youLOVE: on the First Day of Christmas...

Some people celebrate, others don't. I'm not going to get into a debate about the season, but to celebrate the countdown to Christmas I thought I'd start a sharing circle sort of thing for those who DO celebrate. I'm curious what your holiday traditions/oddities are?

On the first day of Christmas my youLOVE gave to me: a festive recount of tradition.

• Sometime around the middle of November, Bill starts shopping for himself, effectively screwing up any chance I might have getting him a decent Christmas gift.
• My birthday is on the 21st so the tree goes up after my birthday cake has been eaten.
• My husband is allergic to real trees and unless we want to buy a new synthetic tree every year, I'm allergic to the dust that builds up on the fake ones. Our 'tree' is actually a green wooden ladder.
• On Christmas eve we make umpteen bazillion colours of icing, put it into pipers, and decorate the snot out of about a gazillion chocolate shortbread cookies. My little sister usually buries her cookies in so much icing you can't find them on her plate. She's always very proud of herself; we always insist her cookies are too beautiful for us to eat, so she should just go ahead and eat her own.
• After the kids are in bed, the grown-ups sit around drinking boozy hot chocolate or sparkly cocktails and playing board games.
• We don't put anything out for Santa.
• We hold down the fort at our place on Christmas Day. We have far too many people with far too many conflicting schedules, so it's just easiest to open our home to whomever cares to join us. Mostly it's family, but we often end up with a misfit or two in the mix.
• Christmas morning usually starts at some insane hour of the morning (before 7... ~sigh~) with us sending the kids back into their rooms so we have time to put out the stockings, which were forgotten the night before after the haze of cocktails and (what boardgame did we play?) forced us to crawl into bed at 3am. After we've held them off for 10 minutes, the kids frantically tear through their gifts as children are wont to do while we grown-ups nod off in our chairs.
• Bill makes pancakes and sausages and sometimes there are fresh warm cinnamon buns, too. And a LOT of oranges.
• My Mom buys these sinfully delicious pecan caramel thingers from Purdy's each year, which are about 2500 calories EACH, which we end up eating instead of the oranges.
• As soon as the fury of unwrapping has finished and we're all sufficiently stuffed on oranges, chocolates, and pancakes, we all sneak off to our own corners to nap, curl up with whatever book we got for Christmas, play with new toys, or watch cheesy Christmas movies (Muppet Christmas Carol and A Christmas Story are favourites.)
• We have an open-door policy on Christmas day - friends and neighbours drop by throughout the day, and everyone is always welcome to stay for a while or the whole day.
• While everyone is napping, I LOVE cooking dinner. Seriously, LOVE it. I used to make Christmas dinner to be on the table by about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, but have discovered how much I absolutely adore the mood (and added digestion time for pancake breakfast) of eating later, around 7:30-ish, when the lights are all dimmed and the windows are a bit frosted, twinkling lights... sweet!
• I bust out the bone china and the fancy flatware to serve up a huge turkey with stuffing (spicy sausage, Mandarin orange wedges, lots of rosemary, and sunflower seeds) served up with potatoes, veggies, buns, homemade spiced cranberries, and my infamous parmesan mushroom gravy, which I've caught my husband and brother-in-law eating from the pot with the wooden spoon.
• Dessert is served MUCH later (if at all) and is often warm brownies with ice cream and chocolate syrup. (Who wants pie when you can have a fresh homemade warm brownie sundae? Pie is for Thanksgiving...)
• After supper, and when the kids are finally in bed and the relatives have all left, Bill & I usually curl up on the couch and watch a movie or have a game of backgammon before wishing merry christmas to all and to all a good night.
• Boxing Day, I NEVER go out shopping. NEVER. I'd rather put fiberglass in my undies and scoop the veins from my arm with a plastic spoon. But Bill has convinced me that we need a new tradition of just going to Southgate with a coffee, finding a spot in the middle, and watching the insanity as it swirls around us. As long as I don't actually have to set foot in any shops, I think I could totally get into that tradition.
• Boxing Day at our house means Turkey Stewp, too. All the leftovers get thrown in a pot with a broth-y version of the aforementioned parmesan mushroom gravy. We rarely have any signs of turkey left by the 27th.
• Bill usually buys himself something between Boxing Day and New Year's Day which effectively screws up any chance I have of getting him a decent anniversary gift.
• New Year's Eve is celebrated with friends, either at our house or out and about, depending how many kids we have. This year we're going to try and make it out to the cabin for New Year's festivities - likely a whole lotta hot dogs, tobogganing, hot chocolate, and sparklers.
• New Year's Day is my and Bill's wedding anniversary. We have tried to sneak off for a quiet dinner together but usually end up spending most of it with the kids. I'm personally hoping it's warm enough to try 4L milk jug curling on the lake...

Post your family traditions on your blog and send me the link, or feel free to comment here!