Fave holiday things:

1. My mom’s apple pie–seriously, the best in the world.
2. Lights and decorations (some of our neighbors take this to epic proportions–very glad I don’t have to pay their utility bills!)–loads of fun to drive around and see who has the most extravagant displays.
3. The look on someone’s face when they open a surprise gift from me, and knowing I just “nailed it.”
4. My favorite holiday music (in a playlist on my iPod so that I don’t subject anyone else to “I Farted on Santa’s Lap”).
5. Shopping on Dec 26.

Least fave things:

1. Any holiday music that is not on my iPod playlist.
2. Crowds in stores/ increased traffic on roads.
3. The four-hour meeting on Dec 22 I can’t get out of and the pile of letters I’ll need to produce on Dec 23 as a result of the meeting on the 22nd. I haven’t had pre-holiday time off in over a decade. God help me if the weather is bad on one of those two days.
4. My sister-in-law: whiny, entitled, hyper-critical. There’s always something to complain about: the house, my mother’s housekeeping, the food (SiL always manages to have a mysterious ailment or allergy that prevents her from eating anything at Christmas dinner, leaving her staring down her nose at her empty plate with an injured, martyr-like expression), the pets, my sister’s two kids.
5. My brother’s refusal to defend our mother to his wife when she engages in #4.
6. Merchandise labels stuck on with a ton of glue that can’t be removed without the destruction of three or four fingernails.

I think that covers it. : )

Favorites:

1. Holiday cooking
2. It’s the one time a year I see my parents and siblings (this is also a least favorite).
3. Decorating trees
4. Picking out presents for people
5. Making pasta on Christmas Eve and then all piling into the car to go look at the lights
6. Not holiday related, but since I’ll be in NC, it’s the one time of year I get REAL sweet tea, biscuits, Chik Fil A, and Bojangles.
7. Hiding the Baby Jesus from the nativity in various Christmas decorations around our house.

Least favorites:

1. My flight out is always the day of the first heavy snow, which makes it really hard since I only get that time with my family.
2. Jingle Bell Rock and Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.
3. Holiday diet guides that inevitably suggest eating before you go and drinking white wine spritzers.
4. Jewelry and car ads.

Favorites-
(1) Decorating the tree
(2) Christmas music (yes 24/7 I basically OD on it from the day after thanksgiving until Epiphany. I love them all the religious (O Holy Night is my fav), the secular (no one tops Karen Carpenter’s version of Christmas Waltz) the zany (Grandma Got Run over by a Reindeer).
(3) Christmas cards, sending and receiving.
(4) The food
(5) Wrapping presents
(6) Seeing family
(7) Christmas movies, Rankin’ Bass and Charlie Brown, and the Grinch, oh I love them all so much.

Least Favorites-
(1) Parking
(2) Christmas stuff BEFORE Thanksgiving (some grace is given during the week of to put up decorations but lets not get carried away.)
(3) Office gifts, I like my co-workers but really I don’t know them well enough to give a nice gift and how many times can you do a DD or Panaera gift card?
(4) Cold, cold cold weather.

Good Stuff –

1. The Great Dickens Christmas Fair and Victorian Holiday Party. Spending my weekends in a slightly sanitized (our beggars are well fed and we have water closets) 1850s London is The Good Parts Version of the holidays for me: non-sanctimonious, non-commercial, acoustic, people happy to be where they are doing what they are doing. (Besides, it’s kind of fun to be 60 and in the girlie show!)

2. My late husband’s ex-wife’s current-husband’s (yes, we are a weird family, but it works for the kids) duck or goose Christmas Dinner.

3. Presents, in either direction, as long as they are “oh, what a perfect thing for X” presents and not “gosh, I have to give X SOMETHING and this will do” presents. Fortunately, the people with whom I exchange presents are easily amused.

