Holiday Traditions

[ROman]

@Chap:

@goosehd:

Quick question for you guys.  My wife always has used beef suet in her Christmas pudding.  What do you guys use?

My recipe calls for it too… don’t like it. We have something here in Austria called „Butterschmalz“  butter lard? Used that instead...

AKA Clarified butter

[goosehd]

Our family took advantage of a Teacher’s professional activity day (kids day off) and cut our Christmas for this season.  We normally take 3 days to decorate and should have everything completed on Sunday Evening.

We wanted to share a couple of pictures of our shenanigans:

[goosehd]

Well, it’s not 25000 imported Italian twinkle lights, but it’s a start.  Anybody know the movie reference?

[sabergirl]

Wow. That’s quite a tree.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[neph93]

First Sunday in advent tomorrow so we are gearing up here. Generally Norwegians are low key and bound by tradition with regards to xmas. Many houses simply start with an advent star and that is it.

Tomorrow I’ll put some lights up outside. They are simple but very effective due to the permanent gloom and the fact that you they heavily influence out living room because they are visible from the inside all the time. Pics to come.

Last night I started preparing the pinnekjøtt. This is the first and last meal of xmas for us. We always eat it the first day of advent and on xmas eve. It consists of dried, salted, smoked lamb rib that had finne soaked for 24-48 hours before a 3 hour steam.

[goosehd]

@neph93 Very intrigued!  A meal that I was unaware of, and which I have spent the last hour reading about.  Hope to see more pictures of the dish served.

We have finished most of our decorations in the house and are now cleaning up and placing a few decorations around the house.

As my wife and I are both the oldest in our respective families, we have been handed down quite a few ornaments from each family.  We have also spent almost 30 years together and have collected quite a few along the way.

I will try and get a few pictures of our favourites.

[Chris]

Thought I'd contribute a picture of our tree

[neph93]

@goosehd I’ve blogged the making of the pinnekjøtt almost every year on one thread or another here but will happily do it again tomorrow for the greater glory of this thread.

Beautiful trees gentlemen. Again, in line with conservative Norwegian traditions, ours won’t go up until the morning of «lillejulaften» which is December 23rd.

[Seul]

Best tradition: taking the first week of December off!.. See you at the party Richter!..

[goosehd]

We are running behind this year, but making our pudding today.  Promise that it tastes better than it looks.

[Giles]

Duck confit and Christmas pudding sent to me by a friend….....Both in a cool dark place for the next 4 weeks or so, the Christmas pud was made by him, bix was re-purposed  :D....

[Madame Buttonfly]

@goosehd - WOW, your tree is spectacular.  Would love to see close-ups of some of your family ornaments.

I love Christmas, and one of my favourite bits of the build-up is dressing the tree (with a glass of sherry or port on the side).  We usually have a big tree (but nowhere near as big as that!) This year is likely to be just me and G, so I have two 4-5 ft potted trees (we're hoping we can plant them and keep them alive till next year) and I plan to decorate them next week.  Usually I leave it till late December, but this year I'm all for getting a bit of festive cheer early.  I love the tradition of collecting ornaments over the decades, I especially smile whenever I uncover one that has been given me by family, or brings back memories of where I/we bought it on a trip.  Giles can be a big bah-humbug, but when the tree is done i know he loves it too.

@Chris your tree is splendid!  We use white lights and mainly glass, red and gold decorations.  I'm diggng the truly colourful approach - it's beautiful and can imagine the kids adore it.

@Chap I love that you enjoy traditional British Christmas pudding! The cross-over and sharing of traditions from different countries over the years has shaped all our Christmases.  But I also love that there are still very local customs that maintain our cultural identities.

To me, most importantly, Christmas is an occasion - whatever one's beliefs or nationality - when we can celebrate family and friendship and joy (and loads of sparkly decorations).

[goosehd]

@Madame:

To me, most importantly, Christmas is an occasion - whatever one's beliefs or nationality - when we can celebrate family and friendship and joy (and loads of sparkly decorations).

@Madame Buttonfly A beautiful sentiment that I wholeheartedly agree with.

Here are a few of my personal favourite ornaments with a little history behind them.

These first three are all glass ornaments that have been passed down from our respective families:

[goosehd]

This ornament was made from an apple tree that Laura’s great grandfather planted on the family farm.

When my parents met in the early ‘70s, they had little money and made their own ornaments.  This was made from a soup can lid, glue, and glitter.

[goosehd]

These last two are from Swarovski and are part of set’s that are released yearly.  We have purchased a set for every year for each of our daughters.  They will be passed down to them when it’s time.

[goosehd]

@Giles I loved the story of you and Alex decorating the tree in hand tied flys.  It would be a memory to be cherished.

@Chris Beautiful tree!  Thank you for sharing.

[goosehd]

One last ornament to share:

[Sage954]

Love seeing everyone’s traditions. We always cut our tree down the weekend after thanksgiving. Tree farm today. I’m dragging one tree and our son is dragging the other tree for my parents. My wife taking pics. IH tee and 634ii

[goosehd]

Six hours in:

[neph93]

Yesterday’s advent Sunday dinner, pinnekjøtt. It is effectively what we’ll be eating for our main meal on xmas eve (when Norwegians celebrate), only that version will have more frills.