1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate. The coffee machine at work actually makes a pretty good hot chocolate. But … I still love Swiss Miss packets and tiny marshmallows.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa wraps presents for adults but leaves them out in the open for the children, duh.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I like white right now, but growing up we had colored lights: red, green, blue, orange.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, there’s plenty of non-prompted affection already in my family.
5. When do you put your decorations up? The Friday after Thanksgiving, after doing a little shopping.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Is it wrong to only think about candy and cookies? Some of the memorable stuff: cherry mash, my mom’s fudge, my dad’s peanut clusters, buckeyes, puppy chow. Growing up we had a ham dinner, but in my teens it changed to chili, with crockpot cheese dip on the side. Oh my god is it decadent.
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? It’s difficult to pick just one. My parents made sure every Christmas was memorable. One year my brother and I decided to put on a concert for our family, and we spent an entire afternoon creating “programs” of the songs we’d be singing. Little did we know our vocal skills would be in demand every year thereafter.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I suspected it when I saw Santa walk out the back door. Five minutes later, my dad walked in the front door with a case of beer. They just missed each other!
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We opened all of our gifts on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day was for watching movies and lounging in our pajamas.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? When I was really young tinsel was in fashion. Then we started decorating with mismatched ornaments collected over the years. I’ve decided to adopt that strategy with my own family. Each year, Alexa will pick out an ornament. Some day, when she starts her family, I will give her all the ornaments she picked out over the years.
11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it. Always did. I miss it now that we live in L.A.
12. Can you ice skate? No, and I hope to learn someday. It was on my birthday list last year, but I was very pregnant last December. Maybe soon.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? A very special gift was the year Santa (aka my grandma) gave me knitted Barbie doll clothes. I wonder how long that took her.
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Spending time with friends and family.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? See No. 6. If I had to narrow it down, the fudge.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Baking cookies for Santa. When we were young, my uncle would drive me and my brother around town to look at Christmas decorations. We would return to a plate full of eaten cookies and tales about how Santa had just been there. Toys! Toys! Also, last-minute gift-wrapping with my mom. I miss that.
17. What tops your tree? This year? A bird. It’s just a placeholder till we find a proper topper.
18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving.
19. Candy canes: yuck or yum? Yum. The classic peppermint kind. I’m a traditionalist.
20. Favorite Christmas show? There are so many, but “Santa Claus” takes the cake.
21. Saddest Christmas song? The one that makes me miss my mom the most: “Silent Night” as sung by Stevie Nicks.
22. What is your favorite Christmas song? “Carol of the Bells,” an old mainstay from my high school choir days. I can sing both the alto and soprano parts (not at the same time, obviously). We also sang the Hallelujah Chorus at every Christmas concert. Alumni would come up on stage and sing along. It was such a powerful experience. I wonder if my alma mater is still following this tradition. Maybe one day I’ll make it back to the annual winter concert to see for myself.
What are your holiday traditions?
P.S. This is the seventh in a series of confessionals.
