"Knowing" It's Christmas

[qos]

QoS's Signs of Christmas

1. "Christmas in the Northwest" playing on the radio, a Seattle tradition.
2. Linus reciting the story of the shepherds and angels.
3. Getting out my sparkling holiday sweater (which I only wear between Dec. 14 and January 1st).
4. Listening to Handel's Messiah (preferrably at my hometown church).
5. Decorating the tree.
6. Setting up the Three Kings figurines which have been a family fixture since my childhood.
7. Watching the Grinch's heart grow three sizes and the Bumble putting the star on the top of the Christmas tree.
8. Eggnog
9. Grandmother's krumkake cookies, now made by my mother (Scandanavian rolled cookies, made with a hinged iron).

What about you?
What traditions capture the essence of this holiday season for you -- whichever holiday you celebrate?

Comments

Antipodean Secular Christmas

[toesontheground.livejournal.com]

1. Incongruity - season and symbolism don't match
2. BBQs, beach, malls full of teens out of school for summer
3. Getting together with family
4. Christmas songs on radio - Snoopy's Christmas, John Lennon "War is Over", The Pogues "Fairytale of New York"
5. My sister's uncontrollable desire to make dips and nibbles

That's about it...

Krumkake?

[gothic-coop.livejournal.com]

You are one of the few people I know outside of my family that even knows what krumkake are. WOW!. A few years ago I bought a double krumkake iron that plugs into the wall. Now I don't have to use the one on e the stove. Good thing the place I am living at now is the stove isgas and not eleteric.

Re: Krumkake?

[qos.livejournal.com]

My father's mother was full-blooded Swede, his father full-blooded Norwegian. Krumkake has been a family tradition for as long as I can remember.

The first krumkake iron I remember was a stove type. Now my mother has an electric iron. More reliable, not as romantic.

The funny thing is that I never particularly liked krumkake -- it was just part of the overall ambience of Christmas at my grandparents' house.