12-25-2006, 10:07 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-26-2006, 12:30 AM by [wcip]Angel.)
Thank you very much, Pete!:)
The celebration of my big "score and four" have been seemingly eventless so far.
Christmas, 24th or 25th?
I never remember this, but I know that some countries celebrate Christmas on the 24th and some celebrate the 25th. Something is called "Christmas Eve"/"Christmas Day" while others refer to it as "Boxing Day". Tyson being unrelated to any of these events, AFAIK. In Norway, we celebrate Christmas Eve ("Julaften", "aften"=evening) on the 24th of December, my birthday. Although traditions vary, here are some commonplace happenings on this anual occasion:
* Big, traditional breakfast with all sorts of Christmas'y ham/herring/scrambled eggs; all the fixins!
* Some people go to church, either for reasons of religion and/or tradition. I play in a Brassband, and although I don't play on Christmas Eve myself (I'm a percussionist, and we don't have a lot to do when playing Christmas music), I always attend the band's church concert. I like listening to my friends when they play.:)
* We usually gather around in groups of extended families (immediate family + a couple of aunts and uncles, give or take a grandma). We have a rather elaborate holiday feast consisting of either a turkey, stick meat or ribs (not spare ribs... hmm, describing Norwegian cooking in English is difficult without knowing the English language equivalent. Edit: added link for clarification.) Digesting this heavy meal is virtually impossible without large quantities of aquavit
* When the courses of the meal have been properly digested, we move over to the lounge area of the living room where, atop a pile of gifts, sits a mighty christmas tree. We hand out the pressies (takes between 3-4 hours depending on the size of the gathering.)
* Coffee and cake (+ fruit)
* Meats, scrambled eggs and bread-things. (light food... compared to the heavy meal we just had anyway.)
* After we're all sick of each other, we load up the car (with 1 designated driver pr car) with more gifts than when we came, and go home.
--------
I don't know how Christmas is celebrated in the US and UK (or other parts of the world), but in Norway, the presents and the meal are the main events of the evening. When I was younger, we had the arrangement that I would get my birthday presents in the morning and the Christmas presents in the evening with everyone else. As I grew older, I noticed that the pile of birthday presents became increasingly smaller. This year, I got 2 birthday presents: shoes from my parents and money from my grandmother. ($50)
As you can imagine, having been born on Christmas Eve, I've had to answer the same question (or a variation of it) a million times throughout the years: "So what's it like having your birthday on Christmas Eve" Doesn't it suck?" People asking me this question obviously don't consider the fact that I have no reference point; nothing with which to compare it. It's not like I can compare it to back in the days when I had my birthday on the 12th of June... :rolleyes:But when I was younger, I didn't understand why it'd be a problem having Christmas and my birthday at the same time, because I always got presents for both.
However, now that I'm supposed to be this thing they call "an adult", most of my extended family don't give me anything. So now I'm starting to see the drawbacks of having to celebrate on Christmas.
But it's not like I can do anything about it. I'll just have to buy my own damn pressies! :shuriken:
edit: please excuse my unseemly use of elipses, poor grammar and sentence structure just this once. I'm in a state of disarray at the moment. Family functions take their toll...
The celebration of my big "score and four" have been seemingly eventless so far.
Christmas, 24th or 25th?
I never remember this, but I know that some countries celebrate Christmas on the 24th and some celebrate the 25th. Something is called "Christmas Eve"/"Christmas Day" while others refer to it as "Boxing Day". Tyson being unrelated to any of these events, AFAIK. In Norway, we celebrate Christmas Eve ("Julaften", "aften"=evening) on the 24th of December, my birthday. Although traditions vary, here are some commonplace happenings on this anual occasion:
* Big, traditional breakfast with all sorts of Christmas'y ham/herring/scrambled eggs; all the fixins!
* Some people go to church, either for reasons of religion and/or tradition. I play in a Brassband, and although I don't play on Christmas Eve myself (I'm a percussionist, and we don't have a lot to do when playing Christmas music), I always attend the band's church concert. I like listening to my friends when they play.:)
* We usually gather around in groups of extended families (immediate family + a couple of aunts and uncles, give or take a grandma). We have a rather elaborate holiday feast consisting of either a turkey, stick meat or ribs (not spare ribs... hmm, describing Norwegian cooking in English is difficult without knowing the English language equivalent. Edit: added link for clarification.) Digesting this heavy meal is virtually impossible without large quantities of aquavit
* When the courses of the meal have been properly digested, we move over to the lounge area of the living room where, atop a pile of gifts, sits a mighty christmas tree. We hand out the pressies (takes between 3-4 hours depending on the size of the gathering.)
* Coffee and cake (+ fruit)
* Meats, scrambled eggs and bread-things. (light food... compared to the heavy meal we just had anyway.)
* After we're all sick of each other, we load up the car (with 1 designated driver pr car) with more gifts than when we came, and go home.
--------
I don't know how Christmas is celebrated in the US and UK (or other parts of the world), but in Norway, the presents and the meal are the main events of the evening. When I was younger, we had the arrangement that I would get my birthday presents in the morning and the Christmas presents in the evening with everyone else. As I grew older, I noticed that the pile of birthday presents became increasingly smaller. This year, I got 2 birthday presents: shoes from my parents and money from my grandmother. ($50)
As you can imagine, having been born on Christmas Eve, I've had to answer the same question (or a variation of it) a million times throughout the years: "So what's it like having your birthday on Christmas Eve" Doesn't it suck?" People asking me this question obviously don't consider the fact that I have no reference point; nothing with which to compare it. It's not like I can compare it to back in the days when I had my birthday on the 12th of June... :rolleyes:But when I was younger, I didn't understand why it'd be a problem having Christmas and my birthday at the same time, because I always got presents for both.
However, now that I'm supposed to be this thing they call "an adult", most of my extended family don't give me anything. So now I'm starting to see the drawbacks of having to celebrate on Christmas.
But it's not like I can do anything about it. I'll just have to buy my own damn pressies! :shuriken:
edit: please excuse my unseemly use of elipses, poor grammar and sentence structure just this once. I'm in a state of disarray at the moment. Family functions take their toll...
