|
Post by romily on Nov 14, 2023 6:24:41 GMT -5
Spend Christmas years back with my sister and her family, and we went into the forest where you could choose a tree and cut it down yourself - sounds more romantic than reality, t was way muddy, the trees left were pretty crap, and tehre wa san endless argument with my nephew who was about 7, and fell n love with a really scraggly tree ("nobody wants this tree! It's so ugly! We have to give it a home and make it pretty!") and my sister who tried to convince him to get a ncer one...In the end we left with the ugly tree whom my nephew decorated in the garden and visited daily, and a nice indoor one. By the end I was frozen solid.
"Traditionally, the tree is only put up in Germany on 24th December. While this now varies from family to family, many of the older generation still deck the halls on the morning of Christmas Eve. The rest of the home is decorated beforehand, but it's just the tree which is saved until last." - The internet says it - many friends in Germany put up the tree earlier nowadays but in my family it's still not being put up until the 24th.
|
|
|
Post by Phar Lap on Nov 14, 2023 14:42:30 GMT -5
Well I am so excited and very pleased with myself! I found the perfect Advent calendar, from Kmart of all places and only $18.00! The one I posted about earlier arrived but sadly is but a poor imitation of the one I made. It’s going back. Amazon is good like that. This is the Kmart one - it will sit on either the coffee table or the crystal cabinet. It is a decent size and uses two AAA batteries.
|
|
|
Post by lisamnz on Nov 14, 2023 15:26:16 GMT -5
Oh I thought advent calendars were just the things that had a little gift for each day leading up to Christmas!
There is a place near us that sells real christmas trees. You can go out anytime during the year and put your name on one, then when you want it, you go out and they'll cut it for you and you take it home. So you can pick the really nicely shaped/sized one, but leave it there till you're ready.
NOt sure if we will do that this year or just use the secondhand fake tree that we've had for years. Real trees are such a faff if they have been cut, you need buckets and weights and water and then something to hide all that stuff...
|
|
|
Post by sprite on Nov 16, 2023 12:49:28 GMT -5
Yeah, I was in my 30s before I learned that everyone else grew up with an advent calendar full of chocolate. Ours only had bible verses.
One year I made one, full of sweets and other funny gifts or quotes, for my partner who was working overseas. Stupidly, neither of us took photos, he couldn't bring it back (I knew that when I made it), and we have no memory of what it looked like, nor what was in it.
|
|
|
Post by weeg on Nov 17, 2023 11:46:53 GMT -5
My tree will go up about the 20th december.
But... I impulse bought some Kermit the Frog christmas sheets last january in the sale. THey are just as classy as you are probably picturing. I think I might get them out at the start of the month, just to feel I've got some use out of them!
And I'll start stringing fairy lights about the place at some point.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Nov 19, 2023 16:32:52 GMT -5
reminds me that i have to get an advent wreath and advent calendar - that's already stressing me ... i don't think we'll have a tree this year (we often don't, was we usually aren't home much during christmas, anyway) ... or if we do, then a very small one ...
|
|
|
Post by lillielangtry on Nov 20, 2023 1:32:23 GMT -5
I bought a small tree at IKEA. It actually looks pretty good, I think. Germans don't go in for fake trees much but in my small apartment, this makes more sense.
|
|
|
Post by Liiisa on Nov 20, 2023 8:35:26 GMT -5
reminds me that i have to get an advent wreath and advent calendar - that's already stressing me ... i don't think we'll have a tree this year (we often don't, was we usually aren't home much during christmas, anyway) ... or if we do, then a very small one ... See this is why I don’t like the holidays— all this stuff one “must” do while we’re already overburdened due to the way life is these days. All this was ok when Mom was at home and had free time/spoons to do holiday stuff, but now it’s like you have to do it when you get done with work and your brain is fried.
|
|
|
Post by tucano on Nov 20, 2023 9:29:13 GMT -5
I've come back from Christmas-free Laos to all the Christmas stuff here and I'm finding it quite disconcerting.
|
|
|
Post by lisamnz on Nov 20, 2023 14:52:19 GMT -5
I've come back from Christmas-free Laos to all the Christmas stuff here and I'm finding it quite disconcerting. it's weird, isn't it. I had a christmas in southern Vietnam once. It probably felt more familiar to me than you, as it was warm, but the general lack of Christmas frantic-ness was very pleasant.
|
|
|
Post by rikita on Nov 20, 2023 17:04:57 GMT -5
reminds me that i have to get an advent wreath and advent calendar - that's already stressing me ... i don't think we'll have a tree this year (we often don't, was we usually aren't home much during christmas, anyway) ... or if we do, then a very small one ... See this is why I don’t like the holidays— all this stuff one “must” do while we’re already overburdened due to the way life is these days. All this was ok when Mom was at home and had free time/spoons to do holiday stuff, but now it’s like you have to do it when you get done with work and your brain is fried. i still like christmas, though. i just like it best when i get to visit relatives who have their house all festive and i just bring along some dessert and presents for the kids ... but yeah, sometimes i think it'd be nice to have time for all those things. and all the other things i'd really like to do (like all those things everyone tells you that you must do, that it is a matter of priorities and having no time is no excuse - if you add up just those things, they already fill about 30 hours per day ...)
|
|
|
Post by Webs on Nov 20, 2023 17:21:46 GMT -5
I want a Chanukah calendar.
|
|
|
Post by Liiisa on Nov 20, 2023 18:08:19 GMT -5
We get the week after Christmas off, and sometimes I think maybe someone would like the week BEFORE off. But then that completely empty week is pretty great after all the madness. Which honestly I barely participate in anymore, so I'm complaining vicariously.
