Festive meme.

If you visited earlier, you probably read a very odd hybrid post in which it appeared that I have exactly the same life as Carla, from whom I got this Christmas meme.

Blogger decided to 'reinterpret' the 'save as draft' button. All better now..

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both. Depends what shape and size the present is.

2. Real tree or artificial? Want it to be real eventually, but with a crawler around who puts everything in his mouth, it's just asking for trouble. So we have a 7 foot artificial one.

3. When do you put up the tree? Sometimes it's been mid-november. One year it was September, but only gradually - I'd bought the tree and we put it up to check all the bits were there and then we just sort of left it there for the next few months. We didn't decorate it until December, though. It was like a giant pot plant in the corner.

4. When do you take the tree down? Given that I like it up for most of December, you might be surprised to know that I like it down as soon as possible after Christmas is done. I love that feeling of everything bare, clean and fresh when all the decorations are away.

5. Do you like eggnog? I like scrambled eggs, does that count?

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A red big-girls bike when I was very little.

7. Do you have a Nativity scene? Yes, we do, but it's a very battered old thing. We make the kings travel so they come at a different time to the shepherds.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My Dad, probably, because I don't really know the first thing about him.

9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? When I was a little girl, my paternal grandfather bought me a nightdress holder. It was made of synthetic pink fur and it had a cloth rose on it that fell off as soon as it was unwrapped. I was never allowed to use it because it was made from flammable material, and it was probably the only thing the nasty cheap old man ever gave me. He was not a pleasant person, and that present sort of summed him up.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Both.

11. Favorite Christmas Movie? It's a Wonderful Life, closely followed by the Patrick Stewart version of A Christmas Carol. James Stewart is just incomparably brilliant (no-one like in movies today I think), and Patrick Stewart as Scrooge is properly heart-warming. We watched It's a Wonderful Life with Eden the other day, and she wants them to make a sequel so that Mr Potts can see what would have happened without him in the world so he will change. She's very keen on seeing the salvation of the very worst sinners!

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? January.

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No, but I have recycled wrapping paper.

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? cold turkey sandwiches with mayonnaise and cranberry sauce and stuffing. Closely followed by home-made lebkuchen.

15. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Ideally, a very co-ordinated burgundy red ribbon and baubles is set off beautifully by clear white lights, which are even better if they are on a slow twinkle setting. But everyone here loves coloured lights, so I set aside my arty pretensions.

16. Favorite Christmas song? Oh come, oh come Emmanuel.

17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home!

18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Yes, but Blitzen had an unfortunate accident in August and isn't coming out this year.


19. Angel on the tree top or a star? Sometimes a star, sometimes an angel. It's a wonky angel this year.

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? one on Christmas Day in the afternoon, after we've been to church, and before we've eaten lunch, and the rest after lunch and before the Queen's speech.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of year? People being incredibly mad in the shops buying groceries.

If you want to join in, feel free!