Meme Christmas

Mulier Fortis tagged me with this meme.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. As a kid I was pretty good at wrapping and use to create my own custom bows. Though I did end up having to wrap presents for everyone else
2. Real tree or artificial? Sometime real, sometimes artificial
3. When do you put up the tree? After thanksgiving I put up my Advent tree. Yeah Advent Tree which mysteriously turns into a Christmas tree on the 3rd week of Advent.
4. When do you take the tree down? Feast of the Epiphany.
5. Do you like eggnog? Never tried it.
6. Favourite gift received as a child? A cassette player.
7. Do you have a Nativity scene? Yes.
8. Hardest person to buy for? Jesus, it's his birthday after all. What do you buy for the person who made everything. Thinking about this though maybe I should buy him something I like, that way if he doesn't show up to pick up his present I can use it till he picks it up.
9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? As a kid I hated getting clothes.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Snail mail.
11. Favourite Christmas Movie? I am not good at picking just one favourite. "It's a wonderful Life" is probably it. Though I also love "Elf" and "A Christmas Story." Plus I guess "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie since it takes place during Christmas. Though the problem with Christmas movies is that they are basically movies that take place at Christmas, but are not about Christmas itself. I am still waiting for a truly good Nativity story on the level of "The Passion of the Christ" which I watch every year on Good Friday. From the reviews I had read of "A Nativity Story", which I will probably watch this year, show it was not up to the quality artistic retelling I want.
    
    Almost every movie that gets made for this time of year has the message "don't be selfish and spend time with family." While the message itself is good, we need to spend time with our family and the Holy Family. The trend in Hollywood movies released for Christmas in the last several years such as "Christmas with the Kranks" are only getting worse.
12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? No set date other than being prior to Christmas.
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No.
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Candy canes.
15. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Colored lights for all of you clear light heretics!
16. Favourite Christmas song? Like I said I am not good at picking just one favourite. It would have to be something like "The Boar's Head Carol", "Hark the Herald Angel's sing", "The first Noel." I pretty much love most traditional Christmas carols - you know the ones that actually mention Christ.
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home. My worst Christmas was one at sea.
18. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Probably not without getting some mixed up with The Seven Dwarfs.
19. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel.
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning. When my kids were younger they got to open one on Christmas Eve.
21. Most annoying thing about this time of year? That it ends. Other than that it would be the war against Christmas.
22. Best thing about this time of year? Celebrating the Incarnation. Okay that was the first pious thought that popped into my head. There is just so much to love about this time of year where even though the popular culture does it best to suppress it, they can't totally suppress that we are celebrating the birth of the Messiah. As hard as they try to turn this into a generic unspecified holiday season, they are still not quite effective. After all a major step in my conversion was because secular radio stations stopped playing traditional Christmas carols and I was chased into the realm of Protestant radio to find the songs I loved since I was an atheist child.