Webs that's a great idea.
|
|
|
Post by Liiisa on Nov 20, 2023 19:56:16 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by romily on Nov 21, 2023 3:04:20 GMT -5
In Germany we call the time between Christmas and NY time "between the years" - I always liked that expression, it's like a quiet time where most work stops, a time for really relaxing, reflecting, looking forward, at least for me.
No Christmas stress for me, I spend the weekend before Christmas with my sister so that will be travel stress - just lots of travel for 2 days only - but then Christmas I am on my own, no fuss at all.
|
|
|
Post by sprite on Nov 21, 2023 8:40:01 GMT -5
sometimes i think it'd be nice to have time for all those things. and all the other things i'd really like to do (like all those things everyone tells you that you must do, that it is a matter of priorities and having no time is no excuse - if you add up just those things, they already fill about 30 hours per day ...) Yes!! They do! And how to we remember them all??
|
|
|
Post by romily on Nov 22, 2023 9:29:33 GMT -5
At Tesco they have a real Christmas tree in a pot that is literally under 20 cm tall. If they would not have sprayed it with with gunk to make it look Christmassy I would have bought it. But it also seems a waste to buy a real tiny tree and then what - bin it? I don't have a garden, so would not know what to do with it.
|
|
|
Post by sprite on Nov 22, 2023 12:14:18 GMT -5
Guerrilla gardening: plant it in a hole in your hedge, or just anywhere that looks scruffy but could use another tree. Sure, it'll eventually get cut down, but for a while, there'll be something nice in what used to be more ugly.
|
|
|
Post by romily on Nov 23, 2023 2:54:16 GMT -5
With what gardening tools? Ground around here is pretty much clay, so I doubt anything would survive...
|
|
|
Post by sprite on Nov 23, 2023 8:27:02 GMT -5
To plant a small one like that, all that's needed is to go out on a rainy day and dig up about 10-15cm of dirt, stick the plant it, push the dirt down with the foot, sneak away...
If it dies, it dies.
|
|
|
Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 25, 2023 7:05:58 GMT -5
There was a very cute potted tree in our Christmas shop today, that we all thought would be a perfect Christmas tree. I’m tempted.
|
|
|
Post by sprite on Dec 1, 2023 5:19:57 GMT -5
Listened to a good podcast about the carbon footprint of different types of trees, very interesting. We've had our plastic one for 11 years now, which makes it less polluting than a real tree cut from a farm. I didn't realise it was possible to rent a tree! Sliced Bread: Christmas TreesNow that we have a good-sized garden, and I'm thinking a conifer might look nice in one area, so we could maybe get a potted tree and bring it in/out every year.
|
|
|
Post by tucano on Dec 1, 2023 5:27:34 GMT -5
There was a story of an older woman on the local news who got a tiny Christmas tree sapling 25 years ago in a newspaper giveaway. She'd planted it in her front garden but never brought it in again, so it was now the height of the house. She was appealing for a charity who needed a tree to come and take it away.
|
|
|
Post by sophie on Dec 1, 2023 19:00:31 GMT -5
I’ve had live ones the last couple of years (in pots) but seeing as we are now in the city, our space is more limited as to where we could plant another one. So ww are thinking no tree this year (especially since family is away in Peru) but a nice planter on the table and a couple of wreaths.
|
|
|
Post by riverhorse on Dec 2, 2023 4:48:07 GMT -5
Will be buying an Advent wreath with 4 candles at the markets today as it's time to light the first candle tomorrow.
|
|
|
Post by veronicainsocks on Dec 2, 2023 18:20:20 GMT -5
My mom’s And… Igloo nativity scene , because we live in Canada , I guess…
|
|
|
Post by veronicainsocks on Dec 2, 2023 18:27:57 GMT -5
Mom’s cat no2
|
|
|
Post by lisamnz on Dec 3, 2023 18:30:32 GMT -5
Was in Bunnings yesterday and saw a potted pinus radiata for sale as a live christmas tree for nearly $45 which is utterly ridiculous when we live within 30 minutes' drive of some of the millions of hectares of commercial pine plantation which is, you guessed it, virtually all pinus radiata and there are wildling pine seedlings all over the place free to a good home if you could be bothered to just keep a spade in the boot of the car.
|
|
|
Post by Liiisa on Dec 3, 2023 18:50:03 GMT -5
What the heck is it doing there? Ah, I see that it was introduced. Its native range is a teeny-tiny area!
|
|
|
Post by lisamnz on Dec 3, 2023 19:06:37 GMT -5
yes it was introduced for plantation forestry as they grow so quickly here. They are usually harvested in under 20 years.
|
|