We’re not sure where this meme originated, but we first saw it at Mind of Mine.

Jack’s Answers

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
I don’t have a preference when it comes to opening gifts; sure, I like tearing into wrapping paper almost as much as I did when I was little.  But these days I don’t really care about the exterior; if you’ve given me a present it’s the present – as well as the thought – that I’m concerned with, and not what it’s wrapped in.

2. Real tree or artificial tree?
I love actual Christmas trees, but I have never had one since moving out of my parents’ house.  I just can’t justify it.  I like our admittedly simple artificial tree, which we’ve had for years, and which can be seen in our recent Christmas HNT pictures.

3. Angel on the tree top or a star?
When I was a baby, my parents had a beautiful plastic star that topped the tree.  It had belonged to my paternal grandmother, who had given it to my parents after they got married.  The star was clear, with a red center, and you could run the string of Christmas lights up the top of the tree and into the center, which would then light up.  Every year, when the tree was decorated, my father would lift me up and I would place the star on top.  When I was older, probably in my mid-teens, my mom’s mom gave her an angel tree-topper, and the star was quickly replaced.  But I salvaged it – from the Goodwill pile or a storage box, I’m not sure – and I held onto it.  It’s sitting atop our admittedly simple artificial tree right now.

4. Favorite ornament, theme or color?
None, really.  I like all of our tree ornaments, as they are an eclectic blend of various styles and themes.  We’ve got snowmen and Santas, wooden soldiers and nutcrackers, angels and reindeer, and other traditional Christmas symbols.  We’ve got kitschy pop culture icons and cute teacher-related things like blackboards and apples.  Fully decorated, our tree is as unique as we are.

5. When do you put up the tree?
Sometime after Thanksgiving, although not necessarily that weekend.  It depends on where we are – if we’re spending Thanksgiving with my parents out of town, chances are we’re not going to be home until late Sunday night.  The tree is brought out and decorated when time allows.

6. When do you take the tree down?
Not until sometime after New Year’s Day, often sometime the first week of January.  We like Christmas, and usually neither of us is in a rush to divest the house of all the festive trappings of the season for another year.

7. Favorite gift received as a child?
Nothing really stands out.  As a child I was interested in all of the standard ’80s toys – Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Transformers – and certainly received more than my fair share of them, although no single item stands out more than any other.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
My father.  The man likes almost nothing.  He generally receives a lot of of practical gifts, as well as gift cards to restaurants he enjoys.  Once in awhile, if I’m lucky, I’ll find a book on a subject in which he is interested, or he’ll ask me for a particular tool since he’s always doing something handy around the house or working on one of his and my mother’s cars.

9. Easiest person to buy for?
My mom.  She’s collects a lot of stuff, reads books, and has many interests.  She almost never treats herself to anything, so around her birthday and at Christmas, she usually has quite a list of wanted items ready to go.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
When I’ve sent Christmas cards, I have always mailed them.  However, we haven’t sent Christmas cards in awhile.  We appreciate receiving them, and want to reciprocate, but we haven’t had the time the last couple years.  Actually, the last time we sent out Christmas cards was the year before our daughter was born.  Hmmm…

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Something useless.  I can’t think of anything specifically, but every year my mother buys Jill and I a number of stocking stuffers which would be awesome if we were responsible for stocking one of those arcade claw machines wherein you put in a quarter and try to grab something worth a dime.

12. Favorite Christmas movie?
Too many to list.  It would be like asking me to pick my favorite Christmas song, which I see is actually #16.  Some favorites, off the top of my head, are The Nightmare Before Christmas, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, Die Hard (it’s set at Christmastime, so I say it counts), Gremlins (ditto), A Christmas Story, and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Well after Thanksgiving.  I don’t go shopping on Black Friday; while I’m all for saving money, I’d rather not be stampeded and left for dead, robbed at gunpoint, pepper sprayed by cops, or bonked in the head with a tear gas cannister.  Additionally, as the parent of a twenty-one-month-old child, if I can sleep in the day after Thanksgiving, I am going to do so.  Generally I begin my shopping in early December, although this year I began my shopping a week before Christmas.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Yes.  One year we participated in a blind gift exchange with Jill’s extended family.  Although people were required to bring a unisex gift, the present I opened was a set of women’s pajamas and a book of affirmations for women.  These were provided by Jill’s cousin, who admitted to having received them at a Christmas party the day before and re-gifted them.  I, in turn, passed them along to my mother.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
My mom has always made ham for our Christmas dinner.  I am a fan of the swine, and never get tired of eating it.

16. Favorite Christmas song?
In last week’s TMI Tuesday I said that I don’t have a favorite.  I mentioned “Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, which is indeed a song I love.  Today, however, I think I’ll go with “Father Christmas” by The Kinks.

17. Travel at Christmas or stay home?

Yes.  I can also name all of the backup reindeer:  Steven, Fluffy, Horace, Chantel, Skippy, Rainbow, Peaches and Montel.

