Know Your Elves - #15 Scarinae

I’m so excited that it’s my turn this week! Thank you to Loughc for organising it And also thank you again to delw for swapping weeks with me

Loughc wrote: »

1) Do you listen to Christmas FM?

I do indeed, I usually start listening to it in late October or November through the app on my phone – I live in London so can’t tune in on a radio until I get home for Christmas

Loughc wrote: »

2) Favourite Christmas Sweets?

If you mean tins of sweets it would be Roses every time, because we always open a tin when we decorate the Christmas trees. I have to say though they’ve gone a bit downhill - the tins are definitely smaller than they used to be, and I really wasn’t impressed last year that they reintroduced the horrible coffee one disguised in the green wrapper that used to be a caramel because I had it in my mouth before I realised it was coffee (yuck!)

I also love those Cadbury chocolate snowmen with the vanilla mousse inside

Loughc wrote: »

3) Favourite Christmas Song?

I’m going to break it into categories of songs because it’s easier that way!

My favourite songs to sing along to on the radio are Last Christmas by Wham and Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin’ Stevens

My favourite carols are the traditional ones like Hark the Herald Angels Sing and O Come All Ye Faithful, although my favourite song to sing in a choir is the Carol of the Bells (I was an alto and we had to do our best velociraptor face and roll our R’s)

My favourite song to annoy my boyfriend with is Do They Know It’s Christmas (he is Kenyan)

CarrieAnne wrote: »

Any special Christmas wishes / hopes for this year?

Nothing particularly amazing or unusual - just to see my family, especially my nephew, and to catch up with as many friends as possible while I’m home in Ireland over the Christmas break. I’m back for a bit over two weeks this year, which is great; there have been times where I’ve been back for less than a week and it’s crazy trying to fit everything into that little time so it’s nice to have a bit of time to lounge around eating sandwiches made from Christmas leftovers.

Oh, and to get some spiced beef They don’t sell it over here! I’ve been trying to explain it to people in work (“It is beef… That is spiced”)

CarrieAnne wrote: »

Are you feeling the VIBE?????

It’s the weirdest thing – back in late October/early November I was feeling so Christmassy, but at the moment I’m not! I think it’s because my usual pre-Christmas stuff is being disrupted as I’m going on holiday next week – I decided there was no point in getting an advent candle or an advent calendar this year as I’d only get as far as the 11th, and I have done all my shopping so far online rather than in actual shops because I am so busy in work. As a result, it doesn’t really feel like December to me. Maybe it’ll hit me again over the weekend when I go actual shopping?

CarrieAnne wrote: »

Or when is it, you feel... ok so NOW its Christmas?

I really feel that Christmas has begun when I go home. Last year when I got on the plane I realised I was grinning from ear to ear, totally unintentionally, and probably looked like a crazy person! This year I’m not home until the 22nd so most of the house will be already decorated - my Mum really goes all out with the decorations at Christmas – and I love the first sight of the house, with a candle in every window and a wreath on the front door.

silvervixen84 wrote: »

What's your favourite Christmas ad on TV this year?

I don't watch TV so the only ads I've seen are the John Lewis ad with the penguin and the Sainsburys ad with the war truce, because I watched them on YouTube. My favourite of the two was the John Lewis ad, because who doesn't love penguins?

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

What's your favourite Christmas film?

Probably The Snowman, I love everything about it! We had it on video when I was a kid and apparently I used to ask to watch it every day after school, not just at Christmas.

Bobblehead Panda wrote: »

What's your favourite part of Christmas dinner?

I like most parts of Christmas dinner, so I'll probably go for bread sauce - my Mum makes amazing bread sauce and it's the only time of year I eat it so it has the novelty value as well. Also the turkey stuffing, Mum makes it with sausage meat from Superquinn.

SarahLil wrote: »

Christmas jumpers yes or no?

I am all for Christmas jumpers! I haven’t actually bought a new one this year and probably won’t have time, but I already have three – one is a Christmas pudding, one is blue with a polar bear on the front and one is blue with a white Christmassy pattern on it.

SarahLil wrote: »

Describe your typical Christmas Eve give as little or as much detail you want?

Typically we all go for breakfast together in Avoca on the morning of Christmas Eve, which is also a good excuse to have a last-minute look around the shop for stocking fillers (we still get Santa presents in my house, so my siblings and I buy Santa presents for my parents). Depending on time and whether anyone still has shopping to do we may also go into Bray or into Dublin city centre, but generally we’ve all got the main presents bought by then. Usually we just take it easy during the afternoon – last year my sister and I watched Drop Dead Fred while finishing our Christmas wrapping, and then went to the pub for a few drinks.

