Sunday Stealing: Lola’s Holiday Meme

This week’s meme comes from StaceyC4 of All Stace, All the Time, but it was authored by Lola at Lola’s Diner, one of my favorite blogs.

Lola’s Holiday Meme

1. What is your favorite holiday show/animated show?

It isn’t Christmas without “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

2. What holiday character do you think you’re most like?

Mary Bailey Hatch, Marlo Thomas’ character in “It Happened One Christmas,” her 1977 remake of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

3. Favorite Christmas/holiday song?

There are so many beautiful Christmas carols that I love to play . . . I guess if I had to pick just one if would be “Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming.”

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming
from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming,
as those of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright,
amid the cold of winter,
when half spent was the night.

Isaiah ’twas foretold it,
the Rose I have in mind;
with Mary we behold it,
the Virgin Mother kind.
To show God’s love aright,
she bore to us a Savior,
when half spent was the night.

4. Most hated Christmas/holiday song?

“Blue Christmas” as recorded by Elvis Presley. It is the most annoying holiday song ever recorded. I’m also not fond of “Do You Hear What I Hear?”

5. If you have an all holiday music radio station when do you start listening to it?

There is a radio station in Sacramento that began broadcasting holiday music exclusively before Thanksgiving. Comcast also broadcasts a television station called “Sounds of the Seasons” that plays classic holiday tunes.

6. If you have an all holiday music radio station do you love it or hate it?

I tune in the Comcast station regularly. For instance, when I had three long-time friends over for brunch yesterday, we enjoyed having holiday tunes playing as we visited. It is fun to hear the recordings of Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, The Carpenters, et al. that I listened to when I was growing up, as well as contemporary versions of the familiar songs and carols.

7. Have you ever wrapped yourself as a Christmas present? Come on…you can tell!

That had truly never occurred to me until now.

8. Who is Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer’s father?

In the original book by Robert L. May and song written by Johnny Marks (and originally recorded by Gene Autry), Rudolph’s parents are not mentioned. However, in later animated tellings of the story, Donner and Blitzen are both referred to as his father.

9. Do you drive your neighborhood or one near you at night to look at other people’s holiday decorations?

Yes. The local newspapers run articles on the most elaborately decorated homes and we usually make it a point to swing by and have a look.

10. When you see a heavily decorated house do you think, ‘oh that’s lovely’? Or do you think, ‘oh criminy, that looks like Christmas threw up all over their lawn’?

It depends on the taste level of the decorations. There are a couple of homes here in Lodi that are heavily decorated, but the displays are beautiful — impeccably designed and executed. Then there are the usual disaster zones . . . Don’t tell my next-door neighbors but their house is one of the latter. Essentially, any display that is founded upon blue lights placed on the eaves is not going to turn out well. I hate all-blue chains of Christmas lights.

11. Are you counting the days to Christmas with excited anticipation or dread?

Neither. I’m just coasting along, enjoying my well-deserved vacation. I know that the week will fly by and it will be Christmas Eve before we know it. But that’s just fine because we are ready.

12. When was the last time you had your photo taken with Santa? Did you sit on his lap?

The last time I remember having my photo taken with Santa was in 1978. My late friend Greg Morales was portraying the jolly fellow at the local mall. Yes, I sat on his laugh and we were giggling hysterically when the picture was taken.

13. When do you put up your tree?

This year, the tree went up earlier than it has in many years. We put it up on the first Furlough Friday of the month, December 4, one week after Thanksgiving. I am really enjoying it this year because there is a perfect spot for it in the living room of my new house (it was really too large for my other home), and we have the train running around it.

14. Real or fake?

Because I have both asthma and allergies, we have an artificial tree.

15. When do you take your tree down?

When I was a child, we always took down the Christmas tree and put all of the decorations away on New Year’s Day. I have always carried on that tradition, with New Year’s Eve being the last evening that the tree is lit. For me, it wouldn’t seem like New Year’s Eve without the Christmas tree, but New Year’s Day is a new beginning, so it feels appropriate to put away the old and look forward to what the new year holds in store.

16. Do you shop the day after Christmas sales? What do you shop for?

Absolutely not. I always get together with friends who are in town.

17. Is your work/office having a holiday party this year? Will you attend?

There was a get-together this past week, but I was out of town on business, so I did not attend.

18. Do you have your New Year’s Eve Plans set yet?

We’ll have a lovely dinner at home. So far, the menu includes spinach salad, prime rib, and baked potatoes, as well as wine. The boys will have sparkling apple cider.

Click here to see the list of other participants, visit their sites, and read their responses.