Remember when the newspaper used to publish each day the number of "Shopping Days" Until Christmas. I think it was a conspiracy with advertisers to get more people shopping.

Seems kind of easy to calculate -- but in those days, stores weren't open on Sundays (where I grew up.)

What memories of "getting ready for Christmas" do you have?

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I remember sitting around a table filled with sugar cookies and seeing who could decorate the most elaborate cookie. Also making carmel popcorn balls and wrapping it in colored cellophane and tying it up with curling ribbon to give as gifts to the neighbors and teachers.
Also we always went with my father to cut down a real Christmas tree whenever he was home from military duty at sea. One year he was gone and mom went and bought one of those silver trees that you put this weird multi-colored light behind because she didn't want to trudge through mud and cold to find the "perfect" tree with about 6 kids at the time. We all thought that silver tree was really the bomb though.

I remember starting a lovely custom, we still follow.
My parents have a HUGE nativity set up under the Christmas tree. It was started by my paternal great-grandfather when he was a prisoner of war in the first WW. He worked in the officer's mess and so had access to the champagne crates and the straw the bottles were wrapped in.
From those materials he carved a whole Holy Family, cows, sheep, dokey etc. and built a stable with a straw roof to house it all. Most of these things survived and are lovingly arranged under the tree every year. But sadly the Holy Family and most of the sheep detirioated badly so they had to be thrown away.
This started us all off. First my parents bought new MAry, Joseph and a manger with the child. Then the aunts gave as Christmas presents some shepherds and a few angels etc. And ervey year something new was added.
Now we children (there are four of us) and our children give my parents something for the "Christmas scene" every year. Usually the gifts are animals and often very small. Sometimes just a cheap plastic toy one of the grandkids managed to buy, sometimes something we saw while on holiday.
Over the years the whole things has gotten quite large. But it is fun to do and my parents love it. My Mum even wrote a littel book about it.
The picture below is not brilliant, but it gives you an idea...

Margret, that is impressive.

Margret, this is a wonderful tradition and a lovely story that has been passed down in your family. The fact that different members of the family have added to the Nativity makes it particularly special.

My kids and I have many little traditions. I raised my children by myself, so money was always an issue. However, we tried to make the Christmas season an experience to which they could really look forward.

One of our favorite activities was setting up the German Nativity (Lottie Sievers Hahn). It became the focal point of the season; we loved to set it up each year and we tried to add a piece or two as we could afford them. It was always the last to be put up - at least until after Epiphany. Each of my kids would get their last Christmas present on January 6 - they loved that there was always one more gift - it made Christmas last longer.

I've since added other Nativities and my Dickens Christmas Carol village - the latter is so beautiful that even my teenaged grandson oh's and ah's over it.

Christmas is coming much too quickly. I still can't believe this coming Thursday is Thanksgiving. We will have 14 for dinner on Turkey Day. I'll be off for the weekend attempting to get all my Christmas lights on the trees and shrubs, and get the tree and all other decorations up.

The Christmas HL's come out of storage and replace the AB's on the shelves of the entertainment center. Lorna's Dept 56 New England Village also comes out of storage to take their place at various display areas in the house.

The grandkids will be over to make decorative sugar cookies this coming Saturday. Some of the cookies will be eaten soon thereafter, while others will go into the down stairs freezer to be thawed later in the month.

Our first Christmas Party to attend will be on December 3rd, one week from this coming Saturday. Our annual family party will be on December 16th this year. We cook for approximately 60 people that night. Usually we have it on the Saturday before Christmas but there's a Patriot's game that day and Lorna refuses to hold down the fort until I complete my assigned duties. Then another family party at my son's new home on the 24th, followed by Christmas dinner at our house on Christmas Day.

December is one of the busiest months of the year for us. It seems like it's non-stop preparation for one thing or another for the entire month. It all starts with Thanksgiving and doesn't stop until the first week of the new year.

How many shopping days until Christmas? I had better get moving now.

Bob

Childhood memories of Thanksgiving & Christmas in Virginia...

Getting up early to watch the Macy's Parade while the smell of Ham cooked the night before still in the air mingling with the smell of breakfast baking, hot Monkey Bread (a sweet pull-a-part bread made with canned biscuits rolled in sugar, layered with melted sugar, cinnamon & pecans & baked until golden brown) Then turkey roasting.

Homemade dressing (not stuffing, Momma nevers stuffs the turkey) giblet gravy, candied yams, mustard potato salad, green peas, hot rolls, jellied cranberry sauce...and for dessert pecan pie & coconut pie.

We always had our meal between 1:30 - 2:00. Then some of the group would sit and play cards (Rummy when we were younger, then on to Spades or Hearts, then Canasta, and now everyone plays Phase 10)and of course the sound of some football game in the background, and Daddy taking his after dinner nap in the recliner with the newspaper in his lap. We would always watch the movies "It's a Wonderful Life" and Miracle on 34th Street"

Christmas Day, food wise a repeat of Thanksgiving, but adding in Toll House cookies to snack on. Getting up before sunlight and running into the living room to see what Santa had brought, then going back to bed until a decent hour, to exchange and open gifts.

These days we don't get to go back to Virginia for the holidays very often. So, it's just the three of us. But I make Monkey Bread, and we watch Abby exclaim over what Santa has brought, even though she is now in high school. I fix a turkey breast in the crockpot and make Stovetop dressing since I never learned Mom's recipe. But we have candied yams, giblet gravy, and green peas and jellied cranberry sauce. Later we sit down together and watch some DVD that one of us has received as a gift...and football, and "It's a Wonderful Life" and Miracle on 34th Street". So some of the tradition goes on here in Colorado.....

And later in the evening I call home and talk to all the family in Virginia where I can hear the sound of a football game in the background and someone is saying "Whose deal is it?"

When I was a kid, movies were only a small part of Christmas - the Natalie Wood version of "Miracle on 34th St." was pretty much it. They are a big part of the holidays for the kids and me now. When they were little we added "It's A Wonderful Life" and all the short movies like "The Year Without A Santa Claus", etc., etc., and we still enjoy those, along with the Chevy Chase movie and "The Christmas Story". My family is very small, mostly my kids and me. Once in a while, all the kids and I are able to get together, but most of the time there are only three or four of us so our entertainment is tabletop games and movies. The holidays have always been very important to me so I still go all out decorating and cooking and baking - I start with Halloween, then on to Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's great fun!

Macy's Day Parade w/ the arrival of Santa
March of the Wooden Soldiers
Charlie Brown Christmas
Gene Autry - Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer
Christmas Cookie Decorating With All My Nieces & Nephews(some years close to 30) the Saturday before Christmas at their Grandmas! Priceless!
Christmas Eve Fish Dinner
Christmas Day Ham

Recently added in my lifetime:
Getting the hottest toy of year!
(even w/ all my kids grown up)
The Christmas Challenge! Yes I got my
xbox 360 today!
Buying all my presents ONLINE!
Making all my presents memorable.
Adopting A Family.
Christmas Day Egg Nog & Filet Mignon

Bob

Bob, let us know if the X Box 360 is worth it. I sure my kids would like one. But I will have to wait for the price to go down a bit.

A Lionel train around the Christmas Tree.

Visiting family and friends on Christmas Eve -- we used to stop at 6-7 different places before ending up at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was the ONLY visit we made to them each year and they lived about 2 miles from us. Can you say "dysfunctional family?"

Sad.

I would give you a good run for your money on the dysfunctional family topic. As kids we thought Christmas was such a wonderful time with all the relatives we didn't see often, then we grew up! We found out quickly why the family wasn't together very often.