Good morning, and welcome to the weekend!
We hope it will be a good one! Personally, we usually don’t really differentiate between the week and the weekend – we are sure anyone who is self-employed or retired can relate. But we do try to remind ourselves when a week has passed … just so the days don’t blend into each other too much 🙂
So, Happy Weekend!
We’re giving away a free month at the MLT Club to 3 of you today. You can either use the free month yourself (it will get added to your account) or gift it to someone else in your life. Just let us know their email address and we’ll set up an account for them!
Day 4 – A Month of MLT Clubbing (3 winners)
Win a free month at the MLT Club – either for yourself or someone else!
How to enter:
Comment: What Christmas/Holiday tradition do you celebrate in your community/family?
Prize:
1 free Month at the MLT Club (3 winners)
Thank you all for taking part, we loved reading your comments!
Mona & Lisa
Congrats to the winners????
My mother took up the hobby or painting when she retired and was quite good. She bought Santa Claus figures made of crushed pecan shells and painted them in the tradition of different countries all a round the world. Now that she is passed on, our family displays about 100 of these Santa’s in her honor.
Okay, with my hearing issues, even with headphones on, I missed out somewhat on what mona & Lisa were talking about a conspiracy of some Canadian…. could someone please fill me in on what was said , as I only got bits n pieces….. My hearings aids will be picked up and worn on Tuesday afternoon at followup appt after the hearing test appt from a week and half ago , Thankyou kindly for filling me in , if you can, much appreciated …????????
After we opened presents on christmas my 5 brothers dad and I would play road hockey
It’s about the only time of the year we can get everyone together so mainly just sharing time together and catching up, especially with all the kids! Games, lots of food, and good times.
We like to have a family get together, meal and play games. Cannot always get together other times of the year.
We have many cousins in our extended family that live in the area, so we have one big party for everyone. Usually we get over 40 people. We rotate who hosts the party each year. This year was my turn, and the party was held yesterday. I rented a lodge near Lake Ontario and set everything up (with help) to make it look “Christmasy.” There were some absentees because of Covid, but the turnout was good and everyone had fun.
We all meet up at Mum and Dad’s for a Christmas dinner of roast turkey. But not last year, and probably not this year. Maybe next year we’ll do it again.
I was very happy to see my name drawn by Mona, for yesterday’s prize.
Thank you for all the joy you bring to your fans! ????
A day or two before Christmas we go see some of the streets in our city that have setup holiday light displays. (One of them synchronized the lights for the entire street to music and won a National competition!) On Christmas morning, we gather the family together for breakfast and open presents around the tree.
We have no kids, and both our parents are gone now. We enjoy going to watch a movie at the theater. Since it’s Christmas morning, we usually have the whole place to our selves!
singing Happy Birthday to Jesus
Most people in our area have Christmas dinner but our family tradition is all of our family getting together for a big Christmas morning breakfast after opening gifts,
I live in Colorado where we hope every year for a white (snowy) Christmas. No Christmas season is complete without a trip to see the Festival of Lights at Denver’s Botanic Gardens. Bundling up in warm clothes is a necessity for a cold Colorado night as we sip hot chocolate and stroll through the gardens surrounded by thousands of lights.
Our biggest Christmas tradition goes back decades. My wife’s family always had a Christmas Eve gathering at my in-laws home for extended family and friends. Lots of special “Christmas” food, cookies, stories, pictures and gift sharing. I first attended when my wife and I started dating in the mid-70’s and she invited me. This continued every year until last year for the reason we all know too well. With the passing of my mother-in-law and my father-in-law now 95, we are planning to start the gathering again this year at our house. It will be small with just our vaccinated immediate family. But, it will be good to be together on Christmas Eve. It always finishes with my father-in-law reading the well worn picture book Night Before Christmas to my wife and her sister (the 61st Christmas this year) and my wife crying because it may be the last time. Christmas morning our two boys and their wives will be at our house for gifts and my totally unhealthy Christmas breakfast. They will then go visit their wives’ families and then back to our house (minus our RN daughter-in-law who will be working at our local children’s hospital) for an unhealthy Christmas dinner
No Beatles Advent?? ☹️
In my family, it is a tradition to decorate the house for Christmas with Santa Clauses, Christmas elves and angels, in early December. Every Christmas Eve we eat duck.
