Merry Christmas, David!!! ;D
See if your pet can talk on Christmas at midnight? Huh? I don't get that. Have you been dipping into the eggnog already? :P
Gary
Well, yes I have actually, but that has nothing to do with the animals!
Judging from the way you phrased this, inneedcrayons, I'm guessing you set cookies and milk out for Santa. That's unexpected, but oh so sweet. :D
There's an old legend that says animals can speak on Christmas morning, at midnight. They are given the power of speech for one hour. I try to talk to my animals every year, and so far they haven't ever spoke back to me. But I keep trying it again every Christmas! :D
Jeff you are a nut...
Well, yes I have actually, but that has nothing to do with the animals! There's an old legend that says animals can speak on Christmas morning, at midnight. They are given the power of speech for one hour. I try to talk to my animals every year, and so far they haven't ever spoke back to me. But I keep trying it again every Christmas! :DMay pets talk back, but they are Parrotts. I get them stuffed toys fer Christmas and they chew them apart.
Maybe they just don't have anything to say. ;D
You made me laugh out loud there!!!
:laugh:
Fun thread, David! I do most of the things except the deeply religious ones and Christmas cards (I gave those up a few years ago). What's smudge the creche with sage about?
That is a tradition on my Mother's side of the family that goes back for generations. The Native American side of my family traditionally smudges the manger or creche on Christmas Eve night just before going to bed. Smudging with sage is a type of blessing. So, we are blessing the manger for Christmas. :D
Interesting blend of cultures and traditions, David!
:)
I'd be interested in hearing of other unusual holiday traditions. When I was in first or second grade, I remember being really enchanted when a classmate's mother came in to tell the kids about Christmas in Norway. This woman was an actual Norwegian immigrant, but since this was Minnesota, Christmas in Norway (or Sweden or Finland) was probably just a couple of generations back for half the class. :laugh: I thought it was very cool, though.
When I was growing up we always had the advent wreath on the dining room table and an advent calendar on the refrigerator door. You open a little window on the calendar every day and reveal another piece of the bigger picture until you get to Christmas Eve. We always had sleigh rides, and we would paint apple rings with peanut butter and roll them in birdseed and then string them with orange slices, cranberries and stale cake donuts and then hang them in the trees for the birds. Much to my Dad's dismay my Mom always put out pans of chopped apples, carrots and celery for the deer too.
I still have an advent wreath and calendar. I still bake cinnamon cookies using my Grandmothers molds on December 6 for the feast of St Nicholas. We put our tree up around the 15, nothing fancy just tons of ornaments that have lots of special meaning for us. We put a Victorian snow covered village underneath complete with trees, operating skating rink, carousel and train. No presents until Santa comes on Christmas Eve. We also begin putting our nativity together on the 15.... I put it on top of the entertainment center and surround it with potted palms and other green growing plants. Then I put the painting away that normally hangs there and hang three angels. Then we add the statues a few at a time starting with the animals and ending with the baby Jesus on Christmas Eve.
We always celebrated Sinterklaas in my family (complete with my Grandfather entering through the door in full Sinterklaas costume to quiz us on our behavior during the past year). Before I realized Sinterklaas was actually my Grandfather, he scared me because he was always so strict; kind but strict.
I really do hope some of our Euro and Aussie brokies contribute to this thread. I think these kinds of things are very interesting and always very beautiful. :)
That is a tradition on my Mother's side of the family that goes back for generations. The Native American side of my family traditionally smudges the manger or creche on Christmas Eve night just before going to bed. Smudging with sage is a type of blessing. So, we are blessing the manger for Christmas. :D
My family had an old tradition of having oyster stew on Christmas Eve.
Yes, but what exactly do you do? Do you burn the sage, like incense, and let the smoke drift over the creche?
I've never heard of this tradition before. In fact, I don't know if I've ever tried oyster stew. I like clam chowder. I don't like fish very much, but I do like clams and oysters. :)
We would light a small bundle of sage (smudge stick) and fan the smoke towards the creche with a large feather. Mom had an eagle feather. We would sometimes sing a Christmas carol, and Mom would chant a prayer in Lakota to the Christ Child. :D
I've heard about the oyster stew tradition, but I can't place where I heard about it. ???
Thanks, David, that sounds very nice. I figured it was probably something like that. Does the sage smell sweet?
Not the sage we used! At least it didn't smell sweet to me. It pretty much smells like something is burning; smoky smelling. It's an "acquired" smell I guess! ;)
This sounds like a really nice tradition. If you ever happen to see any elves let me know. ;D
Gary
P.S. If you're planning on decorating one of the giant sequoias when you're here, be sure to bring a really tall latter, and lots and lots of garland. And I do mean lots.
ahh, Sinterklaas! You gotta love him! He arrived in Antwerp last saturday. This is for you David! The original Santa Claus. :) He announced from the balcony that 'all the children had been very good this year'.
HAPPY FESTIVUS!!!!
Now bring on out the metal pole and we'll commence with the Airing of Grievances.
IT'S FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US!!!
(Sorry, I couldn't resist it!)
Ya'll watch Seinfeld re-runs? ;) :D
The family recipe is exceedingly simple - 1 can of oysters, 2 quarts (or so) of milk, butter and pepper to taste. Heat oysters and butter, add milk and pepper. Serve with crackers.
The more I think about it, the "oyster stew" on Christmas eve had to be from the Irish side of the family.
The family recipe is exceedingly simple - 1 can of oysters, 2 quarts (or so) of milk, butter and pepper to taste. Heat oysters and butter, add milk and pepper. Serve with crackers.
All my brothers and sisters loathe it. My mother and I are the only people who will eat it.
My children are smart, too. Somehow at 11 and 13, they STILL believe in Santa, and expectherhim to get them really good presents in addition to the ones they get from their parents. ::)
Well, I'm not a religious person at all. But, I love Christmas and I've been raised with Christmas traditions as a major part of my life all my life... but primarily social traditions (my parents aren't religious either).
But, I love things like having big get-togethers with family and friends... I love all the food and the pretty decorations. I love giving presents more than I like receiving presents. While Christmas shopping can be stressful... I actually really love doing that too. I'm an only child so lots of my traditions are really specific to what my parents and I have come up with. One of our particular favorite traditions... is on Christmas Eve we (just the 3 of us) go out to a really nice restaurant. We try to find a historic inn or a really old restaurant (or something like that) with lots of seasonal character. Also, because my immediate family is small, we've developed lots of customs involving good, good friends of the family... which I love. I love that our traditions very firmly extend to friends as well as family.
This is a really nice poll David. :) :-*
Most of you are probably familiar with snow spray. It's that thick foamy stuff that you spray on Christmas trees, and it's supposed to look like snow, but doesn't. Anyway, one year my father got it into his head that snow spray would look really nice on our tree. And so he applied a can of it...after we had already hung all of our ornaments. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
It looked like a HAZMAT team had decontaminated our living room, and for years we had nothing but speckled white ornaments.
Gary
Hi David,
I just looked up tree flocking, and it and snow spray seem to be pretty similar products. In fact they sound like different terms for the exact same thing.
How old were you when you did this to your Christmas tree, and inadvertently to your mother's favorite ornaments? When my father did it, he was close our age. :o
Gary