Gotta have for it to be real...

[NastyWoman]

So due to family dynamics we had our gift exchange this morning. And as always a stack of books big enough for a small library was part of this exchange because all of us love (1) reading and (2) prefer real paper books when not travelling. After all the unwrapping was done I realized that for us it wouldn't be a real Xmas without books.

Do you have any "gotta have" to make your holiday complete? A tradition religeous or not, food, gifts, anything else? Get into the spirit of the season and share...

[zibazinski]

A French silk pie from Village Inn.

[milee]

In our house, Christmas requires:

-  Funny gifts (appropriate to the recipient's age. Last year I gave youngest son "Biohazard" printed toilet paper and this year I got him "Dog Butt" magnets, for example.)

-  Lots of chocolate and cookies

-  Toothbrush and toothpaste in stockings (since we give so much candy and chocolate)

-  Socks and Underwear (often with funny prints, but always to remember our family history when that's pretty much all we could afford)

-  Puzzles (we sit around for a few days, eating all the yummy leftovers and doing puzzles together)

-  T-shirts with nerdy sayings (For one of my sons: "Forget about lab safety - I want Super Powers!"  or last year my boys got me an awesome one with a huge picture of a roll of duct tape imprinted with "Let me Get My Favorite Tool!"  Inside joke - sailors use duct tape to repair everything.)

[swamp]

Lottery tickets in the stockings for the adults. 

[MJ2.0]

Matching pj bottoms for me and DS.

[lynnerself]

Every year I have to make and frost cut-out sugar cookies.

Sadly, I am finally giving up the Christmas stockings this year. The "kids" are 29 and 30.

[Deleted]

The grandkids' stockings.  They all came from L.L. Bean and are different, no mean feat when there are nine of them!  DH goes to a lot of trouble to buy those junky little toys that parents never buy to fill them.  It's a year-long quest for him.

However, we started a new tradition this year.  The two oldest are 13 and almost 11.  So while they got candy and fruit, they got no toys.  Instead, they got a personalized Christmas card from us with $10.  By personalized, I mean a picture of them with the greeting from us.  They were a hit.  All of the grandkids wanted a card with their picture on it.  We told them they had to wait until they were old enough.  So that made the two oldest feel even more special.  

[dee27]

The kids and I always baked Christmas cookies, and they delivered the treats to our closest neighbors. We all decorated the tree and set up the D-56 village. Most years, we had two trees-one with kid-friendly ornaments and a family tree. In their stockings, I put books, toys, an orange, lip balm, and a toothbrush when they were little. Our extended family celebration was on Christmas Eve. Unless the weather was hazardous, we went to Midnight Mass.

[swasat]

Silly socks in the stockings that we wear all day on Christmas

Puzzles that we solve together

Christmas Eve is Scrabble night (Boy does it get competitive!)

The Polar Express movie is a must watch for the month of December

DH gets antsy if Jimmy Stewart's "It's a beautiful life" is not on tv on Christmas Day (Gawd, there is only so much I can take of that movie)

[tskeeter]

Aunt Jeanette's peanut brittle, kumkake, and if we can get it, or if I'm extraordinarily ambitious, lefse.  Some years, rosettes, using Mom's 50 years old rosette iron.

[Anne_in_VA]

Dec 23, 2016 17:35:34 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

A French silk pie from Village Inn.

Ooooohhhh!  I love that and forgot about it!  Maybe I need to go get one!

[saveinla]

Dec 23, 2016 20:57:56 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

Aunt Jeanette's peanut brittle, kumkake, and if we can get it, or if I'm extraordinarily ambitious, lefse.  Some years, rosettes, using Mom's 50 years old rosette iron.

Do you add sugar to the rosette batter or do you put powdered sugar on the top?

[taz157]

My mom's Christmas cookies, which I'm going to get a few after I post this message.  

[swamp]

Meat pies 

[Apple]

My mom's peanut butter bon bons and coconut bon bons.  They are even requested as the gift from her grandkids (along with the socks she knits, but those are more recent).  When I was little, I helped her make them, and I was surprised, and a little skeptical, about putting the same wax we used on our sleds into the melted chocolate.  (Usually we used candle wax on the sleds, but that year we had used some of her paraffin wax).

I have her recipes, but hope I don't have to make my own for many, many years to come.

[Apple]

I also can't think of a Christmas where I haven't given DS books (sometimes a pile of books).  This year though, I only bought him one.  

[zibazinski]

Dec 23, 2016 18:53:55 GMT -5 lynnerself said:

Every year I have to make and frost cut-out sugar cookies.

Sadly, I am finally giving up the Christmas stockings this year. The "kids" are 29 and 30.

Mine are 27, almost 28 and 33. I not only still do their stockings but I seem to have inherited their significant others.  

[tskeeter]

Dec 23, 2016 21:12:12 GMT -5 saveinla said:

Dec 23, 2016 20:57:56 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

Aunt Jeanette's peanut brittle, kumkake, and if we can get it, or if I'm extraordinarily ambitious, lefse.  Some years, rosettes, using Mom's 50 years old rosette iron.

Do you add sugar to the rosette batter or do you put powdered sugar on the top?

In Mom's family (the Lutheran Church basement ladies, all outstanding cooks and bakers), the practice is to dip the open edge of the rosette in granulated sugar after the rosette has cooled slightly.  Those old Norwegian ladies didn't have powdered sugar when they were making rosettes in the little houses on the prairie back in the 1870's.  And the sugar looks nice.  I suppose a person could use colored sugar, if they were so inclined.  

