Terri Webster Schrandt‘s blogfest theme this week is:
TRADITIONS
(Click on images to view original size.)
🎄DECORATING🎄
According to my mother’s German tradition, the house decorations had to be in place by the fourth Sunday before Christmas (aka “The first Advent” on the Christian calendar).
Superstition also dictated they be removed on Jan. 6 (aka Epiphany), otherwise bad luck would ensue. Since my father’s birthday was the next day, those decorations stayed up until the 8th, without incident. 😆 Now, I usually take them down a few days after New Year’s.
🥂🍽️FOOD & DRINK🍽️🥂
Most of us overindulge during the holidays. My philosophy is, calories don’t count in December. 😉 Of course, this usually means weight gain (for me, anyway), followed by the inevitable restraint in the new year.
NO REGRETS!
Fruitcake (despised by some) is a North American tradition, but hubby and I, being Italian and German respectively, prefer our Panettone and Stollen, especially with Prosecco!
There’s a plethora of European goodies at the local German delicatessen, which we stock up on every year. Sometimes, friends offer treats as well. Calories don’t count, remember? 😉
In deference to Italian tradition, our Christmas Eve meal is seafood. For the last few decades, it’s been Coquilles St. Jacques (Scallops Au Gratin). Normally considered an appetizer, we add rice for a full course. It’s a complicated dish, so we make enough to last a few days.
For dessert, along with the aforementioned treats, we have Spanish coffee, using Tia Maria coffee liqueur and Vecchia Romagna, an Italian brandy. And, if we’re not too lazy, Zoey gets a late night walk, to work off a few calories, at least.
🎁December 24th🎁
For Germans, the night of the 24th is the main event, whether celebrating Christmas, Yule, Winter Solstice, etc. Gifts are exchanged after dinner, and we stay up half the night.
With no immediate family here, we’ve always enjoyed this time together – just us and the dog, cocooning. Previously, with the “Canine Inn” (retired in 2021), there were multiple dogs.
Starting after lunch, we begin a Christmas movie marathon that lasts through the 25th. In between meals and dog walking, of course. We need the exercise, for sure!
🎶Dinner Music🎶
During meal prep and consumption, we listen to the dulcet tones of our favourite Canadian crooner. You might enjoy him too:
Speaking of music, there’s a new Battle of the Bands contest on my other site. Come on by and cast a vote! 😀
It's the first of the month. Time for another Battle of the Bands contest. Come on by and cast your vote! 😀😀HAPPY HOLIDAY – THE HOLIDAY SEASON #BOTB – https://t.co/O06PRH4oVw by @DebbieDoglady #dogladysden #BattleOfTheBands
— Debbie D. 🇨🇦🇩🇪 (@DebbieDoglady) December 1, 2024
TO VIEW ALL PARTICIPANTS/JOIN THE BLOGFEST, VISIT TERRI:
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Also joining Cathy at the #4M Musicfest and Sandee at Wordless Wednesday.
What are your holiday traditions?
Talk soon!
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Dog Mom and (retired) Canine Innkeeper in suburban Toronto, Canada, known as The Doglady. Former corporate workaholic. Writer, photographer, digital creator. Animal lover, music fanatic, inveterate traveller. Eternal hippie/rockchick. History, literature and cinema buff. Hockey and soccer fan. Dedicated night owl. German/Canadian binational, multilingual. Let me entertain you!
24 thoughts on “HOLIDAY TRADITIONS🎄🍽️🥂| #SundayStills #Photography📷| #MusicMonday #4M🎶”
The mix of cultures with Panettone, Stollen, and seafood sounds amazing. And yes, calories definitely don’t count in December!
Thanks for sharing your cozy traditions!
My Christmas traditions are those of my husband, who is of Italian heritage. My mother in law introduced me to baccala (Italian salted cod) which has a nice firm texture the fresh cod doesn’t have. She didn’t do the seven fishes for Christmas Eve but always had several. Gifts were also opened on Christmas Eve. I still remember her rum balls fondly. Our local Aldi’s (German chain) has a lot of the German goodies. My son was introduced to some of them when he took a year of German in high school. Thank you for the yule log – I need something to warm myself on today even though it’s in the 30’s F.