4. Cookies.

5. San Francisco Zoo (open on Christmas and usually uncrowded and those people who are there are smiling.

6. Latkes (see below).

Bad and/or Ugly

1. Shopping malls.

2. People in shopping malls demonstrating The True Meaning of Christmas by yelling at their kids, being rude to clerks and otherwise demonstrating that they celebrate The Mid-Winter-Commercial-Holiday-of-Their-Choice rather than the birth of the Son or the re-birth of the Sun or whatever.

3. People who get all stressed out about wishing people joy for the wrong holiday — I’m perfectly happy to be merry on Christmas even if I don’t necessarily believe the supporting mythology. And I hate the weird feeling I get that I have to appologize for them being uncomfortable about saying the wrong thing.

4. “Novelty” Christmas music, which even if good falls into the Funny Once category.

5. People wishing me Happy Hanukkah except during Hanukkah. If you are going to go be PC about it you can at least do your homework and do it righ!.

Changeable –

1. The Little Drummer Boy. I really like the song in theory, but it collects more bad covers than any other song I know.

———————-
How I make Latkes

Take two Idaho type potatoes and half an onion. You can add garlic if you like. Cut them into hunks and put them in a food processor or blender and process them until they are all ground up.

Put potato onion mush on some cheese-cloth and make it into a bundle and use it to squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Put into bowl.

Add egg and mix up completely. (Can be done with fork but I think hands work better.) If runny, add a bit of matzo meal or flour.

Put oil (olive oil if healthy or lazy, or schmaltz if you are a traditionalist) in a pan. Heat (“medium heat”? — it needs to be hot enough to sizzle but not so hot it smokes or burns) Put “patties” of eggy-potato stuff in pan and cook them until golden brown, turning every so often.

Serve hot with applesauce and sour cream.

I won’t say this is fool proof, but I was introduced to it (minus garlic, cheese-cloth and matzo meal) in a hotel room Hanukkah party (made with a blender and electric fry pan), and I make about 10 pounds of potatoes worth when I throw my almost-annual Freedom’s Hero Days party on MLK’s birthday (LONG story) so I know they are workable under many situations. You can play around with any one part of the recipe (sweet-potatoes instead of white, garlic and no onion, exotic oils, flax seed for eggs) pretty easily as long as you keep the proportions the same; never messed with it further than that.

I think I make pretty good latkes, but I’m not going to put myself up against anyone names Abrahams. :)
However, for the wax, I’d suggest putting the menorah in the freezer for while, and then chipping off the wax.
Favorites:
the food
the lights
the food
the insanity of putting a great big tree in my house, as if that’s in anyway a normal thing to do.
the food
the few moments when I really really feel “christmasy.”

Unfavorites:
All the moments when I have to do christmas stuff whether I feel christmasy or not.
Juggling the families so no one feels shortchanged.
The malls.
People who think “happy holidays” is some kind of curse.

Favorites:
- cookies!
- the smell of a freshly-cut Christmas tree
- others enjoying the gifts I picked out for them
- getting gifts
- the reminder to slow down and enjoy friends and family
- getting something other than bills and catalogues in the mail (cards!)

Dislikes:
- stress. I love giving gifts, but hate when I can’t think of good gifts to give. Also, the stress of hosting family (although I prefer hosting to traveling)
- taking DOWN the tree
- the hordes at the malls
- incessant bad Christmas music
- Christmas decorations/trappings before Thanksgiving (I even saw some before Halloween)

I concur with the commenter who suggested the freezer for removing wax. Also, depending on the material, you can try hot hot hot water.

Latke side note- I just tried a recipe yesterday for carrot-parsnip latkes. I actually substituted turnips for parsnips since that’s what I had and it worked out well. The recipe was 3/4 pounds each of parsnips (turnips) and carrots, a small onion, 1/4 bread crumbs or flour, 1 egg, salt, pepper and thyme. Mix that all together and cook like what Shulamuth had in her recipe above. This recipe had them cooking for 8 minutes on each side which worked pretty well.
This actually was a weight watchers recipe so put these out and your guests won’t feel bad if they didn’t follow the other guides like what Amy R. said. :)

My favorites:
1. I actually am a sucker for most Christmas music.
2. Cookies!!!!!!
3. Wrapping presents. I love to wrap presents and tie bows. I was wrapping presents on Saturday night thinking I should get a job at one of those mall kiosks.
4. Finding the perfect gift for someone.

