Better late than never, the Christmas meme

Checking in after days away, I discovered I'd missed Nora's meme. But it's still Christmas, right? I apologize for the lack of pictures that could illustrate these answers better, but that would put me an extra day or so behind. I'll post more about A Southern Indiana Christmas later.

1. Wrapping or gift bags? I usually try to wrap (badly), although I'll use gift bags when time or oddly shaped gifts dictate. Sometimes I'll wrap oddly shaped gifts just for the fun of it. This year, for instance, I did a Family "Heirloom" White Elephant gift exchange for my niece and nephews, using random crap from the farmhouse.

I call the farmhouse the family museum, because it's full of 50 years worth of worthless stuff that I can't bear to throw away but which no family member will take. So this year I wrapped, without boxes: 2 child-size football helmets, circa 1965, one with the number 47 plastered on with black electrical tape, the other with a Gemini V space mission sticker on it; a stoneware Daniel Boone whiskey jug; and a small white statuette of a dove. The kids (ages 18 to 26) were thrilled, as you can imagine.

2. Real or artificial tree? I'm on the fence. Growing up we had an artificial tree. Every year I begged for a real one. When I got my drivers' license, I took matters into my own hands and showed up one day with a real one. From then on, I, and then my ex and I, had a real one. Last year, daunted by the prospect of acquiring, wrangling, and disposing of a real tree by myself, I decided not to get one. At the last minute, after the episode known as "Losing My Shit in Crate and Barrel," a couple of friends and I decorated the fake ficus tree in my dining room.

After Christmas, I bought an artificial tree for $10. I set it up this year and was chagrined to discover that a) when I took the tree out of the box, it almost exactly resembled the size and shape of the Grinch. The time it took to make it resemble a tree made a real tree seem like a lot less trouble; and b) instead of a pine-fresh Christmasy smell, my living room was filled with the aroma of a Chinese plastics factory. My floor is already covered in dog fur, pine needles suddenly don't seem so bad.

3. When do you put up the tree? Late, usually around the 15th of December, except for last year (see #2).

4. When do you take the tree down? Again, late. Part of my rationale for getting an artificial tree (see #2) was that I would not have to load up the tinderbox of a tree in March and cruise country roads looking for a suitable place to dispose of it (I don't really think it's littering if you dump a real tree in the woods--it's more like returning it to its natural habitat).

5. Do you like eggnog? Omigod, yes. This year I discovered Traders Point Creamery eggnog, and drank an entire quart in one sitting, in a stupor over its organic creamy, eggy, custardy goodness. It's one of a few beverages I do not think is improved with the addition of alcohol.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? It's a toss-up between the Fisher Price cash register with the big plastic colored "coins" that rolled out when you cashed out a sale, and the pink gingham jewelry/music box with the tiny plastic ballerina inside that twirled when the music played. I enjoyed both of those well past the age-appropriate time.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Not unless you count the polyresin blob that plays "Silent Night" and shows the Holy Family in bas-relief. There's a plastic disk attached to the back, with gold stars painted on it, that you spin to make the music play, so it looks like there are "stars" in the "sky" above the nativity scene. The disk also has a red arrow, which will not come off, indicating which way to spin it. It was a wedding gift. For my October wedding.

8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Probably the engagement ring from my boyfriend when I was 16. That one could have ended with me being a Trailer Park Queen by age 19. For the worst Christmasy gift given for another occasion, see #7.

9. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Mail, although I'm much worse about that than I used to be. I have boxes of unsent cards to serve as evidence of my good intentions.

10. Favorite Christmas movie? A tie, between "A Christmas Story" and "Bad Santa." I giggle the entire way through both of them.

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas? This year was early--the first week of December. I do the bulk of it around the 22nd and 23rd, though.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? For breakfast? My favorite thing is the summer-sausage-and-cheese tray we always have on Christmas Eve. I don't eat much meat, but I will beat family members away from a stick of summer sausage given half a chance. For breakfast--homemade cookies!!

13. Clear lights or colored? The old-fashioned big ole gaudy colored ones (C7 bulbs). Nothing matches their sheer festiveness.

14. Favorite Christmas song? "A Christmas Song," by Nat King Cole. It was my mother's favorite, and my sister and I still sing it, loudly and off-key, while we're doing our Christmas baking.

A close second is the story of Christ's birth from the book of Luke. We sang that every year in the Christmas Eve program at my Lutheran school/church. It's a tricky song for grade-schoolers and we'd start practicing it in October, sometime after we got done celebrating the Reformation. I still know all the words, having sung it countless times from grades K-8. "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Au-GUS-tus...that....all the world...should be taxed...." There's a couple of really high notes when the angels tell the shepherds to "FEAR not! For be-HOOOOOLD!" Ask me sometime, I'll sing it for you. Really!

Favorite modern Christmas song: "Lloyd the Reindeer" by Otis Gibbs. I listen to it year-round.

15. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? Travel, to Southern Indiana. Christmas Eve is the one mandatory family holiday. One day I hope to put a new furnace in the farmhouse so we can have Christmas in its rightful place again.

16. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Is Sneezy a reindeer?

17. Angel or star on the top of your tree? Angel.

18. Open your presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Christmas Eve, although my siblings and I don't really do much in the way of gifts anymore--a bottle of wine, a nice candle. My sister and I get each other additional gifts, which we open on Christmas morning.

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Work. It gets in the way of me properly preparing for Christmas.

20. What do you leave for Santa? Some dog fur under the tree.

21. Least favorite holiday song? Any of those melodramatic modern easy-listening supposed-to-be-tearjerkers involving the Christmas star falling from the sky and landing in a child's eye or some shit like that.

22. Do you decorate your tree with any specific theme or color? All of them at once.

23. Favorite ornament? The little ceramic reindeer with my mom's name on it. It's still in a box at the farmhouse, waiting for the return of Christmas to its rightful place (see #15) and its placement in a position of prominence on the tree.

This is supposed to be where I "tag" seven other people, but to be honest, I'm kinda new to this whole blogging thing, and Nora's already answered and tagged most of the blogs I read. So I'm flaking out on this one. Maybe next year!