[Rachel]

Hi guys, well I have spent the afternoon wrapping pressies watching films and trying to plan ahead for Christmas day and it got me thinking. With so many different nationalities here, I was wondering just how different everyones plans for Christmas itself are and what sort of traditions do you follow?

On Christmas day itself, this year we are having the whole family around to ours for a traditional turkey roast dinner. I think it will be 12 in all, at one point I think we were upto about 15 but luckily some have dropped out as I am not sure where on earth we were going to sit everyone. I think everyone is planning on arriving here at 11.00ish, then a lovely roast turkey which is being cooked by my mother as they don't trust me (with good reason I may add ) with plenty of nice things like stuffing, sausagemeat and pigs in blankets (mini sausages wrapped in bacon (my job)), loads of veg and roast potatoes all follwed up by trifle and various other scrummy puddings. With the amount of alchohol that I think will be consumed, if a major row doesn't break out, it will be a miracle.

We normally take the dogs out for a nice long stroll in the afternoon to walk off our dinner and with so many in our house, I think I will look forward to it even more this year.

With any luck, the oldies will leave early evening and my brother, his wife and my niece will be staying with us so we can have a bit of a relax, a few more drinks and maybe a game or two on the PS2 or watch any new DVDs.

Christmas eve I will probably be running around like an idiot getting ready so I can't see us doing anything spectaular although we always try to sit down and watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation as it is my all time fav.

Boxing day is normally a serious party day as one of our best mates has his birthday and this usually results in way too much Tequila being drunk and of course eating lots of cold turkey, chocolate and anything else that is way to fattening.

Then a few days of relaxation I think..........

So, what plans do you all have for Christmas?

[Guest]

Hello Rachel ! I'll be waking the kids up as early as possible then about midday we head off to my mum's and meet up with the rest of my family to swap presents and stuff ! Then mid afternoon, its back home for a Mrs Beer roast dinner which she does really nice and then sit down with the kids and play all night long ! Mrs Beer has a surprise for me, i have no idea what it is Something smurfy is all i know

Boxing day will be at home with the kids again ! Mrs Beer and me might have a drink If we dare too !

[Pitufo]

Boxing day is normally a serious party day

Rachel...what is boxing day?

[Rachel]

Rachel...what is boxing day?

Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, 26th December.......... oops sorry I forgot, that is a British thing. See, this is why I was being nosey about other people's Christmas plans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day

Sounds like you have a lovely day planned Graham. I have to admit, I always get up VERY early on Christmas day to, just to see if HE has been.

[Guest]

Who ? The fella bringing fresh fish bait

Yeah, i look forward to getting up early, i'm just a big kid at heart

[samismurf]

as my grandmother is still alive all the family goes for a christmas party on december 24th til 8 or 9 AM, When im talking about alll the family it is a very big deal because my grandmother had 20 kids that had themselve 2 to 4 kids and then these kids( some of them have reached the age to have themselve kids) so we are a big big family. Habitually we reach the 125 to 140 ppl in the house because my older cousin brings their girlfriend or boyfriend. Everybody goes to church for midnight and then we start unwrapping the gift for habitually more than 4 hours.(it is really long) We play in the snow and we have alot of fun. Then on 8 am we go respectively to our house to sleep a lil bit and then we come back to my grandmothers house at 5 or 6 oclock to eat and make party till 2 or 3 am I have a party family

[Guest]

Sam the deal finder, i like it

You sound like you have a great family and a really nice Christmas planned too, i hope you really enjoy it

[Pitufo]

First, I will say that I have been always a very differnt child, and I didn´t like CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!Now I think I am not a child, and I don´t like neither Christmas

The most important days at Christmas in Spain are:

24th december: Christmas Eve...All the family have dinner together...There is not a special menu for this day...Fish, meat, cakes...I hope to be ill this year...My brothers and sisters, my parents, my nieces and nephews...More than 25 persons...I love all of them, but it´s too much for me...I hope my parents decide to celebrate the dinner at our home in the country... When the dinner is finished, the children catch their present, under the tree, play and go to bed...Adults drink and drink...

