Hi, hi! 😀
Sooooo I was hoping to have a vegan cookie dough truffle recipe for you guys today, but I didn’t really have a chance to do much experimenting with all the Christmas cooking I had to do over the weekend, and the one batch I did manage to squeeze in didn’t quite meet my standards. So it’s back to the drawing board with that one, and if things go well, hopefully I can have it up for you guys within the next day or two.
In the meantime, I thought I’d make things festive with a little Christmas survey action. I filled one out last year as well, and figured I might as well make a tradition out of it 😛
Egg Nog or hot chocolate?
Nothing beats a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream.
Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
He most definitely wraps them! And when I was younger he had to make sure to wrap them extra well so that I couldn’t peak ahead of time 😉
Coloured lights on tree/house or white?
White lights. We had coloured lights on our tree when I was growing up, but I switched over to white when I moved out on my own.
Do you hang mistletoe?
I don’t, and I can’t honestly say that I’ve ever come across anyone who does. Do people really do that? Or is it only something they do in the movies?
When do you hang your decorations up?
Usually the first Sunday of Advent.
What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
My mom’s been making this potato/egg/veggie salad type thing (similar to this one) for the holidays for pretty much as long as I can remember, and while I used to hate it when I was younger (I hated all veggies… and eggs), it’s easily my favourite dish on the table now… especially since we only have it a few times a year.
Favourite holiday memory as a child?
Probably having my grandma come spend Christmas with us one year. All of my family (besides Mom and Dad) live in Poland, and I’ve never been able to spend any holidays with them. Having my grandma around for that one Christmas was definitely a special treat.
What is on your Christmas wish-list?
Honestly? Not a whole lot. We’ll be heading out to the Fairmont Banff Springs right before Christmas, so that’s kind of what I’m looking forward to the most.
Do you open a gifts on Christmas Eve?
We do! My family is Polish and we actually celebrate Christmas Eve (Wigilia) more than we celebrate Christmas Day. We’ll spend the day prepping, sit down to a meatless dinner, open presents, relax for a while, and then head out to midnight mass. Absolutely adore it.
How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
With white lights, gold garlands, gold ribbons, and little critters made out of wood, twine, or felt. I’ve got a little shabby chic thing going on.
Snow? Love it or dread it?
Love it! Not only because I kind of need it for snowboarding, but because it makes everything look so pretty and festive. We’ve had snow every year for as long as I can remember, and I’m not sure it would feel like Christmas without it.
Real tree or fake tree?
Fake. I’d love to have a real tree, but my building doesn’t allow them so I get by with a nice pre-lit tree and some pine scented candles. Not gonna lie — the convenience factor is definitely a beautiful thing.
Do you remember your favorite gift?
A Playmobil dollhouse. You know that one toy that you placed on a pedestal when you were a child? That was mine. I wanted one for years before finally getting it for Christmas one year, and I adored that thing. I’m pretty sure that it’s still hanging out somewhere in my parents’ basement to this day.
What’s the most important thing about Christmas for you?
Family and tradition.
What is your favourite holiday dessert?
Black Forest cake. I realize it has almost nothing to do with Christmas, but my mom always made one from scratch on holidays and birthdays, so it has a lot of sentimental value attached to it. Plus you can never go wrong with chocolate and whipped cream.
What is your favourite tradition?
Going to midnight mass. I don’t remember a Christmas where we didn’t go to midnight mass, and it always makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
What tops your tree?
Air. I haven’t really found a tree topper that I love, so I’ve just been keeping it empty for now.
Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?
Giving… even though the process of trying to find the perfect gift stresses me out to the max. It’s a good feeling to see someone’s face light up when they open up a well thought out gift.
What is your favorite Christmas song?
All of my favourites are Polish carols. We usually don’t start playing them until the 24th, so they really make it feel like Christmas.
Candy canes, yuck or yum?