Least favorite:
1. Family Drama! It seems like every year there is some drama with my family or the in-laws having to do with the inevitable changing of traditions as we get older and try to meld different families together.
2. Not having enough time to do everything I want to prepare and see everyone we want to celebrate.

Amy R – there are Chik-fil-A’s around here at the Burlington and North Shore malls.

There’s so much to love and hate about any big holiday. What I love about Christmas/The Winter Holidays:

1. The effort made to be inclusive, at least as shown in the public schools. Okay, it would be nice if people could be inclusive about the big holidays like Ramadan, The Days of Awe and Passover, but at least the effort to include Hannukah, Diwali, Kwanza shows that people recognize that religions other than Christianity exist. And I appreciate that. Happy Holidays to all.

2. Baking, and giving, my special holiday fruitcake. I make a really awesome fruitcake and my friends love it (really! they eat it in front of me!). It’s a long process that encompasses weeks, so it’s very satisfying. Chock full of dried cherries, blueberries, cranberries, apricots, apples, raisins, currants, and pecans and soaked in bourbon, it is hard to resist.

3. I’m with Robin on the lights. I love Christmas lights, but I also love the English way of calling them Fairy lights. But whatever you call them, they are beautiful.

4. Messiah. I sing (professionally) and Messiah is the standard December gig. But it’s a GREAT gig. The music is fantastic. The audiences are fantastic. Symphony Hall is fantastic. The whole experience can’t be beat.

5. A good lessons and carols service.

What I hate:

1. The pressure from parents and in-laws to travel away from my home. I take such care to decorate my house, my tree, bake goodies, and hate to pack up and leave it all on Christmas day. Not to mention that (as mentioned above) professional singers are TIRED on Christmas. I just want to stay home with my husband, son and dogs, and enjoy the day.

2. Crowds. I enjoy shopping for presents, but really really really really hate shopping in crowds. Amazon.com, here I come!

3. All the affectionate gestures during cold and flu season. Please – no hugs, kisses, and even handshakes. I’m trying to stay healthy so I can sing. Just wave to me. Or air kiss.

What I like:

1. the baking and eating of all things unhealthy
2. the gift giving
3. the christmas specials/movies from the ref to muppet christmas carol and everything in between
4. the family togetherness

what i dislike:
1. the shopping and the crowds
2. the family togetherness (too much of anything is a bad thing)
3. my birthday is the day after christmas, which means my auto registration has to be renewed, my car inspected and once every 5 years my license has to be renewed. oh and setting a birthday party date is next to impossible

Birthdate Jan 4 here, and Amen! I usually celebrate on MLK weekend!

What I like:
1. Knowing there are only a few weeks/days left to end the year off on a high note, and then pushing to make that happen.
2. a new one that started this year: Playing the carillon during Lessons and Carols (I learned this fall!)
3. The smell of evergreens, pine cones, and baked goods baking.

What I dislike:
1. Christmas music everywhere
2. A temporary resurgence of chuggers (not sure if anyone else has come across this, but I have)
3. Backyards with an army of those inflatable and light up … dolls? figures? statues? what’s the right term for them?

Favorites:
1. Picking up the good feelings by osmosis. Usually not in crowded malls, but walking around in Harvard Square or downtown Boston, hearing the Salvation Army bell-ringers, etc. It just makes me smile.
2. Funky craft fairs
3. “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Every year, I say I won’t watch it AGAIN, then run into when flipping stations. I always cry at the end.

Least favorite:
Those bozos who try to convince me that I should have a Christmas tree because “it’s not a CHRISTIAN tradition–It’s a PAGAN one.” Sorry, either way, it’s still not MY tradition and I’m not having one unless my husband wants it. Same goes for those who call it a “holiday tree.” The only holiday I celebrate that involves trees is Tu Bishvat.