For my own part, my tradition every year is to update regarding the Christmas music, we play in the time leading up to Christmas. For this purpose, I have created a playlist on YouTube. This year, of course, MonaLisa Twins is on the list, that so far, includes 43 Christmas songs.
Another thing is, that when a music video is on playlists, YouTube also more often suggests these songs to others, who are interested in “the type” of music on a playlist.
A suggestion for other MLT club members, is to create a playlist featuring your favorite songs with Mona and Lisa. This will give more attention to their music – and more new fans. If you are interested, then my Christmas music playlist can be seen here:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJQET7Bn6yzTkGrBegjXtmbeDtq4ftGu0
I live right next to Washington DC, and we always go downtown a couple of times during December to see the National Christmas Tree and the Pageant of Peace. We always make a point of finding the Virginia Tree, as well, since we’re from Virginia.
We have not really had a extra ordinary Christmas tradition around the house or with gift giving. We have always felt graciously blessed, and don’t really need anything….. so we look for good places to donate to. Both with time spent and financial gifts.
Since I missed day two and three….. to unwind when I get home from work I put my feet in a foot massager for 30 min everyday and listen to music.. Posters on a wall for me were really framed photo’s. My favorites were one of a mountain lion on a snow covered hill surrounded by pine trees and the other was a photo I took of a small stone bridge over a small stream leading out to a large fall color woods. It reminded me of the Simon and Garfunkel tune “Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water”.
Mainly just the usual feasting and celebrating now. When my grandparents and parents were around, we would open one set of presents with them on Christmas eve and then open our family presents Christmas day. It was like having 2 Christmases as a kid.
I live in the United States. Every year on the last Saturday (or Sunday) in November, we decorate the Christmas tree which usually takes about 2+ hours. Christmas eve is just my mom & me… We eat an early dinner and watch the movie, ‘A Christmas Story’ before going to late night mass. Besides that, Christmas is a time to celebrate with family and friends… The gatherings usually taking place between Christmas and New Year’s Day. We sit in front of the fireplace, listening to Christmas music while exchanging gifts and sharing stories of Christmas’s past. After a five-course dinner, we all gather in the back room to watch ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’.
Christmas is such a nice time of year (excluding the commercialization). I guess the main tradition that I try to maintain is setting up the Christmas tree and decorating it with lights and all the ornaments that have been used year after year. It is fun to pull the old ones out again each year. Another tradition is to put up decorations in the house and in the yard without overdoing it. As we get older it is hard to continue with these traditions but it is so comforting to do so. Merry Christmas everyone!!
I struggled with this question last year as well, and here’s what I said then:
I have pretty much seen all my favorite Christmas traditions disappear over the years, as most were tied to people and places. Most of those people have gone on or are near to doing so, and many of the places were related to them or other stages of life. Now I have replaced them in many ways, and many of those I have tried to continue or “pass down” just don’t translate well without the same people and places. They are getting replace by new ones. It will be interesting to ask my kids the same question when they get older.
One of the new ones, as many others have said, is the MLT Advent Calendar!
I don’t really do anything all that special for Christmas. Just a seven-hour drive to Kentucky to share a big meal and exchange gifts with my parents and siblings.
But for the sake of a story, here’s a now-extinct tradition that my brother and I started when we were kids. Before going to bed on Christmas Eve, we’d rehearse for the next morning by running down the stairs with anticipation and into the living room, and then stopping in mock shock to discover there were no presents (because they hadn’t been put out yet). Then we’d fake-cry about how Santa had passed us over, and we must have been bad all year without realizing it. We were weird kids.
No worries! Weird fits right in here!
In my family we have tree presents, so we each have a present to open in the evening on Christmas Eve as we watch midnight mass with a glass of something
Hello again everyone. You had a similar question in last year’s challenges.
