Christmas Thoughts... Or Lack Thereof

What do you when you absolutely can't think of anything to blog about? You steal... um, borrow from another blogger (just about anyone will do).

Here are twenty-five random Christmas questions and my answers.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I generally prefer wrapping paper unless the gift is oddly sized and I don't have a suitable box, then bags are better.


2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial. Although I love the smell of a fresh pine, I don't love pine needles and/or dripping sap everywhere. Now that I have a prelit tree for the first time, artificial is even better.


3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the first or second weekend in December.


4. When do you take the tree down? Between Christmas and New Year's. As a child, our tree was always left up until New Year's Day, but in my house, I'm tired of it and the clutter way before the first.


5. Do you like eggnog? I might enjoy one small glass, but I won't buy a whole quart just for that, and I've never attempted homemade.


6. Favorite gift received as a child? Probably a chemistry set. These are not found in toy stores in this day and age, because it's probably possible to blow up a bus with one! I didn't blow anything up (that I recall) but I did put some stains on the carpet.
   
7. Hardest person to buy for? It's a toss-up between all of the men one generation upward -- my father, step-father, and father-in-law.


8. Easiest person to buy for? Myself. Does that count?
   
9. Do you have a nativity scene? It's a very inexpensive one that I just had to buy the first Christmas after James and I were married, even though we had very little money. I couldn't imagine not having one. And I love the accompanying table runner I found a few years ago.


10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Neither. I used to mail a few cards to people across the country that I didn't see, but the last several years, I've written a new year's letter instead.


11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can't think of anything horrible. I've even liked some of the white elephant gifts I've gotten.
12. Favorite Christmas movie? Hmmm, since I hardly ever watch movies, I can't even think of one I've seen. Does A Charlie Brown Christmas with the sad, little tree count? I love the fact that the Christmas story from the Bible is read.


13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? It varies, but I have found future gifts at after-Christmas sales.


14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Only white elephants.


15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I've only made one a few times, but my great-grandmother used to always make the family an orange-date-nut cake, and having that cake brings back fond childhood memories.


16. Lights on the tree? I prefer multi-colored vs. all white, and now my tree is prelit with them.


17. Favorite Christmas song? Joy to the World is my favorite traditional carol, but if I can choose a Christmas hymn that not everyone knows, it would be Once in Royal David's City.


18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We stay home because we've usually done all our extended family visits the weekend before Christmas.


19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes, but surely you don't want me to prove it.


20. Angel on the treetop or a star? The tree of my childhood always had an angel, so likewise...


21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.


22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The radio stations who play so-called Christmas music, and all you hear are the Frosty, Rudolph, winter types of songs.


23. Favorite ornament theme or color? If you interpret the clue from the angel, it's largely folk art sorts of things.


24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? A traditional meal is good, but one year Emily and I decided to make all new recipes. We had something I may never have tried otherwise -- a pork roast with yummy cherry sauce.


25. What do you want for Christmas this year? This is sort of post-Christmas, but to have Phillip comfortably and happily settled in Tampa.

Finally, here's a question for you? Did you ever peek at your Christmas gifts when you were a child? Or recently, even?! I never did (that I recall).