|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
I heard a couple of men last year say that they'd "survived" Christmas. I do wonder how many turkeys and hams they'd been responsible for baking.
But, more to the point, it might be fun here to list or comment on the activities we actually enjoy about the season--or have enjoyed about past such seasons. Naturally, what appeals to Peter may not appeal to Paul.
I'll begin the list (memories included), and see what you all enjoy, whether different or similar:
1. Fried oysters Christmas morning
2. Sitting in a dark room with just the Christmas tree lights on
3. Watching children at school make centerpieces to be sold with profits going to charity
4. Children in concert singing the old carols
5. Watching small children having their pictures taken with Santa, the best being the wee ones who cry because they don't like him a bit (I know this sounds sadistic, but I know it's a photograph the family will laugh at over the years.)
6. Bourbon
7. Living nativities outside of churches
8. Driving all over the neighborhoods to see the lights
9. Tacky bus tours of neighborhoods embellished with an abundance of lights
10. Midnight Christmas Eve services
11. "The Nutcracker" produced in fashion extraordinaire by a topnotch ballet company
12. Little girls in red velvet dresses
13. Messiah
14. Britten's A Ceremony of Carols
15. Watching "Holiday Inn" with somebody who's never seen it--or someone who really loves it no matter how many times seen at Christmas time.
16. "What Child Is This?"
17. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" produced by adults dressing up as Peanuts characters (This is a terrific gift to give kids.)
18. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" produced by kids dressing up as Peanuts characters (This is a terrific gift to give parents.)
19. Christmas cards taped around doorways
20. Ribbon candy (I haven't had any for years...)
21. Oh, I was going to stop at 20, but I just remembered my favorite shot of my brother, now 50, who was sleeping as a toddler in Santa's arms. I never remember my brother sleeping--he was always hyperactive--except in his little suit, fast asleep in Santa's arms.
If anyone has never seen "Holiday Inn" and would like to watch it with me at the farm, let me know.
Now what about you?
Best regards,
WW
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
2. Sitting in a dark room with just the Christmas tree lights on
without my glasses on... makes the lights all blurry and beautiful.
happy holidays all!
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
DubDub:
Please send me your address and I'll send you some ribbon candy. Won't get there by Christmas, but definitely by NY day.
TEd
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
1. Caroling the lonely tolltaker on the drawbridge on the way to midnight service Christmas Eve. 2. The Lionel train set in a circle around the Christmas tree. 3. The first Christmas presents me and my sister ever made for our parents when we were about 5 and 3, long cardboard insert tubes hand-colored and decorated....we were so proud we made them! 4. Mom's famous Christmas Eve punch. 5. Going out into the woods to cut our own Christmas tree when we lived in the country. 6. New York City at Christmastime, I love New York City at Christmas...the store window displays, the Radio City Hall Christmas show, and, of course, the beautiful tree and ice skating at Rockefeller Plaza. 7. Holiday Inn, White Christmas, Alistair Sim's A Christmas Carol, Edmund Gwen in Miracle on 34th Street, Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland. 8. Santa Letters and Elf calls to my nieces. 9. The laughter of children's delight. 10. My Aunt's traditional "Russian Christmas" dinner on Jan. 7th, a feast with all the ethnic foods (stuffed cabbage, bobalky, mushroom soup, chren (grated beets and horseradish), roshky (sourdough rolled cookies with lekvar and apricot/walnut filling)...my mother making many of the same traditional dishes for our own Christmas. 11. And, of course, helping Mom make Christmas cookies with my sister, rolling the dough, using the cookie cutters of all shapes and sizes...and always sneaking some cookies before we were allowed!  12. Snow...lots of it...back in the mountains in the early 60s. 13. Managing Christmas shop in a department store (Jamesway) for years (had Christmas from Sept. to Feb. -- yeech!). And the year I had to display this new chirping bird tree decoration on my endcap and listen to it for 8 hours or more a day, I'm visiting a friend on Christmas Eve and his Mom says, "Oh! I have a special surprise for you! You're gonna love this!" And then she goes to the tree and turns on this same damned chirping bird! I swallowed and hid my cringe for about two hours! "Oh...That's great!", I said. After all, it was Christmas! 14. The special hand-drawn picture-story my 9 year old niece, Megan, created for me, called "Uncle David's Magic Present", bound in a leather case. 's'nough...Merry Christmas!  (nice idea, WW...thanks!)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
In reply to:
Mom's famous Christmas Eve punch.