Indifferent? They’re not my favourite things in the world, but they’re not horrible either. I mostly use them for decorating.
Favorite Christmas Movie?
A Christmas Carol. Any version of it — Muppets, Mickey, Carrey, and all.
What do you leave for Santa?
Nothing anymore. But I used to leave milk and cookies out when I was younger, and I’d get all sorts of giddy when I woke up in the morning and saw that a few cookies were gone.
Do you have a Christmas morning tradition?
Christmas mornings are usually pretty quiet for us since we do the majority of our celebrating on Christmas Eve, but we do open stockings, have a special breakfast together, and watch Christmas movies in our PJs.
Do you prefer to shop online or at the mall?
As crazy busy as it can be, I actually prefer doing my Christmas shopping in the mall. I just love all the excitement in the air. That and the pretty decorations and music help get me into the Christmas spirit.
Christmas letter or Christmas card?
Christmas cards. As much as I’d love to be able to send a long letter to everyone, I end up sending out way too many cards to write a super long message — it’d take me weeks to do.
What’s your favourite Christmas tradition?
Do you celebrate Christmas Eve?
Is your tree real or fake? What kind of lights do you have on it?
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Love this! We celebrate both Christmas eve and day. When I was younger, we would always go to church, then a family friend’s christmas party, open one present, watch a christmas movie and read polar express. Then during the day, we would open presents and have our meal!
Scarily enough, I think you probably know my answers to most of these or at least you could guess them. I will leave you with this though: I have a mistletoe growing in my backyard. It’s a bush actually, and it was here when we bought the house.
So guess who is going to Midnight Mass this year on Xmas eve? I am! I love how much of your festivities is done on the ‘Eve- That’s how we do it too- well, did!
Also legit not kidding you but mum makes the same salad (pretty much) but it’s called Salad Olivier (Persian Potato Salad). Eggs, potatoes, veggies AND the pickles.
Fake tree definitely for the convenience factor.and I already mentioned, but I hope to have white lights next yearrrrr. Can you believe it’s next week?!! I’m in disbelief.
This was a fun post! 🙂
I hung up mistletoe this year. It was a total impulse buy at the grocery store, but it’s pretty cute and I like that it’s an excuse to kiss my sweetie more often.
Ha! I love the survey, it’s so interesting to me to see how other people celebrate the holiday. We always hang (fake) mistletoe at our house. I remember being “caught” under the mistletoe by my mom when I was little. A home made tinfoil star from circa 1990 tops our tree 🙂
Such a fun survey – and so much fun to get a little glimpse into some of your Christmas traditions!
I love Christmas & all the related traditions I grew up with…. And now that I am well into my 30s (and married) I try to incorporate as many of them as possible – which is not always easy given the fact that I now live in the US. I especially love cookie baking (using my German recipes), decorating my home, AND celebrating Christmas Eve. Being from Germany (born & raised there; lived there until I was in my late 20s), Christmas Eve has always been the “big deal” – going to church, having a nice dinner (usually Fondue or Raclette in my family), and then opening [all of] the gifts. Wonderful memories. Now I am trying hard to create “my little German Christmas” with my husband here in the US. Amazing just how many emotions tend to come up this time of year…..
Have a wonderful Christmas Holiday!
My favourite Christmas tradition would be watching Christmas movies with my family – usually a few days before Christmas, we all sit down and watch 3-4 Christmas movies back to back. I’m sad I’m missing out this year! Christmas Day after work I’ll have my own Christmas movie-watching party.
Love this! I’m ALL about Christmas this year. I just sent out Christmas truffles to all my extended family this morning, after spending 12 hours yesterday making them and packaging them up. MAN I’m tired today.
What’s your favourite Christmas tradition? – I also love Christmas Eve church service. I haven’t been to one in a couple of years, but I put my foot down this year and said I’m going. My fiance and in-laws aren’t into that kind of thing, so I’ll be going alone and they will just have to wait on me for dinner 🙂
Do you celebrate Christmas Eve? – after I get home from service, we are going to have dinner and watch Christmas movies and then spend the night at his parent’s house.
