What traditions do you follow in the holiday season?

I start to decorate right after Thanksgiving & start playing Christmas music & watching Christmas Movies & specials. Since it came out a few years back I got the DVD of Hogfather & I watch it annually along w/my other 2 favorites: A Charlie Brown Christmas & the original version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the one w/Boris Karloff). I also listen to all of my Christmas CDs. There is one song I listen to many times over: "Snoopy's Christmas" by the Royal Guardsmen.Oh & I also have a Charlie Brown tree. Anybody detect a theme here?

So tell us what your holiday traditions are! 8^)

First Advent Sunday we put up the Yule lights - a light-chain on the balcony rail and four window lamps.

If we're spending Yule at home we get a tree which is stored on the balcony until the eve of Dec 23, then we take it in and dress it, lightly. The same evening different other decorations comes up we we tend to keep it very low-key.

On Yule Eve, which is the day we celebrate in Sweden, we watch "Donald Duck" - really, old Disney cartoons - at 3 PM on national TV. This is a national tradition. If you want to take over Sweden, plan it to 3 PM on on Yule Eve ;-) Then dinner, then presents. If we're at home my parents comes over for a Yule lunch at noon, before the proceed to my sister, where they have dinner.

When I was a kid they national TV always aired old Marx Brothers films during "mellandagarna" (the days between Yule and New Year's). I loved that.

Every Yule-specific decoration comes down by Epiphany, or at the very latest at Hilarymas day. Some lights, like the chain on the balcony and such, stays up a while longer. It's a dark time of year here, especially if it doesn't snow, so extra light is welcome.

We don't decorate much. If I do, it's the first week or so of December. A neighbor brought me a poinsettia last night which is nice.

I always watch Love Actually on Christmas day.

We've recently started a tradition (this will be the second year) of having a rib eye roast for Christmas dinner. It's not something we can usually afford (about $30 for the roast.)

Ah, well, it is kind of "hit and miss" for me but I do try to decorate inside my home, at minimum. I always intend to do some outside lights as I like them so much but I've never quite pulled it off. I always try to find some way to eat some Turkey on Thanksgiving.

I like thinking of this season as a time to bring light to the darkest time of the year.

This sunday everybody here turn on the light in their stars in the windows and they stay on until January 6th. It look very beautiful from outside when walking in the dark.
A family traditon is glögg and homemade æbleskiver the first of advent. Since moving to Greenland I have made it my own tradition, so this sunday I have an open house, where I will serve white glögg, red glögg and a couple hundred æbleskiver.
I will also put up my christmas decorations on sunday.
No tree for me here this year, because I will be with my family in Denmark. I haven't been home for christmas the last two times, so I am really looking forward to it. We celebrate christmas on the 24th. We will have duck and ris a la mande with an almond for dessert. After dinner we will walk around the christmas tree while singing christmas song, before opening the presents.

I put out the outdoor lights and a few things around the house on December 1st, and then a week or two later I get the tree and decorate it, but as I am pretty much alone in my enjoyment of Christmas around here it is all for my own benefit. Husband is a Scrooge, and even the kids are lukewarm.

This year I expect the big excitement will be keeping the kittens away from the tree. They'll be almost 6 months old and are plenty big enough to cause real mayhem if they get a mind to (cue picture of innocent, big-eyed kittens regarding decorated tree with "I aim to misbehave" bubbles over their heads. oh, hey - excellent Christmas card idea!).

Christmas day is scones for brunch, phone calls from all my family (they all live far away), then dinner at my husband's parents place, which is always delicious.

I take time off work between Christmas and New Years so get a nice break.

I'm trying to decide whether to start the Christmas music at work today, or tomorrow.

My husband and I will hang lights tomorrow or Saturday, weather permitting. We usually get a tree, but I don't decorate much inside any more. I'll bring out the Christmas place mats and napkins. I haven't made the December (Christmas) wall hanging yet, so that place will be empty. At school, the week before break, I do a Grinch week. We then end the week with a Who Feast and pj day. I have footie pjs with Thing One and Thing Two on the feet. I also wear funny head gear all that week, you know, the Christmas headbands. The kids love it! Oh and this weekend I will be making the ornaments for my students. I give each one an ornament with their picture on it.

I forgot - I have two movies that I always watch on Christmas eve or a day or two before: Hogfather and Bernard and the Genie. I also have some VHS movies - Muppet Christmas Carol, A Wish for Wings That Work, The Snowman, etc.) that I don't watch every year - maybe this year I'll get them out, too.