Recipe, please!
I'll probably get nailed for this one, but this is such a great salad (primarily because of its name) that I'm gonna go ahead and post it--I am a really rotten cook, by the way, but I feel as though I've done something pretty wonderful when I make The Ruby Salad, which is easy even for rotten cooks like me:
RUBY SALAD
I just love it when someone says, "Are you going to make the Ruby Salad?" It's just so evocative. Here's how you make it:
1 pkg. Bing Cherry or Black Cherry Jell-O (I can't remember which..but I think it's Black Cherry; regular cherry doesn't do the trick)
Celery diced really, really tiny (about 1 cup)
Walnut chopped pretty small,but not tiny (about 1 cup)
1 can of jellied whole cranberries (normal sized can--not really big and not really small)
Just make the Jell-O, let it gel halfway, sortof pretty much thickened up, but not solid yet.
Mix in the jellied whole cranberries; add the walnuts and celery.
Then pour the Ruby Salad into whatever kind of bowl or mold you want and refrigerate till The Ruby Salad is solid. It is really good with fowl.
As I said, the best part is telling people it's The Ruby Salad. Make sure you kind of lift your eyebrows as though presenting a great mystical gift when you say "The Ruby Salad." Otherwise, it'll just appear that you're presenting just another one of those ubiquitous congealed salads that aren't really very exciting at all. And one final point: the jellied whole cranberries are essential.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
the Antipodean version....
1. Hoping fervently for days before that chrissie day would not be hot.
2. Being woken at sunrise (5:30!!) by over-excited kids (or being one of those over-excited kids)
3. Having all presents opened by 07:00 - AND - it's 34 degrees C, on it's way to 40 degrees!!
4. A 2 hour snooze after lunch to build up the strength to tackle the remainder of the turkey and ham.
Hmmm - there may be other things - I'll have to think a bit more.
R
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Nice, idea, Dub-Dub -
Let's see - mostly memories, these days:-
1. Christmas dinner when I was a lad (always at lunch-time, then) with my Mum and Dad and my three brothers, all so much older than I, but the occasion made me feel groan-up to be part of it.
2. The looks on the faces of my two children when they came into the sitting room on Christmas morning. They had said good-night the night before in the plain, old, ordinary sitting room. Whilst they were asleep it had been magically transformed into a fairyland of lights, baubles, bangles and beads, and a great big tree, stretching right up to the ceiling (nearly nine foot high!) shining with decorations and loaded with littel presents and sweets, with the big presents piled up at the foot. Mrs Rhuby and I managed to keep this up until my daughter was six and my son, five.
3. When the children were bigger, all of us decorating the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve afternoon whilst listening to the Nine Lessons and Carols, transmitted live from King's College, Cambridge, with their wonderful choir.
These are the major pleasurable memories of Christmas, for me.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
I hope I don't divert this thread too much by pointing out one of Rhuby's prolific and oh-so felicitous typos (or was it??): made me feel groan-up. Also, I'd like to tell all us USns that most of us, too, have the opportunity to hear Nine Lessons and Carols, transmitted live from King's College, Cambridge, tomorrow (Christmas Eve) on NPR. See if your affiliate is going to carry it. It's at 10:00 a.m. over here in the Eastern Time Zone.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
groan-upOh, dear - yes it was a typo  (believe me, I never do things like that on porpoise!)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 77
journeyman
|
|
journeyman
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 77 |
oh dear, Rhuby, et al, I fear I often do feel like a 'groan-up'. I think I'm going to run off and join those tall elves (I never wanted to run away with them when I thought they were little people!)
Merry, merry...
And my young one, a wizard(ess) of sorts I presume, is downstairs as I write, trimming the tree with her little girlfriend and setting up Santa's village which we'll alight this evening for the very first time. And I'm off to the bookstore to buy copies of reissued, deluxe edition of The Hobbit, with Tolkiens original watercolor illustrations as gifts for the preteens. So I'm thinking these are the better days for me....
blessings,
magimaria
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 77
journeyman
|
|
journeyman
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 77 |
p.s.
Oh, yes, and in my new friend Rhuby's honor, and of course with the inspiration of Wordwind, I am going to make R(h)uby salad for the first time Christmas day, which I hope will become an annual treat to always remember the 'gifts of the AWADies'!
MM
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Ok, I'm going to take the time to do this, even though I shouldn't; but it's so neat! Thank you, Dub-dub.
