Sunday, December 20, 2015

The Fourth Sunday Of Advent






We were late with our Christmas decorations this year, but then I always let my tree stay till after the Epiphany.





There are still cards to be done! Please raise your hands all those who hate doing Christmas cards:)





This year for various reasons, we opted for a very small celebration in the family circle. The meat is already in the freezer, gourmet sets allow for a budget celebration with a variety of meat sorts, add a salad or two, French bread and some frozen veggies plus ice-cream as a dessert and you have a Christmas dinner.





Are you all ready for Christmas and what are you planning to do?


8 comments:

  1. Any decorating that I do is usually cutting branches from outside and then adding them in baskets, etc. I decorate the mantle and have some large pointsettias. Lots of mini lights and floodlights on the trees outside. On Christmas Eve everyone comes here and we order in Chinese food. We do a gift exchange after supper and all of the grandchildren receive a gift from us. We have a Christmas service at church and then the Christmas Sunday School program. We still have a few Dutch traditions - the children at church receive a book and candy bag, plus chocolate milk. At night it's kind of an open house here. There might be 20 or 30 people who come. Busy but very good. I realize that at this time of the year many people are very lonely. This is a good time to reach out to them.

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  2. Do you celebrate Christmas Eve? Here it's the 1st and 2nd Christmas Day. We don't normally exchange gifts with Christmas though some people do. Kids usually get their presents with St Nicholas on December 6. Germans do Christmas Eve (Weinachten).

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  3. Most people do something on Christmas Eve. Many churches have candle light services or Midnight masses. When I was younger we did gift exchanges on December 5th, but it did change to Christmas Eve. I do like December 5th better because then we can focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I love hearing Handel's Messiah every year. I don't like the commercial aspect of Christmas and try to stay out of the malls. As if we don't do enough buying for Christmas we have Boxing Day sales on December 26th. The stores open very early and it's absolutely crazy.

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  4. My husband and I will be having a cosy Christmas Dinner with just he and I, and then attend a family Christmas service at church. On Christmas Day, we will open our gifts and have a small get together for Christmas dinner, where after the meal we will play games and visit together.
    In the UK, Christmas has become very secular. Drinking is ramped up even more than normal, Santa is idolised, and shopping is king. For this reason, we stay out of the shops as much as possible and keep our celebrations low key.
    The advent season is a reason for joy and hope, as well as a time to reflect on what Christ's birth meant for us all. That's what makes it so special for me, personally.

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  5. Here mostly Catholics have services at Christmas Eve. Our church has two on Friday and one Saturday morning, sort of a Christmas concert with Sunday school children. We also have Christmas dinner on the 25th, not 24th. It's all rather confusing, don't you think so?

    Christine, here government is always campaigning against heavy drinking. We also don't have much Santa stuff, folks are against him cause he is a foreigner:)

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  6. Different traditions and customs can be frustrating and interesting, too, as long as nobody claims their tradition to be The Right One.

    I don't celebrate Christmas, but I wanted to share some of Finnish traditions. It's all about 24th, from noon on, when the declaration of Christmas peace is given in Turku. It is quite important for those who live in Turku, but also all over Finland. It can be watched in Tv or listened in radio. After that, churches are bursted with people, because almost everyone wants to attend a Christmas afternoon/Eve service. Even more people visit graveyards, decorating graves with candles. It is important to go to sauna at some point before dinner and gifts. Quite a busy day :-)

    Here's an example from Turku 2012 if you are interested

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FansJ0oHJs8

    If you click on 'show more' you'll find the words of the daclaration in English, too.

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  7. Wishing you a very blessed Christmas time! :-)

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  8. Thanks, Miriam! I have watched your video, too. What a beautiful tradition!

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