The Christmas Tag

 Yup, this one (and variations of it) have been doing the rounds over the last few weeks so when the always-lovely Danielle from over at Underland to Wonderland tagged me, I thought, 'what the heck', one more post thrown into the festive blogland mix won't hurt.

 

 

What would be your dream place to visit for the holiday season?

 I quite like spending the actual big day with family but at some point in my life I'd love to visit New York in December and also do Edinburgh for Hogmanay.

 
 

Favourite Christmas movie?

 A three-way tie between The Nightmare Before Christmas, Arthur Christmas and The Muppet Christmas Carol (although if pushed, I think Nightmare would take it).
 

 

Are you on the naughty list or the nice list?

 After the year we've had in and out of hospitals I think we fully deserve to be on the nice list!
 

 

Have you ever had a white Christmas?

Yep, there's a few times I can remember, the last one being (I think) 2010 when it started snowing late on Christmas Eve and lasted quite a while - luckily we were staying at home that year. When I was a kid though we always spent Christmas at my grandparents house in Chester and would drive up from Wiltshire on Christmas Eve. I remember one year (probably in the late 1990s) on a dual-carriageway in Cheshire with the snow coming down thick and fast around us, my dad trying to navigate his way through the tracks left by other cars and several vehicles giving up and parking on the verge. I know we did make it to my grandparents house in the early hours of the morning but I have no idea how my dad did it!
 

 

Where do you usually spend your Christmas?

 It depends, sometimes it's at our house with both sets of parents, my brother and my sister-in-law and other times it's in Cornwall at my sister-in-law's house with my in-laws.
 

 

Do you open any presents on Christmas Eve?

 Nope, I haven't even opened my Blogger Secret Santa or Thrifty Christmas gifts yet!
 

 

Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?

I can't remember, are there 12 of them?
Dasher, Prancer, Blitzen (or is it Blitzer?), Donna, Rudolph, Thingummybob, Whatchamacallit, Oojamaflip, That One, The Other One, Whatsit and Doodah.
That's all of them, I'm sure.
 

 

What holiday tradition are you looking forward to most this year?

Every year I make up a quiz for Christmas Day, it gets handed round and while everyone else is racking their brains and filling them in, I can sit back for an hour or so and read a book. 
 

 

Is your Christmas tree real or fake?

 Fake. It cost me £2.50 from Woolworths in April 2002. At the time I thought I'd have that for the future and it's served us very well over the last 7 years.
 

 

Hands down, what's your all-time favourite Christmas food and Christmas sweet treat?

 That's difficult. I like turkey with bread sauce but roast potatoes cooked really well are tasty too. Plus I can make a mean sprout and bacon mixture that even makes them edible to people who don't like sprouts. For sweet treats, tunis cake (which not many places sell these days) is pretty good and if you want to win me over with edible gifts, New Berry Fruits, Lindor, Green & Blacks or any brand of violet creams will do me fine.
 

 

Be honest: do you like giving gifts or receiving gifts better?

 Definitely giving gifts. I'm the sort of annoying person who shops for gifts all year round and more often than not, we end up giving vouchers for local businesses or experiences as presents.
When it comes to receiving gifts, if I really want something I'm likely to have already bought it myself so I have to make an effort in the autumn to write things down and not buy them to let the rest of my family have a chance. I do try and include some more expensive or unusual things though, the sort of stuff I wouldn't buy for myself.
 

 

Does your family have a special Christmas recipe you like to help make?

 Not really. My mother didn't cook so all the cooking I do is self-taught. I have a Christmas Cake recipe that I try and do each year and I make my own stuffing plus I usually bake some kind of non-fruit cake for the people who aren't keen on Christmas Cake. This was 2012's cake - a Chocolate Orange Gateau-type thing.

  

Are you a pro-present wrapper or do you fail miserably?

 I'd in the middle I'd say. I'm a pro-wrapper when it comes to simply wrapping them up and making them look pretty in a basic paper/ribbon/bow sense. I fail miserably when trying to do anything a bit better along the lines of stamps/twine/greenery/or any other blogger cliché.
 

 

Most memorable Christmas moment?

 Well even though I said in an earlier answer my parents would always drive up north on Christmas Eve, that's putting a far too rosy and nostalgic tint on it because they were often late and ended up driving through the night or even on Christmas Day. One year my Christmas dinner was McCain Micro Chips from a petrol station at some random services on the M6.
 

 

What made you realise the truth about Santa?

 See above. Santa amazingly managed to know whether we were still at home in Wiltshire, up in Chester and sometimes even did an extra special trip on Boxing Day to deliver my presents if my parents were running really late. It probably sounds very sad but I can't actually remember a time when I really really believed in Santa.
 

 

Do you make New Year's resolutions? Do you stick to them?

 I'd like to say no. I mean, I don't really say "right that's it, no more xyz/whatever for the new year!" although I do kind of get swept up in the whole idea of a fresh start. It's difficult not to I think and anyway starting the new year with a positive and optimistic outlook is never a bad thing.
 

 

What makes Christmas special for you?

 Two weeks off work?
 

 

 

I think pretty much everyone has done this now but if you haven't feel free to give it a go!