I
am one of Kimba and Jennifer’s elves in the Ho-Ho-Ho read-a-thon and my
challenge today offers you the chance to win a book of your choice to the value
of $12aud from The Book Depository.
My
Challenge:
SHARE
YOUR FAVOURITE HOLIDAY TRADITION OR RECIPE
I love everything to do with the holiday season – decorated shops, houses covered in Christmas lights, delicious food, holiday themed books and of course, opening gifts! I am from Australia so it falls in the middle of our summer and the kids are on school holidays so many days are spent by the pool or at the beach; it’s a great time to spend with family and friends and celebrate this festive time of year. So, I’d love to know what you do? how do you celebrate?
I love everything to do with the holiday season – decorated shops, houses covered in Christmas lights, delicious food, holiday themed books and of course, opening gifts! I am from Australia so it falls in the middle of our summer and the kids are on school holidays so many days are spent by the pool or at the beach; it’s a great time to spend with family and friends and celebrate this festive time of year. So, I’d love to know what you do? how do you celebrate?
What
to do:
I've made this challenge easy! In the comments
below, share with us your favourite holiday tradition; it can be anything
associated with the holiday season – building snowmen (I wish), midnight gift
unwrapping, traditional turkey feasts, travels, food menus etc. whatever you
like.
OR
Is there a special recipe or food item you must
have during Christmas? For my family it’s Christmas turkey, roasted vegetables
and a traditional pudding (baked by mum for hours and hung in calico) with
eggnog and my in-laws (who are Greek) with a lamb feast. Share with us your
fave recipe! :)
As long as you leave a comment & have selected YES on the rafflecopter form you are automatically entered to win! A random winner will be selected through www.random.com
As long as you leave a comment & have selected YES on the rafflecopter form you are automatically entered to win! A random winner will be selected through www.random.com
Please feel free to share a link or photos.
Challenge rules:
Challenge rules:
1. Link-up & post goals
before 7 Nov.
2. Grab the button
and share
3. Participate in at least one challenge (listed below) to be eligible for the
grand prize of $20 B&N or
Amazon gift card
4. Read as many holiday books as you can from 12.01am 7th Nov to 11.59pm AEST
11th November
5.
be open until November 13th at 11:59 pm (EST) to allow you to submit
entries.
My giveaway –
*
Open internationally as long as TBD
ships to you
*
My giveaway ends 12am AEST 12th November
2013
*
No responsibility will be taken for lost or stolen books
* My winner will be
notified by November 15th by the hosts.
For more exciting challenges stop by:
Melissa &
Truffles @ Melissa's
Mochas, Mysteries & More "Christmas Truffles Creative Writing
Challenge"
April @ My Shelf
Confessions "Christmas
Cover Lover Puzzle Challenge"
*not an entry* We do not live near any of out extended family, and for the longest time it was just the five of us (hubby, me and our three precious peeps) I cook a huge traditional meal at Thanksgiving, so for Christmas we have a large country breakfast, but for dinner we grill and have surf and turf. I love it because there are no pots and pans to clean. Afterwards we gather around the fire with coffee, cocoa and watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Now they are young adults and their boyfriends/girlfriend join in. We really have a wonderful time. For just being us we also make enough homemade cookies, candies and cakes to feed a small army, and deliver some to our neighbors as well. Thanks for hosting this wonderful challenge and happy reading!
ReplyDeleteNot sure if I'm allowed to enter as I am a host too but I do want to leave a comment. I live on the Gold Coast so my Christmas is spent battling the heat, probably like you. Let's face it, you can't have Christmas in Queensland without at least one embarrassing attempt to peel yourself off from a plastic outdoor chair while others point and laugh.
ReplyDeleteFor the last 12 years my boy cat somehow runs off with the head of the poor angel off the Christmas tree - we usually find it in January. We gave up trying to stop him after he defeated super glue and araldite combined. As for food, a late cold chicken lunch paired with ice cream = win.
One of my favourite Christmas traditions, we do on Christmas Eve. When I was a kid I wanted it to be Christmas morning so I could open gifts right away, so my mom decided that when we get back from seeing family that night I get to open one small gift. It kept me busy the next morning so I wasn't waking them up at 5 too lol. We still open one gift on Christmas Eve as tradition.
ReplyDeleteWe always deck the tree together, even though we end up fighting since each of us has another idea of how it should look :))
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine it being the middle of summer for Christmas, but I suppose it's just normal for you. I'm from South Dakota where it snows a lot in the winter and our holiday plans had a tendency to depend on the weather since sometimes we traveled. My favorites were when we were able to travel to Minneapolis (MN) or Detroit (MI) to visit family. It was just fun to be somewhere else and visit people we didn't see real often. Both places were colder then SD though, so that wasn't really a positive, still fun though!
ReplyDeleteNow I live in Washington and I think we've had snow one time of the 11 years I've lived here. It doesn't snow much, it's mostly just rain all winter unless you live in a higher elevation. But every Christmas we go to my inlaws and they are vegan (I'm vegetarian) so we make a meal we can eat and then make a meal for those that do eat meat. Sometimes we have enchiladas instead of a turkey (or tofurkey).
