A reader question for the community:
I have a question for the community which has given much sound direction: what are the holiday traditions which we can never give up? Decorations, food, gifting, etc,.?
Monday, December 4, 2023
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NEVER NEVER NEVER GIVE UP ONE THING.
ReplyDeleteAll the above.
ReplyDeleteI don't think my husband and I will ever give up the fresh cut tree. I'm looking at mine right now (smile).
ReplyDeleteEgg nog, unfortunately. At 57, my body does not thank me for it.
ReplyDeleteLove egg nog - it's the holidays...enjoy !!
DeleteYes, egg nogg with rum.
DeleteA freshly cut tree, wreaths, eggnog, my wife's authentic Dresdner stollen, pretty seasonal music, lots of candles, hoping for snow, and THOUGHTFUL gifts (not the singing bass for example)for close family.
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Heinz-Ulrich
Egg nog, with a little bourbon or scotch. At 75 my body thanks me for it.
ReplyDeletesinging in the winter concert with my community choir & church choir.
DeleteWell, I'm Jewish so...
ReplyDelete;o)
So...no holidays in December?
DeleteI wish you and yours a very happy Hanukkah!
DeleteIt is the same for Thanksgiving. On the night before we build a fire in the fireplace and cook hot dogs over the flame.
ReplyDeleteStrong ale. It's got to be over 7% ABV.
ReplyDeleteOyster stew on Christmas eve.
ReplyDeleteWe make a traditional Swiss fondue every year on Christmas night. The recipe was collected by my parents in the 80's from their dear friend who is from Geneva. A fresh cut tree is a must- how people erect fake trees is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteI used to love fondue. We had a killer recipe from a Swiss restaurant at the bottom of Smuggler's Notch ski area in Vermont. It has five different cheeses (cheddar, gruyere, emmentaler, appenzeller, and Swiss wine-maker's cheese), and it was made with beer rather than wine and a bit of rum rather than kirsch, and a dusting of fresh nutmeg.
DeleteOne time, I brought this to a dinner party. It was such a hit the hostess got a little annoyed as people clamored for the recipe, but not for recipes from her dinner. We were never invited back, so that was the last time I brought that fondue outside the house.
Aiken
Aiken, please share that fondue recipe!
DeleteWill not give up the Glögg, live candles around the house, and live candles on a real tree...
ReplyDeleteYes, Glogg!
DeleteBourbon with a tiny bit of egg nog.
ReplyDeleteLots of fresh green boughs to decorate the hearth.
Catherine Deneuve’s favorite chocolate cookies. The recipe was published in the New York Post in 2002, thereabouts. It’s a “knock off” from patisserie Pierre Herme. My daughter stopped there to sample the original version. Her verdict, “yup, they taste just like my Dad’s.”
ReplyDelete"This bayberry candle comes from friend, so this holiday eve burn it down to the end. For a bayberry candle burned down to the socket brings joy to heart and gold to the pocket."
ReplyDeleteA fresh cut tree that my husband cut, making boilo, and using all of the very sentimental ornaments on the tree that we've collected over our lifetimes. --Holly in PA
ReplyDeleteFor the last few years we have been enjoying brandy alexanders while opening presents on a quiet Christmas evening by ourselves. Seems like a tradition that will stick for us.
ReplyDeleteWe're French so definitely a crèche provençale (nativity scene) and fine food.
ReplyDeleteWe love a relaxed Christmas Eve dinner of roast beef and a good Cab, followed eventually by a steamed pudding and hard sauce. Christmas morning is all about home made English muffins dripping with butter, folded eggs, and pot after pot of coffee, segueing into cold roast beef sandwiches with piccalilli for lunch. It is a time to be at ease with family and friends. Church is, of course, required, but the quiet of low Sunday speaks to us. On Tuesdays, which catch the Feast of Stephen, our church serves those in greatest need. It is a gift to us.
ReplyDeleteMy dad was a popular newspaper columnist and radio personality, and someone at a flea market found the perfect Christmas tree ornament: one of those little lemon-shaped lemon juice containers with a tiny photo of my dad mounted inside like a bird in a birdhouse, with the exterior covered with clippings from his columns. They bought it and gave it to us, and we think Christmas isn't really Christmas without it.
ReplyDeleteLuminarios – A New Mexico tradition I've adopted – Candles in brown paper bags, lit at dusk, on Christmas eve..simple 'magia.'
ReplyDeleteKrampus karols, Vince Guaraldi, A Christmas Carol, a lot of fish
ReplyDeleteFresh cut tree, 12 Christmas Eve vegetarian dishes, Christmas carols, beeswax candles, WHITE crispy linen tablecloth and some hey under it in one corner of the table and finally: one spare place setting for unexpected gust, someone in need (originally for our relatives which are not with us any more...).
ReplyDeleteEven if I am not particularly religious, dreaming to make it to the traditional Christmas Eve Holy Mass at midnight this year perhaps.
Was once in my childhood, in the mountains and it's one of the most magic winter memories.
I.
The essential? A Christmas tree.
ReplyDeleteA tree trimmed painstakingly with a few strands of tinsel, here and there. Any little waft of air moves the tinsel. It makes your tree come alive.
DeleteSo many to list, but my favorite is Christmas Eve dinner with my wife's family. Around the table with Filet Mignon and crab legs, open gifts with them and the cousins. The absolute best is we head home, change into our suits, and dresses and head to the 11:00pm candlelight service at our church. We attend a 225 year old Episcopal cathedral downtown where the bishop presides and opens the front doors to the bells of midnight. Truly wonderful.
ReplyDelete