It’s that special time of year – a time when families join together to eat, drink, and be merry. It’s the time of year when most family traditions come into play, and the time of year for celebration. For one, it’s Christmas; for another, it’s Hanukah; yet for a few it’s simply the end of the calendar year.
To celebrate this time of year, here are a few links that might just help us get in the true holiday spirit.
Holiday Traditions
What says Holiday Tradition better than the music? Shannyn Schroeder shares a few of her favorite holiday songs like a rocked out version of Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town, and Julie Glover translates a few of the Christmas Carols for us.
Sonia G. Medeiros talks New Holiday Traditions, including watching movies in pajamas while drinking hot cocoa. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?
Kathy Owen poses the question, is Santa Claus a Man of Mystery?
Sarah at Classy with a Twist catches the Christmas Spirit and tackles the age-old question – do you believe in Santa?
Donna Newton tells a story from her childhood of Father Christmas and Jingling Bells.
Read about Christmas Down Under with Katy Hulme over at Angela R. Wallace’s blog.
Want to spend Christmas at the Happiest Place on Earth? Tameri Etherton shares her magical holiday at Disney.
Deborah J. Hughes wishes everyone a Merry Christmas or Not over at Ghostly Dramas.
Is the term “Merry Christmas” cultural or religious for you? See Piper Bayard’s thoughts in Merry Christmas or Happy Water Buffalo Day.
Staying Merry with Parties, Food and Beverage
Jillian Dodd mixes up some tasty Holiday Cocktails.
Kate Wood isbaking up a storm in her kitchen this year. Check out her Yummy Holiday Treat Ideas.
Tameri Etherton shares her Super Easy and Delicious Holiday Treat with us!
Marji Laine offers up her Top 10 Christmas Party Tips.
Giving Gifts
Alica McKenna Johnson asks, do you give Passive Aggressive Gifts? I might fall into this category with my nieces and nephews….
Kathy Owen blogs an instructional wrapping video in What’s Your Greatest Gift Wrapping Challenge? Here, Kitty, Kitty.
Crafty? Lynn Kelley shares her scrapbooking ideas for anyone who is in the mood to make some Homemade Gifts this holiday season.
Ellie Ann Soderstrom lists out her Holiday Gift Guide. Now this is just too funny!
Stacy Green provides a few off-the-wall holiday gift ideas in her Glovers for Lovers post.
What does Jillian Dodd want for Christmas? For Sexy Santa to come to town…
Holiday Fun
A girl after my own heart, Liz Schulte reminisces about five of her favorite holiday TV episodes.
Julie Glover asks, Are You a Christmas Person?, in this fun quiz…
What’s your favorite holiday book? Jennie Bennett guest blogs over at Jess Witkins’ Happiness Project and shares a few of her favorite Holiday Books that actually inspire her to be a better writer.
Catie Rhodes started it, and the idea is just too fun to pass up! So here’s Ten Random Holiday Things About Catie…
And now, me…
- I look forward to midnight every Christmas Eve so that I can put baby Jesus in the manger of our family’s Nativity Set.
- I love egg nog. With alcohol.
- The only time of year I actually bake is Christmas. This year, I made my mother’s famous Walnut Muffins and I tried a new recipe – Chai Sugar Cookies.
- I love to watch the holiday two-hour movies on Lifetime, LMN, and Hallmark with my mom as we wrap Christmas gifts.
- I’m hesitant to drive home on Christmas Eve now, courtesy of a snow storm a few years back that pushed me seven and a half hours off course.
- Spending time with my family is the most important thing to me when it comes to holiday celebrations. I love to watch my nephews play, fight, or whatever it is they feel is necessary to do, and this is my niece’s first Christmas – that’s special in itself.
- When I was a little girl, my grandmother gave me a new music box or snow globe every Christmas. To this day, I look forward to seeing all of my collectibles displayed in my parent’s living room and enjoy remembering one of my favorite people in the world.
- I like the idea of giving a child one gift to open on Christmas Eve to help ease their anticipation of Santa coming. My cousin and I couldn’t wait to choose our one gift to open while the adults partied the night away.
- I may be in my mid-thirties, but I’m dying to go have my picture taken with Santa at the mall. I think my parents have at least twenty-one pictures of me and Santa. I have no idea why I stopped going…
- I love midnight mass – the candles, the smell of incense, and the organ. There’s nothing quite like hearing a mass of hundreds sing O Holy Night and Ave Maria with the music playing through the organ’s pipes.
Now share a random holiday related thing about yourself. If you’d like to do this as a blog post, consider yourself tagged.
What are some of your favorite holiday traditions, recipes, and gift giving/wrapping ideas? I’d love to hear from you!
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!
