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Belle · 06-12-2010, 02:07 PM

(06-12-2010 12:50 PM)HellsBells Wrote: Good luck with the cooking, Belle. I always get out of the cooking on Christmas day because my husband does it all!! Although I have to help wash-up.

Thx

!!
Lucky you! You're husband is a good cook then?
Ah yes, that awful wash-up Wink

, but we all join our forces, even the guests help with that!
Have a great x-mas!

**JHyde** · 07-12-2010, 07:36 AM

It's a very strange thing, believe me, given that so many Christmas traditions involve cold weather. Especially the food. Most Australians embrace the difference and have a party on the beach or at least have seafood. My family continues to sweat on, even when there's a fire ban we still have a roast.

At my godmother's in the evening my-very-large-in-number-family-on-my-mother's-side have a pot luck that is mostly cold cuts and salads. Kind of more appropriate.

Belle · 07-12-2010, 10:31 AM

(07-12-2010 07:36 AM)JHyde Wrote: It's a very strange thing, believe me, given that so many Christmas traditions involve cold weather. Especially the food. Most Australians embrace the difference and have a party on the beach or at least have seafood. My family continues to sweat on, even when there's a fire ban we still have a roast.

At my godmother's in the evening my-very-large-in-number-family-on-my-mother's-side have a pot luck that is mostly cold cuts and salads. Kind of more appropriate.

Well, if it's hot and you still have a roast, that must be good for the figure because while you eat, you sweat it of immidiatly Wink

I can't imagine celebrating X-mas in a bikini, but I guess it's all up to what you are used to.
In Belgium, most of the people dream of a white X-mas (mostly we get a rainy or just very cold X-mas instead, except in the south of the country)
(I've always wondered where that wish came from, could it be from that song by Bing Crosby?)
They've introduced having a pot luck as being the hype this year, but I don't think it will become a common thing over here, most of us are rather traditional when it comes to family dinners, meaning: sweating over the stove for hours while preparing a multi-course dinner.

HellsBells · 07-12-2010, 11:40 AM

In England the whole white Christmas thing started, I think, with the Victorians who started off many of our traditions. During the Victorian era Britain experienced a series of very cold winters and that therefore left the idea that Christmas should be white, hence snowy Christmas cards etc.
I know I would find it very difficult to have Christmas when it was hot, but I think it is great that people celebrate Christmas differently all over the world.
Definitely a traditional roast dinner for us, followed by the Queen's speech on TV.

Belle · 07-12-2010, 11:51 AM

Thx for the explanation where the white Christmas comes from! Smile

(Belgians are very much influenced by English and American traditions, so that will be the case for this one too.)

**A Cousin** · 07-12-2010, 03:15 PM

Very interesting, HellsBells. I did not know that!

And taking that White Christmas idea across the pond, the iconic "The Night Before Christmas" written in 1823 (just ever so slightly prior to the Victorian period, but close enough) by Clement Clark Moore in central New York state has that kind of white snowy imagery. That poem has become the basis for many of the traditions in the US.

**JHyde** · 08-12-2010, 07:38 AM

Silktie's stories last year were my favourites. I must nudge her into this thread because her South African traditions are quite distinctive.

**Silktie** · 08-12-2010, 08:36 AM

Haha! Thanks, but as is the way with traditions, they stay the same each year. So I thought I'd be polite and not repeat them again. Give some other people a chance.

Come to think of it, our family's traditions are quite mixed; there's a lot of German stuff creeping in due to some German ancestry way back when. My grandmother used to insist on a real pine tree, to which she affixed real candles AND lit them! Talk about a disaster waiting to happen - it really is a miracle we never burnt the house down... But I used to love it, nothing beats that smell of pine needles and warm wax for nostalgia around Christmas time. I'm always a little sad when I put up my fake tree now, nice though it may be.

Other than that, we focus on the Christian part of it. We put a ridiculously low cap on what we're allowed to spend on presents, and give the rest of the huge sums we would otherwise have blown on it to a charity of our choice. And we always start Christmas day by attending a church service.

Then the clan congregates at a family member's house and eat too much, and try not to squabble over who gets to take which left-overs home for too long. Tongue

HellsBells · 08-12-2010, 12:03 PM

The real Christmas tree with real burning candles must have been magically, so wonderful.
We also have fake tree which is never as good as a real one but it does mean we can keep it up for ages.

**A Cousin** · 08-12-2010, 02:40 PM

I am glad that those who posted last year are posting again because I am too lazy to go back and read last years thread. It new to me!

I have German roots as well. Both of my paternal grandparents immigrated to the US ca. 19-teens. The tree with the real candles was a tradition for my father as well. He did not perpetuate it though. 10 kids, 3 dogs and a cat - too much potential for disaster! Always had, and still do have, a real tree though. Mr. Cuz insists on it. It can't stay up as long but BOY does it smell good!

My siblings and I have inadvertently developed a gift giving tradition over our adult lives. We give to a charity in the name of the giftee family. One of my bothers donates to Heifer International, we donate to the Children's Tumor Foundation, you get the idea.