The only tradition that my family has is jelly (jello for your American fans and members) with our Christmas Pudding. Not just any jelly but a mixture of green and red (lime and, usually, strawberry flavours). These are made separately and then mixed together so that you have chucks of each in the mixture. This goes beautifully with the Christmas Pudding (M and L I know that you do not like this) together with any of custard, cream or brandy butter.
When my dad celebrated his first Christmas with my mother’s family he was surprised by the jelly that was brought out by my Grandma with the pudding. In fact he was very disparaging about it. However, the following year, the first after their marriage, he asked (actually demanded) my mother where the jelly was as she hadn’t made any due to his comments the previous year!
Sadly I can’t add a photo of this as I seem to have deleted those that I took last Christmas day whilst celebrating Christmas with the family of one of my brothers (all totally legal as we were in same covid ‘bubble’). His 2 children demand it now as well, as do my other bother’s 2 children who are both in their twenties.
No one knows when it all started but I suspect that it was probably at the end of the 19th century.
My little family tradition is setting up my display of Santa nesting dolls. I have Polish, Russian and Czechoslovakian nesting doll sets that I put out every year when we decorate.
Every Christmas Eve, my three children would receive a pair of one piece footie pajamas. Alas, that tradition is ending. My son is now 6’4″. My youngest daughter is in high school and there are still pajamas out there that fit her.
Well usually someone in the family has a big gathering…it changes every year as we alternate…but it’s getting harder as the kids are all moving out as their new adult lives takes them to wherever…and this past August our 91 yr old mother finally checked out…it was not a surprise…she lived a long life and was the family matriarch…so we will miss her….however…my younger brother age 68 passed away with pancreatic cancer in April…his premature death came as a total shock to everyone…he never smoked..drank..or. .drugs…..in the last week of March he called me and told me he was in the hospital…I went to see him…the Dr had just told him he had pancreatic cancer…3 1/2 weeks later he was gone……a complete and total shock to every person who knew him…he will definitely be missed…Love you David❤️????????
Bless you and yours, Rick and I hope you remember the good times with him and her fondly, rather than missing them in sorrow.
Thanks Jeffery…my dad died in 1963 as a result of what happened to him in WWII…so it was just Mom and us 3 kids..I was the oldest at 13…lots of wonderful memories…Mom ruled the roost and she taught us well and did a great job raising 3 kids and had to go work to pay the bills and dinner on the table and we kids stuck together…you might say it was a team effort for us to accomplish “growing up”…..tonight many of us living in Texas got together for dinner at Olive Garden for my youngest daughter’s 25th birthday and tomorrow one of kids in this picture will be playing football at AT&T Stadium where the Dallas Cowboys play football…it’s for a pee-wee championship….now hopefully I can get the pic in here.
Sorry for your loss, Rick. At times of loss, I try to fill my head with good memories of time shared.
This pic from the birthday party is great. Good luck with the football championship.
Merry Christmas,
JP
Thanks Johnny ..well the football tournament was great fun…10 yr old Isaiah and his teammates won their first 3 games but lost the championship game…it was touching to see someone so young to bow his head in honor of playing at the home of the Dallas Cowboys and say “I’ll never forget this moment because I may never have this chance again “….WOW !
Great family pic, Rick! You’ve certainly had your share of adversity in your family. Similarly, my Mom quit school in the sixth grade after losing her Mother to medical malpractice. She felt compelled to take over “motherly” tasks for her Father and sister, and her Dad needed constant attention after taking his wife’s passing very hard. Mom had to grow up fast like you all did. But enough sad stories from me! A blessed Christmas Season to you!
Thanks Jeffery and a Happy Holiday Season to you and yours !
I am sorry that you experienced two major losses this year, one of them so sudden and unexpected. That must make this time of the year especially hard.
On a lighter note…3 deaths…my phone blew up crashed and burned a few weeks ago…EVERYTHING was lost…every name and phone number…every picture..EVERYTHING nothing survived… gotta luvit !!!…luvit is my abbreviation for “love it”…aaaggghh????
Oh no! That is only light relative to your other losses, but terrible in its own way!
