The Holiday 20 Questions Tag

Hello! I just stole a tag, and it looks like a fun one! I found The Holiday 20 Questions Tag over at Faith, Fiction, and Fairytales, and the original post is here at Hannah’s Happy Thoughts, so go check out the original post if you want to steal this like I did.

1. When do you consider the holiday season officially started?

That’s hard to say. I start feeling festive and holiday-ish about a week or two before Thanksgiving, but we don’t start decorating for Christmas in earnest until Gaudete Sunday (which was last Sunday)…but I consider Advent (which started on December 1st this year) to count as part of the holiday season too….so, in short, I don’t know.

2. What’s your favorite thing about winter?

To be very original and unique, my favorite things about winter are 1) Christmas and 2) snow.

3. What’s your least favorite thing about winter?

I actually don’t know. I guess the cold can get a little tiring after awhile?

4. What do you like to do in the snow?

I am sadly in the decrepit old age in which I don’t really have the opportunity/desire to make snow forts or engage in snowball fights or do any of the fun things that you do in the snow. (Though I would love to sled again if ever I have the opportunity.) That being said, I very much enjoy just walking through the snow or standing in the snow as it’s falling or watching it through a window.

5. What’s your favorite holiday tradition?

Oof, that’s like asking for your favorite book! Hmm…we have a traditional Polish dinner on Christmas Eve, with fish, mushroom soup, pierogues, and oplatki, and including the tradition of setting an extra place for the prophet Elijah, and I love that. We also sometimes get to go to the Midnight Mass for Christmas, which I really love doing (and which I’m trying to persuade my family to do again this year).

6. How do you usually celebrate Thanksgiving?

We tend to have a quiet Thanksgiving with just the immediate family. We’ll often go to a morning Mass, and we have a beloved annual tradition of watching the National Dog Show. (Sometimes we’ll also watch Miracle on 34th Street, but we haven’t done that as much recently.)

7. How do you usually celebrate Christmas?

Heh, well, we have a lot of traditions centering around Christmas and Christmas Eve, but the short version is that we finish decorating the tree on Christmas Eve while drinking a delicious thingamajig known as Dickens’ Punch, sometimes we go to Midnight Mass, or sometimes we go to bed and go to Mass in the morning, and then on Christmas morning we leisurely open all our presents.

8. What’s your favorite type of pie?

I don’t eat pie very often, truth be told…but looking back to my pie-filled _^(hyperbole) youth, I really like chocolaty-creamy pies, and strawberry-rhubarb pie.

9. What’s your fave winter / Christmas themed emoji?

The snowflake. ❄️ So pretty and elegant, and we’ve already covered the fact that I love snow.

10. What’s your favorite Christmas song?

Probably O Holy Night, but there are so many absolutely wonderful ones that it’s hard to pick!

11. Do you have a Christmas tree? If so how do you like to decorate it?

We do indeed. It’s a false tree, but don’t think that means it lacks personality, because it’s about thirty years old and has more personality than you could shake a stick at. Along with colored lights and bead garland, we have a very eclectic assortment of ornaments, ranging from ones decorated when we were all wee tykes to beautiful foreign hand-painted glass ornaments.

12. What’s one gift you would like to receive for Christmas this year?

Well, we don’t make gift lists or anything, but books and movies are always good choices, and just between you and me, I wouldn’t complain if I got the Hugh Laurie audiobook of Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome.

13. Would you rather host a holiday party or go to someone else’s?

Probably go to someone else’s, though I don’t have strong feelings either way.

14. What’s your favorite Christmas movie?

The 1951 Alastair Sim A Christmas Carol, which we watch every year on Christmas evening.

15. What do you like to do on New Year’s Eve?

We usually write down highpoints and lowpoints of the year for posterity, we eat Chinese food, and I personally stay up until midnight reading and journaling and thinking about things I want to change in the New Year.

16. Have you ever stayed up til midnight?

Yes, I stay up until midnight on New Year’s Eve and often on Christmas.

17. Do you believe in New Year’s Resolutions?

Yes! I make smaller resolutions for the year, and I also make note of more big-picture character things and such that I’d like to work on in the new year.

18. As of now, have you kept any of yours from 2024?

Let me go look at them…well, not many. I have worked on a lot of my resolutions over the year, but I did not continue to work at most of them consistently. (I see that all I wrote in my “social” section of resolutions was “I be not sure,” so I guess I kept that one. xD)

19. How long do you get off of school for winter break?

About a month! College has its perks 😉

20. Overall, how much do you love the holiday season on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the worst part of the year 10 being absolutely amazing)?

10, without a doubt. December is one of my favorite times of the year (if not the most favorite).

Since I stole this tag, I will not presume to tag other people, but please do take it if you want to; I’d love to see your answers!

What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions? Is this one of your favorite times of year?