Favorites

1 The concert I’m in this Saturday and Sunday
http://www.cambridgemadrigals.org/

2 Other good choral music

3 Having my sister in town visiting Mom

4 Making it to the day itself, and having the day off

Least favorites

1 Cold, wet, and dark

2 Bad music–including any in stores

3 Being too tired to go hear the good stuff

The Good:

1. The decorations. I sincerely wish we could leave Christmas lights up all winter. It’s just so damn festive and joyous on these dark, cold winter nights.

2. Making ravioli from scratch using the recipe that my great-great grandparents brought over from Italy. My dad’s father (who passed away long before I was born) handmade a rolling pin for the process. I love how it connects all the generations of the family to one another. It doesn’t hurt that the ravioli are phenomenal (I might be biased here but still).

3. Spending time with my family. The older I get, the more important this gets.

4. Cookies!

5. Eggnog. I. LOVE. Eggnog. Love.

The Bad:

1. It doesn’t mean what it once did. I find it hard to find the holiday as wondrous as I once did. Life happens. Sometimes bad things happen at joyous times.

In “Bad news… Good news” order:
Dislike: “The Carrie Underwood Christmas Special” bumping “House”
Like: “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (1960′s Boris Karloff version) and “Elf”

Dislike: Christmas music in the grocery store… the deli line at Market Basket does not inspire warm fuzzy feelings of good cheer, and another round of “Dominic the Donkey” just makes it worse.
Like: Lessons and Carols services at church, a reminder that while Josh Groban and Nat King Cole might have more talent, there’s something remarkable about singing with a whole congregation instead of belting it out in your car.

Dislike: Those impossible-to-buy-for family members!
Like: GIFT CARDS! I know you think they’re tacky, but hubby has been out of work for a year, and while we’re still doing okay, I’m racked with guilt if I spend money on clothes, movies or even a coffee. I can’t put a Starbucks card in savings or pay a little more on the student loans, I may as well have that gingerbread latte!

Dislike: Trying to fit twice the family celebrations into the same 48 hour period.
Like: Holding onto my grandmother’s hug for that extra second or two, so she knows I really, really mean it.

I forgot to add my candle wax idea….I second or third the putting it in the freezer idea. I have done that before. Another option depending on the material of the menorah is to use flame, but use it wisely. I do Pysanky and it is way of decorating eggs with a wax resistance, and after all of your colors are added and dried you need to remove the wax. You do it by using flame to warm the wax and you wipe it off with a soft cloth and I have been known to use a paper towel in a pinch. It is a slow and methodical process but it can be done.

You can technically do it in an oven but that freaks me out a bit and I don’t remember if you need a gas or electric stove and what temp.

FYI if you want more info about Pysanky and sadly my eggs do not look nearly as good as the ones shown.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pysanky

Oh, my goodness! How could I possibly have forgotten to add to my “like” list:

1. The Heat Miser/ Freeze Miser song from “The Year Without a Santa Claus.” I can give or take the rest of the story, but that one number is my absolute favorite from my childhood.

2. The Doctor Who Christmas episode!!! Because the holiday wouldn’t be complete without an alien invasion! The hands-down best cheese-tastic moment was when the Doctor had to prevent a spaceship replica of the Titanic from crashing into Buckingham Palace, complete with a shot of the queen in bathrobe, slippers, and hair curlers, surrounded by corgis, evacuating the palace, and then waving to the Doctor as the spaceship passes safely overhead. [I am not making this up.]