Also love to listen to Dylan Thomas reading "A Child's Christmas in Wales."

I get tired of Christmas music pretty fast, since it's EVERYWHERE outside the home so at home I don't play it much. Besides, husband HATES it. We have some non-traditional seasonal music that he tolerates and I don't get tired of (e.g. Loreena McKennitt's "To Drive the Cold Winter Away", the Chieftains' "Bells of Dublin").

I also buy a new Christmas DVD each year. Last year it was Muppet Christmas Carol.

Packers kicking Lion butt is a nice tradition. :)

#9-Tardis-Yeah I forgot about A Child's Christmas in Wales. I always listen to it. I also have a mini (2 ft.)tree that I decorate as well as the 4 ft. artificial tree & the miniature village. In other words my apartment is wall-to-wall Christmas! 8^)

#10 Morphidae, I do that too! Is that the one with John Denver? I have that one. I'll need to look around for a cute one this year.

Not Yule exactly but I used to have a Star Wars (original, of course) marathon each New Years' Day - husband were normally off to work so I had a day in which to just lounge around.

Perhaps it's time to reinstate that tradition.

I'm not a big fan of Christmas/Yule films. But husband likes both the Grinch and Nightmare Before Christmas are great so maybe we'll watch one of those ;-)

No particular personal tradion/varients. I like to just relax and have a plesent unwinding time wherever I am and whoever I'm spending time with. I do like a real christmas tree, but probably won't this year as we're visiting (though of course they probably will have one). My parents decorate the tree with candles which does look magnificent, (and gets very warm no matter how nasty it is outside) but it is too much bother for me to want to attempt.

2 Kalle Anka I think it is called! I heard about that tradition as a youth from Swedish exchange students in Minnesota!

Absolutely - Donald Duck is called Kalle Anka here, and the 3 PM Yule show is called Kalle Ankas Julafton (Donald Duck's Christmas). Even though the presenter actually is Mickey Mouse. It features a set of very old cartoons, always the same, plus clips from newer films.

We *almost* always put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving. The hubby likes to get Christmas started as soon as possible, because he says it helps him "get in the spirit." Really, I think he just can't wait to put the decorations up and feel like a kid again. He's silly. :)

Other than that, we don't do anything special until Christmas Eve. We go to some of our relatives' homes, stand outside their door, and sing horrible, off key carols until they let us in. Hehe.

#17 we watch the same show in Denmark, where it is called Disneys juleshow (Disney's christmas show).

Hmm, thinking maybe my kids could enjoy a Dr. Who Christmas specials marathon on Christmas day. Start a new tradition?

Well, the christmas tree goes up soon after Thanksgiving as well as other decorating. I also love the christmas specials and watch as many as I can. I like to have a bowl of hard candy out for guests, a tradition from my mother, and the christmas cards go on the door in a triangle shae to imulate a tree. I've done that since I was about five. Corny huh? Baking cookies is another long held tradition and not wrapping the gifts until an hour before I have to give them is a bad habit that has become a tradition

I design and send New Year greetings to all e-mail connections. (See some oldies on Flickr, tell me your address for 2011.....)

I put up the outside lights in November - usually soon after Remembrance day. Usually don't do any inside decorating until the weekend before Christmas. I cut and decorate a real tree, but try to find a small, skinny one with lots of branches for ornaments. I have some beautiful ornaments that go on the tree every year, many of them were gifts from family and friends and have lots of memories. I usually leave it up until at least New Year's day. Aside from the tree, I don't decorate much.

My favourite tradition is the community Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. I have attended and volunteered at this for quite a few years now. It started as a dinner for those who couldn't afford a good Christmas dinner, but the organizing committee decided that if everyone was invited, no-one would feel that it was charity, so they raised money and invited the whole town. In a town of 5000-6000 people, usually from 3500-4000 free dinners are served every Christmas Eve. Since I have no family at home I usually volunteer for the evening and cleanup.

Christmas day I phone my family in other parts of the country, go for a ski, then go for dinner with friends. I like making pies, so usually that is what I contribute to the dinner.

End of november means end of the school year and end of nanowrimo at the same time, so all holiday'ing has to wait until both of those things are done first.

Typically though, once those are done, then comes time for the itty-bitty tree with fibre optic lights, silver and black sparkly ornaments, skirt, and stockings to all be put out at once. Although this year, since we've redone the arrangement of the postage-stamp-sized flat, where to put the aforementioned items will be something of a 'does it work here' adventure. Then, the little christmas stuffed animals get dressed up as elves, presents, etc. and get to be posed around the tree.

