Christmas Meme

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate though of course in summer it's not really a Christmas staple. I don't think I've ever had egg nog. I like the idea of it but does it actually have egg in it? I'm not really into drinking raw egg. Just read a recipe. Yeah, nuh.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? Good lord. There are Santas out there that don't wrap? Where's the fun in that? Everything is wrapped.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Anything as long as they're twinkly. Usually low key both inside and out and we often haven't had a tree as such, but there will always be at least one string of lights somewhere, around a bookshelf or matlepiece inside or somewhere outside (we move a lot so we don't really get to develop Christmas traditions when it comes to decorating)

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nup.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Um...whenever. Sometime after 1 December and sometime before Christmas day.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Well cold veggie lasagne is a bit of a family tradition. Fresh berries. I love cold chicken at Christmas too.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Well it's a big lump of memories but just hanging with my cousins - Claire, Steph, Ella and Charles. We'd eat and drink all day and then lie around groaning. I remember one year my uncle Nic made a toasted cheese sandwich for someone in the evening and then ended up making rounds and rounds of them. When i was younger we'd go to my nana and grandad's in the evening.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I honestly don't remember ever really believing in him. Or thinking he was real. But I also remember believing that Santa as a construct existed for so many people that he was real in a way and what's real anyway? How very post-structurally philosophical of me.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yeah, we sometimes celebrate with Martin's family on Christmas Eve. I quite like the idea of present opening being an evening thing...it sounds very magical.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Well, like I said we often don't have one. As a kid it was pell-mell. Not arty at all, just hang all the jumble of ornaments acquired at different times from different places and then string the lights around. We'll do the same this year when we put up our tree.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Well, it would be a very peculiar happenstance in Melbourne (at any time of year), though in the realm of possibility in Hobart at Christmas time, on Mt Wellington anyway. But I love the idea of it. At least once in my life I'd like to experience a white Christmas. It used to snow in winter where I was growing up and it was very special and amazing, like an unexpected holiday.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes, badly. In fact so badly and so long ago, i think I might have to change my answer to no.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Potbelly, a large toy mouse, was a favourite for a long time. I loved then and love now getting books (oh yes I know, what a predictable answer). One year, when I was about 15 my parents bought me the boxed set of the Narnia books and I read them that summer on holidays at Cradle Mountain and many times since, though the later ones get a bit strange for my taste, poor old Susan doomed to a lonely life severed from her family because she wears make up).

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Christmas was always about seeing my cousins and aunt and uncle and that was important, even though they lived close by it was good to know there was a day I would see them and really catch up. Now they're scattered all over the world and I don't always get down to Tassie for christmas, and I have to admit most of the Christmases I spend in Melbourne don't feel right - I miss them (boohoo). But now it's all about my kids, making a magical day for them.
The story of Christmas isn't part of my belief system, I'm not Christian. But I do believe that babies are magical and amazing and change the world, every new baby offeres the promise of peace and redemption for the human race. A star shines over every baby when they're born. So I enjoy telling Frederique the Christmas story for that reason. She's pretty into Baby Jesus and angels too. Last year we were staying in a little apartment in Hobart for Christmas and she gathered together stones from the driveway every day and lined them up - they were her angels.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? A big bowl of fresh berries or fresh cherries. I made Nigella Lawson's Raspberry and Lemongrass trifle one year and I wish I could be bothered every year because it was truly amazing.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Cracking out our Frank Sinatra Christmas CD in December and listening to it daily. I love carols, i love communal singing. I love carols by candlelight too - we've got one at the park near us and I can't wait to take the girls - will be their first time.

17. What tops your tree? As a kid we had a big star and an angel, I loved the angel best even though she was little and wispy and unimpressive for tree-toppage. I love the aesthetics of angels, they're a lot more impressive than fairies and there's a kind of melancholy associated with them (I guess cos they're dead people) that makes them seem interesting and mysterious.

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? We giveth so that we mighteth receiveth. Both. But I love shopping for kids.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? 'I'll be home for Christmas' and 'The Christmas Waltz' both on said Frank Sinatra CD. Christmas carol would have to be Silent Night. There's nothing more stirring than a large group of people singing it. But I love them all. And I don't mind singing about god at Christmas. Christmas is when the idea of god and jesus seems very nice and I kind of miss having a spiritual belief system in my life.
OH SCRATCH ALL THAT! I had to come back and say it's Kermit's A Christmas Wish on A Christmas Together with John Denver and the Muppets. "I don’t know if you believe in Christmas./ Or if you have presents underneath the Christmas Tree./ But if you believe in love/ that will be more than enough/ for you to come and celebrate with me.”

20. Candy Canes? I like the aesthetic of them. I like the idea of them. The fact of them I tire of quickly. I'd love to try making my own. But I am a confectionery spaz, as I have already admitted on this site.

Pinched from Diana Peterfreund