This is the yearly bonus open thread for Christmas chat, for Hoydens and Hoydenizens who are interested. We mark the occasion with some Australian Christmas desserts photographed by Yabby. Feel free to talk services, observances, decorations, rushing, shopping, gifts, surprises, feasting and family traditions heart-warming and otherwise. All observers of Christmas welcome if you want to chat, religious, non-religious, and observers in the sense of watching it without participating.
If anyone making other seasonal observances wants to join the thread, please do.
Once the dedicated Xmas thread goes up each year, we generally ask that the Otterday threads become Xmas-free. Xmas chat should stay here or on another on-topic thread; visit today’s Otterday thread for other chat!
Categories: fun & hobbies, Life
100 books by women in 2016 
Vale David Bowie 
Jurassic World – Movie Review 
Weekend womanscraft: yarncraft 
Hoyden About Town 
[Reposted from other Open Xmas-Free Thread where I originally placed it – need more coffee!]
Our decorations are minimal this year due to kittens – none of us want to clean up shreds of tinsel etc. Should probably hang just a few things way up high this weekend though, just to have a bit of extra sparkle about. Looking forward to spending some time in Newie for a family Xmas – we’re all cutting back on buying gifts this year, the plan is to bring special/favourite foods to share instead.
I’ve also had a heavier than usual carolling season, which has been fun. It’s been extra good discipline to require a really thorough vocal warmup every single day so I can hit those high-high notes in the descants.
I googled best eggs to use for Pavlova and got the usual completely conflicting advice so I went with old and room temperature because that’s what I had. The Pavlova was excellent and there are leftovers.
John Scalzi just posted a charmingly silly piece of seasonal frivolity: Interview With Santa’s Reindeer Wrangler
We’ve just gotten back from four days in a small coastal town, with minimal internet and much more pleasant weather than here in Adelaide. Tomorrow we are having 12 people for Christmas lunch, which made today fairly hectic. We are going for simple with minimal cooking (it will be 38 here tomorrow). I am looking forward to the Doctor Who Christmas special, and to finally getting a chance to relax after a pretty full on final few months to the year. I might even get a chance to go see the Star Wars movie.
Finished lunch about half an hour ago, introduced the kittens to the delights of the bits of prawns that humans discard about fifteen minutes ago, they are now napping on Sprog the Younger (who is napping on the sofa) – we locked the kittens in the laundry while we actually ate, they were highly indignant. Half the family is now napping, might be time to joing themzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Looks like I may survive another holiday season. If I make it to next Tuesday, I figure I’ll be good for the next 11 months.
As I’m writing, I believe it’s (barely) still Xmas where you all are (Sydney?). Here, it’s just started, and if my kids were 15 years younger and like my brothers and I were at that age, they’d have already been up and torn open their presents. As it is, I’m the only one up. The one son is still in bed, the other is up the hill at his mother’s and they’re probably both still asleep.
I’m kind of sad. I used to love Christmas, or at least the idea of it. (The reality was another story.) So I’m kind of sad that neither my kids nor my ex have any enthusiasm for the magic of it, not that they were ever all that wild about it. I put up a tree, but the kids haven’t wanted to help decorate it for years, so it’s just for me. (The son who’s living with me at the moment did say “it looks nice, dad” when I prompted him.) The stockings have their ration of fruit and chocolate (I gave up on nuts), but when I mention that this is kind of a memorial of the time (well before even I was born) when fruit in the winter or chocolate any time was a rare luxury, their eyes glaze over and they have this “uh oh, Daddy’s come unstuck in time again” look on their faces.
I seem to recall hearing that in your part of the world, a barbecue on the beach on Christmas is A Thing. Well where we are (NY City area), we could easily have done it for Christmas Eve — it was 70+F (20 C) — except that it was also rainy. What with Climate Change, maybe it’s a custom we should develop here. Instead of barbecue, I’m going to bake a ham and probably some rice or potatoes and a few random veggies for when my ex and my older son show up. If I get real energetic, I might make some corn bread.
You squeaked in just under the wire for Xmas Day here on the east coast, AMM. Hope your day has turned out well!
We don’t make such a fuss now as I once used to do either, but that’s mainly just disorganisation generally. Also this year the thought of the new kittens and my traditional level of decoration (yep, stair banisters included) filled me with wariness, so I kept it simple. Maybe next year we’ll do all the bells and whistles again.
Christmas definitely changes as you go through life cycle changes. Once my siblings and I had all become young adults there was definitely less wonder, and indeed a kind of melancholy to it ( that Christmas afternoon feeling of ‘we’ve opened the presents and eaten the food – now what?). That changed when we started to have children – for the last fifteen years we’ve had kiddie Christmas once again. However, just the other day my mid teen daughter said that she doesn’t feel the same about Christmas as she used to. I can see that in a few years we will be back to teenage/ young adult Christmas, at least until any grandchildren come along…
We are lucky that both sides still have little ones so we can do kids Christmas for a while yet. I don’t think we will be quite up to grand kids by the time they are too old for kids Christmas but perhaps the adults might get in a few years of Christmas somewhere nice with a lovely young man holding a menu and offering towels poolside. One can always hope.