Once that it all setup, then comes time for the mix of Bob Rivers Christmas Songs (oh they are terrible... terrible terrible, lol), along with songs by Burl Ives, Charlie Brown, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Mavis Staples and Sheryl Crow/Eric Clapton and of course, Thurl Ravenscroft.

Then come the movies -- The original Grinch, the Burl Ives Rudolph the Reindeer, and of course, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. If we're feeling adventurous, then of course Charlie Brown and possible the original Chipmunk's Christmas.

Apparently though, what the blue-haired-one waits for all year is the menu:
- buffalo-batter quorn/tempeh + celery + blue cheese fusion sushi rolls
- rice, cornbread and sourdough mushroom stuffing with chillies
- almond butter smashed potatoes with dill and vinegar
- gingerbread and fig spice streusel swirled muffins.

We have the same exact thing every year. Every time I ask him what he wants for the holiday season -- it's the same request, exactly what we had last year, lol.

The only thing that changes are the drinks:
- citrus spice margaritas
- cocoa nib and citrus-chilli mulled wine
- pomelo/grapefruit spice chu-his

I'm thinking that maybe this year we'll do something with the chocolate spirit instead of tequila. :)

This is such a pattern that it's a complete tradition and the blue-haired-one buys the ingredients (the ones that can be stored) basically on the first of december, lol.

1. Actually stay at home on the granted day off from work.
2. When possible, set up a big loop of track around the living room rug, pull out one of trains, turn out the lights, lie down on the rug with my head as close to the track as possible, and let 'er rip. There's nothing that says holidays like the smell of hot oil, burnt grease, and ozone as that toy train zooms past with its headlight lighting the way.

25: You are absolutely correct about #2! But I would add to it - cotton bedding with little multi-colored lights poking out of it that creates a wintery display :D

Most of my Christmas celebrations are tied into singing in the church choir. This Sunday just past, we had our Advent carol service which starts the season. Now we're practicing for the service of Nine Lessons and Carols which is the Sunday before Christmas, and then we have Midnight Mass and the morning service on Christmas itself. It's a lot of work but I love it. Also, singing on Christmas morning gets me away from the stress of getting the dinner cooked!

Newer traditions for me are a meal and Secret Santa with the group of friends I made while travelling four years ago, and a Tyrolean Christmas themed meeting of my girlsown book group with German/Austrian Christmas food.

I always go to my parents' for Christmas so I don't decorate my place. They get a real tree, except for last year when they couldn't get out to get one because of the snow.

I think you can do a whole section on Christmas/ New Year TV programmes.

In the UK there will be the Queens Speech. There is also Sound of Music almost certainly and Wonderful Life at some point.
In Germany and Austria, they get Dinner for One which is an oddity- a bizarre black and white comedy short, in English. I can only recommend you read the wikipedia entry for that.

My grandchildren and I make nice big platters of cookies and deliver them to places where our "heroes" have to work on Christmas Eve : 2 hospital ERs, 1 fire department, and 1 police station. It's also a good way to drive around and "see the Christmas lights."

My best known tradition is to try to do some decorating and only do it about half way. Nonetheless, I love the season. I did put a few twinkling lights in my bedroom windows today. That's it so far.

I always get a real tree, usually the day after Thanksgiving. (I'm running a little behind this year.) I have some Christmas movies I always like to watch (Love Actually, The Santa Clause, Elf, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, etc.), and some Christmas books I like to read (The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, A Christmas Carol, etc.), and some Christmas music I like to listen to (an odd variety of stuff).

I'm thinking about decorating tomorrow night. I did think "why bother?" for just a few minutes -- it's unlikely that anyone will see my decorations but me. Still, I think it will lift my spirits, and after a long and often difficult year, that's worth something.

This is a great thread Vanye. I love reading about everybody's Christmas plans.

We try to get up any outside lights/decorations about the middle - end of November. The tree goes up usually the weekend before Christmas and comes down New Year's Day. I mistakenly mentioned to my family a long time ago that I love snowmen, so now I have an enormous snowman collection that gets dispersed throughout the house. I usually also have holly that I put in bowls and string from doorways etc. And candles galore.

Baking is: my grandmother's Christmas pudding, sugar cookies, shortbread cookies, nanaimo bars, a sweet fruit and nut bread and mincemeat tarts (my husband's favourite). I also make a butter crunch candy, like almond rocco, for the family and as gifts to neighbours and friends.

