How do you celibrate X-mas

[Marie2473]

Since we are a forum with members from all over the world I would love to hear some stories on how YOU celibrate X-mas!

Here in Sweden we celibrate today (24th of December) and we usually gather at someones house (usually my parents) around 1o´clock or so.
At 3 it is a tv show on that goes EVERY christmas with Donald Duck, amongst others that we (and the whole country) watcher. It lasts for about an hour.

After that it is time fpr X-mas dinner.. Pickled Herring, ham, meatballs, salmon, sausages, sallads of varieous kinds and so on. See picture for example =)




After that Santa arrives and hands out all the presents and then the rest of the night we just hang out with a beer and some games ...

So how do your family celibrate =)

 

[jetset]

Not that different for our family, although the number of people has grown - lots of little ones around these days!

For us, Christmas (like Thanksgiving in the States) has always been the time when family make great efforts to join us over this festive time, usually staying for several days to a week in which sibling relationships are revived.

Today is reserved for the arrival of Father Christmas for the littlies tonight, when a tankard of beer is left out along with a plate of mince pies, and the kids find an empty tankard and plate the next morning with reindeer spoor in some conveniently placed flour to show that the man really was here!!

Stockings are miraculously filled during the night, and the family all breakfasts together before heading for the beach or playing touch rugby or cricket on the lawn.

Around midafternoon the carols go into the CD player. everyone gathers around the Christmas tree and more pressies are dished out.

The feasting starts after that with hams, lamb and beef roasts and turkey accompanied by a variety of salads and vegetable dishes, with plenty of wine and laughter around the table. The grand finale is the arrival of the Christmas pudding, soaked in brandy and ignited as it is carried to the table to loud approbation - the kids get assorted ice creams and everyone pulls expensive but stingyily filled crackers.

Then there may be some television if anything good is on, or conversation and music - occasionally some games with the kids, but mainly everyone is content, relaxed and stuffed from the feasting.

The following days are spent doing stuff together, maybe visiting local vineyards and beaches or eating out to give SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed, better known as Mom to the kids) a break.

 

[tempestcayla]

Christmas RT style

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
My personal tradition is to work at the hospital
taking a shift or two for the scheduled therapists
that have young ones so they can have it off. Then husband
makes my very favorite meals when I come home.

 

[IanO]

The Christmas Nest

For the last few years I've done the much more 'traditional' Christmas with turkey and a tree etc, but for many years before that I used to love to build my christmas nest. Ahhh the happy memories... (wavey lines wavey lines harp music)

The standard nest consisted of the lay-z-boy pointed directly at the TV, microwave and mini fridge on either side and a stack of sweets and munchies liberally scattered about. I would then proceed to gorge myself silly while watching christmas TV. People would stop by so the front door stayed unlocked, the trick being to move as little as possible

So far this year has mostly consisted of trying to keep the cats away from the tree....

 

[chayton]

I never used to do the big family get-together thing for Christmas because what little family I have left are either too far away or not on speaking terms. When I lived in AZ I used to cook a huge dinner and we'd feed all the strays - people we knew who were alone or didn't have a place to go. Now that I'm here Ray's family has kind of adopted me, so now I do the family hoopla with them!

So we have a Christmas concert at church tonight (Ray's nephew is in the band) and then one of their family traditions is on the evening of Christmas Eve they gather and eat tourtiere (French Canadian meat pie - Ray's 92 year old mother makes the BEST!) and watch 'A Christmas Carol' - then everyone scatters home to open presents at midnight. Then Christmas Day is the big dinner with turkey/ham/etc. Then Boxing Day everyone groans and moans and cleans up and returns the presents they didn't like and we eat leftovers. The next day back to work.

Here's a pic of tourtiere. Yum!

 

[Jasminebed]

My daughter goes to the inlaws for a more traditional meal. I stay home and sacrifice a lobster to the ancient garlic butter gods and play slots.

This year I am having 3 girlfriends over for special coffees and freshly made cinnamon buns for a couple of hours late morning as well.

However you celebrate Christmas, I wish you a peaceful, joyous and fattening day.

 

[jetset]

Merry Christmas everyone! It's early morning Christmas Day here and the entire family has been up since sparrow-fart thanks to the littlies. The chaos, noise and wrapping paper strewn everywhere has to be seen to be believed!

When the time is right - and that is definitely not today with all the activity in the kitchen - I'm going to make some tactful suggestions for augmenting the feast next year with one of those French-Canadian tourtieres - it looks fantastic!

 

[Jasminebed]

When the time is right - and that is definitely not today with all the activity in the kitchen - I'm going to make some tactful suggestions for augmenting the feast next year with one of those French-Canadian tourtieres - it looks fantastic!

Tourtiere is traditional for Christmas Eve, often after Midnight Mass. It can be made well in advance and frozen, ready to bake. It's usually served with ketchup or homemade chili sauce.

 

[chayton]

Tourtiere is made with ground pork with either bread crumbs or potatos, and there's cinnamon and cloves in it, so it has a really unique taste. Some people also put brown sugar or icing sugar in the crust to add just a hint of sweetness. It's really rich so it's not something you'd want to have every day, but once you have a really good homemade tourtiere, you'll start looking forward to next Christmas Eve to have another one!

Ray's sister made 10 of them this year and she's almost as good as his mom (I had TWO pieces!) and she gave us a whole pie to bring home so we get to have it again - maybe for New Years.

 

[Diane]

Thank you to all who have posted their wonderful traditions!!

I enjoyed reading the wide variety of descriptions.

We eat, we play with the little ones, get caught up on news and have bedlam for two days. It is the Best!!

Diane

 

[rockycatt]

its a two day affair here with three homes to visit starting with mine usually about 20 peeps, on the eve [some presents wife gets her bling early to were it at the cocktail gathering ] other adults exchange presents m we set aside a moment and release balloons with messages on them in memory of my son that passed away on 12/24/04 at 11.30 pm tears are followed by joy and fond memories of Matt

then we do breakfast and more presents at my #2 daughters home and more presents for all then at dinner time we go to my # 1 daughters home for a roast beast of some sort of dinner and more gifts and chat about all things good especially re launching her cabin cruiser in the spring

 

[rockycatt]

the last main course feature roast beef on stage here