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Monday, November 14, 2011

Christmas In Your Country

How do you celebrate Christmas in your country? If you are in the US and want to post about your own personal Christmas traditions, please do, but I am especially interested in how those in other countries observe or celebrate Christmas.
Our Christmas is simple and traditional. We decorate a tree with ornaments that are mostly keepsakes going back to my childhood and my family childhood, including those collected over the years that our nephew were growing up. We usually cut a native tree from our own property, but this year a disease killed or damaged all our native junipers, so we had to buy one. It's much prettier than our junipers, but it's just not the same. We have a lot of mistletoe around the place, so we also have that and holly branches for decoration. We hang up all the Christmas cards we have received to remind us of all those near and far that we love.

We exchange names with members of our church for presents so that everyone gets one present from one other person. We have a program on Christmas eve that is a tradition at our church going back 125 years. We sing carols and everyone brings cookies or small sandwiches and other "finger foods".
On Christmas morning, we exchange gifts with immediate family members. My mother loves crafts and always makes everyone some small thing to add to their other presents. We have a nephew who is orphaned and lives with us. He will be eight next month, so we always try to make Christmas morning awesome and memorable for him. my onther nephew has three small children as well, so you can imagine the noise and excitement! Christmas dinner varies from year to year. I like goose, my mother likes venison, my nephew likes duck, and others  grandchildren favor ham, so we sort of alternate among those. This year, however, I have been invited to eat with friends, so I don't know what I will have. Christmas afternoon and evening we visit people we know in our community that are unable to get out because of age or illness.
OK, there's mine. How about yours?


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