Christmas Eve involves taking the brown paper off of parcels mailed from friends and family far away. Then watching Scrooge, the one with Alistair Sim (the best one IMHO). I've watched it every year on Christmas Eve since I was born. I've tried special meals for the 24th, something easy but tasty and finally found one that works for us and is delicious - a tortierre, so that's become a tradion over the last few years.

Christmas Day is sharing stockings first thing, then coffee and mincemeat tarts and fruit bread while we take our time opening presents from under the tree. Then calling family who live away, and always watching the Queen's message. This year we're going to my SIL's place for dinner. Since we've always lived far away from family we don't often get the chance to celebrate with them, so this is a special year.

Movies I love watching between now and New Year's include Scrooge, Love Actually, The Snowman, Rudolph, The Bishop's Wife (with Cary Grant), Remember the Night (Fred MacMurray). I'm thinking the Dr Who Christmas specials will be included this year.

#28 I love Dinner for one and watch it every year on December 31st and have watched it for as long as I can remember on DR, a Danish channel. It is on right before the count down.

(5) trisweather wrote "No tree for me here this year, because I will be with my family in Denmark. I haven't been home for christmas the last two times, so I am really looking forward to it. We celebrate christmas on the 24th."

Aha! So it wasn't just an excuse for opening the presents the night before!

What am I talking about? My mother, whose father came over from Lyngby in the early 1920s, told us that in her family they always opened the gifts on Christmas Eve.

We started the same tradition with my own children, even though my dh wasn't used to opening presents early...but he didn't seem to mind.

When I was growing up, we'd go out on Christmas Eve afternoon and find a real tree. My dad would bring it over to the car where my mom was waiting, and she'd critique and choose which one she wanted. After taking the tree home, my dad would set it up in the stand, trim it with clippers to 'make it perfect', string the lights and then let us three girls finish with the ornaments and tinsel!

My dh and the children didn't get a real tree after the first few years, but purchased an artificial tree. The kids (husband and children) couldn't wait to set it up, so it usually was brought out of the attic the first week of December and decorated.

Now that the children are grown, we just have a small table top tree. It also keeps us from cleaning up broken glass from the two cats and one large dog (she thinks glass ornaments are to be played with!).

Oh, the food and television? Let's see...

We love to splurge on pickled herring and cream cheese, spread on little slices of rye bread!

And each year we watch "A Christmas Carol" (with Alistair Sim) and "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Sometimes we'll even watch "A Muppet Christmas Carol". Last year, my son talked me into watching "210 to Yuma" with him, and despite the violence, I enjoyed the movie.

But all that stuff aside, Christmas is about spending time with family.

#34 In my family we also wait until the 24th before decorating the tree. Maybe it is a Danish and/or Scandinavian tradition?

(35) tris, I thought it was my dad being 'cheap', but perhaps it wasn't?

My mother also had little paper Danish flags to string around the tree. I don't think they exist anymore, too bad... :(

fuzzi - I found strings of Norway flags here on Amazon, maybe there's hope for strings of Denmark flags?

http://www.amazon.com/Flags-of-Norway-on-Strings/dp/B005FA3QTM

MrsLee, thank you!

I am in love with that 'shoppe'...even though they do not have any Danish flags...

...however, they DO have Swedish horses! (I'm 1/4 Swedish, too)

Most of our Xmas traditions go back to when I was a small child or even when my parents were children but we do have one new-ish one that looks like sticking around and that's the 'Christmas Centipede' - the large, rubbery, luminous insect that sits in the middle of the dinner table. It all began a few years ago when our daughter misheard me talking about whether to buy or make a centrepiece for the table. Two days later I spotted this guy while out shopping and he's become an integral part of the celebrations ever since.

#36 my whole family and friends's families decorate on the 24th, so I don't think he was being cheap.
The Danish flags on string for the christmas tree are very common in Danish shops and in shops here in Greenland. If you would like to have some, I can mail them to you. Let me know

No matter how tight things were when I was growing up, my mother made Christmas a beautiful, magical time, and I have tried to carry that tradition on in my own family. Even though my sons are grown now, I still do a lot of mood-setting and custom-maintaining for Christmas.

About two weeks beforehand, all the decorations come out of boxes in the basement. There are tinsel garlands for the windows, candles and bells and stars, little figurines, and more. There are special place mats, table covers, a runner for the piano, and even a themed welcome mat. There are special candy dishes, and of course I buy special candy to put in them. Sparkly and shiny things are everywhere.

