Driving home for Christmas

[venta]

Last week, I invited people to swap Christmas traditions. There weren't many takers, so I present here a small selection of traditions anyone can choose from.

1. Read 101 Dalmations.
2. Buy a new bauble for the tree.
3. Read Tolkien's The Father Christmas Letterson Christmas Eve, preferably an illustrated edition.

(These traditions belong to huskyteer, lnr and me, respectively.)

Let me know if you give any of them a whirl. Especially if you're currently gritting your teeth for a Christmas with not-especially-compatible relations (in which case, my sympathy!)

I'm currently indulging in another Christmas tradition, that of being in crap traffic on the M1. I don't recommend it at all.

Comments

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

I did buy a new bauble for the tree. I inherited some too.

My favourite Christmas tradition is having Stille Nacht sung to me on the way home from Midnight Mass; it was my mummy and now it's Colin.

[venta.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a lovely thing to have as a tradition (though personally that's a carol I really dislike!) Nice to have a tradition passed from parent to (I think!) husband, too!

[zotz]

Every Christmas while I was in Cambridge, I used to go up the A14 and onto the M6 at the junction with the M1, then turn off onto the A70 to Ayr. One year it had been snowing heavily and there was a really intense full moon. It was actually bright enough to drive without lights. For a few seconds.

[venta.livejournal.com]

The first three times ChrisC came up to Darlington for Christmas with me it snowed like mad on the journey up. I think this has firmly fixed the idea inhis head that it always snows in the North at Christmas. This year looks set to be another disappointment.

Also, nice to hear from you! How's things?

[zotz]

Quiet, in the main. grahamb dropped by on Monday for tea and biscuits, and I saw darkgoblin on Saturday for the first time in about a decade. A friend (WINOLJ) who moved to New South Wales between ten and fifteen years ago is staying over Hogmanay (with her Bloke and two kids) and I randomly bumped into my ex from the mid-nineties (WINOLJE) in Glasgow a few weeks ago. But apart from lots of old friends, fairly quiet.

You?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm also having a nice chunk of quiet, at my parents' house. Due to general attrition of home-town, etc, there is a bit of a lack of old friends around, which is a shame. Once upon a time I could rely on a solid cohort of drinking buddies on Christmas Eve, but not these days. So I'm forced to sit in the warm, on a sofa, instead of crowded in a corner somewhere in a pub :-)

[zotz]

My heart bleeds for you, obviously.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I have bought a new bauble (and two others, as presents) but they haven't turned up yet :( Perhaps I'll get home from work to find the Royal Mail fairies have been.

Hope you get moving soon!

[venta.livejournal.com]

We were moving all the time, just quite slowly. Also, the whole of the M1 appears to be a 50mph limit. I'm now home with a beer and a proper fire :)

I hope your new tree ornaments showed up!

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

I found it tricky to volunteer a tradition, as my only regular Xmas tradition is to flee the country.

Then again, I always try and buy a bag of Bumfest at Aldi or Lidl, and my most recent tradition, (begun last year) is to buy the largest jar of mincemeat I can find to squirrel away - in order to make medieval mince pies after Xmas with January sale-pheasant.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Fleeing the country probably hit both the "expensive" and "hard to organise" barriers I put in the original post :)

The mincemeat one is a great idea, though. I don't really like mincemeat, but rapperaddict keeps telling me I should try Tudor-style mince pies.

Dare I ask what Bumfest is? Will I regret enquiring?

[lnr]

£3? Sold. Will see if I can find time to actually read it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/101-Dalmatians-Dodie-Smith-ebook/dp/B0061QMR3U/

And for 99p who could resist:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Letters-Father-Christmas-J-Tolkien-ebook/dp/B004FN1QSI/

Probably not illustrated!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you for the Father Christmas Letters tip! I read it years ago in the school library and I'd love to revisit.

[venta.livejournal.com]

The words alone of the letters are probably quite fun, so definitely a good buy for 99p!

My edition (which languished on my shelf for years, because I was surprisingly unfamiliar-book-phobic when little) has facsimiles of the letters, and transcripts (just as well, because Tolkien's Father Christmas' writing is pretty, but a bugger to read).

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be joining you in the traffic on the M1 tradition in a couple of hours! I suspect in opposite directions, though.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Good luck! I hope you've made it to your destination without mishap or too much queueueueueing.

[rapperaddict.livejournal.com]

Reading 'The Dark is Rising' by Susan Cooper, watching 'The Box of Delights' and going to Belshazzar's Feast Christmas gig is about as Christmassy as I get.
Mind, I'm apparently going to have a go at the getting stuck, if not on the M1, on the M40 tradition as I'm off to see Carols by Candlelight at the Royal Albert Hall tonight. Sort of missing living in Edinburgh since I could just walk to them then. (Not the Royal Albert Hall gig, obviously. They also used to perform in Edinburgh)
Have a good Christmas!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ooh, the Box of Delights! Is it on, this Christmas, or do I have to furnish my own copy, I wonder...

Merry Christmas to you, too! Good luck with the M40.

[(Anonymous)]

I admit I have my own copy. Just can't resist the theme music

[dr-bob.livejournal.com]

We already have the new bauble tradition with the kids. We also watch Box of Delights leading up to Christmas, with the last part on (or near) Christmas Eve.

New tradition for this year (from cuthbertcross's brother) is Christmas breakfast of smoked Salmon, soft cheese on toast and scrambled eggs. Mmmmm.