As my heritage is Mexican, part of our Christmas Eve tradition includes hot tamales and Mexican chocolate. We also honor our parents (deceased) with an egg nog w/ rum drink that was my father’s favorite. Peace be
Apart from all the usual Chrsitmas things like a tree decorations i don’t really have one. I do have one Christmas ritual. I wrap my presenents every year listening to a radio show from 1970 on 22nd Dec each year. The show was recorded on 22rd and reminds me of real Christmas radio. Its a Tony Prince Show on Radio Luxemburg,
My very large German family on my Mother’s side had a family Christmas party for over a hundred years. When my Mother died in 2010, the Family party stopped because she was the youngest person of 11 children. Now they are all gone and the family doesn’t get together. The Christmas tradition that I practice is remembering those wonderful events and the beautiful people who have gone on to another place.
For many years now, I have made my own Irish Cream to give as gifts to friends and colleagues for the holidays. Each year, I crank out between 30 – 40 1 liter bottles. I think you would approve of the name; “Brian’s Fresh & Groovy Irish Cream”!
Needless to say, I have been staying groovy for a long time. Prost!
I’m sure this may seem a little “corny” but here goes. I have a twin brother and every year we switch off hanging a little Christmas bell on the tree. I do it in the odd numbered years & John does it in the even numbered years. The bell has been in our family for probably over 80 years.
Growing up, my families only tradition was my father would turn on his light bar and blind me as I walked down the hall while he filmed me going into the living room where the presents were
I mentioned “Silent Night” in my previous post, and my Mom just told me that song is special to her for a different reason. On her first date with my Dad, they attended her church where she sang a solo of “Silent Night”. I guess he was impressed, as they’ve been married for over 68 years now!
What a beautiful story!
Thank you, Jeannette! Cheers!
Wow Jeff, that’s such a romantic and interesting story. I am sure hearing that song sparks a lot of memories for your parents. And this time of year. we here it everywhere.
Your calendar adds another nice surprise to each morning’s video.
That was a great idea.
JP
Thanks, JP! I initially only intended to send them a couple pieces, but when I saw the offerings of a couple different British ebay sellers, the advent calendar tie-in became obvious. Michaela graciously added the calendar box and meted out the items. She’s done all the work!
We go to Midnight Mass. I have a special Christmas ornament my Mom made when I was a kid, I hang it up every Christmas.
A Candle in the Window
In the northeast of the US, and here in North Carolina as well, there’s a tradition of placing a candle in the window at Christmastime. Apparently it’s a tradition brought by the Irish, who were persecuted by the British in the 1700’s. Catholic priests went into hiding and during Christmastime, Catholic families would leave a candle burning in the window to let the priest know he was welcome in their home. The priests would sneak back into town during the night to have mass with fellow believers in their homes.
With the Irish immigration to America, the tradition continued here with evolved meaning. In colonial times, a lit candle in a window let travelers know they had a safe place to stay. The candle also served as a signal amongst neighbors that the home was open to receive visitors and to light the way for returning family members. Now it is common to see a single candle in every window of a house. This is something I didn’t see while I was living in the west coast.
Additionally, The MonaLisa Advent Calendar is now a tradition in our home for three years running!
The latest in a long line of traditions for me has been watching The Family Stone movie—where Sarah Jessica Parker plays an excruciatingly uptight woman meeting her boyfriend’s family at Christmas—with my daughter. I’ve grown to not hate it.
I take my nieces to see ‘The Nutcracker’ every year.
My wife and I spend the holidays quietly at home and visiting with the neighbors and friends.
We do the outdoor lights, put up the tree and decorate it with lights and bulbs and lots of other decorations. I used to have to go to work on all holidays, I’m retired now and it’s so nice to be home with Mary. I do miss seeing all the Christmas lights on my run thru the states and Canada, there were many awesome sights. Those memories will always be with me along with the people I met over the years on my travels. Peace everyone.
