by highdose 31 Replies latest jw friends
If you don't care about JWs knowing, then also start buying some Christmas lights to hang outside or even just inside your living room window(s). Plan to hang them Mid-November and set them on a timer so they come on automatically.
I like to celebrate the day-after-Thanksgiving by putting up the lights, and New Year's Day by taking them down. Between football games, of course!
I thank my wife for helping me to celebrate Christmas. Its really fun! Last year we won a contest for best decorations on the block!!! We always go to the Christmas parade in town, and bring a thermos of hot apple cider. Just get into the "spirit" and have fun.
Get lots of Christmas lights and string them up across the front of your property so that they spell:
ASK ME ABOUT 607 BCE
Just a suggestion.
Here's the parakeet's handy-dandy guide to a busy but minimal-stress Christmas:
1. Buy Christmas cards on the cheap when they first arrive in shops in early November.
2. Assemble a list of Christmas card recipients. Buy Christmas stamps at the Post Office. Address and hand-sign the cards and mail them out no later than the second week of December.
3. Order a turkey, goose or ham (whichever you prefer) from your local butcher.
4. Decide whether you want an artificial tree (convenient if soulless), a fresh-cut tree (will last about 4 weeks if kept watered), or a live tree with a root-ball that can be planted when the holidays are over.
5. Decide where you're going to place the tree, preferably near a window that dubbies can see.
6. Decorate the tree any time after Thanksgiving.
7. If you want to do the whole outdoor decoration thing, buy miles of lights (twinkling or colored -- you have to decide that for yourself). Make sure you have a sturdy ladder and a good sense of balance when you put up the lights.
8. Buy a wreath for your front door.
9. Indoor decorations can include indoor wreaths, mistletoe (buy fake -- the real thing is poisonous), candle-and-evergreen table centerpieces, mantel decorations if you have a mantel, staircase decorations if you have stairs. Strings of lights, ribbon, real or artifical greens, Christmas glass balls, etc. may all be used. Chandelier decorating is also popular. I hang crystal "icicles" from mine and drape it with a white rose garland.
10. If you plan to make cookies, buy a Christmas cookbook or one of the many Christmas cookie magazines already for sale in markets.
11. Buy cookie ingredients and store them in a cool place.
12. About a week before Christmas, bake the cookies. Assemble covered trays of them to take to your nondub relatives, friends, neighbors, and workmates.
13. Make a list of gift recipients and the gifts you intend to buy them.
14. Buy the gifts as far in advance as you can. Buy online as much as you can to avoid Christmas crowds at the stores.
15. Buy plenty of wrapping paper, ribbon, and bows to wrap your gifts.
16. If you plan to attend any Christmas parties, buy appropriate gifts and bring a host/hostess gift as well.
17. A day or two before Christmas, pick up your turkey/goose/ham. Plan the Christmas dinner menu and buy the ingredients.
18. If you have children, decide whether you're going to go the Santa route and open the gifts Christmas morning. If so, leave cookies and milk out for Santa (and a carrot for the reindeer) and be sure to leave an empty glass, a few cookie crumbs and a bit of carrot on the plate so the children can see that Santa was there and enjoyed their snack. Make sure kids are FAST asleep before placing their gifts under the tree.
19. If the children are older and don't believe in Santa any more, you can open gifts on Christmas Eve. Champagne or wine with little savory snacks makes the gift-opening even more fun. (soft drinks for the kids, of course)
19. Give Christmas tips to delivery people, barber/hair-stylist, and any other people who make your life easier throughout the year.
20. If you've planned and prepared well in advance, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day should be fun for everyone and very satisfying (though tiring) for the planner.
Except for the outdoor lights, this is how I've done Christmas for the past 30 years. Whew!
Highdose!!! You brought tears to my eyes!! I love it when someone here has a first christmas! I remember mine, as a born in Dub. I was 20 years old. Start making some traditions! I buy a special ornament every year, to go with all the others. I love the sort of old time natural look. I collect old world Santas. Definitely white lights!!! They are supposed to look like candles on the tree, or ice on the house, not a sale at Wal mart! I always have a real tree, and when they trim the branches on the bottom, I keep them to stick around the house or make a front door hanging. They smell so great! Aghhhhhhhhh!!! Don't get me started! It's funny, everyone I know has had christmas all thier lives, few of them enjoy it nearly as much as I do.
Are you a gal? Anyway, PM any time!
you get yourself some crimbo decs and food goodies, then you tell your nearest and dearest friends you've made that its your first proper crimbo and they'll make sure you get your crimbo dinner with all the trimmings round their house, that way you wont be looking at your decs on your own.
or,
you ask all your friends round and do dinner at yours
crimbo tips....
if you decide to do turkey and its frozen.........these things can take till next new year to defrost.
always check for giblets in the plastic bag inside the bird (ok theyre rarely left in these days but it pays to double check)
if you do find giblets.....they make amazing gravy (but not if you roast it in the bird)
any bird spatchcocked will cook a whole lot faster
theres ocassionally a vegetarian waiting to have a coming out party as you're about to carve.
boooze, as long as theres plenty (somehow i'm guessing you wont need any reminders ;) ) no one will care if the birds burnt to a crisp or
raw.
crimbo pudding really does take hours and hours to steam or about 15 seconds in the microwave, so even if the times seem totally illogical do not give it an extra 5 mins for good luck, it'll take days to get rid of the smell of melted plastic.
oooOOOOooooo ...you get to start making up your own "traditions". I have grandchildren now...and I love hearing my children tell them, "we always do this or that because it's tradition." and I know it started with me.
