[2020-12-20] The holidays: what you said

Today began with a walk in the snow with my son, followed by Christmas baking while listening to holiday music. So it feels like a perfect day to share some of what readers passed along as their plans for the holidays. Perhaps these ideas will inspire you or at least have you googling, as they did for me.

How will you celebrate the winter holidays this year?

One woman is looking forward to having her daughter cook their family Christmas dinner. She's hoping that this will become a long-standing tradition. "I am setting up myself for life," she joked.

Another woman who lives alone is eager to spend Christmas with her daughter, son-in-law, and three grandchildren. "It is so wonderful watching them open their Xmas presents on Xmas morning."

A couple enjoys opening special gifts when it's just the two of them—before guests arrive.

One reader shared a New Year's Day tradition that is Scottish in origin (or possibly just something her family does). You shake hands with people you meet that day and exchange money—from a dime (for kids) to a toonie. The money you receive should not be spent for a year, so that you always have money. Another Scottish tradition her family observes is that it is good luck for the first person to set foot in your house in the new year to be tall, dark and handsome; the first person to enter a house should come bearing gifts, such as salt (so that you always have flavour in your life), whisky, bread or sweets (so that your life brings you happiness), or silver coins.

The same reader said that her grandmother always made a point of bringing any containers back to her daughter before the clock struck midnight to ring in the New Year. This was made more challenging by the fact that containers were always going back and forth, and her grandmother often took the containers home again with leftovers on New Year's Day.

One woman shared that despite the challenges she experienced in childhood, her mother shone at Christmas. "She somehow whipped up an amazing Christmas every year, with ambiance and decorations and special food and presents and music. So I grew up thinking Christmas was inherently magical. As an adult, I realized that it wasn’t inherently magical—women made the magic." She tried to recreate the magic as an adult, but couldn’t pull it off. "Eventually I let go of the expectation that Christmas ought to be magical. Now I’m happy just to get a few days off and do things I enjoy." Her husband is Jewish while she is not. "Our philosophy for the holidays is to do the things we like best about Christmas and Hanukkah and not do the stuff that just feels obligatory. It changes from year to year. Last year we skipped the tree, but this year we put one up. We light the Hanukkah candles every night, which I love even though I’m not Jewish. We exchange gifts. We send gifts to all the children and young people in our lives. We eat and drink amazingly well. We take a few extra days off work between Christmas and New Year’s, and we devote that time to playing with our toys and indulging our hobbies."

Another reader says, "As with every year, I will make a video/slideshow of family highlights throughout the year, set to music. Kids love watching how much they have grown and reminiscing about the fun we had!" She and her husband try not to cry.

One young woman normally hosts a family get-together at a community hall in the country. While that's not in the cards this year, she's hoping that she will be able to do so again next year.

One person found the silver lining in this year's celebrations: "I will remember this as the year I don't have to wait on family and guests every second of the day during the holidays!"

What music do you listen to during the holidays?

I received many suggestions for favourite songs or albums.

Songs
  • All I Want for Christmas - Mariah Carey
  • Do They Know It's Christmas? - Bandaid
  • Rocking Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
  • Silent Night - Carrie Underwood or performed by a choir
  • O Holy Night - Céline Dion
  • Feliz Navidad - José Feliciano
  • Joy to the World Medley: Joy to the World | I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day - Jimmy Hood
  • Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
  • Little Drummer Boy
Albums
  • Winter Songs - Ronan Keating
  • Barenaked for the Holidays - Barenaked Ladies
  • Take Heart (Again) - Hillsong Worship
  • The Fullness of Time - Jimmy Hood
Trans-Siberian Orchestra was mentioned by a few readers, one of whom said, "I like Trans-Siberian Orchestra too! I remember years ago editing a little family holiday montage and weaving in TSO as the audio back drop. Music is such a big part of the holidays for me. I pull out the old piano books + play all the familiar tunes (poorly) every single year!"

What foods do you like?

One woman listed these as her favourite holiday foods: her mom's Christmas cake, kohlrabi, butternut squash, Bra cheese, Broken Glass Dessert (here's a recipe for those unfamiliar with this old-fashioned treat), peppercorn paté with Calabrese bread, licorice and candy.

Another noted that Italian Christmas tradition on Christmas Eve is to eat seafood, known as the Feast of the Seven Fishes. She wrote: "We will have a cod soup, flour battered cod, shrimp, salmon, and a few other seafood dishes to be determined. For those who don’t like seafood, there will be cocktail meatballs and chicken. Another of my parents’ traditions is to make Crispedde (fried dough balls with sugar sprinkled on top). They taste so good when eaten warm."

One reader stated that for her parents, there needs to be mashed potatoes, peas, cranberry sauce (which she's making fresh this year), mashed carrots and peas, and stuffing. She will add a Brussels sprouts cheese casserole, a dish with sweet potato, and stuffing with turkey sausage and spinach.

Another reader wrote: "There will always be Austrian Christmas cookies (at least three different kinds) and fruit cake." There will also be ham on Christmas Eve and a big "fry-up" and mimosas on Christmas morning.

What gifts do you like to give?

One reader shared: "Ever since my children were young they received underwear and socks as one of their Christmas gifts. Today as full grown adults, I still give them underwear and socks.... I am sure if I stopped giving them undergarments they would say 'where are my socks and underwear?'"

Another wrote: "My kids get an ornament from the 'Christkind' every Christmas Eve. It usually appears in the car after Christmas Eve mass. My daughter (now 16) asked me the other day where the ornament would be." She added, "And, yes, there is always chocolate!"

What activities do you like to do?

"We usually break out the crokinole board game," said one reader. "This year we are going to learn Pente."

Another woman said, "I want to ensure my grandchildren participate in new Italian traditions." To that end, she purchased a tombola game (Bingo) to play with her grandchildren as well as Italian cards to play Scopa (sweep).

Lots of families are planning video calls with their extended family, such as on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or Boxing Day.

Watching movies appears on the activity lists of several readers, especially:
  • It’s a Wonderful Life
  • Miracle on 34th Street
  • Elf
  • The Bestest Present
  • La guerre des tuques
  • Tous les classiques de Télé-Québec comme Astérix le Gaulois et Astérix et Cléopatre
Going for a walk, playing board games, building Lego and driving around to look at Christmas lights are other ideas for how readers will spend time with family over the holidays.

I love all the ideas that readers shared and hope that you do as well.