When I was very young, my brothers, sisters and I would watch the animated Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on television. Even now, I still like that show. At some point it was up to me to carry on family traditions. As I remember, one year the dedicated setup day started on the day after Thanksgiving. It’s been that way every year since then, and the entire day was pretty much taken up getting Christmas lights put on the house, the necessary wiring, maybe some troubleshooting if the Grinch zapped the Christmas lights, adding some exterior decorations, and some fixed yard displays. Lately, it’s turned into about 10 minutes of simply running exterior cables to laser light projectors that do pretty much the same thing the old exterior Christmas light bulbs did — which BTW is a great time saver.
https://flic.kr/p/2mNNceW
Indoors, it’s become laser lights also. It’s now the Christmas tree with a laser light projector in place of wires and bulbs, and a giant plug-in star that takes about 20 minutes to set everything up, including a creche and an Advent wreath. To light the Advent wreath, the lighting pattern follows the four outer purple candles for each week and the center white candle is lit early on Christmas Day morning. There are different orders of lighting Advent wreaths in different places of the world, and I would try each one but confess I’m partial to this particular order of candle lighting the Advent wreath since earliest memories. Back in the day, each Christmas, The Beatles would have a Christmas album for official club members, and somehow, the MonaLisa Twins manage to do almost the same thing. The night before Christmas, and sometimes a few days earlier, presents go under the tree and are opened at sunrise on Christmas morning. There is a hymn sing at church Christmas evening. I wouldn’t trade these traditions for anything! I LOVE CHRISTMAS SEASON!! There’s also a pattern to it that I just love to see through each year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXaw70X7wb4
One of my personal Christmas traditions is to go to my parent’s house on every Christmas Eve and have a nice dinner and exchange presents.
Hi Mona and Lisa! For us, it is mainly getting together with family. Usually a Christmas tree has been decorated and wreaths hung in various places. Nice candles lit and a nice meal eaten. Then gifts are shared (mainly with the children) and everyone kind of lays around and digests their meal
I forgot to add putting up our real tree for years before going fake because our last 2 dogs literally “used” the tree …lol… , listening to Xmas music, watching Xmas movies, and the best , when my late Dad & Mom, would go out driving around neighborhoods looking atvtge lights on people’s houses and in their front yards, even went to downtown to Parliament Hill one year to see the Xmas light display they had going … Ah, I cherish those memories of driving around the neighborhoods with my late parents and then just Dad and I until he could no longer drive …❤????
Pets and Christmas trees! We still haven’t found a way to keep our cats out of ours – real or fake!
Just the normal Christmas Traditions here, Family gathers on Christmas Eve, Christmas Mass on Christmas morning. The gather with the other side of the family. Our town though has a month long event on main street called Christmas Traditions, with shopping, Carolers and many different Holiday Characters and variations of Santa/Father Christmas roaming the street. Or town was founded by the French in 1769 and later German immigrants settled the area so there are many different cultures represented. It ends with Los Posadas, a re-enactment of the journey to Bethlehem.
we would have typical Christmas ,we would go downtown to Daytons and ride on the Christmas train .get our picture taken with Santa. Christmas eve we would sing Christmas carols go to midnight mass and after we would go home and open our presents. I always make sure I watch Its a Wonderful Life
Vincent I just found out recently that Jimmy Stewart is in my family tree.
That’s really cool , He’s one of my favorite actors.
Hello Ladies,
We have a Christmas Parade the first Thursday in December.. Regardless of the Weather. Clear, Rainy, Snow, (I wish) hot, 34c this year. Compared to -3c last year. About 3500 attend. This year was the longest parade ever. 2 hours and 15 minutes. The Horses brought up the rear. They all raised their tails at the same time and wished everyone Merry Christmas ???? WHEW!! Everyone scattered.????????????????????????????
The parade is led by Mr. And Mrs ???? ???? and leading their horse drawn Carriage is a Clydesdale Horse named (are you ready?)
RUDOLPH. He has a Red Nose and Antlers as you can see in the photo. If you call to him, he will stop and POSE (really does) .
The parade begins at Dark.
Anyone that wants to participate in the Parade can. Open to everyone.
Have a great weekend ladies and Team MLT!
Rick.
