Good morning! I have another busy weekend ahead, more wedding fun is just around the corner. I am heading to the gym to get in a workout before the madness begins. But first, I saw this fun Christmas survey on Julie’s blog and since I am pretty obsessed with Christmas, I wanted to join in on the fun!
Christmas Survey Time! If you want to join in the fun answer one, some, or all the questions in the comments section!
Christmas 2010
Eggnog or hot chocolate?
Both! Probably lean more towards Eggnong since it’s a seasonal treat.
Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Growing up they were not wrapped, there was just a pile each for my sister and I. Don’t know what I will do when I have kids. Good question!
Colored lights on tree/house or white?
White lights on the tree, mixture outside (not all in one strand but a different color for the trees, bushes, etc.)
Do you hang mistletoe?
Growing up there was some at my grandparents house (where we spend Christmas eve and Christmas) but we never had any at our house I don’t think.
When do you hang your decorations up?
Growing up it was day after Thanksgiving, since I have been married it’s the weekend before Thanksgiving.
What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Tough! I make a cream cheese danish for Christmas morning breakfast that’s great!
Favorite holiday memory as a child?
I have two. 1.) our neighborhood used to put out luminaries all along the streets in front of the houses on Christmas eve. It was the most BEATIFUL thing. When we would get home from my grandparents Christmas eve we would go for a walk and it was so beautiful. 2.) Dancing around the living room to Christmas music with my sister all day Christmas eve while the adults cooked. My grandparents have a huge living room with a HUGE sectional couch (like twice the length of a normal one) and we would pretend we were ballerinas and dance to the Christmas music around and around the couch for hours, getting excited about opening gifts!
What is on your Christmas wish list?
An iPod nano for when I run! (Check out my Favorite things of 2011 post)
Do you open a gifts on Christmas Eve?
Growing up, we would open gifts from my grandparents Christmas eve at their house and then back home one from my parents (Pajamas)
How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
No particular theme, we get a new ornament anytime we go somewhere so we have a bunch! We put on Christmas music and a fire. It’s one of my favorite days of the year, decorating for Christmas!
Snow? Love it or dread it?
Living in the south my whole life, I know I would hate it. I love when we get one snowfall every year or two, it’s just enough!
Real tree or fake tree?
We had cats, so always fake. I’m pretty indifferent.
Christmas 2006
Do you remember your favorite gift?
I don’t know if it’s my favorite but I was REALLY into American Girl doll’s as a tween and so getting my dolls and outfits/furniture etc was always a favorite.
What’s the most important thing about Christmas for you?
Celebrating the true reason for it all, Jesus’ birth. He is the reason for the season, and I really try to focus more on that than the other commercialized things. Also, spending time with my family, our traditions.
What is your favorite holiday dessert?
My mom makes amazing pralines at Christmas time, I eat about a million. Seriously.
What is your favorite tradition?
On Christmas eve we sit by the fire and my dad read’s The Night Before Christmas and the Christmas Story out of the Bible. always a special time to me. We take pictures every year as well so we have one from every year with my sister and I in our new PJ’s on the couch with my dad while he reads. Also I enjoy going to Church on Christmas eve. It puts things in perspective and is a good time to be thankful and reflective before the Christmas day madness.
What tops your tree?
Always been a star. Bobby broke ours this year so I had to buy a new one.
Do you prefer giving or receiving?
Giving! I put a LOT of thought into gifts, and get SO excited when they open them. It’s so fun for me!
What is your favorite Christmas song?
Oh Holy Night and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Candy canes, yuck or yum?
just ok, but I love peppermint fudge, bark, ice cream.
Favorite Christmas movie?
The Santa Clause and Home Alone.
What do you leave for Santa?
We always left cookies an milk, nothing now though
Do you have a Christmas morning tradition?
Growing up we would have to wait at the top of the stairs until we were told we could come down. My sister and I would sit on the top step SO excited thinking about all of the toys we were about to get. My mom would video tape us coming down and into the living room. We sat by the fire and opened stockings first, then gifts, while Christmas music played in the background. Then we would eat breakfast afterwards.
Christmas 2005
Do you prefer to shop on-line or at the mall?
Either. It depends I guess on what I’m looking for.
Christmas letter or Christmas card?
Christmas card. Some (NOT ALL so please don’t get offended) people use the Christmas letter as an attention getting brag fest and that always drove me nuts. There is a way to do it well and tastefully, but some people just don’t get it. (Who has seen the Christmas letter episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. Love.)
*Side note, Christmas day is also very special in my family because it is also my mom’s birthday! On Christmas night after all the hoopla we sing happy birthday to her and she opens her gifts.
QOTD: Ok so answer one, some, or all these questions in the comments section!