We would always go down to Tennessee and stay with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Ben's 5 years older than I am, but he, too, is an only child, so we were company for each other. My mother would take all kinds of food--they lived on a farm and never had much extra cash. She'd make fudge--each rectangle had a pecan half carefully placed on top; bourbon balls, and jam cake. (She remembers the time she discovered, when she went to serve them to the company that had arrived, that Ben and I had snuck and eaten approx. 2 pounds of bourbon balls. I don't. She said we didn't get sick, though.)
If Ben and Uncle Bennett hadn't already gone out and cut down a cedar, my father would go and help them, and we'd decorate it. I remember thinking cedar trees were a bit too sparse to look really good, but it sure smelled heavenly!
Our stockings were hung on the mantel in the front room, because that room was heated by a stove, not the fireplace. That same stocking is hanging on my mantel right now, having been filled for at least 47 Christmases that I know of.
We'd drive into downtown Nashville and look at the store window decorations. One memorable Christmas Eve, everyone in the car except me saw Santa Claus flying along; whenever I'd crane my neck, saying eagerly, "Where, where??", he would have just gone behind a skyscraper, darn it. I think I was all of 14 before I got over regretting missing him.
Ben and I would be bouncy with excitement, and not want to go to bed, of course. I can remember feeling like I was going to just burst out of my skin, I was so eager! (Eep--in some ways, I haven't changed much!)
Christmas dinner was always turkey--my father insisted that it be a hen turkey, and fresh, not frozen--and dressing, cranberry sauce (that, too, was fresh), and various side dishes. The ladies would work on its preparation all day.
The other four uncles and their wives and children would come. The 12 adults squeezed around the dining table, and we kids got a table to ourselves in the kitchen. Much fun, talking, and enjoyment!
Nowadays, I love all kinds of things about Christmas; and I have to say that my innate laziness makes it pretty easy for me not to worry if things are not "just so". I love the old familiar carols, and the Messiah; the sound of sleigh bells; candy canes; all the lovely lights; and there is certainly not much that can beat the looks on the faces of children who still believe, on Christmas morn when they find that Santa has indeed come. Both my kids were November babies, so I made sure they each got baptized on Christmas Sunday.
Mostly, though, you know, I just love the SPIRIT that pervades just about everywhere! People seem happier, quicker to forgive--yet also quicker not to offend (for ex. in a long line at the checkout counter), and are certainly more generous.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
I'll begin the list (memories included) and see what you all enjoy, whether different or similar: ~ WordwindWell Wordwind I've checked your list twice and the only common Christmas favorites I have with you would be... (1) Bourbon (2) The Nutcracker, (3) The Messiah, (4) Little girls in velvet red and purple dresses, (5) And maybe fried oysters in a casserole, a specialty of my Aunt Virginia but we had the good manners not to eat them until Christmas Dinner. (6) And maybe looking at lights; for several years I'd load up the kids and we'd ride the neighborhood in search of the most garish, the tackiest, the most Lit-up-like-a-beer-joint house we could find. We would laugh and argue over our choices. The finder would receive extra candy. It was fun. And memories? Most of my Christmases have been bland happy affairs but three stand out... ***When I was a child at Grandpa Griders at Christmas I remember in indelible detail Uncle Jack looking at me as me and my brother sat playing on the floor. It was a look of such sadness and compassion that I can see it today. Jack was a quiet man. The rest of the Griders were spirited and funloving so the room was filled with the din of Christmas joy, but Uncle Jack just keep looking at me with his big sad soulful eyes, people always said he was a dead ringer for Jesus Christ as seen by a Baptist. What, I wondered and still wonder, did those great intelligent eyes see and say? Jack had recently married a sweet Catholic girl named Catherine. This was a bit of an ordeal for the family. (The last sentence is understated). Catherine became pregnant. Jack was called to go overseas to fight the Chinese Communists. The airplane he was flying crashed into a korean mountain and he was killed. It was said by those who knew him that he was too good for this world and had gone to another. This is often said as a kindness but with Jack it was said as truth. Catherine never re-married. She died young. Their son ran around with a motorcycle gang. I haven't seen him in twenty-five years. I feel guilty. ***When I was twenty I knew everything. I knew that Christmas was a mere cultural bonding mechanism that with great hypocrisy gave vent to the failure of all to be loving and kind and Christlike the rest of the year. I agreed to a night and day watch at the freight terminal where I worked for the 48 hours during Christmas. Great! I'd be paid time and a half for reading, resting, writing, and listening to the radio. Neat deal, huh? At first it went OK. I learned the structure of the french language from the book "Learn To Speak French In Ten Easy Lessons" in about two hours, but quickly got bored with the repetitive