My suggestion, is just do what feels right for you. Baby steps.
Enjoy!
lisa
For the tree: Prepare to put huge numbers of lights on it, if you want a true spectacle (LEDs are highly recommended since they do not run up a $500 electricity bill). If you are using a cut tree, you need to stuff the lights along the branches as best you can, all the way around. If you are using an artificial tree, you run the lights up and back each branch as you assemble it (and, optionally, along some or all the greens as well). You will go through something between 12 and 80 boxes of lights doing this (yes, 80 boxes--if you run along all the greens of a good 8-foot tree, it takes 4,000 lights for a showcase). Bonus: You still get access to the center of the tree for decorating. You may also choose to run lights around the center of the tree itself.
If you are setting up a 6 foot tree, plan on something like 200-250 ornaments. A 8 foot tree needs more than 400. Place them after the lights--for the best effect, you want them into the center of the tree. The good news is you can use cheap crap ornaments near the center, and the good ones on the exterior where they are more visible. Here, anything goes--you might be able to pick a theme and stick with it, or a color scheme--as you choose. Tinsel garland is also nice--use at least 6-8 sets of 15 feet each. Loose tinsel is also nice, but can be messy if you plan on taking it down. A topper is also a big part of the tree--they range from snowflakes, stars, angels, and you can use a bow (though I don't personally recommend that, but that is a personal preference issue). Be warned that anything less is likely to look wimpy on a tree.
Also be fairly warned that for newbies in Christmas, you probably will underestimate the need for decorating. You get 5 or 6 boxes full of decorations, and think it's plenty--only to get them all set up and it still looks wimpy somewhere. But, if you want to avoid tacky items, I would suggest staying away from those wimpy tinsel garlands (they are flimsy and tend to look ratty), paper cutouts of Santas that come in mass printings (and sell for 35 cents apiece), and items that appear to be stamped plastic. These are usually cheap, but are inferior quality. But, you do not need a whole house full of $50,000 ornaments of solid gold and rhodium, either--using the mid-grade of tinsel garland throughout the place is usually plenty (it will cost you $3-4 per 20 feet in plain, or $6 per 12 feet for heavier or fancier color combinations). Go ahead and plan on ornaments that sell for around $4-6 each for all around, with a few more expensive showpiece ornaments. You can always add to it next year.
Outside--DO NOT SKIMP ON SAFETY! Use only lights rated for outdoor use, and adequate extension cords with ground fault circuit interrupters (they will be exposed to rain and snow). LED lights are more likely to go up without blowing fuses and tripping circuit breakers, and use far less electricity. Safety is important if you are working on a ladder to put lights on the roof or exterior of the house, or high up on bushes. Ground level lighting and inflatables are easier to put up (though electrical safety is still important). If you are working on the roof, make sure the roof can take the weight and wind load, and you use safety measures against a fall or contact with power lines.
And remember: No matter what you do this year, it will almost certainly look wimpy. If that happens, make notes of what is still needed so you can get additional items when they go on sale after Christmas. If you cannot get them at that time, keep note of it so you can order them online (Bronners and Christmas Mouse have some interesting decorations all year long) or buy them early next year. The second season usually seems to fill in the deficiencies from the first year--as you acquire more decorations, it will soon look less wimpy.
Happy Holidays to the Highdose family!
We have a tradition of going to a local tree farm to select and cut down our tree each year.Our grandson gets to decide which tree, and he helps cut it down. After we find the tree (and have a snowball fight if the weather permits, lol), we go to the gift shop and have cider and pick out one decoration to buy. Then we go home and have a tree decorating party, with pizza, Christmas cookies, hot chocolate, and spiked egg nog for the big kids. We put our tree out in the garden after Christmas, where it is a nice winter shelter for the birds. In the spring, we have a "Sping is here" celebration bonfire with the tree, and scatter the ashes in the garden.
I also buy each person in the family a Christmas tree ornament every year. The ornament pertains to something special that went on in their life that year. When the children leave home, they take their ornament collection with them, as a start for their own household's tree.
We pick one charity to contribute to each year at Christmas and Thanksgiving.
One tip on a live tree-if you have wood heat or corn heat, your tree may only last about two weeks, even with regular watering.
My extended family has a tradition where we all draw names for gifts, then MAKE a gift for the recipient, or offer to provide a service. No purchased gifts are allowed!
Don't forget to pick up some Christmas music! It's amazing how songs will evoke memories for years to come!I also "have" to watch certain Christmas shows with my family, or it doesn't "feel" like Christmas, lol.
Lisa: We have been out of the org for a number of years now, and this is the first year my daughter used the word "tradition" in relation to Christmas. She and her hubby and son have always gone to visit with her in-laws for all of the other holidays except Christmas (they live a few miles from us, and see us regularly, while they only see them on holidays, so I certainly don't mind the arrangement). Well, this year, she is expecting, and they aren't going to be able to go for Thanksgiving, because it's so close to her due date. Her husband suggested that they go to his family's for Christmas, as the baby will be born before then, and I told her I don't mind, as I am sure they want to see the baby, but she told me she put her foot down and said no, because it is TRADITION for them to come to our house, LOL. I'm not so sure they won't be going there for Christmas anyway, but once again, I don't mind, because both my daughter and hubby have invited me to be at my grandbaby's birth!And I am pleased that she views Christmas with us as a tradition now!