Would love to see your cream cheese danish breakfast recipe…yum! 🙂
whoops! I meant to link it. it’s in my recipe page!
Fun post! I am an eggnog and a real tree type of girl. Our tree has a topper, colored lights and ornaments, and we wrap our presents (even the ones in the stockings!). Please share your cream cheese danish recipe, please oh pretty please!?
meant to link it in the post, it’s on my recipe page. 🙂
As for your first question – I am 100% hot chocolate all the way!!! Also, always a fake tree for us too! I also like white lights inside and multi colored lights outside
Trying to answer all…
1. Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate. In a bowl with lots and lots of real whip cream.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? As kids, Santa’s presents were not wrapped because they were from Santa – he didn’t have time to wrap! Presents from parents were always the ones wrapped.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Now – white. As kids, we always had colored ones outside.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any “real” mistletoe.
5. When do you hang your decorations up? Definitely the day after Thanksgiving.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Garbage bread (although your danish sounds yummy…need to look up that recipe!)
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? After midnight mass, our entire extended family would head to my cousin’s house (and in an Italian family, that’s alot of people). All the kids would hang out together, the adults would have coffee and food and after about half an hour one of the older cousins would play the piano and the whole family would sing Christmas carols. One child was always picked to lay Jesus in the manger to celebrate His birthday. I honestly don’t know how our parents were able to stay there til the wee hours of the morning, get the kids home and still make sure that Santa visited the house AND be coherent when the kids woke up early to race down to the tree! Sadly, most of us have moved away as we’ve gotten older. It really makes me sad that our kids don’t have this memory…
8. Do you open a gifts on Christmas Eve? As kids, Santa would visit early in the evening (before mass) and we could open one gift (usually pajamas).
9. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? We don’t have a theme. But my mom has given me a new ornament every year since I was born and we’ve gradually added to that collection. Most of my ornaments signify something – First Christmas together, new house, birth of child, vacations, etc.
10. Snow? Love it or dread it? Living in the northeast, it’s part of winter. LOVE the first snowfall every year (although by March I’m ready for spring) as well as the first big storm of 1 foot or more because we have a great hill for sledding.
11. Real tree or fake tree? Real. We usually use the pictures from cutting down the tree as our Christmas card so it’s turned into a family tradition.
12. What’s the most important thing about Christmas for you? Family and faith.
13. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Gennette cookies
14. What is your favorite tradition? Going back home and to mass as a family – and seeing all of our friends from our growing up years after mass (with their families). I love it.
15. What tops your tree? An Angel my son made 12 years ago.
16.Do you prefer giving or receiving? I have to say both. I love the planning and giving part – especially when it’s “right”. But I also love seeing the kids faces when I open the gift from them…
17. What is your favorite Christmas song? Silent Night and I’ll Be Home For Christmas
18. Candy canes? Not so much. But they look pretty on a tree!
19. Favorite Christmas movie?White Christmas and although not technically a Christmas movie it’s always shown at Christmas-time so – The Bells of St Mary’s.
20. What do you leave for Santa? Chocolate milk and chocolate chip cookies.
21. Do you have a Christmas morning tradition? Your description is almost exact for us! 🙂
22. Do you prefer to shop on-line or at the mall? My favorite way to shop is at stand-alone stores in the downtowns of our local cities. A local city puts on a “Victorian stroll” the first weekend in December. All the stores and brownstones are decorated, there are carolers on the streets, a strolling Sinter Klaus, folks dressed in Victorian garb, the VFW toasts chestnuts in front of the bank, etc etc. It’s a great way to start the season.
23. Christmas letter or Christmas card? We have a combination of both. Thanks to Shutterfly, I make cards with a short “update” and pictures of the kids. I keep it pretty short because yes, I saw that episode of Everyone Loves Raymond!
wow you get points for doing it all!
I’m definitely a hot chocolate girl, and candy canes are definitely “eh” for me too. Thanks for sharing some of your Christmas traditions:)
OMG I used to LOVE American Girl!!!! I had Samantha and a build your own! Which ones were your favorite??
I had samantha and the doll of today, too!
How can you choose between eggnog and hot chocolate?! Hm, I wonder if you could combine them? Eggnog Hot Chocolate – I’d definitely give it a try! 🙂
Growing up we would have live Christmas trees and then plant them in the yard after Christmas (they are huge now!!) because my dad hated cutting down trees. Eventually we got a fake tree.
What a fun survey!
American Girl dolls are so awesome. I still can’t resist paging through a magazine if I see one!! I need to do this survey – I keep seeing it!
I still look at AG stuff, too lol!
I did the survey on my blog http://lifeinrunningshoes.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-survey.html
Merry Christmas!
yay!