19. Can you name all of the 7 Dwarves?
I can.  You realize that this has nothing to do with Christmas, right?

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
My family has always opened presents Christmas morning.  I couldn’t imagine opening gifts before Santa Claus comes.  I always saw going to sleep on Christmas Eve as the last hurdle before my Christmas morning cornucopia of greed, and foregoing that excited but restless night of anticipation would suck.  When I was in my twenties I dated someone whose family opened presents on Christmas Eve.  I could see how important the tradition was to her and her family, but I found the practice completely foreign.  To me at least, Christmas presents were always meant to be opened first thing in the morning.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
I hate to sound like a bitter asshole, but the most annoying and frustrating thing about the Christmas season, for me, is other people.  Someone recently told me that their favorite thing about this time of year is the fact that people are generally much nicer than they are the rest of the year.  I can’t remember who this person was or where he or she was from, but I found this sentiment to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard lately, evidenced by the number of road rage incidents I’ve witnessed in and near shopping centers and malls the last few weeks.

22. Do you ever hang mistletoe?
No.  When I was a kid my parents had some sort of ornament they’d hang from the ceiling that included some plastic leaves that were supposed to be mistletoe.  When I happened to be standing under it my mom would give me a kiss.  When I got older, mistletoe wasn’t anything I really cared for as a romantic thing.  I’ve had a few kisses under the mistletoe, but they were with people who would have kissed me regardless.

23. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
If by “the truth” you mean the fact that he exists, I learned it when my mother told me that if I stop believing in him, he stops bringing me presents.  Therefore I am a believer for life.

24. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you?
Presence.  That is to say, gathering with family and friends and enjoying good times.  It’s pretty ironic that I’m saying this now, because I was a very greedy kid growing up.  I’m talking Dudley Dursley levels of greed.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
A threesome.  Or world peace.  Both?  Can I ask for both?

Jill’s Answers

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Wrapping paper.  It’s no fun to open up a paper bag.  Half the fun is unwrapping a present regardless of what’s inside.  So I only wrap presents, I never use gift bags, because that’s what I prefer as the recipient.

2. Real tree or artificial tree?
I love the smell of a real tree, but I hate the hassle of having to dispose of it, as well as the pine needle cleanup afterwards.  We have an artificial tree because it’s easier to justify from a financial standpoint.

3. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Growing up we had an angel, and when I moved out, the first few Christmases I would buy a two-foot tree that I topped with my own angel.  The first year that I spent Christmas with Jack’s family (for those paying attention, that was the second year that Jack and I were dating), I gave my small tree to my parents since Jack and I going to be out of town.  When I got my ornaments back, the angel was missing.  It has topped their tree every year since.

4. Favorite ornament, theme or color?
I am not partial toward any particular themes or colors.  My favorite ornaments are the ones my parents gave me every year growing up.  I’ve saved them all.  Jack and I also have a glass ornament with our picture etched into it which we were given the year we got married.  And I also love the ornaments that we’ve given our daughter every year since she was born.  I hope that she treasures them the way I do my own.

5. When do you put up the tree?
Normally the weekend after Thanksgiving.

6. When do you take the tree down?
Being Catholic, my family has always kept the tree and the decorations up until the Epiphany, which is celebrated January 6th.  Jack and I do the same.

7. Favorite gift received as a child?
I don’t know of any favorite gift that I received as a child.  Maybe a Cabbage Patch Kid?  I think I was too old for them when they came out.  But when I went off to college I really wanted a teddy bear as a comfort since I was leaving home for the first time.   I still have it.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
Probably my Dad.  He doesn’t want much, and whatever he wants he buys himself, usually right before Christmas.

9. Easiest person to buy for?
Jack.  When I ask, he usually gives me a list.  The last few years, however, he has grown a little more difficult, as he wants less, and the things he wants he often buys for himself.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
I used to mail them, but the last couple years I haven’t even done that.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Probably a hideous hat/glove/scarf combo that I received from one of my students last year.  Here’s a hint to all of you parents out there:  Your children’s teachers want gift cards.

12. Favorite Christmas movie?
It’s a Wonderful Life.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
I normally start the week before Christmas, or as soon as school lets out for Winter break.  If I happen to see something that I know someone will like before that, I buy it and put it away, but I usually forget and find it in my closet long after Christmas.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Yes.  See #11 for just one example.  When I receive something that awful, I usually make it a white elephant gift.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
There’s a certain kind of hard candy that I enjoy which is sold exclusively at Christmastime.  No, that is not a euphemism for Jack’s cock.

16. Favorite Christmas song?
“I’ll Be Home For Christmas”, just like it was five days ago.

17. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
We alternate between the two.  On even-numbered years, we stay home and celebrate Christmas with my family.  On odd-numbered years, we travel to celebrate Christmas with Jack’s family.  When we lived close to Jack’s family, we traveled on the even-numbered years and stayed home on the odd-numbered ones.

18. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen.  And let’s not forget Rudolph!

19. Can you name all of the 7 Dwarves?
Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Sneezy, Happy, Grumpy, and Sleepy.

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Always Christmas morning.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
Traffic.

22. Do you ever hang mistletoe?
I don’t think I ever have.  Of course, I never had to hang mistletoe in order to get a kiss.

23. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
Truth?  I don’t know what you’re talking about.  If you don’t believe in Santa Claus, he doesn’t bring you presents.  I will always believe!

24. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you?
Being with the people I love.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Good health and happiness for myself, my family, and those I love.

We wish all of you the happiest of holidays!  Thanks for visiting!