If you've got some Christmas/winter traditions, recipes, styles, etc that you'd like to share, post them here

'Tis the season!

Oooh, oooh, got one!

Every year for the past 25 years, I've made my grandmother's cheese ravioli for Christmas dinner. Mom's meatballs that literally melt in your mouth and hot Italian sausage in a rich marinara sauce and lots of Parmesan. A good red. What more could anyone want for Christmas?

Fond memories, lets see. Most of Khajiit's fond Christmas memories comes from pre-2002 years, before his parents got divorced. We would get together on Christmas Eve at grandma's (Da's side as Ma has no more living family members besides Khajiit and his younger sister) house, eat a nice dinner, and exchange gifts with Da's ma, sister, and nephew, and then Khajiit, his Ma and Da, and little sister would go back home. On Christmas Day we'd wake up early and exchange our gifts after a breakfast of sweet rolls! Later Da's folks would come over and stay till after dinner. Good times, lost to the past. *sad smile*

One Christmas tradition I have is to watch Mr Bean celebrating it. Love how he slams the door on the children caroling outside when they´re done

This year´s Christmas tree has been selected. Well, actually I have two candidates, both equally good and both growing next to roads so they have to come down eventually anyway.


The supplies for the tree are already out and ready. Have some glitter and stuff from when I was a kid actually. The very same stuff

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Wow, that was very, very good, mALX!

Thanks! Merry Christmas, Mirocu!

What a thoughtful and beautiful Christmas greeting, mALX! Merry Christmas to you, dear friend.

My Christmas tradition is donating Toys at Toys"R"Us for Toys for Tots, this year some lucky kids are going to get a bucket of army figures and ponies.

See what happens when you leave here for the day? I am forced to write bad poetry!


Merry Christmas, Acadian !!!!

Yay Christmas squirrel!

Merry Christmas CheshireKhajiit !!!!

Same to you mALX! Hope yours is holly-jolly (that's like 20x more than just regular jolly!)

That is really nice!

We'll be making nacatamals (Nicaraguan tamales) this year properly, instead of trying to fuse them with pasteles (Puerto Rican tamales).

Our tradition from my dad's side is to start prepping the meal on the 22nd or 23rd. We spend the day making pasteles and those who like rum have rum and cokes. Then we have the big meal on Christmas Eve and we open presents at midnight.

Then for mom's side is to have another big meal on Christmas Day. It's pretty much Thanksgiving Part II.

My favorite thing to make is coquito. I think I may have mentioned it before in another thread. It's like egg nog, but with coconut and the alcohol in it is run instead of bourbon or whatever goes in egg nog.

@Jacki Dice: could you please tell me the difference between nacatamals vs. pasteles?

One of my co-workers is Guatemalan and her tamales (I don't remember the proper term now) were delicious!

I think I'd take my eggnog with some of that Laphroaig triple wood . . .

Thanks .

Oh sure!

It seems like every Latin American country makes them differently, so both of them are probably a little different than Guatemalan tamales.

Pasteles are made with a masa (which is the mealy-"dough" mixture) made with yautia root (no idea what it's called in English), large plantains, and potatoes mixed together with achiote oil, for color. It's filled with pork, ham cubes, olives, garbanzo beans, and a pimiento. The masa is laid on a banana leaf, then you add the filler and then fold the banana leaf and boil them for 4 to 5 hours.

Nacatamals are made with corn masa, like Mexican tamales, though the ingredients are slightly different. For example, the achiote is made into a paste, rather than an oil. It's filled with pork as well, and also mint, tomatoes, potatoes, and occasionally raisins. I've never had it with raisins and I don't think I will. Then you wrap them in a banana leaf and steam it for a few hours. They're very good with some cheese on top, but that's not exactly traditional

Another difference is that pasteles are a Christmas tradition. They take way too long to make any old time. But Nacatamals are eaten for Sunday's breakfast in Nicaragua.