While Christmas CDs play, the tree goes up. It's usually a six-foot Douglas fir with a nice shape and a good top for the star. Tree trimming has a ritual aspect, not just in the order of trimming but also in the unwrapping and hanging of an eclectic assortment of ornaments, nearly all different, some quite old, and some special mementoes such as gifts from my late mother.

For most of the Christmas period, from when the tree goes up to when it comes down on or about January 6th, I have candles burning every night on the mantel, the piano, and several other spots.

I try to get all my wrapping done by the 23rd so there's no need for closed doors and secret stuff on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Eve we used to open out-of-town packages, but we don't have those any more. We still read aloud the Nativity story from the Gospel of Luke and then A Visit from St. Nicholas ("The Night Before Christmas"), by Clement C. Moore. We take pictures of the boys by the fireplace. Their whole growing up is reflected in those Christmas Eve photos.

Most years we stuff a turkey, but this year we are having Dad's special pot roast. And there are always, always pumpkin pies to bake on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas morning we open the gifts piled beneath the tree--slowly and appreciatively, no ripping and rending ever--while music plays. Then we all crowd into the kitchen to help prepare dinner and set it out on a festively adorned table.

Christmas night is chill time. We play with our new games, try on our new things, start our new jigsaw puzzles--wooden ones, I hope!--and listen to our new music, and of course begin reading our new books. If we're lucky we have some sweet-smelling new nighties and pajamas to wear to bed.

My parents are planning to buy their tree on Saturday, and I will go over to help them decorate it.

(41) Beautiful, Meredy.

We also open the packages one at a time, while the others watch. I think it helps us as well as taught our children to appreciate what they were getting.

Come to think of it, my Dad read that passage in Luke, too, before we were allowed to open our presents.

And we'd have the Christmas albums playing on the stereo while we were decorating, and then while we were opening presents.

Isn't that interesting how many 'traditions' seem to match those of others?

I don't have any Christmas traditions of my own... or any other kind, really. They've always struck me as odd, in fact. Ritual and tradition are extremely alien to me.

I do like strings of Christmas lights, especially the deep blue ones, and also the multicolored kind. I might put up some lights around the windows in the coming weeks. The color and light is nice on these dark days.

My girlfriend loves Christmas, and she has many traditions associated with the holiday. We will decorate a (fake) tree in the living room, most likely. I have to say, I do enjoy hanging the... tinsel, is it? You know, those thin shiny filaments. And mirrored ball ornaments are nice to look at.

Childhood Christmas: When I was young, my parents created a somewhat chaotic Christmas, as decorating did not stop until Noon on Christmas eve. Over the years, since it was the same chaos over and over, I realized they formed the basis of Christmas traditions for me. First, my parents put up two trees - one upstairs in the living room, one downstairs in the rec room. The upstairs and downstairs trees each had villages underneath them. Not tiny ones, but villages on 4'x8' sheets of plywood that would have a running electric train, cotton snow with strings of point lights poking through it, village houses, people, scattered about (with the lights creating nice colored images inside each house), and then, finally, loose tiny flakes of plastic snow you would sprinkle, like a layer of salt, over the finished scene. That village is the heart of Christmas memories. The upstairs tree was the 'fancy company' one - the new glass ornaments, prettiest lights, ceramic glazed houses, best train, etc. The downstairs tree was the 'family' one - the old ornaments, the ones we created as kids, the old village houses from their first years of marriage. We all liked the downstairs tree a lot more. But, my parents would decorate each and every room of the house - including the bathrooms, with little displays on window sills, or hangings on walls. The entire house felt 'Christmassy'. During this time, we would listen to Christmas records, which would play for a while because of course, we would stack 3 or 4 albums on the record changer, and let them fall down on each other as they played. This could give you a couple of hours of music with just one flip! Christmas eve we would have the big meal of the YEAR, far bigger than Thanksgiving, with sour cream cookies, ham, Swedish meatballs, pickles, deviled eggs, lefsa, cottage cheese, asparagus. Then, we would each get TWO presents to open. One present would be pajamas - always - and the other would be something small and fun. Maybe a card game (think Rook or Mille Bournes); maybe a book; something that you could look at and enjoy when going to bed. What's very interesting to me is that the Christmas eve gifts, in general, are far more easy to remember than the Christmas ones - because they were 'single' - you focused on one gift. On Christmas Day, it was quite easy - as we ate leftovers from the night before, and the best part about it is that we would stay in our new pajamas all day - the whole family - happy and cozy, eating, watching TV, usually in a big 'family pile' on the carpeted floor, chairs, and sofas, in the downstairs rec room.