This might be controversial, but in my family we actually swap presents after dinner on Christmas Eve! Usually we cook ham and roast potatoes, but not the full Christmas dinner, and then afterwards we get out some more wine and sit around the fire to exchange presents. The reasoning behind this is that we used to always go to my grandparents’ house on Christmas day, and my parents wanted to have some time just for our family, and it just became a tradition. My brother and sister-in-law will come over on Christmas Eve for dinner as well, which will be lovely. Sometimes we play a board game or a card game after the presents, or watch a film, or sometimes just chat. I suppose it is like a mini Christmas! I love Christmas Eve

Posy wrote: »

Clear lights or coloured lights?

I like both in different situations! I bought coloured lights and tinsel to decorate my desk at work - Christmas tack at its finest - but there's also nothing like a beautifully decorated tree with warm white lights!

Posy wrote: »

Flashing or 'steady on?'

I actually prefer the 'steady on' ones. We have a set of Christmas lights somewhere that flash while playing Jingle Bells, and they're indestructible (all our other lights stop working eventually except for that set) and very, very annoying

Posy wrote: »

Fairy lights or LEDs?

LEDs if you get them in a warm shade - I don't really like the more bluey ones, they're a bit cold and in-Christmassy. Also you don't get that really annoying thing where one bulb blows and the entire set goes out, and you have to test the lights one by one to find the fecker - pretty much used to happen to us every year

Posy wrote: »

What is the best Christmas present you ever received as a child?

I used to be absolutely mad about Sylvanian Families when I was younger. One year my parents bought absolutely loads of secondhand Sylvanian stuff for me - there was a windmill house, one of the mansions, a horse-drawn caravan, some of the figures and loads of furniture. It was brilliant!

And then I had so many Sylvanian toys that we were able to repurpose one of the houses as the manger for our nativity scene, we sprayed it with fake snow to try to make it more authentic-looking

Posy wrote: »

Do you have any memorable Christmas moments?

My brother trying to teach me how to play chess in our living room, and the Christmas tree suddenly falling on us - it obviously hadn't been secured well - I still don't really know how to play chess properly

Another year, my brother knocked Baby Jesus from our nativity scene into the fire by accident, and we couldn't save him. We replaced him with a little doll but he quite obviously didn't match the rest of the set.

My Swedish cousins used to come over for Christmas nearly every year when I was a child. I still remember the excitement of standing out on the road looking out for their car (this was when mobile phones were only owned by rich people). We all had to squash into the house and share bedrooms but it was so much fun.

We also used to go to my grandparents' house every year on Christmas morning. We'd put all the presents on one side of the room when we arrived, and when my Grandpa decided that it was time to give them out all the grandkids would line up and he'd hand us presents to distribute to everyone. He died in 2008, and my Granny has dementia and doesn't know who any of us are anymore

Actually, we suspected that 2007 would be Grandpa's last Christmas because he was ill with cancer, so we had that entire side of the family (I think 26 people) over for dinner that year so everyone could spend it with him. My Mum ran it like a military operation and we all had roles in making the Christmas dinner to take some of the pressure off her! In the end though Grandpa was too sick and had to spend Christmas Day in hospital, so he missed the dinner. We brought a plate of food in for him on Christmas Day - which I don't think you're meant to do actually, but they let us because it was Christmas - along with a small bottle of wine that my sister had kept from her flight. He was absolutely delighted with it, and then when he was discharged from hospital he came over to our house and we had another sort-of Christmas meal with leftovers.

That awful snow we had in 2010 - I nearly got stuck in London for Christmas. My brother was living here too at the time so we figured at least we'd be stuck together, but his flight was the day before mine and he got out before the airports closed and I didn't Luckily I bumped into a girl I had worked with in Dublin and she had a spare sailrail ticket - we had to get three trains to Holyhead, changing at Crewe and Chester, and there were so many people without tickets it was crazy which made the trains really crowded. So everyone was running when we had to change and the platforms were icy and everyone had suitcases, we weren't able to get onto one of the trains and I nearly cried but thankfully another train was sent and they held the ferry. There was nowhere to sit on the boat either so we took it in turns to sleep on the floor under our coats. I got into Dublin port at something like 5am, and while I was delighted to see everyone, I pretty much had to go straight to bed when I got home.

Posy wrote: »

Favourite selection box bar?

Are there bars that you can only get in selection boxes? Santa usually gives me a Cadbury one and I eat the Dairy Milk first - you can't go wrong with a classic!