exercises. Time began to drag. I began to wish that somebody would try to break in so I could go get my gun and capture them so I could talk to them until the police came. But no one came and no one called. My loneliness became unbearable. Christmas day came and I became desperate. I fumbled with the radio dial searching for a live human voice. Nothing but static and Christmas music. Was I the only man on the planet? Then, at the last setting of the dial, I found a live Disc Jockey who was taking requests for music - a black DJ named "Shelly the PLayboy". I called the station and in a faltering voice I said... "Shelly, I'm all alone, I... would you please..." I choked up and couldn't finish. I hung up and cried. May God bless all poor souls in jails and prisons this Christmas. ***When I was a child of 54 a few years back "VJ's by the Runway by the Freeway" invited all their customers to their annual Christmas Party. As always it was splendidly done and well attended, mostly by my beer drinking cronies who had lived in the neighborhood many years ago as I did, while most of the others were members of the Air National Guard located nearby. It was a great party, in full swing until somebody perverted the jukebox by playing song after song of hip hop and rock. I wanted to hear some of the more traditional Christmas songs so I unplugged the jukebox and reset it. Then the fight broke out. One of the Air Boys, it seems, had complained to Jody, the manager, about me swiching off the songs that he had played on the jukebox, so Jody told him to take a hike, and then for no apparent reason the Airboy jumped on Jody. I dove into the fray to keep the young brute from hurting Jody although Jody sometimes can be a pain, and then like a miracle the room erupted into the Christmas fight of the season; airmen against old guys. It was quite a scene, everyone 'rasslin and rolling on the floor, biteing and scratching; you couldn't get a chair above your head to throw because the dinning room was packed butt to belly with the fighting celebrants of Christmas. Finally, with great effort, we wresstled the main instigator towards the back door and threw him out and then the fight ended. No one had been seriously hurt so we oldtimers strutted back to the bar and finished our beers muttering "young punks" and "that'll teach 'em to mess with the Vikings" and then we left. That was the last Christmas Party ever held at "VJs". And that is the last of my exceptional Christmas Memories. MERRY CHRISTMAS AWADS
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Midnight Mass, the altar banked with poinsettias, hundreds of candles casting that heavenly glow, a choir in full voice singing my favorite carol "It Came upon a Midnight Clear."
My babies faces when they saw their first Christmas tree. My grown up sons faces anytime.
All the houses with holiday decoration and light.
I just wish they'd leave the lights up to brighten those dark winter nights that are on the way!
(Not mentioning the 10 inches of snow that New England is expecting on Christmas Day!)
Merry Christmas to you all.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 315
enthusiast
|
|
enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 315 |
The nativity scene (crib?). Here it is common to make it in several forms. For example, in the tiny medioeval town (100 people) close to my house, there are statues - real size- all around, shepherds, sheep ,...
But the ones I prefere are the moving ones, in which everything is animated.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
My brother called me this AM. He's a trucker, and was delivering a load to a small warehouse in Georgia, where he chanced upon a Nativity scene set up in the central square of a small town east of Atlanta. The figures were all life sized, and he was intrigued to notice that the Magi were dressed in full firefighter turnout gear.
He inquired at the Piggly Wiggle down the street, where he was told that was straight from the Bible. "Yup, it says right in there that the three wise men came from a far."
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Again, and always, only you Ted, only you! Far out!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
We have a custom at Midnight Mass on Christmas which invariably sends the shivers up and down your spine. Following Communion and before the final prayer, the lights go out so the church is lit only by the 16+ candles in the sanctuary. All 3 verses of Silent Night are then sung by everyone, all kneeling (fortunately most people know it by heart, since it's too dark to read in the nave). The first verse has light organ accompaniment, the second a cappella, the choir leading, the third with a little more organ. Then the lights come back on, the final prayer is said and the bishop gives the Christmas blessing, and the final hymn blasts out (usually either Joy to the World or Hark the Herald Angels Sing). A real smasheroo ending.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
Emanuela, another common word is a French borrowing, creche. It is said that the idea of having a creche/presepio in churches came from St. Francis and the custom arose in Italy. We have an Italian creche which we bought 38 years ago when we lived there and every year when we decorate the house for Christmas that's the first thing that goes up, in the center of the mantlepiece.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,350
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
773
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