Adult Christmas: This blends in traditions for both my wife and I, on the few times we've had solo Christmases. (Most of the time, we are with one family or the other.) Her traditions of a midnight Christmas Eve service, and the big meal being Christmas Day, we follow to honor her background. For me, the meal on Christmas Day does have the Swedish meatballs and the sour cream cookies, and also lefsa. It also has beef and mashed potatoes, from her tradition. We set up a tree, but have a 'tabletop' village about 2.5' per side. I do get her pajamas every year, and I do get the same, on Christmas Eve. :)

@ JPB

Whoa! How many pairs of pajamas do you have now, if you don't mind me asking? Assuming you've been married for many years, wouldn't you collectively have whole dressers worth of pajamas by now?

#46 - Actually, we've been married 21 years, and yes, we have PLENTY of pairs of pajamas! :D Of course, they tend to be donated to Goodwill after a few years. So I'd say my wife has one dresser drawer full of about 7-8 pair.

If a person (relative, friend) is staying with us for Christmas, or visiting all Christmas eve - they also get pajamas. :) It's just something we do :)

A lovely tradition, I believe. It is time for the youngsters in my life to get new p.j.s, too; they do grow, these kids, they do!

That was the tradition in my house -- growing up, we always opened a brand-new set of pajamas on Christmas Eve. I suspect it was so that the Christmas morning snapshots would all look nice and respectable.

Actually, in my house, one of the traditions is to burn a bayberry candle on New Year's to bring good luck.

>50 jillmwo: I thought it was so my very frugal mother could pass off a necessity as a gift.

We didn't always get new pajamas, but I have two photos I dearly love. One is of my siblings (I hadn't been born yet) in homemade red with white polka-dots pajamas, and the other is of my three children in yellow and black tiger-stripe homemade pajamas. Those definitely for Christmas photos.

I need to visit JPB, my pajamas are sad and mismatched. :)

Wow, I thought we were the only ones obsessed with pajamas at Christmas. =) My favorite tradition is eating Yorkshire pudding. Reminds me of my English roots. Smothered in honey...oh, they're heaven. I always eat too many. Any of you have that at the holidays?

We always had new pajamas on Christmas Eve, too! Still do that with my daughter today.

I just read that the notion of Santa Claus living in the North Pole is a North American tradition. Europeans aver that he lives in Lapland. Huh! Busifer - does the Swedish Santa live in Lapland? How 'bout Australia, South Africa? Does the Aussie Santa live at the South Pole? Inquiring minds want to know. ;-)

Stories vary, but either North Pole or Lapland -- from here they're so far away as to seem like the same place! South Pole only has penguins, basically.

Yeah! But at least it has solid ground! The ice at the North Pole is melting fast!! Santa better have a rowboat handy. 8^)

*chuckle* Now I have a picture of penguins pulling the sled. I'm sure the Emperor penguins could give it a good try ;-)

#55 Danes believes Santa lives in Greenland. His home is in Uummannaq

# 58 Penguins. Only. No sled. ;D

The beautiful Icelandic tradition of giving books on Christmas Eve
Katherine Martinko | December 21, 2015

...Icelanders have a beautiful tradition of giving books to each other on Christmas Eve and then spending the night reading. This custom is so deeply ingrained in the culture that it is the reason for the Jolabokaflod, or “Christmas Book Flood,” when the majority of books in Iceland are sold between September and December in preparation for Christmas giving.

At this time of year, most households receive an annual free book catalog of new publications called the Bokatidindi. Icelanders pore over the new releases and choose which ones they want to buy, fueling what Kristjan B. Jonasson, president of the Iceland Publishers Association, describes as “the backbone of the publishing industry.” ...

https://www.treehugger.com/culture/icelanders-give-books-christmas-eve.html

We've spent more than a few Christmas Eves in Asian restaurants, December 24th being our youngest's birthday.
More recently, if I make reservations in time, a seafood restaurant, sometimes followed by Midnight Mass
(more like 10 or 11 pm to get a seat--or spot to stand--and to listen to the carols beforehand).

The history of Jews, Chinese food, and Christmas, explained by a rabbi
Jamie Lauren Keiles | Dec 21, 2018

In the US, Jews have been eating American Chinese food on Christmas for over 100 years...

