Christmas Survey...

Well, as the prozac is starting to kick in, I thought I'd give Sunnyview's holiday question list a try.

Keep in mind that I basically hate Christmas, and my husband is in charge of making sure the children aren't traumatized by my behavior.

See, Christmas was a religious holiday when I was growing up. We were always in the pageant. We always had new church dresses. We always had an Advent wreath. My mother played carols on the piano for us. We had one real tree decorated in (extremely hot) colored lights and different-shaped, colored, frosted glass balls. (My favorite had Snoopy etched on it!)

We had plenty of presents, but my mother didn't feel the need to make it a Perfect Childhood Memory for us. In fact, I remember going back to school after Christmas break in 7th grade and having a classmate ask me what I got for Christmas. I couldn't remember anything I got in particular, yet I knew I had gotten presents and I had had a great Christmas. It was a puzzlement for me.

So here goes.

1. Hot chocolate or eggnog? Neither. I like "dark chocolate truffle" flavored coffee. It's a calorie thing. I've tried eggnog in the coffee, and it just doesn't work as well as you'd think.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? The Husband decreed years ago that Santa does not wrap, so no, Santa does not wrap. Hey, what do I care? I'm easy!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Again, The Husband likes colored, as do my Philistine children, so my white lights went a long time ago. Outdoors, we still have white -- mostly because I have to put them up!

4. Do you hang mistletoe? You gotta be joking. I won't even have holly or poinsettia in the house since I brought the kids home. Those nuts will put anything in their mouths. When I lived in New England, I always put real pine garland over the doorways to make it smell good! I got a whiff at Lowe's last week, and it stopped me in my tracks.

5. When do you put your decorations up? The Husband's birthday is December 13, so we wait to put the tree up until after that. The outdoor ones go up about a week before that. I'm from an Episcopalian family, and we still like to think that Christmas starts on the 25th and runs for 12 days -- through Epiphany.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? How much time ya got? Seriously, I've really started to avoid high-calorie, high-sugar foods since I lost my 20 pounds last year. There isn't any food that I have to have in order to make it officially Christmas. If I had my choice, I'd give up all the cookie baking in favor of making peanut brittle, no-bake cookies, toffee, and vanilla-mint bark. I like making candy!

We don't do a Christmas meal, per se, but we have a Christmas morning brunch. Mostly, my dad comes over around 9:00, eats some quiche, bisquick-sausage balls, and pecan pie. He opens his presents, and leaves before my mom gets off from church. She arrives around 11:00, eats fruit salad, quiche, and stuffed dates and opens a present or two. Then we're on our own.

I also found out from The Boy that one of his favorite Christmas things is having Chinese food on Christmas Eve. We call it in from the parking lot of the church after children's mass, and pick it up on the way home. It's usually dark before we get home, so we drive once around the block to see the lights. Nice.

7. Favorite Christmas memory as a child? The Christmas pageant at church. My sister and I were always readers or in the choir. I can probably still recite the entire thing from memory. "...but Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." Ooh, and for some reason, I remember my mom playing with the warm wax on the advent wreath candles after dinner. I guess it was an excuse to sit and talk after dinner. We liked the excuse to take the time to sit with her and chat.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I remember we found the doll boxes in the trash one year, and my mom half-heartedly tried to support the Santa lie. I wasn't disappointed, as I remember it.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nope. Christmas starts on the 25th.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I just found out that The Boy likes our ratty preschool-made ornaments. I hate 'em. But mob rule persists, and we keep putting them up. It's not about me. :)

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it. Don't get any, but love it. I grew up in the mid-Atlantic states, so 40 degrees and raining meant Christmas to me. (Sometimes when it's cold and the streets are wet, I still have flashbacks.) Most of my adult life, I lived in New England, so that meant snow. Either way!

12. Can you ice skate? Yes. The Husband and I went skating on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa quite a bit BC (before children). We skated the entire eight miles and slept it off in the Chateau Laurier. Ahh.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I got a gorgeous coat when I was 11, and still remember it.

14. What’s the most important thing about Christmas for you? Music. Good music. And handmade chocolates. Give me Harry Connick's Christmas album, Loreena McKennett's Christmas albums, and the King's College choir, and leave me be.

The church here doesn't do a children's pageant, nor do they play any music written before the year 2000, so church isn't the cornerstone of our celebrations that it could be. We do choose three presents from the church's Angel Tree to buy and wrap. We like doing that. The high school band comes around with their luminaria to sell, so we donate to that, too. We try to give to the local charities as we can, and donate our outgrown bicycles to the firemen. The Christmas parades here in Florida are really nice, and we usually catch the boat parade afterward on the river.

15. What is your favorite holiday Dessert? Buche de Noel. My mother used to make it. I think the icing is half butter and half chocolate. And the cake is half icing, so that's a good thing.

16. What is your favorite Christmas tradition? The Advent wreath. Until last year, we always sang "Oh come, oh come" and lit the candles before grace at dinner. Last year, The Girl threw a complete freak out, so we're not doing it anymore. Maybe next year. Or the year after that.

17. What tops your tree? Gold star. Call me a cynic (CYNIC!) but those angels look like they have a tree up their butts.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? We were never into getting or giving TONS at Christmas. It makes me nervous to give, as the gift usually isn't as good as something they'd buy themselves, and none of us can really afford to spend the money anyway. Seriously, I feel like I spend $50 on a gift for my dad that he doesn't really like, and he spends $50 on a gift for me that I don't really like. It's like spending $50 on something for myself that I don't really like. Who needs that? We don't send Christmas presents to anyone outside the immediate family unless they're under 12 years old. I don't mind giving those -- they're the only part I like! We have a four-year-old and twin 9-month-olds. That's pretty easy and fun.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? "In the Bleak Midwinter" is lovely, soft thing. I used to sing The Coventry Carol to my son when he was colicky. There were days when Herod could have had that one. ;)

20. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Yum -- crushed and stirred into white chocolate, allowed to cool, and broken into bark.

21 Favorite Christmas Show? The Christmas Story, hands down. It cracks me up! I never liked Rudolph. I'm sorry, but those people are creepy looking.

22. Saddest Christmas Song? Gotta be the shoe song. But yesterday, I heard a song about a terminally ill child having Christmas in October before he died. That one sucked, too. And I hate "Dominick the Christmas Donkey" That one makes me flip the channel before that sucker gets stuck in my head. Again.

23. What’s your Wish for Christmas? Peace. In my house. In my country. In the world. Oh, and a new pencil sharpener.

Still waiting for that prozac to kick in completely. I'll let you know how it goes. In the mean time, try this. It is the essence of what I love about Christmas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYmrUmRsATI