Know Your Elves - #5 Mud

Loughc wrote: »

Here we go it's week 5 (5 already!!)


What is your fondest Christmas Memory?

Ah Loughc. I'm lucky enough to have quite a few great Christmas memories! I'll share two with you. One from when I was small and another more recent one

When I was 7 or 8 we had had a fabulous Christmas celebration, it was the day after Christmas and we were all in fantastic form (bar the INCIDENT which I'll fill you in on later). This would have been the mid-eighties so there were Walkmans and Care Bears and Big Yellow Teapots to play with. Me and my two brothers and one sister were in the front room with our Da when suddenly we saw an apparition in Red and White dart past the window towards our front door! Cue general stampede to the hallway where we found our Mam dressed as Santa in the cheapest plastic outfit you ever saw bearing a Yamaha keyboard to be shared among us all. Now, the reason for the extra gift was this: My Mammy in all her Irish Mammy glory had decided to cut her beautiful long hair and get that peculiar helmet-like haircut that used to be de rigeur back then. When she had arrived home a couple of days before Christmas sporting her chopped locks she unleashed a scene of chaotic mourning that threatened to blow our entire family apart. Cries of "but whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" and "what did you do with our REAL Mammy" rang through the house and a dark cloud settled on us all. Needless to say the combination of the Real Santa and our Mam's performance served to restore normality and all was well

My other more recent memory is a couple of years ago I took my two niblings for a day out to buy presents for their parents and grandparents etc. We had such a nice day and they chose such thoughtful presents that I fell even deeper in love with the two of them. We took a picture together that day and the absolute beams on the three of us having the best day ever. We had chips and burgers and headed home with our plunder. Giving out the gifts a couple of days later was the icing on the cake. I had printed and framed a few copies of the picture and given it to some family members and they all absolutely loved it too. Good times.

What's your favourite Christmas film?

What's your favourite part of Christmas dinner?

Scarinae wrote: »

What Christmas song is guaranteed to have you singing along?

When do you put up your Christmas tree?

What are your opinions on snow at Christmastime?

I know it's a total cliché but 'Driving Home for Christmas' brings the nostalgia for me. And, I do a mean Chris Rea impression It reminds me of me and two friends doing the aforementioned driving home for Christmas and that song was just on every station to the point of us absolutely cracking up every time we heard it come on.

I actually don't have my own Christmas tree :eek: I leave that to my Ma and Da. I usually have quite a festive aloe vera plant though :pac:

Snow at Christmas is lovely to look at but alas I live in a rural place for rural people so it usually causes more bother than it's worth. I love playing in it and looking at it. Driving not so much!

Posy wrote: »

Christmas tree:

Real or fake?
Flashing lights or static?
Clear or coloured?

Do you decorate the outside of your house/garden/patio?
Do you hang a wreath on your front door?

Real all the way but as I said earlier, it's my Ma and Da's gig not mine!

I prefer static lights.

Lots of colour!

Whoops! Forgot the last two questions I have string lights for my windows but I don't bother with a wreath because knowing my luck I'd poke my feckin' eye out

Posy wrote: »

Do you not decorate your own place, or are you living at home and just don't get a say in the decorating? :pac:

I don't really decorate much for Christmas specifically but my house is usually overflowing with colourful, unusual sh1te so it actually looks like Christmas all year round! I'm lucky I live alone, I doubt anyone else would put up with my taste :P

Loughc wrote: »

Roses or quality street?

Celebrations or miniatures heroes?

I will happily eat the ones I like out of all of the above! The Mothership's house is always rammed with chocolate. I'm partial to an aul Toffifee or box of Maltesers too.

Lidl do these amazing almonds covered in chocolate powder at Christmas and they are my all out decadent, seasonal treat. Like crack so they are.

washiskin wrote: »

Mars or Cadbury Selection Box?

Do you buy a food treat at Christmas that you wouldn't buy during the year?

And, finally, time machine Selection Box contents?

Historically it would have been Cadbury's hands down but lately the overall quality of Mars is better I find.

I buy the aforementioned almonds covered in chocolate powder, M&S pork pies, all manner of Fancy Dan sauces and jellies, a gooey dessert because I'm not one for Christmas pudding or cake as I don't appreciate the flavours or textures. On the other hand a nice white chocolate cheesecake . . .

Time machine selection box:

Cadbury's Secret

Cadbury's Top Deck

Old-style Curly Wurly (not the regimented unfun modern version)

Wispa

Whole-Nut bar.

emmagination wrote: »

Hi Mud!

I cannot believe we're five weeks in already :O

Do you have any Christmas traditions?
Do you prefer Christmas Eve / Christmas Day / St. Stephen's Day?

Christmas Traditions: Taking my niblings out for the day to do shopping. We're heading into our fourth year now

Ham sandwiches in Ma's gaff on Christmas Eve night after the pub.

We exchange gifts on Christmas Eve too.

I prefer Christmas Eve because it's always a nice busy day and the majority of people are in good form. Love when the shops close and the pub gets very inviting. Seeing all the folk who are home for Christmas and staggering home to ravage the ham at some point. Then relax and off to bed so Santa can come