Hello MLT friends and wonderful Twins. We have so many traditions so I will go with just one. The first weekend in December we go to a local tree nursery and select a nice Fraser Fir tree to bring home to decorate. Our tree ornaments are all different, they are things the kids made while in school, some are souvenirs from different places we have visited, some are from our grandparents trees who are now long gone. So it is a true family Christmas tree. It needs an MLT ornament, or 2 I guess because there are 2 Wagner daughters. I would love that.
We take our family to the local Christmasmarket in Salt Lake City then out to lunch
Hi ! I’m from Salt Lake City
Hi Diana Geertsen
I live in Orem.
Nothing really specific to our family or community. Tree (artificial), window decorations, wreath on the door, outdoor lights if I feel ambitious enough and the weather cooperates, which has so far not been this year!
The Doctor gets a wreath on her door too. (Can’t take credit for the design, I found the instructions some years ago online.)
I was wondering if you’d Anglicized the pronunciation of your last name, good to know…
Love the TARDIS wreath!
Hi. I always stand on the beach fishing. No one else to spend christmas with as family live miles away.
Our church family has a tradition of having an Advent by candlelight presentation by the women of our congregation. Each one will decorate a table and invite people to join them for skits and hymns and Christmas songs and then lighting the advent candles. Afterwards they will have cake and drinks (sometimes wine!). My wife is doing that today as a matter of fact!
We do pretty much what most Americans do, put up and decorate a tree, give gifts, sing traditional songs, watch Christmas-themed tv “specials”, and wonder how hot it is going to be on Dec. 25th (will there be snow or green grass)?
The best part of this years Advent is waking up to both your beautiful radiant smiles and voices every morning! Congrats to todays two winners!
One of the Christmas traditions I miss the most these days are the Christmas movie nights with my little Sister Eileen and my mom. Eileen would rent a bunch of tapes from the local Blockbuster (do you remember those?) and house full of all the wonderful treats. For about 10 years through the 90s, it was just the 3 of us at Christmas often while our dad was in Japan teaching english/math post retirement and my other siblings were scattered all across NA. I guess one of my traditions around Christmas is remembering past Christmas fond moments.
These days if my brother isn’t in town visiting for Christmas, it is often just MJ and myself stocking up on all the Christmassy treats for a cozy week around the holidays, nowadays surrounded with MLT Christmas music, and going for walks Christmas eve taking in the neighbourhood Christmas lights, or going down to the local lake to see all the Christmas lights around celebrations. When Max was with us, it was the 3 of us. Late night walks with Max to see the lights and watch Max jump around in the snow if we had a white Christmas.
https://youtu.be/GhzJP_1QpJg
We have a family dinner Christmas Eve – usually ravioli are the choice – then we relax around the tree in the decorated living room, watch “It’s a Wonderful Life”, read “The Night Before Christmas”, then asleep before Santa comes at midnight.
A family tradition handed down from my great-grandparents is to serve ham for the Christmas Eve Dinner. My personal tradition is to have bubble lights as part of the Christmas tree decorations.
Great chat today, glad you liked your tea (a great English tradition on its own) Since all my boys were small (they are now 16,18,22 and 28!) we have always sat down and watched this DVD. It actually has Noddy (it’s Christmasaaaaaaaas) Holder and Sir Elton John in it and we always sing along to Crocodile Rock ????????
Our family tradition was “las posaditas”, from the first to the twenty-third it was to gather family and neighbors to pray and sing some short Christmas carols at my grandmother’s house, finishing praying the BOLO was distributed (a bag with peanuts, candies, cookies and oranges) for each of the attendees and sometimes a piñata was broken.
On the 24th, the birth was set with the pilgrims, shepherds, sheep, some lights, a short prayer was said, the child lay down in the manger and they gave us a sweet tamales or a buñuelos and each family returned home.
Once at home we also put the baby to bed in the manger, my dad would read a passage from the Bible and then dinner and gifts.
Lately we do it when we meet at my parents’ house, most of us are far from home. And now the ones who break the piñata are the nephews
When I was growing up, our family tradition was to pile in the car and drive from cold Minnesota to Florida to visit my cousins for a couple weeks.