I also should mention:

3. The smell of evergeens.

4. Latkes (if I can find someone who is willing to make them for me).

Like:
1. Holiday Food – baking, cooking and mixing! Cookies, fun appetizers and festive cocktails are the best!
2. Christmas Music @ home…my ecclectic collection of Reader’s Digest Christmas Thru the Years classics, Cartoon Christmas, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Swing, and more.
3. Christmas Lights, especially those in and around our own house.
4. Christmas movies: A Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, Scrooged, Bad Santa, The Grinch (original), A Christmas Carol (30′s and 50′s). Accompanied by said apps, cookies and cocktails :-)
5. Dark, cold winter walks to look at the lights with hubby.
Not-so-Much:
1. Gift grubbing! Gift giving should be a fun, anticipated event…not the this-is-what-I-want-so-you-better-get-it-for-me feeling that has invaded our families.
2. Christmas carols sung by current pop stars.
3. Trying to make both families happy, yet still celebrate on our own as a family (me, hubby and two fur babies).
4. The over-the-top commercial feel…trying to combat by attending a candle light service at the Congregational chruch this year. We’re not even remotely religious, but want to do something “Christmasy” that is actual related to Christmas!

… so, none of y’all are going to enlighten me as to the True Meaning of Hanukkah? Dang. I was kind of hoping for a connect there. My sympathies to all of you who have family difficulties on the holiday season.

@AmyR, loved this as a “woe”: “Holiday diet guides that inevitably suggest eating before you go and drinking white wine spritzers.” Amen!

@Shulamuth & Abby, thanks for the recipes! If I’m feeling ambitious, maybe I’ll try to make latkes this year.

@veronica–sorry about the bad birthday timing! I’ve got a letter coming up in the column about that.

@I Heart Crane–”Backyards with an army of those inflatable and light up … dolls? figures? statues? what’s the right term for them?” Yeah, I don’t know either. And what’s with those things that look like small bouncy castles with stuff (Santa, snowmen, whatever) inside them? When did those start happening?

@nortarr–Wow, people have said that to you? How incredibly stupid! “I’m not a pagan EITHER, dude!” You are right about the spirit in Harvard Square and the fab craft fairs. Have you been to Design Hive at the Baldwin School? Check that, too.

@ATF–We do have colored Christmas lights in our kitchen year-round! I love it. I’m sorry the magic fades. The ConductMom was talking about the exact same thing. She used to be Santa’s Chief Elf, and she’s just not that into it anymore.

@Anne with an E–It’s not so much that I think gift cards are tacky, I just think they’re high-risk. At least you use them. It’s really, really annoying to give someone a generous gift card and find out later it never got used. It’s also annoying to get a gift card to a place that doesn’t exist in your geographical area, or suit your tastes. When done right, they can be nice; like you say, a way of forcing a person to indulge herself a little.

@WES–I am of Ukranian ancestry and all about the psanky! Can’t do them, but I do love them, and I have a few.

@EAWeek–I was in 3rd grade when that special came out, and I always call it “The Year the White Kids Got Rhythm at James Fenimore Cooper Elementary School.” After eight years of “Jingle Bell Rock” being the hottest Christmas lick we’d ever heard, that song was a REVELATION. We wuz dirty-dancin’ in the cafeteria the next morning!

It’s interesting how many of you mention something you make or do as a favorite … taking ownership of the holiday, using it as a way to express your creativity and love. Maybe if I stopped trying to UNDERSTAND Hanukkah and just DID some Hanukkah stuff, I too would get the joy. In a totally non-bin-Laden way.

In order to end on a high note,

The Ugly:
Parking and/or driving near a mall. I take special pains to avoid this for the full span between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

The gift-giving ads. A Lexus is an option for so few, and generic jewelry, well, it says so much.

I’m with Amy R on the “diet tips,” too. They’re basically saying “you can’t trust yourself to not have too much fun.” BAH!

The Bad:
Someone always has to travel for the holidays. And airports are sheer Not Fun at best.

Christmas music. In general. I like it for an hour or so, so I reserve that for Christmas day.

Being a non-celebrator of any actual holiday of winter. I go with Christmas because that’s what my family does.

The Good:
My mother and I have formed our own holiday traditions, since it’s just the two of us on holidays now. We still have champagne for breakfast (though now we mix with pomegranate juice instead of orange — so much more festive!), and we still play Trivial Pursuit, and we still cook and eat too much.

Holiday food. Not that we have a tradition anymore, but picking special dishes or new dishes IS the tradition now. And my mother and I both love to cook.

Setting a pretty table to consume said food. I do this only during the holidays.