Tiffany A White's Ooo Factor 
You are never too old to have a photo taken with Santa.
Thanks for sharing, Tiff. I’m headed south to spend Christmas with kids and grandkids.
I love learning stuff about my online friends. Thanks for posting things about you as well as all those cool links.
I remember when my oldest son was small, he was afraid to sit on Santa’s lap for the picture. So I did the only thing I could…I sat on Santa’s lap and held my son. LOL I need to find that picture….
If Santa is hunky enough, I’d sit in his lap! LOL. Tiffany, thanks so much for the blog shout-outs, and for being so supportive of me all year long! Love your mash-up – if I get a few minutes to rub together today, I’ll have to check some out. 😀
Have a very Merry Christmas, my friend!
Ooo! Thanks for including me in the mashup. Fantastic blogs this week!
One of my favorite holiday traditions is decorating Christmas cookies, with TONS of frosting and sprinkles. Another one of my favorite holiday traditions is gaining 5 lbs on all the amazing food!! LoL. Merry Christmas, Tiff.
I’d go sit in Santa’s lap every single year if they looked like the ones on my blog. Maybe that’s a new business venture we could consider for next year. Thanks for including me in your mash up and I agree with you on Midnight mass. My favorite thing of the year!!
Thanks so much for the mentions! In fact, I just posted another Top 10 list today – My Favorite Things: Holiday Edition. One of them is that I love seeing Christmas lights reflected on water. I grew up in Corpus Christi, and seeing the harbor lit up by lights on all the boats was beautiful. Perhaps you’ve also seen the San Antonio Riverwalk in Christmas lights? Great stuff. Merry Christmas, Tiffany.
Thanks for the mention! As for holiday traditions, egg nog with rum is a must. And I’m the same way, baking is reserved for Christmas time, mostly because I can’t have goodies around the house, lol. Grace and I will bake cookies tomorrow afternoon, and I always do a big Christmas Eve meal. Have a great holiday!
Yay! Thanks for the mashup. I am going to send this link to my mom. She is a huge Christmas person and would probably have the decorations up all year around if she could.
Fun holiday mashup! Thanks for including me. 🙂 Chai Sugar cookies sound interesting! Is it related to Chai Tea? My mom loves that, so maybe she’d like the cookies…
For the past two years, we baked goodies for the local firehouse. We didn’t do it this year because baking for 40 guys by ourselves is a lot, and our oven doesn’t work properly. Instead, we bought more fleece and will be making blankets for the cat shelter. As for holiday tradition…my mom and I have a marathon of LoTR extended. 😀
Chai sugar cookies? How interesting. I do a huge batch of the regular sugar cookies and split them between my daddy and my husband. But I have never heard of chai sugar cookies. And I like chai tea quite a bit. I’m going to have to look up this recipe.
My favorite holiday recipe…hmm…that’s tough. I get the most requests for my sausage cornbread stuffing, and it does taste good. The thing I love most to make, though, is homemade pie. I do the crust from scratch and nothing comes out of a box or is from a mix. Christmas is the only time of year I do this because diabetes runs in my family, and I’m terrified of developing it.
Wow! So much wonderful stuff in here, it was like CHRISTMAS!! (smile) Thanks for all the great links!! Also, the things you enjoy most about this season…well, gosh, I enjoy most of those as well! No globes, though. I like getting a new ornament for the tree for everyone and I love it when they give me one as well!! Those are the most special. Every year, I unpack wonderful memories as I decorate the tree!! I also make it a mission to find the right ornament for my mail lady. She’s such a dedicated worker and I appreciate her attitude as she delivers the mail…always with a smile and a friendly “quickie” chat should I be fortunate enough to see her. This is when I do most of my baking (doing it now!) and when I see family that I don’t see much throughout the year. Blessings to you and yours and may your new year be wonderful!!!
Thanks for the mention. We also let the kids open 1 present on Christmas Eve. I do bake all the time, but Christmas cookies are special — lots of different kinds.
Thank you for including me in such a great holiday mash up! 71/2 hours- I’d be scared to drive home too! I wish I had more holiday traditions- but every year while wrapping I watch While You Were Sleeping and Lovely Actually
I loved reading about your love of Christmas, that put a huge smile on my face and warmth in my heart. I think you’ve got the true spirit of Christmas going on!
Thank you so much for including me in your incredible mash up. I’m definitely trying those chai sugar cookies. If you haven’t seen Marcia Richards blog with the peanut butter cup cookie recipe, you should check it out. It’s super easy and they are so, so yummy. I’m pretty much like you, I only bake at Christmas, why is that?
Happy Christmas, my friend! I hope you have a wonderful day today and next year sit on Santa’s lap!