Tuesday 4 - A Merry Little Christmas

This week the Tuesday 4 questions are all about celebrating Christmas.

1. Do you have a favorite Christmas carol and if so is there a particular version you especially like? Hmm, it's difficult to choose just one! I love both Silent Night and O Holy Night but if I have to choose, then it is O Holy Night. But then if I'm singing one with a descant it will have to be Hark the Herald Angels Sing as that has the best descant ever! If I'm playing then I'd have to choose See Amid the Winter Snow as I love the harmonies in my part. 

As for whether there's a particular version ... the Choir of Kings College, Cambridge singing any of these carols will get my vote.

2.Do you have a special dinner for the holidays? What foods are included? I have the traditional roast turkey dinner with all the usual vegetables and gravy - this year it's roast potatoes and parsnips, carrots, cauliflower, sprouts, runner beans and something else, but I can't think what it is! I don't bother with bread sauce or cranberries when I'm cooking just for myself, but will have sage and onion stuffing and pigs in blankets. Now I'm on my own I don't bother with Christmas pudding. I always find it too rich and filling after the main course so prefer to go without. 

3.Holiday movies ... which do you like to watch? The 'must watch' ones for me are It's A Wonderful Life, Scrooge - A Christmas Carol (the B/W Alasdair Sim version) and A Muppet's Christmas Carol. 

4. What traditions do you continue to keep year after year for the holidays? I only celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas. Decorating is for Christmas Eve, not before - in previous years my great nieces and nephews have spent the afternoon decorating the tree for me but that's not possible this time. I will also continue with a fairly new to me Christmas Eve tradition, which is my own version of the Icelandic tradition of Jolobokaflod - I buy myself a new book and spend the evening reading. I have one gift to open on each of the twelve days - three each of something I want, something I need, something to wear and something to read - I obviously know what I bought for this but I don't know which gift will be opened on any particular day.

I listen to the Nation's Favourite Carol on Christmas Day while I cook and eat my meal. This year there are plans for Zoom meetups as well to replace the face to face meets. 

One tradition that will definitely happen is our most important celebration. Christmas Day also happens to be my great niece, Little Miss C,'s birthday and there are plans to meet in the local park, socially distanced in individual family groups, to sing Happy Birthday to her. 

Many thanks to Annie for organising this.