Holiday Drawing!

shopping… oy vey…. still have to do everything. excited about this draw… seems like i’m the first? that’s a first!

thanks for your generosity.

How lovely of you, Laurie!
My tree is up, presents have been purchased. I am ready!! I can’t believe it’s only 12 days away! Twelve drummers drumming…

My favorite holiday tradition? Sleeping in! For three weeks straight!

I’m a professor, so winter break means that I don’t have to get up early and teach. During break, I do my research and writing on my own night-owl schedule.

I know that probably sounds like an odd holiday tradition, but it’s my favorite one. We don’t put up a tree, or shop for gifts or anything.

Definitely have the tree up. My tradition is the german tradition of the Adventskranz, Since i am German, i grew up with this, the Adventskranz is a beautiful table centerpiece that holds 4 candles…..every sunday for three sundays before christmas you start lighting a candle. First sunday 1, second sunday 2 , third sunday 3 and the on Christmas you light all 4. There is also a little rhyme that children recite in german of course.

Advent Advent ein Lichtlein brennt,
erst eins, dann zwei, dann drei, dann vier
dann steht das Christkind vor der Tuer.

The family is gathering in Portland, OR for Christmas this year. So no tree here, which is ok. I love the tree when it’s up, but when it comes time to take it down…

My annual open house on New Year’s Day every year has become the holiday focus for me. Nice end of the holidays, low pressure, and relaxed. Usually, I even have time to talk to people.:^) I order a fabulous smoked turkey from Texas and do the rest of the cooking myself. Great way to stay in touch with friends who I don’t manage to see as much as I’d like during the year.

Thanks so much for the holiday drawing!

You are such a generous person.

I was raised by my Italian grandparents. For us Christmas Eve was fast, feast, fast and then church. A friend asked me to do an Italian Christmas Eve dinner known as the ‘feast of fishes’. Christmas Eve was a fast day for Catholics. I agreed. The number of dishes can range anywhere from 3 to 7 to 12. Each number has a meaning. We always had three. I’m going to try to recreate two from memory and skip the third–pasta with tuna sauce. The canned tuna and tomato sauce left a very bad taste in my mind. I hope I can do my grandmother proud.

No xmas tree this year but we have our Parol (Christmas Star) up for all to see which is a dazzling display of colors and lights. It’s Filipino xmas tradition to put up a Parol in front of the house, it represents the Star of Bethlehem.

It’s not the holidays until I display some of my mother’s Christmas decorations. Most see dated decor, I see wonderful memories. Merry Christmas to my mom and to you all.

What a lovely idea! I do like a Holiday Draw 🙂

My Christmas tradition is to do with the Christmas dinner. We always have hors d’ouvres (or as Dad used to call them, horses doovrys), a tradition my late father started.
And I always make the egg ones, to his ‘recipe’. They are halved eggs filled with egg mayonnaise, topped with olives or anchovies. It’s the only time of year we have them, and everyone loves them. So they mean Christmas to me.

I did not think we would have a tree this year, but we got the chance to have a real one! So I am grateful for that. Christmas shopping is about 90% completed. Wrapping will soon commence. I’m doing pretty good for being sick for half of the month so far! Thanks so much for the generous holiday draw.

I’m loving reading these posts:) In our family Christmas was about food and family. I have 7 siblings and with all the aunts, uncles, cousins and our family, the table would have to have 4 extra pieces added and stretched from the dining room to the living room. There was also the kids table for us little ones since we wouldn’t fit at the big table. Good times and really makes me miss my Grandma even more.

Our tree is up and the house is decorated, but still so much to do! Cookies are next on the list. I am having a hard time getting in the holiday spirit because it is yet to get really cold here. Usually at this time of year the temperature is in the 20-30’s and we have had snow. The temperature is in the 50’s and it won’t quite raining! Always hoping for a white Christmas!

Happy Holidays to you and your family!

Most of the traditions of my childhood just don’t work for us now, except one. I still love to pick an evening to ride around looking at lights. Very low-key. We don’t have kids, but when there have been young ones we could share this with, we have, & all had a good time. There’s a book called “Christmas Lights” by Ann Fearrington that I like to share in my storytimes this time of year that is all about this. Hopefully some families will keep doing it.
Thanks for the draw & hope your holidays are lovely.

Thanks so much for a generous draw, Laurie! My shopping is mostly done but I still have a few small things to pick up. I can’t believe it’s almost here!

Happy holidays to all.

We just got our tree, will trim this weekend. I feel so late after reading some of the other posts of trees all decked out with presents already!
Normally we visit family for Christmas, long flight, but this year we’re staying put. Christmas in NY is a rare gem for us, even though I always miss being with my family.
Thank you for the draw!

I like to give “Reindeer Gifts” to my entire family. These are little stocking stuffer types of presents from each of the Reindeer. When my nephew & neices were little, they were always delighed with toys from Blitzen or Rudolph. Vixen and Cupid are particularly fond of giving lip gloss and perfume and nail polish to the ladies, while Blitzen and Donner like to give gadgets 🙂 I phan to continue the tradition as long as possible!