My list of people to exchange gifts with is very small, so I enjoy the choosing.

It is not my year to travel for the holidays.

Bluemoose, champagne and pomegranate juice has been my new favorite cocktail for a while now! Ain’t it yummy?

I’m glad you mentioned having a hard time feeling the spiritual aspect of Chanukah, because every December, I run into the issue of missing celebrating Santa Christmas, and Chanukah just isn’t doing much for that.

And I’m suddenly too exhausted to do a good/bad list, but I’ll see what I can come up with tomorrow.

I’m mostly a lurker but thought I’d pop on and comment (even though I’m a few days late).

Dislikes:
1. People telling me (unsolicited) that they don’t like holidays. I don’t mind if holidays are not your thing, but if I’m excited about my tree it’s a downer and kind of awkward when people sniff and tell me they don’t LIKE holidays. I agree with you, Robin, about being bombarded in the season, so I hold no grudge against people who feel that way. If I ask someone about their holiday they are free to tell me they’re tired of it/ aren’t enjoying the holidays. I’d just prefer people didn’t make me feel bad for enjoying the things I DO enjoy.

2. Christmas muzak as many others have said. See my “like” below.

3. Traffic, parking, etc.

My likes are interesting because I realize that so much of how I enjoy the holidays (Christmas for me) is in a celebration of the Winter Season that I think of as being Christmas, but it really doesn’t have to be.
1. Decorations, not just lights, but all the beautiful greenery and the way people decorate their trees (all white lights, colorful lights, kids ornaments, fancy ornaments), the various wreaths, beautiful menorahs, advent calendars, etc. I love all of these things surrounded by our blue winter evenings especially on snowy days.

2. All the wonderful Christmas music many people don’t know. I love Lessons and Carols services and the longer Christmas Cds/albums that have many beautiful songs about Christmas that would never be played in a department store. Jesus Christ the Apple Tree is one of my favorites. And I love listening to the two versions of Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing day (there may be more than two, but I only know two and they have vastly different tempos and melodies with the same lyrics).

3. Advent calendars themselves! I wonder if the Jewish tradition has anything like this? What I love about them is that many tell little pieces of the (Christmas) story window after window, one a day, in what can be really beautiful pieces of art. I feel like this could be a fun thing to translate to any religious story, maybe more for kids than adults, but still.

4. Christmas celebrations at museums. I intimately know the one at Orchard House in Concord and it’s fun to be a part of as everyone who visits is so lovely during these weekends! I also hope to check out the evenings in Sturbridge and Newport if I can make it.

5. Gatherings. There are so many fun group activities that people are excited to do around the holidays, gingerbread houses, cookie-making, holiday movie parties and caroling. One year when friends and I were feeling snowed-in I suggested we do readings from some of the Christmas books I have (I have a lot of beautiful Christmas books). Everyone went into hysterics at this cheesy (but characteristic) suggestion, but then we passed around an anthology anyway and had a wonderful time!

Sorry that was so long, but I want to end with a question. Does anyone know of any good Lessons and Carols services that involve lots of the audience singing in the Boston area? I’d love to try some new ones!

@JennyL3igh-”Advent calendars themselves! I wonder if the Jewish tradition has anything like this?” The month of Elul is a big run-up to the High Holy Days, so we get that anticipation thing. There’s also “Counting the Omer,” although good luck finding anyone who can explain what THAT means. You’re not going to find anything like that around Hanukkah, though, which is not a major holiday.

@Several of you–I’ve never heard of “Lessons and Carols” services! Not part of the Christian tradition I was raised in.

@Everyone–is this @ thing really annoying? I picked up the habit because it seems ubiquitous. But why do it if you’re not on Twitter? I think I’ll stop.

Also, I just heard that Harvard’s Memorial Church does terrific Lessons & Carols services. Don’t know about audience singing, but you could call and ask:

http://www.memorialchurch.harvard.edu/index.php

I really enjoy this blog, but I’m not very good at commenting so I mostly don’t.