ReplyDeleteHere is my entry! Thanks
Fiction State Of Mind: Ho Ho Ho Holiday Read-a-Thon Update 1 http://fictionstateofmind.blogspot.com/2013/11/ho-ho-ho-holiday-read-thon-starting.html?spref=tw
Our favorite tradition is making an Advent Wreath with our kids (when they were younger), now it is with our grandson. Then we would perform the 4 Sundays of Advent. We also attend midnight services on Christmas Eve. Thanks for the change to participate in this giveaway.
ReplyDeleteMy holiday recipe. I make it for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas.
ReplyDeleteTwice-Baked Sweet Potatoes
http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/twice-baked-sweet-potatoes-111250.aspx
I start with the recipe linked above and I tweak it every year and I've about got it to perfection. It has involved into a casserole now with marshmallows and nuts.
My tradition is a book one. Every Christmas when all the food prep and pressie wrapping is done. I sit down by the fire with a glass of wine, turn off the room lights and on the Christmas tree lights and read Twas The Night Before Christmas. I love it and it makes me appreciate the magic of Christmas and I love my few minutes me time. I can't remember when I started this but now it's a ritual and Christmas wouldn't be the same without it.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that my favorite holiday tradition is the mornings of Christmas Eve (we celebrate Christmas on the 24th here!) When we were kids, we often traveled quite a bit to get to the relatives we were celebrating at that year. So to keep us happy, our parents always let us open one present under the Christmas tree as soon as we woke up to play with until the evening. Santa had also filled our tree with treats, such as candy canes, these special marshmallow-y Santas we have as well as chocolate Santas! So our mornings were spent with one awesome gift each and stuffing our faces with candy before breakfast. ;) Hahha
ReplyDeleteEven though we're all grown up now, we've still kept the tradition! I have to say that it just doesn't feel like Christmas without it. I need to start Christmas with my treats! ;) LOL.
Thanks for the great giveaway! (I'm having issues posting this comment and just in case a name doesn't show up, I'm Bex (@mssherlocked) on the linky!)
My family doesn't really have any traditions. We're all kind of spread out all over the place so I'm usually not home with them because I'm usually out living on my own in a different state or something. One thing I always do though is put up the Christmas tree as soon as Halloween is over! I'm not a fan of Thanksgiving so I skip that holiday!!
ReplyDeleteOne of our favorite Christmas traditions is to go thru a Drive-thru Christmas light display near us! We helped volunteer last Saturday to put up some lights for this tour, its great fun and a wonderful Fundraiser!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the chance to win!
We all go to our parents house on Christmas eve (we are all adults now) and we spend the night so we all wake up together on Christmas morning. Before we had my son, we still (all adults) sat around on Christmas eve while my mom read Rudolph then we left cookies for Santa before we went to bed. We have the same traditions now but at least there are children again. LOL
ReplyDeleteSadly, most of our traditions have gone by the wayside. I do love my mom's stuffing and mushroom gravy. I could live on this stuff!
ReplyDeleteOur family Christmas Tradition is actually called reveillon. Opening presents after midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and eating traditional tourtiere .
ReplyDeleteIn the time my BF & I have been together (8 years) we've been moving around so much because of my school that Christmas is always spent traveling home to Dallas, TX and frantically shopping for gifts in the 2 or 3 days before Christmas. We always know what we want to get, but aren't able to get it until the last minute because of $ and/or time. We also always spend the Christmas Eve and Day with his son's (whom I adore) family - we have an excellent relationship with his ex and I really consider them family. Christmas Eve me and his ex get all the kids together (there are 4 of them) and bake cookies for Santa (even though only 1 still believes) and lots of treats for the next day. Christmas day everyone gets together around 11am and we open gifts, eat, put together toys, try on gifts, listen to music, eat again with drinks this time, play games, etc. It's a long wonderful day.
ReplyDeleteI live for the Christmas season. This week I'll begin decorating; I always start around Veterans Day. It's always been a tradition in my family. My Christmas tree is always completely adorned with cat ornaments (of course, what else?) This year will be the first without my angel kitty Tara, but the first with Truffles, so I'm hoping that the smiles will outnumber the tears, We'll see!
ReplyDeleteMy family does the same thing every year...on Christmas Eve day, my brother, sister-in-law, nephews, and this year my new niece, come over to my mum's and my house, and we hang out, watch Christmas movies, and play games. I'm back and forth to the kitchen all day cooking a huge turkey dinner with all the trimmings, and then it's feast time! After we eat, we open gifts, and the kids play for awhile and we eat dessert. When everyone leaves, my mum and I open our gifts from each other and then usually watch more Christmas movies.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite holiday tradition is reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. This past year, my husband and I tried to read it to our cat! She was not so keen on being cuddled for so long and hearing a story. :)
ReplyDeleteA holiday tradition that I have with my siblings is that we watch the Nutcracker while putting up the tree. But not just any version of the Nutcracker, but the cartoon version (The Nuttiest Nutcracker)! haha. It's super cute.
ReplyDeleteYou are a Great while writing in the blogs it is awesome I liked it too much good and informative thanks for the sharing.
ReplyDeletescary costumes