Is your tree real or fake? What kind of lights do you have on it? REAL! (After convincing my fiance that real trees don’t just burst into flame for no reason.) WHITE!
Aw I love this survey! I might be stealing it in the next few days 😉 I have a real tree with colored lights! Christmas Eve is spent celebrating with my husbands family.
Since I go home for Christmas, I fully get into the spirit then…With a puppy and it being almost 80 degrees in Houston, I didn’t get a tree. I did put up some lights and poinsettias. 🙂 We celebrate on Christmas and just do a light meal and cocktails on Christmas Eve with our neighbors. You have to add “Love Actually” to the Christmas movies…Can’t believe I haven’t seen it yet this season…DOH!
We would always go get our tree the weekend of Thanksgiving. We were out of town this year, but got one the following Friday! We too prefer white lights, and don’t use a topper. I never used one growing up. I actually found one I liked this year, it was a cute red reindeer (from Home Depot, of all places) but it didn’t really fit our tree well so I’m returning it!
Your Christmas Eve celebration sounds so nice! We do most of our celebrating on Christmas Day, but on Christmas Eve we do go over to Jim’s parents and open some presents and have a Christmas Eve dinner and the girls get special Christmas Eve pajamas! Up until a couple of years ago I always did fake trees but we decided to give the real ones a try and now I love it!
for some reason, i have not been doing holiday related stuff this year – thanks for this post, its helping me get on board with christmas.
Oh my goodness I had that playmobile house!! Wow that picture brought back so many smiles, has to be one of my most favourite Christmas presents too!
And my one is also still in my parents loft, they can’t bare to part with it!
We do celebrate Christmas Eve. The past few yrs we have taken the kids to look at Christmas lights and hot chocolate and then come home and everyone opens one gift (Christmas PJ’s) and goes to bed. I LOVE having a real tree, but we have fake right now…after living in Oregon and getting trees so fresh, it’s so difficult to actually pay for a real tree now that we are so far from the source.
I’ve never had black forest cake, but every time I see it, it looks soooooo good!! And fake tree all the way! One year when I was younger we got a real tree, got it home, then discovered it was covered in spiders! Last time we ever got a real tree hahaha.
Oooh, I might steal this survey. Just sayin’. And we actually hang mistletoe at my parent’s house now ever since they’ve lived there for 5 years. But to be fair, it was because there was already this random hook on the ceiling part overhanging the entrance to the hallway that just needed something on it during the holidays while decorating….hence, the mistletoe was added. It works. 🙂
Really fun survey!! We have a fake tree because I am pretty sure that I would be allergic to a real one!
My favorite thing about Christmas is spending time with family. Because my hubby and I live in California and my family is in Florida, the holidays are one of the few times we get to spend a couple days together uninterrupted. Can’t wait for my trip next week. Happy Monday, Amanda! 🙂
Play mobil dollhouses were so cool! I never actually had one but I always wanted one. I don’t know if I have a favorite tradition so much as I love spending the time with family!
So fun! We do Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas day with Riley’s family. I like doing my shopping in person, too. I usually have to walk around and get ideas before I buy stuff!
This post somehow managed to take me from almost in the Christmas spirit to definitely in the Christmas spirit! This year has been difficult for me to get into, possibly thanks to the fact that I don’t have a Christmas break anymore – so I don’t feel like there’s a special holiday season approaching. PS Michael Buble knows how to do Christmas music like no one else – just sayin’ 🙂
I’m so glad you feel the same about tree toppers. I’m always going back and forth with star, bow, angel…IDK!! Sometimes nothing is better than something you’re to in love with.
Favorite Xmas tradition = Xmas eve my mom frys portuguese donuts and sprinkles them with cinnamon sugar. LOVE IT!