Your holiday looks lovely. And the music is perfect, too!
I love reading about your holiday traditions. Truthfully, I don’t remember many of mine. Everything changed in 2021; I don’t want to think about all the bad things that happened, but they totally obliterated the family memories I had in my mind before then. So I’ll just say that I’m glad you’ve had great holidays and expect to have another one this year; I need to find the Peanuts Christmas holiday on DVD somewhere 🙂
Penelope and Princess say, Hi, Zoey! We want to play with you and sniff your butt!
Your decorations are beautiful, Debbie. I’m starting to decorate. Got the tree up last night. I wish I had started 2 weeks ago because I have tons of ornaments to be placed. I used to take down everything around New Year’s. I was in the middle of taking the tree down in 2021 when the insurrection took place. I put the lights back on and kept it up for a couple more weeks. I knew quite a few people who did the same. The lights and the tree comforted us after that horrible day. Since then I’m not in a rush to take down my decorations. I’m fine with them staying up until mid-January.
Love,
Janie
I am planning to make my home-made stollen this year. I missed doing that last December. I wish calories didn’t count during the holidays. lol It’s a difficult time to show restraint and anyone who can do it, then I applaud them. I certainly can’t. 😀 I love all of your festive photos and music! Thanks for joining the Christmas party, Debbie! xo
Homemade stollen sounds delicious, Cathy! My mother used to bake everything from scratch, but I didn’t inherit that gene. 😆 The holidays are meant to be enjoyed without restraint, IMO. Plenty of time to get back on track in the new year. Glad you liked the photos and thanks for hosting the link party. 🌹
I like all your traditions Debbie. My father never mentioned any German traditions, so we never did any and my mom never had any traditions that she carried on either. As a youngster, my mom always went to her grandmother’s farm and got to see all her cousins – there were many since my grandmother had eight siblings. She would talk about how fun it was and I always envied that I never got to experience an extended family. As to me, there were a few that our family did when I was young and I am going to write about them next week for the second week of the Traditions Challenge. Any traditions from long ago have dwindled down to next to nothing, but the Walker shortbread fingers I have already bought since it was something my mom and I always had for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day after she stopped baking in later years. Nothing beats that buttery taste. Mom made shortbread breakers and a buttery shortbread with a cherry on top for years. This year I will put up a tree for the first time since 2008. When I was still working on site, my boss had a friend who owned a German cheese store, but he also had a small meat selection and some wonderful rustic bread. He sold a lot of German goodies for the holidays like the puffy gingerbread cookies and also the chocolate tree ornaments. We used to get our Christmas stollen at a German restaurant where the owner was once a pastry chef in a Downtown Detroit hotel. Both owners, of the store and restaurant, have now retired. I like your Christmas greeting with all the messages in different languages – very nice!
Thanks for sharing your holiday experiences, Linda! My mother was a fantastic cook and baker, but I didn’t inherit that gene, so I have to buy stuff. 😆 Love the shortbread! I’m sure you’ll enjoy your tree, especially if you put lights on it. Makes a home seem warm and cozy! 🎄 Thanks for listening to my Christmas recording! I made that several years ago and always put it on here for the holidays. Thanks also for visiting my BOTB site, but your vote for Andy Williams didn’t count, since he’s not part of the contest. I replied to your comment over there. If you have the time, could you give the contenders a listen and choose one? Thanks! And yes, Michael Bublé is from Burnaby, B.C. 🍁
I am not a cook or baker either Debbie. My mother always told me “if you can read, you can read a recipe and will have no problem cooking/baking.” Not true! I have become the “Crockpot Queen” as I can’t mess those dinners up and I can be doing something else while it is cooking and with the bags, there is no mess to clean up. I love the Walker shortbread – it is tasty and a tradition. I don’t know if I will mention it in my post because Anne Marie, a friend of mine I met at the Park (but don’t see now as she moved away) bakes for every holiday and brings treats over for me. Once I wrote about my mom making me candy cane cookies, even as an adult and I kind of waxed nostalgic about that, so she found a recipe and made some and brought some over. I once posted a pic of several packages of Archway cookies, all my favorites, which were coincidentally the same type of cookies my mom made (nut crescents, wedding cake cookies, linzer cookies and others) and it was for me the next best thing to what I remembered, so the following Christmas Ann Marie went out of her way to duplicate some of those cookies, like she did with the candycane cookies a few days after I wrote about them. But I have to have some traditions, even if I keep them to myself. Food is the best tradition and yes, it is okay to indulge in all those treats. I bought my thick custard-style egg nog too for in between Christmas and New Year’s and what is left in the carton after NYE’s I put on my oatmeal – yum! I like the message – very nice of you to do that. I misunderstood and will look for the BOTB post and re-comment.