During my 40 plus year marriage with my wife. When we first got stationed in Frankfurt Germany, we didn’t find a place to live during our first Christmas so on that day we found a nice hotel with old world charm and we took a hanger and a stocken cap and put bows and ribbons around it, the cap was green lol. The maid kept on dismantling it every time we went walking and going to restaurants. Lol After we have been established, we have a Manger scene small hand crafted, an Advent Candle wreath. And of course a tree with the Angle we purchased in Germany that’s fragile and has a wax head. It has survived since 1980 all of our moves. Stay Groovy!
My wife Judy is a Christmas decorating fanatic. As soon as the Thanksgiving holiday is over, we put away the fall decorations and get down the set of large tubs of Christmas decorations and start a process that takes a week or more. We are mostly done now, but she still has the inside tree to decorate.
Our area is very big on exterior lights, with some people spending lots of money to put up lights on the entire front of the house and yard. It is a tradition drive around town to see the best lit houses. Since we are fairly close the Mexican border, we also have imported Christmas traditions from south of the border, and many people put up luminarias, which are paper bags with sand and candle it each one.
Special Christmas time foods include tamales, menudo or pozole, and Mexican Christmas cookies called bizcochos. As I’m sure is true elsewhere, Christmas is not a good time to lose weight.
We open gifts on Christmas eve and/or Christmas day.
The village I grew up in (Holley, right next to Albion where I live now) has a large evergreen tree in the square. When the holidays begin, you can purchase a bulb in memory of someone you love or has passed on. Then on a specific night we all gather at the square for the official lighting of the tree. I wish I had a photo to share cuz it’s really a nice moment.
Simply „die Seele baumeln lassen“ (let the soul dangle 🙂 ), far away from the Christmas hustle and bustle of the city centers. Delicious food, a nice glass of wine, even nicer music (of course only M&L, what else?) and an entertaining Christmas movie at the end.
PS: Your video commentary today without violence. Very nice.
The family is getting older so the traditions are kept to simple gifts and wishing each each other a Happy Holiday.
I’m from Germany and I like to put a Schwibbogen inside my window. Ours has the ornaments traditional to the Ore Mountains on it: two miners, a lace maker and a woodcarver. These are traditional crafts in that area.
Oh, and I love to light just the Schwibbogen when I take a nap… 🙂
Isabell I just bought 2 of these this year. I love them.
One tradition that I do with Meriel every Advent involves a special homemade Advent calendar. It consists of a star ladder with 24 stars. At the top an angel carries the spirit baby and moves down one star each day until it reaches the empty manger in our creche. On Christmas eve, the spirit baby is replace by the creche baby in the manger (when Meriel was younger this was done secretly so that she was surprised by the “birth” of the baby.) Behind each star was a message from the angel instructing Meriel to do a specific act of kindness that day. The activities ranged from simple, like smiling at a stranger or helping a friend at school, to more involved, like making gifts for family or buying toys or books to donate to local charities. I started the tradition when she was 3 years old to counteract the prevailing culture of materialism and to restore the balance between receiving AND giving. She has always loved the tradition and has grown into a very generous, compassionate individual.
Wow, nice tradition.
Our family Christmas tradition was to gather on Christmas Eve and exchange gifts. Thank you Mona and Lisa for giving us a new tradition at this time of year. Always look forward to seeing you!
Something that my mother always did was to light a large candle when we got home from Christmas midnight mass. Then relight it every morning until its completely gone. Very similar to how you start the Advent Calendar videos. And I continue with that tradition to this very day. Even though I have been alone for Christmas for the past few years ever since my son moved away because of work.
This year I have quite a large one which might last until my birthday in mid January.
Apart from that I always watch the Queens speech.
