A very Merry Christmas and a happy, festive, and joyous holiday season to everyone!

What are some of your family's holiday traditions? Do you celebrate anything other than Christmas in your house? What's your favorite Christmas movie?

And who's going to see Rouge One?

This is my second Christmas as a married woman, and so far both of our Christmases have been disrupted with moving and similar major life events. So my husband and I are still establishing our own Christmas traditions. But my husband's birthday is in a few days, and our anniversary is the 9th of January, so it's a happy time of year for us.

But since our wedding was Disney Frozen-inspired, there's usually a lot of Frozen stuff around the house. We saved most of our wedding decorations to reuse as Christmas decorations every year. This year, I bought my husband 14 small Frozen gifts and hid them around the house. He's wandering around looking for them now... muhahaha.



God's blessings to all!

As the Christmas season approaches, and I see ever more and more posts presuming that it has not only already arrived but is almost over, I feel more and more Entish. ("Let us not be hasty ...")

When I was much younger, we often went to our grandparents' for Christmas. (We live in Michigan, and both sets of grandparents lived in Illinois, with the closest aunts, uncles, and cousins in Illinois and Wisconsin.) Later on, we would get a tree (and somehow get it into the house) and decorate it, and set up a Nativity set. Nowadays ... We still exchange gifts within our family, and my mom makes a meal that for us qualifies as a feast, and the Nativity set (being sturdy, rustic-looking wood) will probably get set up, and we attended our church's Christmas Eve service tonight (with my parents doing the prelude), and we will most likely read the Gospel accounts, but my parents' general weariness as they get older limits any special celebrations. On the other hand, we have marked Advent by, in our usual not-quite-nightly devotions, singing Advent hymns, and throughout the Christmas season (which is to say from Christmas until Epiphany) we will tend to choose Christmas carols.

I have developed a personal tradition, the last few years, of writing long-and-newsy emails to dear-but-absent friends on Christmas Day (and Easter, and sometimes on birthdays ...). This and what family celebrations remain in our family ("dinner" and opening presents) tend to use up most of the time and all of the energy I have for the day. I also try to write at least one Christmas poem each year (this year's is already done and scheduled to run on my blog next week), and later on in the Christmas season I have my civil-year-end blog posts to do (goal-setting, mostly), but I don't think that's exactly what you had in mind.


That I can't answer, because I have had the privilege of growing up in a house without a TV, and we rarely went to see movies.

Speaking of your emails (and letters), Jon! I was very "adult" and saved unwrapping the gift you mailed me until Christmas Eve, so I only just read your letter. I'll send you a reply shortly. Thank you so much!

A late Merry Christmas!

We celebrate St. Nicholas day, with the traditional stockings and special foods, Christmas day, with traditional Christmas dinner and quietness with family, and opening presents from friends and extended family in the States, and this year we celebrated St. Steven's day with an open house, and had about twenty friends over for food and games. On January 6th we celebrate Epiphany by exchanging gifts within our immediate family, and more special food. Pretty much there's a lot of food. The earliest day we celebrate Christmas is usually the first Sunday of advent, when we light the first candle and do a scripture reading. After that we sing Christmas carols and hymns for our family worship and around the house.

Seasons of the Heart, atm. It's very sweet.

In addition to being a feast day, Christmas is a season that runs from Christmas Day until Epiphany (January 5), so one cannot be really late in offering Christmas greetings until after Twelfth Night.

This year, my family's Christmas Day meal included a "belated birthday" cake for my dad, whose birthday is exactly three weeks before Christmas Day. She then made the more usual pie on Tuesday (after we finished the cake on Monday).

True, though we celebrate it December 6th. In Ireland they call it Women's Little Christmas, because they have a tradition that women don't cook that day, and the men have to provide the food. I think they usually go out to eat.

Belated Merry Christmas to all!

My Dad actually wants to see Rogue One so I'm hoping to see it soon. A lot of my friends said they were really disappointed though, so not sure what to except.

We used to a!ways watch Hercule Poirot's Christmas every year,but this year we watched the new Jason Bourne. I'm not sure I have a favorite Christmas film to be honest.

Belated Merry Christmas back to ya! This is our first Christmas with my extended family since Hubby, Daughter & I moved back this past May after 12 years out west. So it was a extra-crazy/busy season traveling to see his parents, my grandmother, spending time with my own parents. It was great. And my dad's birthday is tomorrow (epiphany!) so we're not quite done yet.

Family time at Christmas is definitely one of the reasons I enjoy it so much.