25th december: Chrismas Day...My family go to the church ( me not ), and then we have lunch all together..It´s my dad´s birthday


31th december...sometimes families have dinner together, but it´s very common too, to join with friends, to have dinner, and to wait the New Year...There is a tradition in Spain to begin the New year with luck: it´s to have 12 green grapes before the year finish...All the TVs show this moment with 12 strokes of a bell...After this the party begins: alcohol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Ladies and gentlemen wear their best gown and suits...



1st january: Nobody in the streets...Handgover?

5th january: A big cavalcade of beautiful floats full of children goes out the streets in in almost all the villages and cities ...There are three floats with the Three Wizard kings...They are throwing sweets to all the childs and announcing that they are going to carry them presents...Boys and girls go to bed early to wait the present the Kings have for them

6th january...The house is full of present from the THree Wizard Kings

8th january: child to the school, and adults to the jobs


PS: in the cavalcade it´s usual to represent Tv comics...One of the organizators in my city is my best friend Pepe ( who some of you met at Brussels)...I want him to make a float with smurfs in 2008...I let you know.He thinks it´s a good idea

[Tojo]

Hi all,

it looks like this year we'll be having a quiet Xmas. My parents will be spending Xmas with my sister, her husband & their little boy in Basingstoke & Mrs Tojo's parents are spending Xmas with her sister near Ulm in southern Germany. We may be inviting an elderly couple around which have helped us out by babysitting in the past - we'll have to wait & see. They're are a bit like adopted grandparents for the kids as their real ones live so far away.

Anyway, the 24th will be spent decorating our tree which we still have to buy. Then in the afternoon the children (well Daniel & Sara, Simon is still too small) take part in the nativity play in the church so we have to go there to watch. Somehow, not sure how yet, I have to be at home at the same time to place the presents around the tree When we are all home again, the Xmas tree candles are lit & the kids are called in. They have to sing us a few songs - no song, no pressies - & then it's AAAATTTTAAACCCKKK!!!! as the presents are distributed, unwrapped, sat on, broken etc. After a bit of playing & chatting it's time for bed.

On the 25th I have to work early shift so won't have much chance to celebrate at home. Maybe at work though. Hopefully Mrs Tojo will cook a nice turkey roast for when I come home
Boxing day I'm working too. I'm sure the kids will be having fun playing though.

[SuperJen]

Hey all,

Christmas day for me is always alot of driving, as I spend most of the day travelling around Melbourne going from my mums or uncles to my dads.

This year I decided to take charge and change things around a bit so Christmas morning we're having breakfast at dads with my step brother and sister and my half brothers (dads been married 3 times), then it's off to mums for lunch with my cousins and then in the evening we'll go to a friends house for a few drinks.

Tomorrow night we're going to 'Carols in the park' pic-nic dinner with friends, carols, fire works and Santa.
Christmas eve we have a traditional gathering at a friends house with a seafood BBQ and we watch the carols on tv and have a kris kringle. There's usually a group of about 20-30 people. It's great.

Boxing day..... nothing more Melbourne on boxing day than the cricket! And this year I think I'll be going

[steveparkes]

I'll be in London this Christmas..I'm going over to my sisters on the 21st to exchange presents with her and my nephews and nieces. Then I am travelling down to london on the train (managed to get first class tickets - so will be travelling down with the pressies and lots of free red wine). The flat down here is done up like a santa's grotto inside, so it's difficult not to feel christmasy

On christmas morning I'll be cooking the turkey and all the trimmings, but I'll be serving champagne with pomegranite juice in and blueberries floating ontop, followed by a breakfast of scrambled eggs and salmon. Then opening the presents (I know I have lots of smurfy stuff this year, so that will be nice YAY!).