Applying sugar to the outside of the rosette, rather than incorporating sugar into the batter, makes the rosette taste sweeter because the sugar comes into direct contact with your taste buds.  (Something I learned during more than 20 years working in food processing plants.)

[taz157]

Dec 23, 2016 23:07:51 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Dec 23, 2016 18:53:55 GMT -5 lynnerself said:

Every year I have to make and frost cut-out sugar cookies.

Sadly, I am finally giving up the Christmas stockings this year. The "kids" are 29 and 30.

Mine are 27, almost 28 and 33. I not only still do their stockings but I seem to have inherited their significant others.  

Same with my mom. She now adds granddaughter too.

[taz157]

Dec 23, 2016 18:53:55 GMT -5 lynnerself said:

Every year I have to make and frost cut-out sugar cookies.

Sadly, I am finally giving up the Christmas stockings this year. The "kids" are 29 and 30.

I'm 37 and my mom still puts a little something in my Christmas stocking. She doesn't for my brother (36), but she doesn't see him at Christmas. She would if she saw him though.

[Value Buy]

Dec 23, 2016 18:53:55 GMT -5 lynnerself said:

Every year I have to make and frost cut-out sugar cookies.

Sadly, I am finally giving up the Christmas stockings this year. The "kids" are 29 and 30.

The wife still puts out stockings for us.
The game is, who can be the last person to put something in them before Christmas morning. It's a game for us, and as we get older I always thought I was able to be the last person to put anything in it, but I am always surprised. Either she is able to sneak out of bed while I sleep, or Santa adds something to it!

[yogiii]

Dec 23, 2016 17:46:35 GMT -5 milee said:

-  Toothbrush and toothpaste in stockings (since we give so much candy and chocolate)

I do this too and this year the person at the store condescendingly chatted me up about what an awful stocking stuffer it is .
People seem to feel very free to speak their minds to me.  The other day a random person told me I should wear two coats because I look "too cold".  I replied "No, that's just my face".

[Deleted]

Case of Coors Light so I can sleep on DW's parents guest bed.

[milee]

Dec 24, 2016 11:18:53 GMT -5 yogiii said:

Dec 23, 2016 17:46:35 GMT -5 milee said:

-  Toothbrush and toothpaste in stockings (since we give so much candy and chocolate)

I do this too and this year the person at the store condescendingly chatted me up about what an awful stocking stuffer it is .
People seem to feel very free to speak their minds to me.  The other day a random person told me I should wear two coats because I look "too cold".  I replied "No, that's just my face".

Yeah, random people can be pretty rude.  One of my all time favorites was years ago at Walmart.  My oldest son has always been really small for his age - was only 16 pounds when he turned one - so he looked much younger than he was, but perfectly healthy and a cute (IMHO) kid.  The cashier asked me how old my baby was and I replied that he'd just turned one.  She raised a lip at me, looked a little disgusted and said, "he's small - is somethin' wrong with him?"  

Nice.  

I did hold back from saying the first thing that came into my mind, which was, "oh, he's perfectly healthy - thanks.  In fact, he already has a larger vocabulary than you do!"  

[NastyWoman]

Dec 24, 2016 11:18:53 GMT -5 yogiii said:

Dec 23, 2016 17:46:35 GMT -5 milee said:

-  Toothbrush and toothpaste in stockings (since we give so much candy and chocolate)

I do this too and this year the person at the store condescendingly chatted me up about what an awful stocking stuffer it is .
People seem to feel very free to speak their minds to me.  The other day a random person told me I should wear two coats because I look "too cold".  I replied "No, that's just my face".

I did this too this year and I SCORED -> Paw Patrol is hot with DGS right now

[Wisconsin Beth]

The Easter Bunny and St. Nick always bring toothbrushes in our house. Usually not toothpaste but we may have started the Crayola toothpaste that way, come to think about it.

[Deleted]

Christmas is not Christmas without my mother's buttercrunch candy. Haven't had it since she passed away 5 years ago.
Basically it's melted sugar and butter with chocolate spread on top when it has hardened. I have the recipe but I have a fear of the stupid candy thermometer because I have a habit of dropping and breaking them and those suckers are expensive to replace. Don't ask me how many I've replaced. I lost count.
I'm thinking I might try to make a batch next week. No way in hell am I going anywhere near the grocery store today. Plus apparently you need a low humidity day and that is NOT today. Rain stopped but it is soggy out there.

[zibazinski]

Dec 24, 2016 13:41:23 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

The Easter Bunny and St. Nick always bring toothbrushes in our house. Usually not toothpaste but we may have started the Crayola toothpaste that way, come to think about it.

My kids would freak if they didn't get toothpaste, toothbrushes, dental tape and the other likes the things with the handles. Both want mint flavored. My son reminded me he was squeezing the last of the paste. I also do Easter baskets.

[flamingo]

It wouldn't be the holidays without mom's homemade Chex mix. It's not something hard to make, but she only makes it at Christmas time, and I'm too lazy to make it, so it definitely screams HOLIDAYS to me 

[teen persuasion]

Cinnamon rolls to eat while opening presents.

I always seem to get the timing off on Christmas eve, and I'm scrambling to coordinate making the sweet roll dough, raising it, shaping it, second raising, baking, dinner before Christmas  eve mass w/ carols at 6pm.  And of course last minute wrapping or chocolate suckers to make/wrap for the stockings.

The one thing that has changed is how early the kids get up - DS5 was up at the crack of dawn, but the older ones weren't so gung ho about it.