How-To Overview

It's that time of the year and you're probably wishing for something different this year and I don't mean Chrismukkah. I'm talking about the little things that create a different holiday experience for friends and family. This wiki will pick out the small details that one may miss out on in today's commercialised Christmas.

The Christmas Tree

When the tree should be put up and taken down differs from person to person and there are no hard and fast rules. There are two basic time frames here. Some prefer to set it up after Thanksgiving and take it down after the New Year while others prefer to put it up during the second week of December and take it down on Jan 6 to coincide with the beginning of the liturgical season of Christmastide aka Twelfth Night of the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' aka the start of Epiphany. For some, the main dilemma here is to go au naturel or plastic and once you've settled on your choice, it's best to keep with your investment.

Natural Trees

The natural tree is best avoided if you have children and animals living with you as they may be allergic to them and it is rather messy because of the soil. Tree lights are also a big no as the heat may destroy the plant. Also, check with your landlord if he classifies natural trees as a fire hazard. That said, the real beauty of a natural tree would be to enjoy the pine fresh scent and green foliage of the tree. It really does add a touch of rustic charm and tradition to the season.
Most Christmas trees in North America are evergreen coniferous firs or pines. More popular trees are Grand, Red or Douglas firs and the Scots or Stone pines. Firs generally do not shed needles upon drying and have a better foliage color and scent. Stone pines are small trees that are usually meant to be placed on table-tops. The trees are usually sold, live with roots and soil intact, at a nursery. The best way to decide on which tree you prefer would be to go down together with people that will share the tree to the nearest store to check it out for yourselves.
The main gripe with natural trees are that they can only last indoors for a few days. High temperatures and low humidity indoors together with the loss of roots from digging causes the tree's health to deteriorate drastically and the chances of survival are low. They should be only kept indoors for a few days as the heat brings it out of dormancy, leaving them unprotected when they are returned to the cooler outdoors.

Artificial Trees

The main benefit of such a tree would be the lower price and durability of the tree. They may also be a must in some apartments as a dried out tree acts as a fire hazard, causing landlords to ban them in some areas. However, they do appear rather kitschy and out of place in a bachelor or yuppie couple's pad. The bottom line is always consider natural trees before giving in to artificial ones. Nonetheless, artificial trees allow you to play around with lighting (and I don't mean just twinkly Christmas lights) to improve the entire feel of the room.

Take a leaf, or should I say needle, from the How to Light Your Bachelor Pad wiki. Stay away from bright white light and use soft yellow lights that diffuse light rather than concentrate lights. Play around with one or two of the below lighting techniques but avoid overkill by using all three methods.

From below

In a narrow apartment or tight corner, use up lights below the tree to cast intricate shadows against the ceiling and walls and add to the feel of the room. Think cozy, not cramped.

From above

If you have the luxury of a tall loft with a lot of light coming from floor-to-ceiling windows, use a spotlight to create a down light effect from above the tree to make it the focal and talking point of the room.

From the tree itself

This is where people go crazy and turn the tree into a musical carousel. 2 rules: Avoid lights that come with cheesy carols. Stick to white or yellow lights that complement the tree rather than using multi-colored flashing lights that confuse rather than enthrall.

Tree Decorations

Most trees tend to end up in two distinct categories, chic, classic, themed trees that you might see in a departmental store or a eclectic tree with personally-designed ornaments and personal trinkets.

Themed Trees

Go with a gold or silver classy, chic theme and stick to baubles of the same color. Stay away from the over-used red baubles against green tree combination and unless you're designing with corporate colors, stay away from colors such as blue and yellow. Also, be mindful of the type of baubles you buy. If you're looking for long lasting and presentable decorations, stay away from cheap plastic version that betray you when your guests tap them and opt for ones made of glass. You may be surprised, some glass baubles are pretty hardy. Use the glass to your advantage, playing with different gold or silver patterns and textures that will let light bounce off it.

These Mount St. Helen's ornaments (pictured right) from christmasforrest.com are pretty cool. Created from the volcanic ash that resulted from St. Helen's eruption back in 1980, it's a great addition to the tree.

A themed tree doesn't mean you can't add your personal touch to it. Use trinkets, key chains, souvenirs, old necklaces with interesting pendants to add a bit of fun and personality to the tree. String up mock pearls, or if you really can afford it, a mother-of-pearl chain, to replace tinsel that disintegrates after a while. This would be more suitable on a table-top tree.

Eclectic Trees

If you're a sucker for sentimental mementos such as that rather hideous wooden sanata ornament that you made with your grandfather, play it safe and keep them to a minimum. A few different ornaments would look better on a small tree than many ornaments on a big tree. Keep them on side tables to liven up that corner of the room.

The Dinner

Dinner at Your Place

One of the only few times you'll bring out all the silverware, china and crystal on the dining table, the Christmas is surely a headache if you're organsing one.

Preparations

Always prepare the lists of friends and family, invitations, dishes, shopping trip and cooking time, in that order. If you're thinking about having your friends over for this season, start sending Christmas cards that can double up as invitations early. The closer the group of people are to you, the closer the dinner should be to the day itself. Start preparing from weeks ahead and unless you're Martha Stewart, you won't be able to finishing cooking everything in one day before yourself. Get a few friends into the kitchen that wouldn't mind stuffing the turkey and baking the pumpkin pie. And always have fun while cooking.