After the dinner, we will probably go for a walk round the local park and come back and nibble some choccies and have some more alcohol (hic) before settling down to watch some DVD's

Then on the 27th I'm travelling back to nottingham to spend 2 days with my family (and also go to the toyfair to pick up more smurfies )

Then it's back to London for new year and another bottle of Champagne

[Guest]

Nice to read everyone's story's so far !

[Ritter_Schlumpfenherz]

December 24th: Mum and me will get up early (7 am) and start preparing our traditional christmas dinner: starter: pea soup, entree: potato salad carp (for my mum) and sole for me and ice cream as dessert). After having finished our preparations, we visit the graveyard and light up two candles. One candle at my granny's grave and one candle at the huge cross in memory for all beloved relatives who were buried in the Czech republic.
At 5 pm, we will serve our Christmas dinner and wrapping up our gifts
Later on, we are going to watch the Czech adaption of Cinderella which is called: Tri orísky pro Popelku (meaning Three hazelnuts for Cinderella) which is the best adaption of that fairy-tale imho:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070832/

December 25th: Since my parents are divorced, my dad will come to visit us. We might then visit the famous Christmas fair at my hometown and hook up with some friends, colleagues,too who will come our to our flat, so that we can exchange gifts.

December 26th: Manni will visit us and he likely will stay overnight too. Reason being, that I wanted to go to a special exhibition taking place in one of the museums on the following day with him.

December 27th: Hanging out with Manni at the museum and in the city.

December 28th -December 30th: Meeting up with colleagues, preparations for the oral presentations to come, after the holidays

December 31st- January 1st: Celebrating New Year's Eve with our friends, colleagues + Manni at our flat etc.

January 2nd... : Study hard for my exams and start writting my tasks due to be on February 11th and on March 31st.

January 8th: Back to campus

January 30th - February 13th: exams

[eggie smurf]

Normally, our Christmas here is all Italian...my mom's side of the family. Christmas Eve is traditionally an all fish dinner - in English it's the Feast of the Seven Fishes (can't remember what it is in Italian) and literally seven courses are served each with a different fish - The reason behind the use of fish: Christmas Eve is a vigilia di magro, in other words, a day of abstinence in which the Catholic Church prohibits the consumption of meat. My mother's family has always kept this tradition. My grandmother always has Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners at her home...in fact, she has a huge dinner every Sunday and it's an open invitation to everyone in the family. She has 4 kids, 11 grandkids and 7 great-grandkids plus all kinds of in-laws and step-grandkids so it does get very crowded in her little house but she loves it. My mom, uncle and I always help cook the fish for Christmas Eve. What's ironic is I don't eat seafood so I help cook everything then don't eat it!! But I have a lot of picky cousins so there is always pasta as an alternative. Also on Christmas Eve is when my parents and I always exchange our gifts because my mom is so impatient to get her gifts...it's been that way since I was about 7 years old. I never complained though as I got my pressies before any of my other friends lol. On Christmas morning, we all go to church, then visit my great-aunts, my grandmother and the cementary as well before going home to wait until Christmas dinner.

On Christmas day is when the turkey and ham and pasta etc are cooked. About 10 years ago, my grandmother decided that two huge meals in a row was just too much for her to prepare....so Christmas Eve was changed to the Sunday before the actual Eve. Ah and here's a good question...what if Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday, which it does this year? She's having it on December 17th but I'm very happy about this as I won't miss Christmas Eve since I'll be out of town this year

This normally is what I do but since marrying Jason, we have to alternate holidays and his family lives 15 hours away by car. So this year we are leaving town the evening of December 22 and coming home on the 27th. We'll be arriving mid-day on the 23rd and on Christmas Eve going to his grandmother's for a party followed by mass at midnight. On Christmas Day we will be travelling another 3 hours to his sister's who is having just the parents and siblings plus spouses. On the day after Christmas, we will be spending with Jason's best friends. We don't celebrate Boxing Day here but maybe we'll have to enact that if it involves drinking Then getting up early on the 27th to drive home. I'm going to need a vacation after this holiday

[Rachel]

Thanks guys, it is facinating learning about all the different ways everyone is celebrating.

