Christmas tree: real or fake? Real - loved the smell

When did the tree go up/come down? Up the day after Thanksgiving. Down the day after Christmas. 

Tree topper? An Angel that my father bought the Christmas I was born.  It has topped every tree since then.  My mother gave it to me in 1991 and I use it every year.  It is 50 years old.  Yikes! 

Tree skirt? Same here.  White sheet around the bottom

Present opening? We opened one on Christmas eve which was always new pajamas

Christmas feast: Cinnamon buns!!  yummm

Christmas tree: real . Picked and cut at a local tree farm.

When did the tree go up/come down? Up in the weeks after Thanksgiving, exact date was never a thing, and same with down but pretty sure it came down very shortly after Christmas.

Tree topper? Angel , my sisters and I all had larger, could be tree topper ornaments given to us on our first Christmas, I have a Santa Doll I guess you could say, Middle Sis had the angel, Baby Sis had a Star, when we took the tree down we all took turns kissing the Angel for good luck before she was put away for the year and ahe was the last ornamemnt taken off the tree.

Tree skirt? I remember Mom vucuuming a lot, I don’t remember a tree skirt at all.

Present opening? One on Christmas Eve , usually clothing, the rest on Christmas Morning.

Christmas feast: Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast, then we would pile in the car to Nana’s ( 2 hours away ) for Christmas Dinner, pretty much the same feast as Thanksgiving except ham instead of turkey.

Christmas tree: real or fake?  Always real!

When did the tree go up/come down?  Goes up black Friday weekend and comes down New Year's Day weekend. Give or take.

Tree topper? Angel

Tree skirt?  Always. They change from year to year.

Present opening?  All on Christmas morning.

Christmas feast:  Starve the whole day until dinner is ready around 3pm! Although with kids they are always too busy with all the gifts to be hungry. A Christmas cookie or 2 will usually be grabbed to hold you over.

Christmas tree: real Cut one down last saturday at the local U-cut tree place.  approx 8 feet tall;  we have high ceilings.

When did the tree go up/come down? Last Saturday

Tree topper?  Never had christmas until WELL into adulthood.  I have a red star tree topper

Tree skirt? Red Taffeta

Present opening? Play that by ear.  I've done almost all of my christmas shopping this year which was comboed with housewarming for both my bios and their spouses.

Christmas feast:  Dinner?  Prime roast of rib, yorkshire pudding, Buche de Noel   Breakfast?  most likely; we seldom eat breakfast throughout the year.

Christmas tree: We had real growing up, but now fake since we are in the dessert and real trees die pretty quickly

When did the tree go up/come down? As a kid up day or two before Christmas.

Tree topper? A star that lit up.

Tree skirt? Always it was one of those fake white ones that had glitter all over it and when you touched it you ended up looking like you touched a stripper.

Present opening? always christmas morning as a kid and as an adult

Christmas feast: breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner? Breakfast is fuchins (nom nom nom), dinner is turkey or ham and all the trimmings. Most of the rest of the day is just gorging on all the junk left over from Christmas eve parties.

Hola Anika,

Can I come over for your Christmas feast? It sounds amazing!!!

Christmas tree: I have a cute little fake tree that you plug in and call it a day. It takes all but less than 5 minutes to set up and put away

When did the tree go up/come down? It's up right after Thanksgiving and comes down right after 3 kings day which is the 1st week in January.

Tree topper? A star

Tree skirt? None at the moment but I really should look into purchasing one.

Present opening? One on Christmas Eve & the rest on Christmas morning as well

Christmas feast: Sometimes we may go out to this awesome diner for Breakfast and dinner resembles Thanksgiving with all the fixings

Have a great day Amiga y cuidate!

" Ham, potato cakes, pickled beets, pickled herring, juustoa, and rieska for dinner with cranberry poundcake for dessert. "

Mom use to make potato cakes and pickled beets, I miss both of those.

Christmas tree: real or fake? Fake.. army brat and the same one we had in Okinawa as a 4 yo was the same one my parents had our entire time growing up.. it seemed to get smaller each year.

When did the tree go up/come down? no set time.. but since this holiday was usually not that much fun for our family.. it really got to be an afterthought.  The last time i saw the tree my  mom (now passed on) pulled it out of the attick in a green trash bag.. still decorated and plopped it in the corner on Christmas morning.