I LOVE real trees, and the process to get them, but for the last handful of years we’ve had a fake one. It’s just so much easier. HA.
My favorite Christmas tradition is baking lots of treats and also driving around looking at the Christmas lights. This year, my running friends and I are going to go on a night run to look at lights instead 🙂
On Christmas Eve, we usually go to a Christmas Eve service and have lasagna for dinner!
I love this survey and pretty much agree with everything you said, minus the Polish family bit! Hot chocolate over eggnog, white lights over colored, but I’m alllll about the real tree!
We open gifts of Christmas, but I feel like Christmas Eve is my favorite anyway. That’s when we are all together, do any last-minute baking, go to church, and have our big dinner. Oh, and that’s also when we sit in front of the fire to watch a Christmas movie or two. 🙂 Ahhhhh, this is seriously the most wonderful time of the year!!
Omg I LOVED Playmobile – my sister and I had a massive collection, it was by far our favorite toy(s)
The sugar cookies we made yesterday were actually vegan. I didn’t even intend it to be so but they were and they were really good!
We’ve always done one or two gifts on Christmas eve and the rest on Christmas morning. Now we just open them whenever we can because the holiday traveling is so hectic!
My husband and I got a fake tree for our apartment a few years ago, which is like 4 feet tall. When we move into a house we will probably get a real one, but who knows…its nice to have a fake one that doesn’t get all messy and we can just pull out year after year:)
My tree is fake too – but, I found these little “scenticles” – they are like little green vertical ornaments that smell like a real tree and make my whole living room smell wonderful! Growing up – just like y’all – we did most of our celebrations on Christmas Eve – but these days we do them on Christmas Day – I think I am gonna have to insist we watch Christmas Movies in our PJ’s – even if that means driving down to my mom’s apartment in our pj’s!!! Thanks for the idea lady! Happy Monday 🙂
My favorite holiday tradition is our annual Family Game Night. We all bring an appetizer and play stupid games. It is such a blast. We always have it on Christmas Eve, and then after the games, we open presents!
Yes, I forgot about this survey! lol, I love your answer to your tree topper– air. We don’t have one either!
Ah this was so fun to read, Amanda! I loved learning more about you and your family’s Christmas traditions. Although we don’t celebrate Christmas at home, it’s definitely something I want to start when I have a family of my own. I do, however, try to watch as many Christmas movies to fall into the spirit somewhat- Home Alone 1 & 2 and The Santa Claus are always top on my list.
Fun questions! I think I want that potato egg veggie salad your mom makes! When I was little I always wished we celebrated Christmas “all out” but being Jewish I guess that’s asking for too much 🙂 the magic of it from a kids perspective is why I made sure to do it at least a little bit with my kids.
White lights, all the way. Maybe when we have kids we will do colored lights? Ok, probably not. I love the way white lights look. I also think that when people put lights on their house, they need to be very straight. I hate it when they look like they were haphazardly put up and messy. That would be the Type A part of me coming out.
We have always had a fake tree and the convenience is great. I need to do a real tree some year just so I can actually say which I like better.
Favorite Christmas tradition is probably Christmas eve mass. Its just so pretty and I love the music. It’s the best.
Fun survey! We always celebrate Christmas Eve in our family. It is just as important as the day itself. I love driving around to look at lights. I used to do it with my parents and now my boyfriend and I enjoy it too.
I loved reading all your answers. Midnight mass sounds magical! We go to a candlelight service in the evening on the 24th and when I was a kid, each of us held our own candle wrapped in tin foil. They don’t do that anymore, obviously. Probably not the safest thing. Ha!
We do celebrate Christmas Eve. Mom & I bake cookies and make a huge meal. Then Christmas morning make a big breakfast and open gifts. It’s always fun! Fake tree for sure. I cannot do a real one. The dry desert will suck the life out of it unless I water it constantly. I finally bought one pre-lit . Huge time saver! I can focus more on decorating it which is the fun part.