Blogmas 2017 Christmas Tag

Happy Holidays!

This is not a blog award post, per se, but the tag is the closest I can currently conceive to categorize it among similar get-to-know-you type posts. A Christmas tag is naturally limited in time to reply, so I will apologize in advance to one of the bloggers I tagged in this post for prioritizing it over a prior post of theirs. I will get to yours, too! I love get-to-know-you posts. I just want to beat the clock on the Christmas post first!

Before me, Crafts, Chronic Illness and Adulting was “it,” and, before that, Chronically Hopeful. Before that…I’ve lost track. I don’t think the post originated within the chronic illness/mental health blogging communities, specifically, but I’m keeping that recent trend alive with my tags. All nominees interested in participating are encouraged to use the hashtag #ChristmasCheer to keep related posts searchable together. Please don’t feel obligated to take part. This post is just for some festive fun, and I’ll be the first to understand if holiday posts aren’t always “festive” or “fun.” A clean copy of the questions for those who are interested is available at the end of the post.

I’m Tagging:

Pain(t)h.D.

The Arty Plantsman

The Blog Broad

Hyper Child Chill Mom

…and anyone else who wants to participate!

If you want to participate, consider yourself tagged. I never know who seems most likely to enjoy these vs. finding them a hassle.

The nifty graphic is original artwork also from Crafts, Chronic Illness and Adulting.

Without further ado: here’s my answers!

What is your favourite Christmas movie?

• Die Hard. It’s a Christmas movie, honestly! Watch it again if you don’t believe me.

Do you like to stay in Pyjamas or Dress up for Christmas day?

• Do yoga pants count as pjs? If so, pjs. Definitely not dressing up in any case…

If you could only buy one person a present this year who would it be and why?

• My cat. She is hyper clingy and I always feel guilty leaving her on Christmas. Any way to buy myself some absolution for leaving her with a pet sitter – even a licensed, bonded and insured one – seems like the least I can do for her. Of course, the box is usually just as appealing to her, but c’est la vie.

Do you open your present Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?

• Neither. My partner and I are not big gift givers. Our gift to each other is our Christmas trip. My family doesn’t exchange gifts on the holidays: we started the opt-out-of-Christmas-stress-by-traveling tradition instead and give gifts to each other on random occasions instead. My partner’s family do give gifts to their children, but never to their elders. His parents and grandparents send us gifts, but they won’t permit gifts from us beyond a ticket back for a visit or a treat for a meal if they come here to see us on the coast. We are the only couple without kids of our own to shop for in his rather large extended family. Perhaps we get off too easily financially in that tradition compared to families with three kids, but what can you do? (Our grinch-like traditions about gift giving made it a bit hard to answer the “giving a gift” question earlier, though.) Either way, his parents send the packages before Christmas, and we open them right away. They gave us a crazy awesome stand mixer with pasta making attachment this year! I suspect another present from the grandparents might be in the mailroom now….

Have you ever built a ginger bread house?

• Yes. It was from a kit, though. Does that count? I actually make yummy white-pepper-orange gingerbread, but the effort to buy everything to ice it correctly and decorate it – plus the time – is too daunting to consider making a house out of it. (Yes, I’m allergic to wheat, but fortunately it’s a hives/tummy-trouble-severity allergy not a full-anaphylaxis-severity allergy. I eat wheat just often enough to make sure that allergy doesn’t progress through lack of immune system exposure, and I use that as a handy excuse for being horrible to my system on holidays! Just for those who were playing along at home and wondering…)

What are you most looking forward to this Christmas season?

• Hopefully seeing the Northern Lights!

Any Christmas wishes?

• A Trump impeachment? A failure to reconcile the tax bill and it being thrown out by Congress? Peace on Earth? Goodwill Towards Men? I’d settle for now for clear skies in Scandinavia (see above), and may there be better luck for us all in 2018 for the rest of it!

Favourite Christmas smell?