My main tradition at Christmas is to always make time to spend with friends that I often don’t get a chance to see throughout the year, it’s a time to catch up with important people in my life, as day to day life often gets in the way. Can I also take the chance to thank you for replying to my email and taking the time to explain how things work and making sure everything was sorted, thank you ladies ???? x
Pre-Covid, my favorite family tradition other than the obvious family gathering and meal was the Christmas Eve candlelight service at our local church. Passing the flame candle-to-candle while singing “Silent Night” was always an emotion stirring experience! Sadly, we couldn’t last year, and most likely won’t this year, but there is a happy consequence! Last Christmas was my first since joining the MLT Club, so I played your Christmas CD while we exchanged and unwrapped gifts. Happily, it culminates with “Silent Night”, and when it started, we all stopped what we were doing and sang along reverently. SO emotionally touching, and easily the most memorable part of last year’s gathering! Thank you for a treasured new tradition for our family!
Love your choice of cups this morning! I am having coffee from my favorite Orange MLT cup.
JP ☕️☕️
We hang a kissing ball on our front porch
JP
Every December some friends is joining me in the yearly “glögg” or I guess glühwein is the closest to german speaking or mulled wine for English. Redwine with different spices and raisins and almond chips with added cognac. For this adorable drink I serve fritters with raspberry jam – this year I drink Yule glögg with 6 friends.
Here a picture of the fritters
Since last Christmas when our little cat Rosie saw Mona & Lisa on the live show, her new Christmas tradition is to dress up in her MLT Santa Hat with her brand new badge. No doubt she’ll be wearing it again on the 23rd December, this year.
We always go to a Christmas market, usually the one in Tivoli Gardens. I’ve missed a lot of my family’s traditions growing up because I’ve been dancing since I was four so I’ve always been at the ballet. This year marks my 25th season of Nutcracker and it will probably be my last.
Here are the ballet shoe trees at the Royal Danish Ballet.
In Germany, on 24th December, we have always potatosalad with sausages for dinner
very good!!!!
My mother always prepared Christmas Eve stuffed Christmas goose with potato dumplings and red cabbage. I miss that very much (Her potato salad was also very tasty).
potato salad is very good
Well, going to church Christmas Eve and then as in years past, there used to be the tradition between my Aunt/Uncle ( Dad’s older sister ) & family and our family where we would take turns hosting Christmas Day/ New Year’s Day, and following year, switch it around, etc…then over the years it became only my Aunt(divorced my Uncle) hosting and one of my cousins doing the New Year’s Day … and more recently now I would either go out into the country to one of my cousin’s farm ( my aunt’s son whose farm is across the road from the farm my aunt/uncle had before divorce, and spend Christmas Day with my aunt, cousins and then on Boxing Day go to my oldest brother’s with my other older brother picking je up and spend the day doing our own famiky Christmas, but tgphe kicker here is … somewheres along the way I decided to treat my cousins/aunt/uncle to fudge I had tried from a recipe that uses 3 ingredients and done in microwave, set in fridge overnight, it was a success, made it from then on for our family Christmases, ( cousins/aunt and my own immediate with older brothers, sis in law, niece/nephews… lol…one year I decided not to make it, they all never let me forget it it, in a teasing manner, and from then onwards, it’s fudge for all, except during Covid, I only went out to my oldest brother’s last year so only they had the fudge but I did send virtual photos of fudge to my cousins so they didn’t feel forgotten and could still in enjoy it….????
Recipe : ( it’s in Imperial measurements as I don’t use metric, you’ll have to figure out conversion, my apologies )
Ingredients :
#1– Either 1 whole pkg/bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips or a pkg of semi-sweet baking chocolate squares
#2 — 2/3 cup of condensed sweet milk
#3– 1/2 to 1 tsp of vanilla extract
Directions:
#1–Put chocolate chips / and or baking squares and condensed sweet milk in microwave safe bowl and melt for 1-2 mins, or until melted completely, no more than 3 mins , stirring once, watch not to burn !!
#2– Line a loaf pan with wax paper but have slippery side up and pour melted chocolate chips/baking squares/condensed sweet milk into loaf pan , let sit overnight in fridge, next day, cut up and enjoy ???? ???????? !!
That sums up my Christmas traditions with my family , if any of you do try making the fudge, let me know how it went/tastes !!