Setting the Table

Decide on who will sit where and design personalized place cards for each guest. This will make each person feel even more welcomed at the dinner table. Place these cards near napkin rings to avoid the need for place card holders and to make it more visible to guests. If you use Flickr, check out Moo MiniCards that can act as place cards. Moo allows you to crop images from your Flickr account and print them on 100 cards of 'satisfyingly heavy paper with a nice, smooth satin finish' for 20 bucks. The reverse of the cards can also be customized with text in different colors. Use a candid or cropped image of your guest on the front, add his/her name behind and watch your guests have fun as they guess who's nose that is at the dining table. They also make inexpensive gifts, name cards and if you're an avid shutterbug, they act like a small mini-mobile-portfolios cum calling cards. There's nothing more exciting that seeing your work down on beautifully printed and cut cards.

Music Selection

Jazzed up hits by Diana Krall Michael Buble are passe. Think indie like Sufjan Stevens's Songs for Christmas released on Nov 21st 2006. This is the same Sufjan that aims to create 50 albums dedicated to the 50 states of the US of A and has already completed two. His fresh take on traditional carols and songs, compiled from regular year-end recordings since 2001, are worth a listen and his site here provides free streaming. This means that you can stream the audio tracks from your laptop and plug it into your stereo system during Christmas dinner! Remember to keep a stereo remote handy though to control the level of audio so that conversations can be carried out comfortably. But if you do decide to purchase his box album, it includes his songbook, Christmas stickers, a family portrait and old-school record looking CD EPs that are individually packaged.

Going for a Dinner

What to bring

It's always customary to bring some food or drinks that the whole party can enjoy. Plus, if you're meeting people you need to impress, for eg., your mother-in-law or your boss, it pays to select the right gift. Find out what your host preference is before the party and also solves the problem of another person bringing the same gift as you.

The Gifts

Fellow productdose user zack111 has a thorough How to Buy the Perfect Present wiki that not only is a guide on how to buy, but also present the gift. Just remember the tiny things

• come up with novel ways to wrap the gift. eHow has great ideas
• avoid using tape to stick a card to the wrapping paper, just pass it to the person with one hand on the card and the other holding the present (assuming it's not a huge gift)
• look the person/s right in the eye and wish them a 'Merry Christmas!' followed by how much you think they will enjoy the present and don't just shove it in their hands with a muffled wish

Eggnog

Eggnog is a seasonal favorite among the older generation and you either hate it or love it, but it doesn't have to stay that way. The noxious concoction dates back to 18th century West Point cadets, including a young Jefferson Davis, looking for a way to make merry. Military lore had it that eggnog was a favourtite of George Washington and his own mixture was a challened for any hard drinker.
According to mymerrychristmas.com, his brew comprised of 'one quart of cream, one quart of milk, a dozen eggs, one pint of brandy, a half pint of rye, a quarter pint of rum and a quarter pint of sherry'. Long story short, the cadets were caught by their officers, all hell broke lose (one cadet was charged for murder) and thanks to the infamy of the Eggnog riot, we can enjoy this colonial delight today.
Try something new this year and don't get your eggnog off the shelves. Home-made eggnog taste fresher and more original. Eggnog can also come in low fat, low carb, martinis and lattes. Eggnog World provides recipes for different variations of the 'old man's' drink with vodka (and don't use cheap Absolut, tis' the season, splurge on some Grey Goose) and other poison of your choice, I think Washington would approve. Also look out for desserts inspired by eggnog; who knew eggnog could be such a muse? So go get your eggnog on!

Stollen

English fruitcakes are too laden with rum, fruits and nuts that make them too heavy and rich. Try out German Weihnachtsstollen or Christstollen, a lighter, bread-ier version of the festive fruitcake. It's quickly gaining popularity in Europe and Asia. The good thing about stollen is that it looks very presentable as a gift, usually wrapped up with plastic and a ribbon and the icing sugar on the top showing through. The shape of the bread is meant to represent Jesus and the wrapping symbolizes his swaddling clothes but it's still very much a secular gift. Experiment with the bread before finally creating your masterpiece. A good recipe can be found at foodnetwork.com.

Other fun stuff to do

Photo albums

Get rid of that Norman Rockwell coffee table book lying around and get your own photo album to end the year off. If you're a Mac use, iPhoto offers stunning photo books in customized layouts and prices. Try to incorporate pictures of guests so you can recall the good times of 2006. And if you're having dinner with your partner, you can also order another book for him/her.

Gift Exchange

If you have a really big party or gathering, another fun thing to do would be a surprise gift exchange. Set a minimum gift price, say $20, and tell guests that it must be gender neutral if you have both guys and girls over. Throw all the gifts into a bag before dinner and remind guests to pick up a different gift after dinner. This is a great way to break the ice between strangers and avoid weird breaks of silence after dinner.

Conclusion

Before the festive season ends and New Year comes around where you go for even more New Year parties and countdowns, ask yourself what Christmas means to you. It would be a shame if you get so caught up in making this Christmas the perfect Christmas that you forget the people you're doing this for. So go ahead, have a Merry Christmas!

Category

CategoryArticle