Winter Wonders: A Christmas Blog Tag

Similar to other seasonal posts, I have another blog tag challenge for this winter/Christmas time! I'm super excited to share this, and I hope you enjoy reading it just as much as I enjoyed thinking about the answers and filling them out. You can read my summer blog tag here, my autumn one here and last Christmas's blog tag here! Thank you so much for tagging me, Julie.

Rules (because you can't Participate without Them)

1. Acknowledge who tagged you ✅

2. Answer the questions ✅

3. Tag friends & notify them...well, I decided to just answer the questions. It's a little too late to ask others to do this challenge too.

4. Fill out this form to have your blog challenge post spotlighted on The Moonlight

   Wanderer's December Newsletter! (Optional) ✅

5. Have fun ✅

Yay, now I can Participate!

1. What are some traditions that you and your family have leading up to the holidays? And what's something new that you want to try this month?

When my siblings and I were little, we read Advent Storybook: 24 Stories to Share before Christmas. You're supposed to read a short story a day, but we hardly ever fulfilled that requirement. Unfortunately, we haven't done this in a couple years, but it was always super fun when we were younger.

Another one of my favourite traditions is getting our tree the day (or two) after Thanksgiving. One year we didn't do that (Perfection, Ruined by a Christmas Tree?), and Christmas didn't feel quite the same. I think traditions are important and meaningful, but I also think it is possible to put too much stock in them. It's easy to judge a particular day as a let down when it's different from what we're used to.

I actually didn't have any plans for new traditions for this month!

2. What's your favourite Christmas recipe, food, or drink?

I like a lot of the things that we eat around Christmas time: eggnog, sugar cookies, cheese dip and crackers, but the one that makes me think of Christmas the most is wassail. We put apple juice in a pan on the stove and steep Cinnamon Apple Spice tea bags in it. The result is amazing, and the cinnamon-y smell that fills the house throughout December feels so much like Christmas.

3. Every Christmas is different, and some years come with unexpected twists. But if you could have the perfect Christmas, what would the day look like for you?

Well, I would love some snow, a quiet morning opening presents with my family, maybe a movie in the afternoon, and (I wish) an evening spent around a fireplace (that we don't have.) Staying up late would be nice too, as we drink wassail and eat snacks. My siblings and I love to have sleepovers in each other's rooms, and I read the latest additions to my stories then. It would be great to have lots to read (and not be too tired to read it.)

4. What are some of your favourite winter activities? (e.g. carolling, sledding, drinking hot cocoa)

Ah, I love building snowmen and playing in snowball fights, but we hardly ever get enough snow to do that. :( A couple years ago, we got a foot of snow, though, and it lasted a week! My siblings and I played hard all day while the snow continued to fall. I hadn't had that much winter fun in quite a while. We haven't gone carolling to my recollection, but I love singing Christmas hymns around the piano with my family.

5. Do you decorate? How?

Yes! We decorate. We cut down a live Christmas tree from a farm every year, and the same night we lay out a fine spread of snacks. We decorate the tree while listening to The Baltimore Consort's "Bright Day Star." The first few notes on the CD seem to really usher in the Christmas season; they're so familiar.

6. What is your favourite Christmas song or hymn? Why is it your favourite?

I love "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," and "O Holy Night." I love the melodies to all of these songs.

7. What's a gift or experience you're really wishing for this Christmas? And what's your favourite gift to give others?

I was really hoping for a white Christmas, really. That hardly ever happens to us. (I remember it happening once in my life---I know it happened more when I was little...I just don't remember it.) I don't really want any specific gifts. My birthday always comes right before Christmas, and I honestly don't need anything right now. Gift-finding might be more fun for me than gift-getting. And my favourite gift to get others? Something they haven't thought of, but I know they would really love. :D

8. Describe some of your favourite Christmas memories. :)

I love the Christmas memories of driving all night to get to Florida where my grandparents lived. I would get excited to see the palm trees out my car window. Usually, I would begin to nod off, and the "s's" in my parents' conversations would start hissing through my consciousness. Suddenly, I would wake up, and warm light would be flooding through the glass doors of my grandparents' back porch! We'd pull into the driveway and carry our backpacks inside. I would always be too sleepy to really know where I was. The next morning, however, I generally woke before anyone and snuck downstairs. My grandma would be making French toast, and I would get to help her.

Their house had a large (artificial) Christmas tree in almost every room, cinnamon sticks in little see-through bags hanging on the doorknobs, and stockings swinging from the mantle. It was like a Hallmark movie. It's been many years ago, and since then, my grandparents have moved, but that has always been one of my favourite Christmas memories.

9. What is your favourite Christmas-y book? Movie?

I read A Christmas Carol for the first time this year, and I loved it! I can't think of any specifically Christmas-y books that I read at this time of year, other than that. For movies, I really enjoy It's a Wonderful Life, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, and A Muppet Christmas Carol.  I also love The Tailer of Gloucester. (That's a lot of "favourite.")

10. List ten words to that encapsulate the feel of Christmas for you.

Pine

Candles

Lights

Snow

Tea

Soup

Wrapping Paper

Candy canes

Christmas Piano Recital

Hot Chocolate

11. In your own words, what is the meaning of Christmas?

Christmas is a reminder that we can find peace, joy and hope in Jesus Christ, the only One who can save us from our own sins. It is a reminder to me, as a Christian, of God's love for me, the steps He took to show me His love, and to reconcile me to Himself.

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord."

-Luke 2:11 (ESV)