Christmas miscellanea

Meme from Mrs. Chili.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
I usually take a stab at wrapping paper, but on some items I retreat to gift bags.

2. Real tree or artificial?
I have a slight emotional preference for a real tree, but I have a strong practical preference for an artificial tree. As I’ve mentioned, my tree is always beautiful and appears and disappears magically every year.

3. When do you put up the tree?
Lea usually puts it up Thanksgiving weekend or the week following.

4. When do you take the tree down?
Just before New Year’s Eve.

5. Do you like eggnog?
With a shot of Gentleman Jack in it, please!

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
My yellow bicycle.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
Lea. She has no affection for bric-a-brac and fairly specific tastes in everything else. Sometimes I hit it out of the park; sometimes I go down swinging.

9. Easiest person to buy for?
My dad, because of his selective cheapness. There are all kinds of things he thinks are neat and won’t pay for, so I select from that list (continually updated in my head), and I’m done. Once in a while I’ll happen upon some nifty tool or gadget that I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know about, and I’ll go that way.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
As a child, I used to get these huge gift sets of cheap cologne (English Leather, that kind of thing) from aunts and uncles. After I was too old to get much enjoyment out of just stinking up the place, I discovered that if I filled the porcelain soap dish up with English Leather and lit it on fire, it made a lovely light blue flame (and smelled nice, too). Little boys everywhere thank Charles Darwin for napping some afternoons.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Snail mail.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
Mixed Nuts, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and Die Hard.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Thanksgiving or so. I usually have one blitzkrieg night of online shopping in early December that closes the whole thing out.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
I’m leaving Mrs. Chili’s answer because it’s perfect: I think I heard recently that EVERYONE does this, but no one talks about it. Yes, I have. No, I don’t talk about it.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Lea is an accomplished baker, and I love her treats.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Clear.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Little Drummer Boy, Winter Wonderland, Sleigh Ride, and Silent Night.

18. Travel for Christmas or stay at home?
Home, with a brief day junket hither and yon.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers?
Yes.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star. Bow, sometimes.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
The ubiquity of my fellow man.

23. What I love most about Christmas?
Being Santa Claus.

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