Which Christmas present is the one thing you wait all year for?

My grandmother used to make cookies just for me for Christmas. When she died (2001), my aunt found the handwritten recipe she used and gave it to me. I have since made the cookies every year and thought of her. And my kids, who never had the chance to meet her, also help with the cookies and look forward to it every year.

Even though I’m making them, I feel as though they are still presents from her in a strange way.

@notnotnotnot So sweet, what a great way to think of her every year!

The next installment of “The Big Fat Quiz of the Year”, presented by the best comedian in the world, Jimmy Carr.
This year will also feature the inimitable David Mitchell.

Forgiveness.

The best gift is when Christmas music finally ends.

The stuff is nonstop over every store’s loudspeaker and on two of my regular car radio stations. It begins before Thanksgiving and gets very tedious by now. When something’s so unrelenting, how can it not cause a sort of aesthetic indigestion?

I wait for my husband to buy new socks, underwear, and undershirts, and sometimes an extra something. When my parents come for Thanksgiving (which is not every year) they usually (not always) take us shopping and my husband finally buys the basics. Once in a while he finds something extra, like this year it was a thing he can put his phone in and it attaches to his bicycle—he loves it. The best part about it is it makes him very happy. My parents spend maybe $50 and you would think they spent $5,000. My husband hates spending money on things like undershirts.

@JLeslie I think that’s part of the fun of it, like your husband not wanting to spend the money on it, because he can probably make do…lol. I mean socks and undies are cheap, but for some reason, everyone’s eyes light up (adults) when they see them. I think it’s a sweet tradition.

@KNOWITALL It makes him so happy, and in turn me happy. He leaves Christmas always disappointed since we’ve been married. Christmas is with his family, and they do gifts usually. He almost always feels like he got a “crappy” gift, and that the family cared more about other family members. My parents take him on this little shopping trip and it’s like Santa was in town.

The annual pelt the housestaff with snowballs gala is a real seasonal treat.
They do love it so, especially when they’re tied to trees & if no snow falls that year, we just use eggs, lots & lots of runny chucky eggs…hoorah!!

Premium bud and good beer.

@JLeslie I understand, my husband is the same way with his family. He gets a pack of Lifesavers in some book form and that’s usually it. We went Christmas shopping last weekend and I told him to get anything he wanted and he bought one Under Armor shirt, he doesn’t ask for much lol.

Nothing, really. I rarely get gifts.

Wait! I have one! We go to Rick’s Dad’s house, about 3 hours away, for Christmas every year. We always have and we always will as long as he’s with us (He’s 96 years old!) Every one gets Dad a small gift, but then we have a gift exchange game and it’s fun. The spending limit per person is $15.00. You draw numbers to start and when your number comes up you can take someone elses gift away, or get a new one that hasn’t been chosen yet. It’s fun. So far we’ve been lucky. I got a super warm, fuzzy blanket last year, and a really nice waffle maker the year before, which I have yet to use. I’ve gotten tools in the past.
So I look forward to that a little. I’d sure like to spend actual Christmas day with my family , though. But it will happen soon enough.