Back in the day when my family would gather together every christmas we used to have a large, real christmas tree with real candles and glass baubles, garlands etc. Often the tree was so tall we could not fit a star on top, but it still looked very magical and full of christmas spirit.

Because of myself having been a child and then later a teen with younger siblings, we've always had a huge mountain of presents stacked up beside the tree, from everyone for everyone - but of course the kids got the most toys and stuff! (hehe!!) For many countries it is standard procedure that the kids unwrap their presents in the morning of the 25th, but in germany they get them on christmas eve. My family would sit together in the big living room in front of the candle lit tree, one would start picking up a parcel and read out the name written on it, then the person with that name would unwrap it so everyone else could see what he / she got. That person then picked up another present and read the name again and so on .... until all presents had been unwrapped. This was always very exciting but of course us children could get a little impatient sometimes After this ceremony the big christmas meal was on, and it really was BIG!! The kids would usually eat a few things and then wander off to play with their brand new toys until late at night when my parents would eventually chase us to bed

All this has happened very long ago, I haven't celebrated christmas with my family for over 7 years now, this is partly due to the fact that I live in the UK and as a retailer I don't get time off between october and january. I usually made up for this by visiting my mom, brother and sister on new years eve after begging for a day off on 31st of december to fly abroad just in time. Last christmas was a disaster apparently and this year none of my family is going to gather up, again I am stuck working christmas eve but I have just booked flight tickets for 27th of december to meet my mom. Both my brother and sister are obviously much older now (21-ish and 15) so the mountains of toys are long history. Still, I'm thrilled to see them again and it's going to be a fantastic new years with massive fireworks in the city (something that doesn't exist in the UK!)

For another 12 days I am still working my 2 jobs at Build-A-Bear and the xmas market, after that I'll once again be facing a major crossroad in life. I never really do anything with my flatmates (everyone lives completely independent from each other) Still I thought our house felt empty without any signs of christmas spirit ... so while out shopping today I came across "99p store" (same as poundland) to see what they got, and look at this:





Artificial Tree (1 Meter high) - 1 Pound
12 Coloured Baubles - 1 Pound
20+ Golden Xmas Mini Parcels - 1 Pound
Mini Snowflake LED light chain - 1 Pound
Glitter Garland - 1 Pound

This is amazing, for just 5 pounds I got a complete miniature christmas tree with decoration and lights!! I've put it in our corridor now so everyone who comes home will see it immediately and feel a little bit warmer. Of course it's nothing like a giant real tree, but then again there is no point in me buying one just for myself, right? This one will do, I really like those coloured baubles, they look a lot like rainbowland and less like regular ones.

Wow this turned out much longer than I had in mind, well guys it's YOUR TURN now to tell us about your very own christmas, how do you celebrate it?

"SunSpire"

In my family, there are 4 of us kids. So my parents would get a big tree. Me and my siblings would try to help my mom decorate it as best we could. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, my parents would put all the small presents under the tree. The house I lived in when I was a kid, it didn't have a fireplace, so my parents would leave the back door cracked open a little bit so "santa could get in". After me and my siblings went to bed, my parents would close the back door and then put all the big presents under the tree. The next morning, me and my brother would wake up around 6 and wake up everyone else. We would all run downstairs and see all the new presents that had been added. We would wait for my dad to fully wake up, and get his camcorder ready. Once my dad came down with camcorder, then all of us would tear open the presents. Then later that evening, my mom would make Christmas dinner, yummy ham!!

@ Sunspire :
We both experienced the same way of christmas celebration ! ;-)

I am also a big fan of small artificial trees ... for this bargain-price this small tree you bought is very nice ! :-D

I suddenly felt like posting a pic of my small christmas tree (my decoration is always very golden and traditional ) ... would be awesome to see more christmas-trees of all the nice users of this forum ! :-D

Some more pics of my christmas deco ! ;-)

I always try to decorate quite decent ... :-D

I will certainly post pictures of my tree when it's finished. It's about 3/4 of the way got the lights on, but it still needs the ornaments, which are at mom's house. However, I will post how I celebrated Christmas as a kid. It's copied from the letter I wrote for my part of our class's holiday project. I didn't add everything of course, such as how December 24 is also my parents' anniversary and that we do celebrate that. It's a bit lengthy, but here ya go:


When I was growing up, Christmas was always a big holiday at my house. We’d always decorate the house until it was covered in all kinds of decorations. We had window clings, cardboard cutouts, advent calendars, a large tree, a Christmas village, and even a room in the house that was meant to show off our holiday artwork. Decorating the tree was always a family event. My siblings and I would help our parents decorate the tree while Christmas music played in the background. After we finished, each of us would get our ornament for that year and hang it on the tree. Our parents gave us a new one each year, starting when we were born. Even the family pets had their own ornaments. Other things we would do before Christmas was bake. Dad would help us make cookies and potato candy, which was a big favorite. On Christmas Eve, December 24, we would help write a letter to Santa and leave out cookies for him and lettuce for the reindeer. When I got older, I would help my younger siblings write the letter to Santa.