Ooh, holiday traditions! The only one I can think of is when our kids were little we’d cut our own tree at the tree farm, but prior to sawing into the trunk, we’d make the kids do a sacrificial tree dance around the tree to thank it for giving its life up for us ~ imagine five little kids ranging in ages from 2 to 13 hopping and skipping and chanting around a tree in a busy tree farm! Yeah, the humiliation. Those were the days. Now the tables are turned and they do everything in their power to embarrass us! Gotta love ’em.

Shopping is 99% complete but wrapping is way behind. One of my favorite traditions is cookie baking with a few friends. We bake all day long and now that I have a double oven, it’s even more enjoyable. We finish in no time which allows more time to have a cup of tea and sample our handiwork before everyone leaves to go home. Happy Holidays!

I’m all done holiday shopping, but still need to pack and ship presents! That has become a much bigger ordeal than I anticipated…

There’s no tree for us in our little apartment (though a small potted evergreen would be really nice), but I’ve got Fir absolute, which perfectly captures the spirit of the forest!

My favorite holiday tradition is eating all the pie I want, guilt free. 😉

We’re a pretty non-secular family, and last night decided we didn’t need to put up all the lights this year and would spend time playing games instead! Also, a lot of our gifts are to charities. We’re by no means rich, but we’re comfortable, and so much better off than most people on this earth.

That being said, Tabac Aurea is on my wish list for this year!

Thanks for the draw, and all the art you create.

My holiday tradition is to tell people in my life how much I appreciate them. Gifts don’t matter, it’s more important to know that you actually matter to someone.

My favorite tradition is on Christmas Eve. Our family goes to our church which is built in the Old English style. It is decorated with a sea of red poinsettias and a Christmas tree. There is a simple service, which culminates with singing “Silent Night” to candlelight. Then we return home to a meal in front of the fire of cheese fondue, sausages and mulled wine.

My favorite holiday tradition is Solstice fire and circle where you hold hands with loved ones and give thanks for the last year and call forth what you want to bring in to the next year.

I got the tree up a week ago, but only got the ornaments on it Sunday. I don’t go for “themed” trees; the ornaments have been collected over the years, through three generations, and I always buy at least one special ornament each year, to commemorate the years my husband and I have been married (21 years so far). There are a couple of ornaments my grandmother made for me years ago, and even one–a blown glass ornament of a house–that dates back to my grandparents first Christmas together in 1929.

I got my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving this year, and everything is wrapped and ready to give. I enjoy December much more–listening to Christmas music, looking at the lights and decorations, and anticipating watching my nieces and nephews open their gifts–when I am not stressing out over finding gifts. The only thing I have left to do is my baking, which is done the last few days before the 25th.

My goodness,Laurie, such a generous draw! Winter Solstice is one of my favorite days of the year so my tradition is to get up real early on the first day of winter and admire the stars from my deck. We will be putting up the tree on Christmas Eve and celebrating in our usual small family quiet sort of way!
Thanks again for this fantastic draw!

What a lovely giveaway and so timely, I actually just wrote a whole post about the ritual of putting up the Christmas tree! It’s a BIG DEAL in our family and my Dad has instilled in me such pride in our tree than even when I moved out, I would decorate my own tree whilst asking myself ‘would Dad approve?’

I get so excited putting up the tree each year; carefully selecting the placement for each ornament, listening to my favourite christmas music (usually Bing Crosby) and experiencing the little flutter as I flick the lights on for the first time. There’s something about it which just takes me back to my childhood.

The tree has been up for two weeks, although our dog and two cats are putting it to the test. Last year, I started a tradition of putting my parent’s train around the tree…I just love to watch trains!! I also have a ceramic nativity that my Mom bought for me when I was quite young. A lady made the large ceramic figures and they are painted in very soft colors. I know my Mom was very proud to give it to me, and it holds a very special place in my heart.

Thanks for your generous drawing. I’m sure we are all excited about this!

Well I have our tree up and most of the decorating, but I’m just not feeling it yet. I hope that the spirit will kick in this afternoon when my children are finally out of school for Christmas break. I definitely have shopping to do! Ugh

Thanks so much for the drawing!

Just graduated about a week ago, so I put up some basic decorations and then started visiting family. Looking forward to being back home so the hubs and I can enjoy a little holiday cheer together!

Holiday cheer has started on a somber note – a car accident. Shopping will have to wait til after St. Nick’s rounds, but at least I’ll snag some steals n’ deals. All I want for Christmas is more peace & goodwill from the crazies on the 405 freeway.

Merry to you & your readers…grateful for so, so much beyond this.

I live in Poland where Christmas tradition is very rich, I’m not even going to list all the Holiday customs, it’s too much for a short note. The most important feast is the evening of December 24, when Santa comes to us (in some regions they say it’s rather an Angel or a Star) after a ceremonious Supper that consists of 12 traditional dishes (we eat no meat that evening, only fish, vegetables, cakes). It’s not until that day that we put up the Christmas Tree, but some families do it earlier. There are hundreds of beautiful carols and Christmas songs that we sing on the following days… And we usually have a lot of snow, but not this year! Merry Christmas to you, Laurie, and all the SSS blog’s Readers!