Christmas meme

I put up the lights outside on Gaudete Sunday (third Sunday of Advent).  The tree generally goes up on the Fourth Sunday of Advent.  I take everything down the morning after Epiphany/Twelfth Night.

Mmmmmmmm, yes.  I must post my eggnog recipe sometime in the next few weeks.

I do!  This year, I started collecting the Fontanini series, which actually are lovely works of art while being unbreakable at the same time.  So far, I have the stable, Mary, Joseph, Jesus, Melchior (one of the three kings), and a village girl.  I'd really love to find the other two kings and a shepherd before Christmas.  Their color scheme has changed a bit over the last fifteen years or so, so I find pieces on Ebay with dates prior to 1994 or thereabouts.  Christ doesn't go into the manger until Christmas Day, natch.

An old-fashioned sled with metal runners and decent steering.  I loved that sled!  Second to the sled, (no surprise), the year that I got The Count of Monte Cristo ranks pretty high on "coolest Christmases ever."  I think I was 10 or so.

Mother is nearly impossible to buy for, and my sisters can be difficult.  I've purchased Mother's Christmas gifts throughout this year as the ideas have come/things have been on sale, so it hasn't been as difficult as it usually is.  Themaureencorps and shewhomustbeobeyed tie for "easiest person to buy for" because they each give me very specific lists.  It may sound a bit silly, but it really makes things so much easier.  Last year, they wanted some DVDs.  On my own, I'd never be able to find DVDs that they didn't own (they have a collection of well over a thousand DVDs) but wanted; with a list, I just hopped over to Amazon and got presents that I knew they really wanted.  Of course, we still surprise one another with some gifts that aren't on the lists, and we don't know what will be purchased from the lists so we'll be a bit surprised anyway.

Hmmm.  Possibly an expensive brand of air freshener spray.  It smelled okay, I guess, but I hate the smell of air freshener and my sinuses won't tolerate it.

It wouldn't be Christmas without sending Christmas cards!  Furthermore, I LOVE receiving them; I hang them all around my door throughout the season.

A Charlie Brown Christmas, complete with the "It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown" special.

The day after Christmas.  That's the time to get all the wrapping paper and whatnot for next year.  The Bookstore carries some gorgeous (but insanely expensive) wrapping paper.  When it goes on clearance in late December, I get it for a steal at 50-75% off the original price, plus 30% off of that with my discount.

Absolutely!  People are forever giving me scented candles.  I don't like most scented candles.  (A few, yes, but mostly I don't.)  I see nothing wrong in keeping the candles in their original packaging and regifting them as hostess gifts to those who'll actually use them.  People also like to give me hand creams that I'd never use/can't abide the smell of.  (I'm REALLY picky about scents.)  My roommate, however, adores such things, and is the delighted recipient of those items that I won't use.

planetbendigo and I answered the same thing, oddly enough:  Mince pies!  I love, love, LOVE mince pies.  And no, I don't make my own mince.  Nonesuch mincemeat is incredible.  I could eat it with a spoon.  (Actually, I'm pretty sure that I have during a finals week or two.)

Both.  It depends on where I put them.  I'll usually use clear outside and on top of some furniture, but use colored and clear on the tree.

I'm a college student; don't have that many ornaments yet.  When I do, it'll be an angel.  Ever since I read a book as a child in which a kitten climbed to the top of the tree and met the angel, I've been convinced that angels belong on top of trees.  (Trust me to base as-yet-nonexistent traditions on a story whose title I can't even remember.)

Both!  After Midnight Mass, we'll open our stockings (Santa always comes while we're at church) and one gift.  In the morning, we open the rest.

In extremely small doses, and if it is well-made.  A little goes a loooooong way.

That tragedy out in Long Island on Black Friday defines perfectly what I loathe about this time of year.  So many people are so busy buying, buying, buying at THE LOWEST PRICES EVER that they don't give a damn about the human beings around them.  A man was killed by people who were so frantic to purcase low-cost crap that they couldn't stop trampling him to death.  The mentality of the customers there seems to be "Yeah, okay, so a man died because he had the nerve to not let us in until the store actually opened.  But they closed the store after he died for HOURS!  We missed out on low, low prices!  Oh, the humanity!"  Christmas is supposed to be about love and caring and remembering and all that.  How exactly does killing someone over a bargain-priced item fit into the meaning of the season?

A Merry Christmas to you!