Holiday Hoopla
Nola over at Nola Notes tagged me for this meme “hoopla” that her friend came up with. I’m not really into memes “hooplas,” but it seemed sort of grinchy to decline. So, the Holiday Hoopla Meme “Hoopla”:
Here are the rules, as decreed by someone higher up than myself.
1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas
2. Please refer to it as a ‘hoopla’ and not the dreaded ‘m’-word
3. You have to specifically tag people when you’re done. None of this “if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged” stuff is allowed…then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you — but the more, the merrier to get this ‘hoopla’ circulating through the blogosphere.
4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I’d like to get as many people involved as possible.
Twelve Random Christmassy Things About Me
1. I believed in Santa Claus for a long time. Like a really, really long time. I think I might have been around 12 when I finally figured it out. (Which is weird, because I pretty much never believed in the tooth fairy–massive orthodontic work involving the extraction of nearly all of your baby teeth will do that to you.)
2. I still have–and use–the stocking my mom made for me when I was 5. It’s red felt and has an angel on the front. It has an angel because I’m the fifth kid and by the time she got to making mine, Santa, Rudolph, Frosty, and a Christmas tree were already taken. When my mom asked me what Christmas thing I wanted on my stocking–I think she was aiming for “Star”–my answer was….”God.” Angel turned out to be close enough. Over the years both of the Ladies have coveted that stocking and begged me to let it be theirs. It’s the only thing of “mine” that I have never, ever been willing to share with my children.
3. The Ladies have the Santa and the Frosty that go with the set. In their misspent youth, the brothers who owned these stockings decided they didn’t want them, so I took them. By the time they came to their senses, I had picked their names off and had my kids’ names on. heh
4. I’m strictly an Angel girl when it comes to the top of the tree. And while I don’t use it, I also rescued the angel that topped our tree during our childhood from the trash heap a few years ago. She’s kinda cheesy and definitely showing her age (older than me), but she’s Christmas and it wouldn’t be the same without her.
5. That Elf on a Shelf thing that’s so big right now? We’ve been doing that since I was a kid. My mom had these two little polkadotted elves who sat on the painting in the livingroom. She told us that they reported back to Santa whether we were naughty or nice. We were always good in the livingroom in December. And if you guessed that those elves now reside in MY livingroom? Bingo. They live here year round though, not just at Christmas time.
6. Santa doesn’t wrap the presents he brings here. Everything is delivered already out of the box and ready to play with. It’s better for the environment, eliminates that awkward question about why Santa uses the same wrapping paper you do, and you don’t have to do battle with all those damn twisties with an overexcited child jumping up and down in front of you demanding if it’s ready yet.
7. I have never cooked a Christmas dinner, and I never will.
8. I prefer colourful Christmas trees. None of this designer all-gold monochromatic theme nonsense. I like riotous colour on my trees. And white lights? Ick.
9. I love the old Rankin Bass Christmas specials. Love them love them love them. I even spent a ridiculous amount of money to buy The Ladies Rudolph and Clarice from Build A Bear this year.
10. Each year I buy each of The Ladies a Christmas ornament. When they grow up and leave me (sob), they’ll take their ornaments with them to decorate their first apartments for Christmas.
11. I like doing the stockings best. Buying the presents is fun, but the stockings are where I really excel. I love picking up those little odds and ends and cool bits to fill them with–all those things they never knew they wanted, along with all those things they always covet but I won’t buy them. It’s so fun to see their excitement as the excavate the stockings, pulling out treasure after treasure. It’s one of those moments where I glow with pride, confident that if nothing else, I’ve done this right. I hope when they’re older The Ladies will remember the stockings and think, “You know, Mom really knew us.”
12. I don’t like oranges. When I was a kid, every letter to Santa would contain a reminder that I don’t like oranges and a request that he put an apple in my stocking instead.
Ok, so that’s me. So on to the tagging. I tag Kate because I cannot imagine celebrating Christmas in shorts and flip beside the swimming pool, Eden because I want to see how the whole Yule/Christmas thing blends, Thordora because she’s in desperate need of some Christmas spirit, Mav because she’s just starting to create her own traditions, and Jenny because I can’t wait to see what she would answer. You’re all IT.
Comment by MaryP
I am totally with you on number eight. Trees should be a riotous and meaningful mish-mash of bits and pieces lovingly accumulated over the years, including, but not limited to: coloured lights, wooden cranberry garlands with teeth marks in them from when your oldest was two and thought they were real berries; miscellanious salt-dough stars, covered gloppily in red and gold acrylic paint; fragments of felt hand-stitched into a six-inch garland and a few cut-up credit cards for the anti-consumer message.
Some of these things are no longer on my tree, but have been taken by my eldest (who made them) to grace her tree in her home.
Thus the gloriousness of the chaotic Christmas tree is passed on, generation unto generation.
Posted on December 23, 2007 at 9:38 am
Comment by victoria adams
what is a meme ?
Posted on December 24, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Comment by Karin
My mom always made sure that there were two yearly ornaments for us, thus she got to keep one and I got to take one.
Posted on December 25, 2007 at 12:35 am