When Christmas finally came on December 25, everyone was excited. One of my little brothers would be so excited he would go sleep with the presents in the early morning hours. We couldn’t open presents when we got up though. We would get to look through our stockings, which usually held small toys and giftcards for us to use. While we did this, mom would make sweet rolls in the oven. Even if we didn’t to eat them, we had to wait until everyone else was finished. Finally, we’d get to open up presents. There are six people in my family, so each person would sit with their presents and we’d go around in a circle, taking turns opening gifts. Mom or dad would take pictures along the way. After we finished, then we’d help our pets open their gifts. No one was left out. Once everyone had finished opening gifts, we’d all relax and pick out new clothes to wear that day. In the afternoon, we’d go to both of our grandparents’ houses to visit and eat. We’d open more presents there. By the time we got home in the evening, we were usually really tired. We’d play with our new toys until it was time for bed.

New Year’s Eve was always fun as well. On the 31^st of December, we’d spend the day lounging around. Many years we’d spend the day in our pajamas, just being comfortable. That evening, we’d switch on the television to the Rockin’ New Year’s Eve with Dick Clark show. While waiting for the ball to drop, we’d play board games and make what we called oven food- chicken nuggets, meatballs, French fries, mozzarella cheese sticks, and more. When it was time for the ball to drop, everyone would count down and watch the television. After the ball dropped, we would clean up and usually head to bed.

New Year’s Day was treated just like another day. We really didn’t do much except relax and enjoy the last day before heading back to school the next day. No one wanted to go back just yet, and we all wished for a snow day instead.

Christmas in 2009 will be a little different for me this year. I moved into my own place at the end of summer, and now I am preparing to celebrate Christmas in my own way. I will carry on some of the traditions that my family started for me when I was little, but I will also make many new traditions to follow for years to come. It is very exciting to think of all the possibilities. My class is looking forward to hearing back from each of you. They are eager to see just how you celebrate

Twink and I don't know whether we will open presents first or not, but he and Winter Berry Twist Ginger Snap decorated the Bear house. They got Snowflake's (Ginger called her a bleached Custard the whole time ) room first with orange lights, but Snowflake took one bulb out of the string before I could get pics. Can't decorate outside, because some kids who hate me tore up our tinsel and cut up the lights.


Here's a link to a video with Twink and his friends celebrating Twinkmas.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42077688@N08/4174659468/

^Charming vid, Wish.

No Christmas tree here. My roomates and I will each spend the holiday with our families. They will have trees at their houses for sure.

I finally got my tree all finished yesterday. It looks pretty good so I've included the pictures. Each ornament on the tree is special. They are yearly ornaments, and are for me, Mittens, and Baby. It is tradition in my family to get a new ornament for each year, and even the pets get one. So I continued the tradition. Some of the ornaments mark special events- graduation, driver's license, becoming a teacher, new apartment. I have ornaments for every year (1986-present), and I think Mittens has one for every year as well (1997-present). I don't think Baby does though. There were a few years we didn't get the pets ornaments and I handmade Mittens' instead, but my sister didn't do anything for Baby.



I took this during the day before I had all the ornaments on. Mittens was happy to sit under the tree and it was too cute to pass up.



I took this at night after all the ornaments were on the tree. I do not like my camera's pictures when the flash is turned off... they always end up blurry unless held truly still.



Finally, a picture with the lights on at night. At this point, everything was taken care of and all the presents were wrapped.

My girl friend's been decorating our home nearly a whole day. I'll post more pictures if you like.
Just wanted to add a picture of our Christmas tree here. Luckily Santa brought some new items for the tree ;-) Found them in a store at a Christmas market. They have so cute hand-made items Sorry, no advertising - for those who are more interested have a look at http://www.bestofchristmas.com and you know what I mean.

Hope all of you had a good Christmas time and a happy new year