Any more?


Oooooh, I am getting all excied now........... 2 weeks to the big day.

[Elvissmurf]

Hmmm??..Do i have christmas traditions or do i just fit everything in where i can?

Christmas i usually visit my auntie and uncle,who became very much my adoptive guardians/role models after my parents divorced when i was little,i have them to thank for the person i am today (they always kept me on the straight and narrow).My kids love going there as they get to see the squirrels playing in there garden.Then it`s home to take a walk around our local area to look at everyone elses christmas decorations,before coming home to put out the mince pies,carrots and drinks for Santa and his reindeers.(when i was little it was beer for santa...but i think he must of been pulled over for drink driving as it is now only milk lol ).As soon as the kids are in bed..in goes the turkey!!,and as the smells of the large beast begin to filter throughout the house Mrs Elv and i bring the pressies out of there hiding places and place them under the tree and on the sofa`s (generally 2 massive piles for the kids and 2 smaller ones for us adults ).then it`s woof goes the mince pie and milk with a ho ho ho as we settle down to try and find something to watch on tv until the bird has cooked.

Xmas day=Kids up!!!....everyone up!!!...massive flurry of paper!! lots of ooh`s and aah`s and wow`s before dad has to fetch his trusty screwdriver..(not so much as to put things together,but to get all the toys out of there packaging ),whilst mum and kids phone everyone to say thankyou for the presents that we can`t remember they gave us ,as the tags got lost in the frenzy of getting the pressies open asap .
Veg` goes on and the turkey gets steamed until hot and we all sit down for xmas dinner to discover we forgot the stuffing/parsnips etc (always something every year).
When we`re all suitably stuffed the kids will play with the toys or watch tv whilst i clean the mountain of dishes and pots that have built up in the production of the afore-mentioned meal.
This year we have my in-laws coming around for xmas tea and the evening,which will make a pleasant change,as it is usually just the 4 of us.

Boxing day=(in response to pitufo-boxing day was traditionally the day when the rich folk gave presents to their servants...usually the left overs of their own christmas fare...in boxes...or so i believe!)..anyway Boxing day...YAY!!..one of the highlights of my year....the King George chase from Kempton..a race won in the past by such greats as Desert orchid,Best mate (r.i.p. ),Edredon bleu,Kicking king etc..A whole 5-10 mins where me and Mrs Elv shout at the tv,and feel the joys or lows of this 3 mile champion chase..(usually followed by those famous words...i was gonna pick him lol),then its wait as the footy results filter through..i used to go to the Argyle match if they were playing at home until the children were born...usually a good atmosphere with lots of turkey sandwiches being passed around...oh!! and a game of football to watch aswell..a good day out!

And that is pretty much as traditional as i get (chaos rules here!!)

My one christmas wish...SNOW!!...and plenty of it. (it has become such a rarity to have in the South-west of the UK....the whole rest of this fair isle can be snow bound and what do we get???....Rain!!..typical Plymouth!).

Don`t think i`ll be getting any smurfy items from santa,as my wife has told him NOT!! to bring any

Have a merry christmas all,whatever you do.

[SMURFYSTEVE1]

Well in our home on christmas eve we always let the children open just one present as it is a tradition in kim's family as it helps calm the kids down a bit before the big day.......
For christmas day we usually get up extra early and open all our pressies together. we have a tradition where each present we have that has a bow on it that person has to stick the bow on them and the winner is the one with the most.........LOL Just a bit of fun we started.

We then get dressed up in our finery and usually go to the cemetary with flowers but seeing as we have no car this year we won't be able to make it. Kimmy makes a wonderful huge roast turkey dinner with all the trimmings for us washed down with some swarvy wine.