Other than having the kids over and Laurie putting up the village, and my desire to watch an old timey Midnight Mass, we don’t really have a tradition. In other words, it will be like the Thanksgiving we had last night, with lots more paper fragments on the floor…
As long as you’re having a good time with your family, that’s all that matters. 🙂
Those practices are good for me because I tend to procrastinate on the decorating and de-decorating aspects of the holiday season! Hope you enjoy these coming weeks with friends and family.
Thank you, Cheryl! 🙂 I wish you a happy holiday season as well. Decorating is a lot of work, so procrastination is understandable. I grew up with this strict tradition, so it’s pretty well-engrained. 😆
The main event in Sweden is December 24th as in Germany. The decorations has to be out by Saint Knut’s Day January 13th.
Interesting! Nice that you keep the decorations up longer, although I’m eager to get things back to normal after New Year’s Day. Keeping them there too long seems anti-climactic. 😆
We have a well-decorated, pre-lit artificial tree, a few seasonal candles, and a garland on the door. That’s it for us at Christmas. I like Stollen, and we both like shortbread as a Christmas treat. When Ollie was here, he loved Christmas. Opening his own presents of new soft toys, getting extra treats, and some turkey to eat too. It will be our first Christmas in this house without him.
Best wishes to you and your husband, Pete.
Dear Pete, my heart goes out to you and Julie! 💖 This time of year is difficult when you’ve suffered a loss. 🌹 I hope you will find a few rays of light during the month. Except for one year when we got a real tree (which was a disaster!), we’ve always had the pre-lit, pre-decorated ones. When the holiday is done, just throw a dust cover over it and store it until next year. Easy-peasy! 😷
Lovely post Debbie and very partial to Stollen… with 17years in Spain we adopted many of the traditions and certainly enjoyed them all. Here with just the two of us it will be favourite meals on Christmas Eve, usually steak on Christmas Day, Fish on Boxing Day and something special on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. We don’t drink but we have a very good 0 red wine and 0 gin and tonic. The cat will no doubt be spoilt ♥
Thank you, Sally! 🙂 Living in Spain must have been wonderful. 💖 We are also à deux for the holidays, and love it! Zoey the dog will get a few scraps, like your cat. I knew about alcohol-free wine, but didn’t realize they also have gin. Cheers!🍸
Loved your family rituals for Christmas Deb, so festive. Although I’m one who will pass on the fruitcake, lol. <3
Thanks, Deb! 🙂 The lights and decorations make things so cheery, and I’m with you on the fruitcake.
Oh I love reading about the German traditions you enjoyed, Debbie! Stollen I can handle, fruitcake, nope, lol! The seafood sounds amazing too.Your holiday celebrations sound wonderful–so multicultural! Enjoy the season, my friend!
Thank you, Terri! 🙂 I know, many of us don’t enjoy fruitcake. 😆 Stollen and Panettone both have fruit in them, but it’s more subtle. Yes, we have three different cultures going on here – lots of fun! 🇩🇪 🇨🇦 🇮🇹