Christmas Music and Traditions -

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jcandleattic

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2008
Messages
4,140
Reaction score
3,979
Location
Stuck in my head
For those that celebrate, what are your traditions - I posted this on another forum, so some of you may have already seen this but here goes (sorry it's long)

Christmas is not necessarily my favorite holiday or time of year, (I HATE the cold, the commercialism, etc.,) HOWEVER, it is a very special time for me, especially with the little ones. :)

For me @ Christmas, we always as immediate family, on Christmas Eve, we drive around from the time dusk hits and it starts getting dark, until late, looking at all the Christmas lights. Last year, it seemed like hardly anyone had lights, but I am noticing this year, a ton of lights are already up, so this year will be better. Anyway, we drive around with the windows down or cracked and try to chill ourselves really well while driving around looking at lights. We do this for hours - sometimes 3-4 hours. Then we come home, get the fireplace going, make homemade white hot chocolate (with peppermint schnapps for the adults, and peppermint extract for the young ones), sit around our lit tree, talk about which lights were our favorites, and then the kids get to open 1 gift each before "Santa" comes that night.
Also a few days before Christmas my granddaughter and I usually make "Reindeer Food" (regular oatmeal with a TON of biodegradable glitter - I mean a TON of it) and then on Christmas Eve, before she goes to bed, we go out in the front yard and sprinkle the food. The Reindeer see the sparkling of the glitter, and stop at our house, and while Santa is putting the gifts under the tree, the reindeer are occupied by eating the oats. :) This has been a tradition of ours since our children were little, and we will probably do this even after they all move out.

For extended family, we usually have everyone over to our house for a big traditional turkey meal, then open gifts. We usually do this a few days after Christmas, and not actually on Christmas day, as when we tried to do it on Christmas day it seemed like we were always in a rush, the kids didn't want to leave their houses and gifts, and it just works better for us if it's either the day after or even a few days after. This year it will be the 26th for the extended family gathering.

Christmas day as a family is a nice a relaxed day. Kids getting up, opening gifts, my hub and I making a huge traditional Irish breakfast, and then just snack and watch sports, movies, or whatever the rest of the day. It's a nice family day and we love it.

What are your traditions? I'd love to hear them!
Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, due to personal or religious beliefs, do you have any traditions you celebrate or follow this time of year?

And Music -
My absolute favorite traditional Christmas song is "O Holy Night" - any version really. They are all beautiful.

But my favorite non-traditional Christmas song is by Great Big Sea - Come and I Will Sing You. (It's like an old Irish 12 days of Christmas song - it's awesome)

Let's see if I can post the video - (well, I posted the link anyway - not sure why it won't embed the actual video)

https://youtu.be/gbRsJ5riZgY
 
Thanks for sharing, J! I love hearing how folks celebrate Christmas. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday for as long as I can remember. While I hate the commercial monster it has grown into in so many different ways, it has never lost its specialness because of my faith- i.e., to me the root of it is a celebration of a wonderful miracle.

My dad's side of the family is Irish, but since my parents got divorced when I was 8 and my mom retained main custody, we did not get to spend anywhere near as much time with the Irish side of my family as we did my mom's Polish/French side of the family, and so our Christmas traditions are heavily influenced towards the Polish side......which means pierogi's are a big part of our Christmas Eve. My mom and dad and the grandparents are gone now, but my sis and I keep the traditions alive with the younger generation by getting together and making gobs of pierogis a few days before Christmas eve, and then having a big family gathering on Christmas Eve. Since my sis has the bigger house, we celebrate at her home, and not only do we have family over, but also anyone who is a "Christmas orphan" (i.e., friends, and friends of friends with no other place to go) are welcome, too. There's usually at least 30 to 40 people that come over and we eat, go caroling, have dessert, play games, then have a white elephant gift exchange.

After eating we usually go Christmas caroling around her neighborhood and go door to door delivering plates of homemade cookies to folks she knows, but this year we'll be caroling inside because my sis will be on her back recuperating from disk surgery that she just had 2 days ago. My niece (who is my piano teacher and also a wonderful singer) and I have a special surprise for my sis. We've been working on a few carols together, with me playing the piano and her singing accompaniment, and also my hubby and I will (hopefully) be playing a piano/trumpet duet of Carol of the Bells. The reason why I say 'hopefully' is because he and I have not actually practiced it together yet. :think: He told me that as soon as I get my speed up into the triple digits (of beats per minute), he'll start practicing with me. Well... it was only yesterday that I finally was able to get into the triple digits, so there's not a whole lot of time left until Christmas to get our act together. If worse comes to worse, I suppose it can always be billed as a comedy act instead. :lol: This will be the first time we've ever used instruments to carol by, by the way. All my life I've always pictured our family doing something like this, so I'm excited....and nervous!!!

My favorite traditional carol of all time is O Holy Night. I love Michael Crawford's version the best.

One of my favorite non-traditional songs is Baby It's Cold Outside. Oh, and to me, Christmas would not seem complete without 'It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year' sung by Andy Williams. I was so sad when he passed away. He always reminded me of my dad.


IrishLass :)
 
One of my favorite non-traditional songs is Baby It's Cold Outside. Oh, and to me, Christmas would not seem complete without 'It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year' sung by Andy Williams. I was so sad when he passed away. He always reminded me of my dad.

IrishLass :)

Oh I love those 2 songs also - I love the version of Baby It's Cold Outside that was done on Elf.
And Andy Williams was always a favorite of mine as well.
 
In the past we have invited immediate family and people who would be alone on Christmas. This year, due to an injury, we are just hosting the family. I always hang stockings on the fireplace mantel for the grandchildren. I love the song "White Christmas".
 
Back
Top