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/12/21/18151903/history-jews-chinese-food-chri...

I have a fortunate Christmas season: dinner + gifts with an extended "affinity family" - no blood relatives, just folks who have been chosen and who choose to be part of a family we choose to have; and, today gifts and a meal with my blood family - two nieces, their husbands and children, and their mother and her second husband.

Both traditions are ones I choose to continue year after year and I'm very grateful.

Happy New Year's evening to you all. What are you up to tonight?

I am going to climb into my bed with my dog at the foot of it, and my reading lamp turned on. I'm working on Michelle Obama's Becoming, a great good read for an evening of relaxing; and, a great way to usher in a new year!

You?

>64 maggie1944: My plans are very similar: bed, book(s), and dog.

>64 maggie1944: and >65 foggidawn: Bed, Books, and Beverage at this end.

>64 maggie1944:-->66 jillmwo: It was bed, book and cat here. Woken at midnight by fireworks across the valley.

Happy me! No noise in the night to wake dog or me. Slept very soundly and very happy this morning to greet the new year!

Dr Abigail Boucher @DrAbbyBoucher | 2:24 PM · Dec 6, 2022:
https://twitter.com/DrAbbyBoucher/status/1600209709520199682

Four and a half minutes ago, I did not realise that Sweden has a Christmas tradition of arson against an enormous hay goat, and now I am watching a 24-hour livestream of a wicker-man goat 900 miles away like my life depends on it.
I will never know peace again.

Lena Wahlgren-Smith @lwahlgrensmith:
The burning of the goat is a secondary phenomenon: not meant to happen, but once somebody snuck up and did it once it became a habit. Straw goats otoh have been part of Swedish imagery for a very long time.
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Wikipedia: The Gävle Goat (Swedish: Gävlebocken, Swedish pronunciation: ˈjɛ̌ːvlɛbɔkːɛn) is a traditional Christmas display erected annually at Slottstorget (Castle Square) in central Gävle, Sweden. It is a giant version of a traditional Swedish Yule Goat figure made of straw. It is erected each year by local community groups at the beginning of Advent over a period of two days....It has been the subject of repeated arson attacks, and, despite security measures and a nearby fire station, the goat has been burned to the ground most years since its first appearance in 1966. As of December 2021, 38 out of 56 goats have been destroyed or damaged in some way. Burning or destroying the goat in some way is illegal, and the Svea Court of Appeal has stated that the offence should normally carry a 3-month prison sentence; in 2018, it sentenced a 27-year-old man to a suspended sentence and day fines for aggravated property damage for burning the goat... (Wikipedia)
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The Gävle Goat
https://www.visitgavle.se/en/gavlebocken

>69 margd: I'm both shocked and in awe... It's beautiful! And the whole point is to burn them, but burning them is illegal?!?! Amazing.

>69 margd: and >70 clamairy: This is the part that I find intriguing. If the goat is burned down BEFORE St. Lucia's day, then it has to be rebuilt.

Because the fire station is close to the location of the goat, most of the time the fire can be extinguished before the wooden skeleton is severely damaged. If the goat is burned down before 13 December, the feast day of Saint Lucia, the goat is rebuilt. The skeleton is then treated and repaired, and the goat reconstructed over it, using straw which the Goat Committee has pre-ordered.

And the fact that it's become a competition between the two groups!! I would love to understand more about the meaning of the straw goat in the first place. I mean, why a goat?

>71 jillmwo: We might have to lure Busifer back in here for an explanation.

Sending this "What traditions do you follow in the holiday season?" thread off on a tangent.

We all get that Christmas falls in the summer in the southern hemisphere. But, stupidly, the corollary has only just hit me: that Christmas is not there to serve as a mid-winter festival in late June, as it does in the northern hemisphere, as the early Christians meant it to, plonking it on the pre-existing pagan Yule / Saturnalia / winter solstice festivities.

Can I ask, what are the popular indigenous southern hemisphere mid-winter festivals? Have the immigrant northern hemisphere communities in the global south worked up their own mid-winter festivals, time-shifted some of their ancestral northern customs, or do they just slum it through the dismal months without marking the low point of the year?