Tree topper? We had an angel.... got worse for wear over the years.. probably from being shoved in a garbage bag with the tree.

Tree skirt? sheet

Present opening? We could open our stockings before anyone else was up.. then the rest of the presents.

Christmas feast.. usually roast beef

Christmas is and was not a fun time.  My dad usually was in a piss poor mood.. which really knocks the shine off.  Things like the following would happen.

My brother and I would agonize and pick out a present we though he might like/need.. like pipe tobacco or shoelaces.. and my dad would open them and pretty much not say anything nice about them.  In fact it disappointed my little brother so much one year when he saved his allowance to buy my dad shoelaces.. "57 cents for NOTHING"... that's a family joke now. 

This year I will be out of town with my DH workign on his boat... thankfully avoiding family crap.

Real or fake? Real - My uncle would take us out to the woods during thanksgiving break and we'd cut the SOB down. (still my favorite uncle lowkey)

When did the tree come up/down? Up the day after Thanksgiving... Down... well eventually.... But always before the end of christmas break... LOL

Tree Topper?  This super pretty star!

Tree Skirt? My mom has a collection of like 12. And we normally had a train going around the tree too.

Present Opening?  Well I woke up at like 4 AM... And I would proceed to "accidentally" be noisy enough to wake everyone up... THEN we'd do Christmas breakfast... And finally after that we were allowed to do stockings. Then we would do the presents one by one in a circle.

Christmas feast?  Make ahead breakfast casserole... Then candy for days....

Christmas tree: Real. 

When did the tree go up/come down? Up 01 December. Down 06 January.

Tree topper? I remember a beautiful angel,  an heirloom going on the top of the tree. One year, the cat attacked it and half ate it. Afterwards, it was a star.

Tree skirt?  I don't remember the type of fabric but it was red.

Present opening?Christmas morning! As early as possible.

Christmas feast: Roast duck and roast lamb with various vegetables. Pudding has always been pwdin nadolig, but with plums added.

Christmas tree: real or fake? Mom and Dad decided it HAD to be real, always, until us kids left the house. When we were younger, we would travel to Christmas tree farms and cut our own. 

When did the tree go up/come down? Sometime in December. Sometime after.

Tree topper? We would have the golden star. Then Mom got a singing Angel. 

Tree skirt? white cotton sheets around the tree base. We were very poor when I was a kiddo - so nothing too fancy for us, but at the time it seemed miraculous.

Present opening? Christmas eve we would travel to Grandmas house and there would be a present opening frenzy. Get back home, enjoy those, then get up at the crack o' dawn for a more relaxed opening, where we would all take turns. I liked that best.

Christmas feast: Coco for breakfast, then turkey or ham for dinner, with mashed tatos and gravy.

Christmas tree: real or fake? Always a real one, unti; we were older and Mom got tired of cleaning up pine needles for the next six months!

When did the tree go up/come down? Usually the first or second week of December until right after New Year's.

Tree topper? We had a multicolored light-up star

Tree skirt? I honestly don't even remember! Maybe we didn't even have one- we weren't fancy people.

Present opening? We always got to open one present on Christmas Eve, then the rest Chrisstmas morning. Unless Mom (an RN at a hospital) worked a weird shift, then we accommodated her schedule. It really didn't matter, as long as we got to open presents! After our parents were divorced when I was around 8, we usually alternated- Christmas Eve and morning with one parent, and the rest of Christmas day with the other, alternating years.

Christmas feast: Cocoa and Christmas cookies for breakfast (still- to this day). We'd usually have lasagna for Christmas dinner with garlic bread and a nice salad- all the prep could be done ahead of time so the chef could enjoy the festivities too!

Growing up we always had a real tree.  It only went up a week or two before Christmas and one Christmas got taken down on Christmas day while everyone was still there.  We had a tiny home and had to move the TV out for the tree.  As there was an important bowl game that day - the tree had to go and the TV was reinstated.

Our tree topper was an aluminum star that was only slightly more substantial than aluminum foil.  My tree topper for several decades has been a cocker spaniel angel.

Our "feast" was always turkey - the biggest one that we could find as we sometimes had 40-50 people show up. Everyone brought things so we really did have a feast.  No breakfast as  people often showed up at 10:30.  

My siblings and I got to open a present on Christmas Eve as our parents went to a party without us and that was our consolation.