Hey friends!
I was all prepared to do another 5×5 for Friday post today (with a movie theme!), but then I saw this survey on my darling friend Brittany’s blog.
The 5×5 can wait. 
Christmas Survey
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Probably hot chocolate… though I do really enjoy Silk’s Soy Nog (and their mint chocolate soy milk- have you tried it?!)
2. Does Santa wrap the presents or put them under the tree?
Santa? You mean this guy?
Hmmm… we don’t really do Santa between me and Greg, so we each wrap our own gifts and put them under the tree on Christmas eve. We tried putting wrapped presents under the tree earlier, but then the dogs started opening everything up.
(I bought some pretty sweet Justin Bieber wrapping paper last year.)
Greg and I fill each others stockings on Christmas eve (or super early Christmas morning). That’s always my favorite part.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Colored. And the tackier, the better!
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No, but we always had it hanging up in my house when I was a kid!
5. When do you hang up your decorations?
Generally the day (or two days) after Thanksgiving. I love the way the house looks when it’s all decked out for Christmas, and want it to be up for as long as possible!
6. What is your favorite Christmas dish (excluding dessert)?
We don’t really have a traditional Christmas dish. So I’m breaking the rules and saying cookies.
7. Favorite Christmas memory as a child?
Going to my Gammy and Grandad’s house on Christmas day with my cousins and just playing for hours. Also, driving around looking at lights while listening to Christmas music. (I still do that every year in the neighborhood I grew up in!)
8. What is on your Christmas wish list?
Nothing realistic! I need a new laptop and want a new Macbook Pro (mine’s from 2006 and I feel like it’s going to die any minute!), but I think I’ll just have to hold out for that a while longer. I also want a Jump Sport fitness trampoline, a new coat and some different colors of Toms… I guess those are more reasonable.
I don’t think much could top the gift that Greg got me last year!
9. Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve?
Nope! But when I was a kid, you were allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve. I like to wait until the morning now!
10. How do you decorate your tree?
With colorful lights and a ton of ornaments that are completely random and mismatched. We each have several from childhood and the rest were acquired over the years. I LOVE decorating the tree and all of the memories that are attached to several of my ornaments.
That’s me back in 1985- 5 years old!
11. Snow. Love it or dread it?
It’s okay. When I was a teacher, I love it- because it meant that I got the day off from school! We didn’t get any last year, and now I kind of miss it. I did see a bunch in Colorado recently!
12. Real tree or fake tree?
Real! I grew up always having a real tree, but had a fake one when I moved out on my own- and kept it until 2010. Last year, Greg and I started the tradition of chopping one down ourselves. I love it!
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
Yup! I got a purple and pink huffy bicycle when I was seven. I was obsessed with that thing! A close second would be the Spinning bike that Greg got me around the same time that I got certified to become a Spinning instructor. I have a thing for bikes.
14. What is the most important thing about Christmas for you?
Being with the people I love, of course! It’s a time to get together with family and my old college buddies who are in town for the holidays.
My family loves a wild game of “Headbands!”
15. What is your favorite Christmas dessert?
The cookies my mom makes- gingersnaps, snickerdoodles and Creole Crispies (which are thin chocolate cookies). She rolls the balls in green or red sugar, and has been making the same three ever since I was a little kid. I can’t resist them!
16. What is your favorite Holiday tradition?
All of it! I love everything from chopping down the tree to decorating it, driving around to see the lights and spending time with family. We actually have a tradition of going to the movies every year on Christmas day in the afternoon. We’ve been doing that for at least 10 years now! I think we’re going to see Les Mis this year, since we’re all already big fans of the musical and have seen it as a family several times (off Broadway) over the years.
17. What tops your tree?
We just got a new star this year… but it doesn’t stay on very well.
18. Do you prefer giving or receiving?
I love getting presents, of course. But, I really love giving them too! I get really geeky about it and like to put a lot of thought into things. I’m really big on giving personal gifts.
19. What is your favorite Christmas song?
Probably O Holy Night or The Christmas Song.
20. Candy Canes. Yum or Yuck?
No thanks. Unless it’s this tea… (I’m in LOVE!)
21. Favorite Christmas movie?
I’ve got a whole post about that here, but I’d probably have to say Christmas Vacation. Immediately followed by (in no particular order) Love Actually, Scrooged, Elf and Bad Santa.
22. What do you leave for Santa?
Nothing. Bah humbug.
23. Do you have a Christmas Morning Tradition?
I usually wake up first, stuff Greg’s stocking, and then go do a quick workout in my home gym. While I’m doing that, he takes care of my stocking. Then, we open gifts and make pancakes!
24. Do you prefer to shop online or at the mall?
I try to avoid the mall as much as I can. I usually go to local stores or shop online.
25. Christmas Letter or Card.
Cards! I love getting them- and I make them every year. Here’s a preview of part of this year’s:
(I took a photo of the antlers separately and used Photoshop to attach them. They would NOT sit still while actually wearing them!)
I JUST ordered them Wednesday. I really hope they get here in time so that I can mail them out before Christmas!
Your turn! Pick a few questions from the list to answer!
Adorable photo of the pups! I was wondering how you got them to stay so still with something on their head
LOVE your Christmas Card. You did great attaching the antlers, I thought they were sitting there so perfectly with headbands of antlers.
I love the hodgepodge tree decorations too. Gives it much more character and you can almost read a person’s “story” in their ornaments!
We don’t do Christmas so we don’t have any traditions (we have boxes full of super fancy pants ornaments from my grandmother-in-law but we have never once had a tree to put them on). We used to do Christmas eve with my parents and brother because it’s my brother’s birthday, then Christmas day with my husband’s family but these days we don’t really have the time to travel to Philly on the 24th which kind of sucks. We do see my dad’s entire side of the family every December though.
I do need to know where to get Bieber wrapping paper IMMEDIATELY though.
Love the Christmas Card! Perfection
Ha, DOGZ. I want to put Sunny in a santa hat, but he is still mostly hairless this holiday season……I love a real tree too, but Joe is such a “white lights and orderly tree” guy. We compromise by adding in a string of colored for accent (and a ton of random ornaments–I got a bunch from SERRV, both unique and ethical!)
Fun stuff! I agree–not much tops the moment you have your very own Vitamix.
Like you, I avoid the mall once Thanksgiving comes around. Ugh! All those crazy shoppers!
We ordered our cards on Wednesday too – I am always late with those. Who cares if people get them before Christmas.
LOVE the boys in costume! Oh my gosh CUTE!!!!
I really want a nice blender this year…..like bad. My husband knows it too….
Love the photoshopping of the antlers, so smart!
Your goldens makes me miss mine!! He loved xmas. We would make him a stocking every year and he would just stare it on the fireplace for weeks waiting. Then, when he got his toys/bones he would pick up as many as he could in his mouth and prance around the house, while we all praised “Tucker, whatcha got??!” So silly
I just had the Silk Mint Choc stuff at the lulu staff meeting last week. I need more!
I thought I was getting a Vitamix last year! ahaha, instead I got mikimoto pearls. ahaha
YAY!! I love this!! I have got to try that Silk Egg Nog! All of your traditions seem so cozy. It makes me want to come to your house for Christmas!
PS.. I just showed Luvy that you got a Vitamix last year. I’ve been planting a bug in his ear for over a year. lol
I love this survey! And that first photo is WAY to precious for words.
I am with you on so many things: snow is only cool when there is a snow day involved, stockings are the BEST part of gifting, and O Holy Night makes me teary.
You know what is REALLY gross? CHERRY candy canes. Yuck!