After dinner kim's mum and sister will arrive with more presents and we drink and eat till we burst with some xmas tv, dvd's and games to boot.

Boxing day is pretty quiet as it's just us at home but i'm sure the kids will make it eventful as always......

New year we usually go to a party at my aunts but this year we are thinking of staying at home and having my cousin and his family and kim's dad and his wife round for some revelry......


Smurfy regards
Steve

[southernyacht]

Hi everyone,

This is a great topic.

Christmas for me starts at 15.30 on Thursday 21st which is my last day at work (being civil servants we've decided to close the office on Friday 22nd as people only go into to work to drink..... )

Christmas day - Andy and I visit my Mother and her boyfriend. I have a very small family - just my Mother so it makes it easy (and cheap) when deciding what to do for Christmas. From the time we arrive at midday though, Mother is on a one-women mission to over-feed us and make us watch all the soaps on tv. Needless to say, Andy drinks a fair bit that day.......

Boxing day - Andy and I go to his parents. Andy is the eldest of three boys. His middle brother and his wife live nearby and are our really good friends. They also have an adorable daughter who is 3 and has just realised what Christmas means . We get the chance to catch up with his youngest brother who is a successful director of his own company (seems like only yesterday he was sat in the corner doing his homework....) and his partner. It's really easy to decide where to go as Andy's parents are very involved with the church and Christmas day is a busy/working day for them so they prefer to see us all on Boxing day.

I'm lucky that I'm not working between Christmas and New Year (the joy of being a civil servant) so it's a great chance to catch up friends and indulge in another passion - online gaming - especially the shoot-em-up type game (and you all thought I was so innocent..... ) A lot of our friends work shifts - so it's a great chance to loose track of time and play into the small hours

New Year - normally with Andy's family and friends for good food, good company and good laughs

Cathy x

[Smurfysmurf]

Hi,
my Christmas Tradition have changed over the years...but I have the fondest memories of my childhood around Christmas time...We always bought the Christmas Tree on Christmas eve and it was fun carrying it home on foot....We went to the early service on Christmas Eve and then I went with my Granny, who lived only a few houses away, while my mother decorated the Christmas Tree and brought the gifts out. Granny and I would put FreddyQuinn on (her favorite singer at the time) and light some candles...she would read her cards and I got to open her gifts from her friends...Then we would get the long awaited call to come over home, and she would grab two big bags and we walk over to my apartment that was now all Christmassy decorated....the tree was usually decorated with little chocolate candy thingys that I couldn't eat until a few days later (not sure but they always tasted soooooooooo good)...and then the gift opening would happen...first Granny, then my Mum and then me...after that we had some good German potatoe salad and Wieners... I usually was afraid of going out at night, because you heard of so many bad things happening, but I remember that I was never afraid of going to the church service on Christmas Eve, because all was so quiet and peaceful...you even got to see other families celebrate in their homes....We always walked to church in Germany, as we didn't have and didn't need a car
Later on, when I was in my teens, I wanted to decorate the tree also, so Mum and I would do it together and listen to good Rock Christmas music...then Granny would come after church, we read the Christmas story in Luke and the old routine of the unwrapping of gifts happened...

After we moved to the States, I started the American routine of decorating everything right after Thanksgiving (much to the disgust of my Granny, who usually spent Christmas with us) but we still didn't put the gifts under the tree until Christmas Eve

This year will be a bit different, as the family has grown since my mother got married again and her husband has his own grown kids...and Granny cancelled her visit her a week before her flight...But Mum and her husband will come to my place on Christmas Eve for the traditional unwrapping of gifts and potatoe salad and Wieners...and we have Christmas Day at their place with his family

and then after Christmas Day...the fun starts

I am off until Jan 2

[Ritter_Schlumpfenherz]

Btw. I wish you could come to Dortmund, since I'd love to show you the largest X Mas tree in the world. It is 45 meters high!!

http://www.weihnachtsmarkt-dortmund.de/