays in many stores starting up as early as PRE-Halloween that the spirit of the holiday tends to get "shouted down" by all the hype.

And for me, I find this a sad thing because I have always felt the best Christmas traditions center around the true meaning of the holiday. There is a "reason for the season" that gets so lost in the shuffle these days, and it truly has become a struggle for us to find ways to teach our daughter (6 yrs old) what we believe Christmas to be all about. It is hard for her not to be distracted by all the extra STUFF that goes on during this season. But we do our best to instill in her the spirit of the holiday and to keep our gift giving as simple as we can. (we get her several small gifts and maybe one or possibly two "big ticket" items....ha... but our idea of a "big ticket" is likely still smaller than some)

Some of the ways we try to keep the meaning of Christmas in perspective for her is we make a point of giving a litte something extra as often as we can to the Salvation Army. She loves putting money in the kettle (and one of the places we go to give has the same man every year, and he has actually gotten to where he remembers her. We even gave him a gift (a warm hat) last year when we saw him out on particularly BITTER cold day w/ nothing to cover his ears) The kidling REALLY enjoyed helping me pick that out for him. In fact, I try to involve her as much as I can in our "gift giving" to others (especialy those outside of the family) because she seems to be the most enthusiastic about that sort of thing. We usually have her make homemade cards to give to several of our senior citizen friends from church (which she hand delivers) and also we make "goodie" plates to deliver to some of our neighbors as well and she always seems to enjoy these activities a LOT. So I hope to continue this tradition with her, even as she gets older.

We don't put our tree up quite as early as some (usually around the second weekend in Dec) but she always looks forward to it and she loves helping to decorate and wrap packages as well. And then before we open our gifts, on Christmas morning we take time out to read the Christmas story from the book of Luke (she likes to do the reading) and we have (though not every year) also had "birthday cake" for the baby Jesus, too. (which she REALLY enjoyed helping to make the last time we did this)

So as far as Christmas is concerned, for us, the simpler the better. And the more focused on our faith the better, too. At any rate, that is how we "do" the Christmas holiday in our little corner of the globe.

(HA.... here's a HUGE PS for you.. I just realized that I SHOULD add one more thing we always do during the holidays (along w/ the faith centered traditions) and that is to enjoy at least some of the fun holiday movies that play over and over (and yes OVER again) ha. We have chosen to teach the kidling that Santa is just a "fun" part of Christmas so there is no confusion over who the guy in the red suit is, ha. But she really enjoys seeing him in these films (and is still able to walk away w/ the perspective on the holidays that we want her to have.) Two of her favorites for the holidays are the newer films ELF and The Polar Express. (And mom and dad's old favorite is "The Christmas Story" ha... You'll shoot your eye out, kid) ha!. We don't do ALL the Christmas movies (because quite frankly some of them are just NOT for us) but these three seem to be the ones we enjoy the most for a good laugh and a smile. (And of course, for a "deeper" message, we love the tried and true "It's A Wonderufl Life and the Alistair Sim version of A Christmas Carol.) One other favorite that I have ALWAYS loved is the animated (old) version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. (It is one of my most favorite stories of repentance and the effect that the true meaning of Christmas can have on a soul)

[markfp]

[. festivities.[/quote]quote="jdb1" ]I've been surprised that those families in my neighborhood who generally already have their lights (and sometimes even their Christmas trees) up by the Sunday after Thanksgiving do not have anything out yet.

I wonder if that's parlty due to the good weather. Here in upstate New York (Syracuse), it's been unusually sunny and mild all month and we've had no snow yet. Usually by now we would have gotten 15"-20" during October and November. Just this morning my wife was commenting on how she felt that Thanksgiving just sort of snuck up on us and now it's almost Christmas. Perhaps, it snuck up on some folks downstate too.

[charliechaplinfan]

Rohanka, that's lovely. I know what you mean about the big ticket items, at this age it's easier to be restrained. They like quantity rather than cost, when they get older, it will be much more difficult.

The things I like best about Christmas are the traditions, I love carols, especially when the school children are involved. I love Christmas mass, both my children go along with me (7 and 4) they always have and the Mass is said by candlelight, which is hairaising with a 7 and a 4 year old, the worse thing so far they have set fire to is the paper holder. My parents come along to Mass, my side of the family being churchgoers and hubby side being non churchgoers. It's both a lovely family celebration and also the children enjoy the Christmas story and the crib set up in the church.

Along with that I love the tree and the lights. We are in a new house this year so I'm planning where to put everything. The tree is going to look so lovely. Like you we try to wait until the second week of December. Going out and about today there are plenty of decorations about.

Judith, I love the stories of your festivals, we don't have the multiculturism here, it's interesting to hear about.