That sounds really good! Like you, Khajiit would not want to try the one with raisins, as he is not a fan of raisins.

MMMMMMM!!!!!

Jacki, thanks so much for explaining the difference! Both forms sound sooooo yummy.

However, like Khajiit and yourself, I'd probably skip the raisins.

Quick question, what is achiote?

Again, thanks! You're making me hungry . . .

Oh you're welcome!

Achiote is what Lilitu uses to color her hair

annatto. I'm not sure if they're seeds or kernels, but they can be cooked with oil to give food a reddish coloring, like how spanish rice looks.

Not that I need to, but here is Chris Rea and his Driving home for Christmas

I think the theme of this thread has been hijacked by the "Shoot Guns For Fun" thread. Can we take the rest of this discussion there where it belongs?

MALX is right. This poor thread did stray quite a bit off topic into a gun conversation. I've taken the liberty of moving those posts over to the 'Shooting Guns for Fun' which is a perfect home for them.

Good call, guys. Strange not even I picked up on it


So, C-tree tomorrow! I reckon I´ll take it inside tomorrow too and start decorating it. Love doing that and having some Christmas music on. One year I had Home Alone going on the TV in the background but that didn´t work; I was soon in the sofa instead of decorating

Nice! How tall of a tree?

Apartment height. I´ll cut it to maybe 2,5 meters. I think the total apartment height is 3 meters.

That's a big ass tree!

I didn't plan to put it on the table

Even so, my fake tree is only 7' tall.

Bah. Can´t be bothered to bring up the converter

That tree sounds big enough to "squirrel" something away ...


















Your ceiling height is under 10' your tree over 8' - it is going to be a close fit, lol.

The Christmas tree for 2016 is installed, decorated and all done! By golly, those ornaments have been in countless trees since my childhood


Had to trim it a bit for it to make room but not too much. I've had better trees but it'll do nicely. Plenty of branches for mALX to run around on

WOO HOO !!!!

I strung lights and hung wreaths & stockings yesterday, one of the light strings plays 36 different XMas songs as the lights blink, lol. It does get old, but my son figured out how to keep the lights going and turn the music off when we have tired of it, lol.


We don't have a tree yet. I found a live one I want, but need to find a way to get it home.

Filled in the part you forgot, mALX

SPEW !!!!! NOT what I meant at all, we just don't have a pickup truck, lol.

Khajiit's tree is all done. Will post a pic later.

Back in the day when I had a job, last day before Christmas was always special. We always had an extended lunch catered by a local restaurant and it had all the traditional Christmas food one could expect, plus coffee and a afterwards. Really did like that. Plus, we always spent the whole day (or rather it was a half-day) cleaning the workshop; no production at all. My absolute favourite day of the whole year

Yes please !!!!

Christmas Tree 2016
https://i.imgur.com/a45DRKc.jpg

It is gorgeous !!!!! AWESOME !!!!

Nice tree.

Thank you both! Khajiit really likes those cool white bulbs. Oh, and LED is where it's at. Had those lights for several years and never had any trouble.

Nice tree, Khajiit


Mine isn't nearly as branchy as yours, but that's what you get when taking a tree that was never meant to be a Christmas tree

Lol well Khajiit would've preferred being able to go out and harvest one himself, but alas, it's so much easier just to go to Lowes Hardware lol

Ahh, good old Lowes Hardware



What with us always having owned some land I have never gone out and bought a Christmas tree, nor have we ever bought a single piece of firewood. Though if you count on it, it probably would have been a lot cheaper to do overall than having to buy and maintain loads of equipment that you need in order to fell trees and such...

I'll bet!

OMG you guys! Khajiit is at work and he just walked over to see what was going on in another department and he saw one his coworkers. This one said "Ho ho ho!", because, you know, Christmas. Any way, his coworker replied "and a bottle of rum! Oh wait... no that's pirates.", and that's when Khajiit got an awesome idea! Pirate Santa!!