• Egg nog or mulled wine.

Favourite Christmas meal or treat?

• See above for treat. For meal: Christmas-market-type stall food. Cheap, regional down-home comfort food from various countries. So much cheaper than eating at a restaurant, and you get to try childhood favorites not often trendy enough to make it onto a weekly menu. Regional comfort food still feels fancy if you are a neophyte to it.

How do you traditionally spend your Christmas day?

• Either in an airport, flying, or taking it easy in a hotel adjusting to the time difference before starting the real activities. Calling anyone who should be called who didn’t come on the trip with us. Claiming yoga pants are real clothes because you aren’t supposed to wear pjs in an airport…

Do you open stockings first or presents?

• Neither now, but as a young child stockings on Christmas Eve and presents Christmas Day. I really never believed in Santa. So, “waiting for Santa” wasn’t a thing for me. I like the idea of passing on a small-present-each-day-leading-up-to-a-big-one-plus-fun-trip tradition, but I’m not sure how that would play out if any future kids believe in Santa. I’m not “Miracle on 42nd street”-style opposed to my kids believing, but neither my partner nor I ever really believed ourselves. We’re not sure how to pull it off for them? We’ll try, though, I guess someday if we have them?

When do you put up your tree?

• We don’t have a tree in our apartment, but our complex has an awesome one in the lobby that goes up Thanksgiving weekend. I have a dancing Santa on my desk at work. Christmas cheer – or ambient noise weapon to threaten people with if they get too loud in a shared office? I’ll never tell!

Least favorite part of Christmas?

• The holidays coincided with some rough stuff over the years for my family. The end of the year just naturally goes that way sometimes. The Christmas trip tradition in all its various incarnations is a way of making Christmas work for us, instead of trying to shoehorn a stereotypical holiday – with all its stresses – on top of messy real life. I see so many people feel so much obligation and stress around making holidays perfect that I kind of wish others could just re-write the whole script like I did. It wouldn’t have to be a trip. Finances are the privilege of only a few. But, maybe it could be as simple as mentally taking the social obligations out of the holiday, letting someone else (like Cracker Barrel) cook the meal, staying as far away from negative people as possible and cherishing the time with the loved ones you chose to keep with you.

Any unusual traditions during your Christmas?

• If it isn’t obvious by now, we travel over Christmas. The fanciness of the trip varies with real life responsibilities and finances, but we always make Christmas a true vacation.

Favourite childhood Christmas memory?

• My grandmother had these old 1950s oil lamp lights for her tree. They looked like a string of mini lava lamps on the tree. I was obsessed with those. Having vintage electric lights that somehow lasted that long was either a miracle, or a deathtrap that narrowly avoided being sprung. I still miss those lights. It’s probably good they eventually broke or I’d be tempted to still use them and probably burn my place down. If anyone knows anyone who makes safe, modern ones in that style, though, let me know. I want them so badly. I might even put up a tree if I had those lights!

CHRISTMAS TAG INSTRUCTIONS – copy to your blog

Rules

Answer the 15 questions below

Tag 3-5 bloggers to take part, remember to link their blogs!

Leave the link to the post of the person who tagged you

Share on twitter when you have completed it using #ChristmasCheer in your tweet, so we can easily find everyone’s posts!

The Questions

What is your favourite Christmas movie?

Do you like to stay in Pyjamas or Dress up for Christmas day?

If you could only buy one person a present this year who would it be and why?

Do you open your present Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?

Have you ever built a ginger bread house?

What are you most looking forward to this Christmas season?

Any Christmas wishes?

Favourite Christmas smell?

Favourite Christmas meal or treat?

How do you traditionally spend your Christmas day?

Do you open stockings first or presents?

When do you put up your tree?

Least favorite part of Christmas?

Any unusual traditions during your Christmas?

Favourite childhood Christmas memory?

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Need a recap of anything I’m talking about in any post? Check out the Glossary of Terms.