My favorite things about the holidays (Christmas for me):

The spiritual meaning (I love being reminded to think seriously about it)

Rereading the excellent graphic novel version of A Christmas Carol illustrated by someone called Michael Cole that my grandmother gave me (I would totally recommend this — it’s almost like watching an ideal movie version.)

Decorating the tree (my family has some really pretty ornaments)

My least-favorite thing used to be having to prepare for finals over the holidays, but now my school has FINALLY changed its schedule so we’re all done before the break (Hip hip – HOORAY!) so I’m not sure there are any downsides for me. I know that sounds ridiculous, but my family is harmonious, and we have an “only stocking-stuffers” gift policy among the three of us which takes the stress out of gift-giving. We have been known to stretch the definition of “in” the stocking when there’s a big item that we know one of us wants, though.

Thanks for the interesting and informative blog!

EA Week — Heat Miser, Cold Miser!! Love love love that song! I still sing it out loud all year long in inappropriate situations! We used to call my little red-haired brother Heat Miser when he got up in the morning with his hair sticking up (it’s been enough years now that he no longer has hair).

Favorites:
1. Singing Christmas songs around the house. Most favorite: Sing Along With Mitch Christmas album.
2. Amazon Wish Lists. Now Mom gets me exactly what I want, and I get her exactly what she wants, and we’re both happy.
3. Hearing Mrs. Loftus sing “Oh Holy Night” at Midnight Mass. In my head. She’s been dead for years, but I still hear her.
4. Creating my holiday card and quiz. Instead of a newsletter, I write up a funny multiple-choice quiz about various happenings during the year.

Least Favorite:
1. Pressure to spend spend spend.
2. Tradition for tradition’s sake. I love traditions, but I think I need to be part of creating them. I may not be explaining this well, but I’m somehow disappointed when people say “because it’s always been done that way” or “that’s the way it’s done,” (implying that everyone does it that way, and any other way is wrong.) My family has some decidedly uncommon Christmas traditions, from toasting in noon with Mom’s “delicious” dandelion wine to watching my Dad dance in his new wacky pair of slippers every year. Traditions should have stories behind them so you can explain them (maybe) to your incredulous non-family friends. Tradition is what you make of it, and you shouldn’t feel pressured to bow to anyone else’s tradition.

Eager Ears, I think you’re good at commenting! And I’ve always felt sorry for students at this time of year. I remember how frustrating it was to be too overwhelmed with papers and finals to enjoy the lights, the TV specials … and then having to cram all my shopping in as soon as the last test was taken! Ugh.

Diane, LOVE the comments about tradition. So very very true.

Thanks, Robin, I know that Hannukah isn’t a huge holiday and it would be odd to count down to 8 days of counting…:) I was just hoping I’d hit on something that might have cross-over enjoyment for people looking for a new way to celebrate!

I don’t know if you looked up Lessons and Carols (thanks for the suggestion, by the way, I may go to that Monday service!) but according to Wikipedia and my experience the service is “the birth of Jesus [as] told in nine short Bible readings, interspersed with the singing of Christmas carols and hymns.”

Also, I don’t mind the @ thing, but I don’t know that it’s necessary. Just addressing the person seems to work fine here too. That reminds me of something I do too, I tend to use smiley-faces and exclamation marks more than many people (see above). I guess I have a fear that people on email and blogs will take things more negatively than they are meant (because people, in fact, do). So I tend to try and compensate by making sure there is an indication if something is light-hearted. The result is that things also are much less formal, which isn’t so bad, but an interesting behavior. (I do not use smileys at work though.)

Diane, we have some traditions in my family that always raised some eyebrows. Christmas Eve, we eat pizza. Always have, always will. When you cook a huge feast the next day, all day long, pizza is nice and easy to do.

Although the one tradition I thought was unique or rare was displayed on Modern Family last night “At 9 PM Christmas Eve you open one present, pajamas, and then you sleep in them”

i pour boiling water over the menorah. melts everything right down the drain.

Josh Groban is one of my favorite classical-pop singer after Hayley Westenra’-*