>73 Cynfelyn: Based on 50-plus years as a resident in the Southern Hemisphere, no. As you said, “they just slum it through the dismal months without marking the low point of the year”. Bear in mind though that most inhabited places in the Southern Hemisphere aren’t as far from the equator as the places where the Yule festivals developed, and the months around the winter solstice aren’t quite so dismal. For example my birth city of Brisbane is at 28° south, and I lived for 36 years in Canberra at 35° south. For comparison, 35° north is about the latitude of Athens. The southernmost large city in Australia is Hobart, at 42° south; 42° north passes just north of Rome. I find the Oxfordshire winter at 52° north pretty oppressive.

Some companies used to hold their “Christmas” parties for clients and friends in June precisely because there wasn’t much else on, and so everyone could probably come.

ETA hfglen chip in please.

>73 Cynfelyn: Mostly the same as >74 haydninvienna: here. I grew up in Johannesburg, 26°S, spent 26 years in Pretoria (almost the same), and am now in Durban, 30°S. Aged Mother insisted on all the winter Christmas trimmings on the hottest day of the year -- and dinner middle day, with heavy dining-room curtains drawn so that we could see the flaming brandy on the stodgy Christmas Pud. Pretoria was -- still is AFAIK -- basically Calvinist and the Powers That be are or were dead set against any form of enjoyment. Here in Durban there is a largely-ignored (!) commercial move towards "Christmas in July" to coincide with the winter holiday season, when half Gauteng moves to the coast for the school holidays.

Better Half and I spent two years at Kew in the early 1980s, and I fully agree with Richard about a British winter.

PS: I always thought Brisbane was more-or-less level with Maputo (between 25 and 26°S)!

Richard, it would not be beyond the wit of mankind to ask around about what the Portuguese in Mozambique used to do, if you're interested.

>75 hfglen: Just checked: Wikipedia gives the latitude of Brisbane as 27°28′04″S. I quoted from memory. (ETA my childhood home suburb, Salisbury, is given as 27°55′S, so pretty close.) British winters are probably warmer now than in the 1980s, but now they are even greyer.

>74 haydninvienna: I get what you're saying about most of the most inhabited places in the southern hemisphere being at low latitudes. I see that Punta Arenas, at the tip of South America the largest city south of the 46° parallel, is only at 53° south. That's only just further south than Oxford is north. And you've already slagged off Oxfordshire's winters.

It's a whole other world. Well, not literally ...

>77 Cynfelyn: whole other hemisphere, perhaps. And as to slagging off Oxfordshire winters, what was that about “the dismal months” …?

The star is an important Christmas motif for Spanish-influenced countries near the equator, e.g. Philippines, Mexico (pinatas). Thailand, with few Christians and no Spanish connection, borrowed the star from Philippines(?), here in a parade: https://www.tourismthailand.org/Events-and-Festivals/star-parade-christmas-festi... .

Related to the Star, children's artwork from an RC-influenced kindergarten in Bangkok slum seems to focus on the Wise Men from Away (?), as well as the meanness of the manger, which would be familiar to too many of them. I remember one drawing had a white guy in shirt and tie arriving on a camel. :D

Many non-Christian Thais appear to appreciate western secular traditions at Christmas--Christmas trees, gift-giving (?).

Thai New Year (Songkran) is celebrated in April, and involves respect to elders (once washing their hands, now throwing water at everyone), Buddhist gifts (bringing sand to temple courtyard, applying gilt to statues), seeking merit (releasing fish and birds, etc.)

At November full moon, after monsoon season, Thailand's Loy Krathong is a most beautiful festival originally thanking water spirits with flower-candle boats/baskets, singing, firecrackers and lanterns. https://www.asiahighlights.com/thailand/loy-krathong-festival . Similar to Indian Oct celebration Diwali? ( https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/pages/article/diwali )

>73 Cynfelyn: Have at last spoken to our ex-Mozambican-colonial tenant. He remembers no special traditions over Christmas, beyond family get-togethers and the usual party foods: chicken piri-piri, fish and prawns, with variations featuring coconuts and cashews in the north. Presumably that means that in Angola you'd have found the fearsome party dish for which Mimi Jardim gives a recipe in Cooking the Portuguese way in South Africa. It involves a goat cooked with lots of guindungo (super-hot Angolan piri-piri).

I don’t know if I can call this a tradition, but when we get that first good accumulation of snow, I must flop in it.   That’s nothing special, but depending on the height, I would do a tumble or flip into it – the sloppier, the better.  The advent of smart phones require photographic evidence of these shenanigans, and I reclined in the first good snowbank after a workout, this year, and sent the picture to everyone.  It’s important to mention that I was in my gymwear, because this is my first winter back from California, and I’m tired of hearing, “Are you sick of snow, yet?“  Fools!