On The First Day Of Christmas

Oh dear, nearly falling back on my routine already. So there will be another post tomorrow (as Saturday is the only definite day).

What is today's thought? Well, thoughts are few and far between at the moment. I'm bouncing about with spontaneities that may turn into something or may just whisper away in the wind, to be forgotten forever.

There is one thought that solidified and inevitably begins tomorrow. This post, it should be noted, is almost verging on 'diary form'. But only in the loose term that I can manage.

Let me start at the end. Some of my family (mother, brother, and myself) have a tradition with our surrogate family (siblings my age, and their parents) that Christmas shall be stretched across both Christmas eve and Christmas day. On the 'eve we all have a meal together. My brother, mother, and I open our presents after the meal (as is Scandinavian tradition, so I'm led to believe) and we all have a hoot. Christmas morning we awake and me and my brother bring our newly acquired 'toys' to the surrogate family's house and they will have opened their presents by then, too. Christmas day, as a whole, is a pyjama day. We walk over in our pyjamas (or onesie, depending on the mood) and have our breakfast (which was chosen earlier that month to be whatever we wish) spend the whole day doing whatever we want (board games are often a favourite) and then we bring the climax to the Christmas dinner. It's a very enjoyable couple of days. Boxing Day is Christmas at my father's. We vary between watching a film of sorts or playing cards or who knows! Anything at all. This year a fourth day is being added, which will be my Flat Christmas too. I'm not entirely sure what is going to happen, but any elongating of these days is something to be enjoyed.
Now, that's the tradition from the 24th to the 27th. There's something happening before this. A film festival of festively epic proportions.

Christmas normally starts pretty early in people's minds (the shops are sure to point this out to you in October that it's coming) so along with my flatmate I am hosting the 23 Days of Christmas. Every single evening (1st to 23rd, if you need that explained) there is a film being shown of Christmas connotations, either because it is Christmassy, or full of familial joy (E.T, Chicken Run etc). The event is open to those invited, they can arrive any evening they wish, with or without R.S.V.P-ing. At first I thought it would be smart to invite lots of people simply to guarantee someone would show up, but it sounds now that if anything there's going to be an abundance of guests.

The event works on the basis of Bring Your Own Whatever You'd Like (BYOWYL) in the hopes that there will be a steady share of all sorts. It also works on the basis of Bring Your Own Bauble. Which is pretty important. The Christmas tree wants to look better every night.

So the invites were sent out, the event hyped up to some degree, with certain nights looking more promising than others, and now all there is left is to tidy this mother-frigging flat. Instead of that, though, I have found that I am almost behind on the blogging front. Priorities!

 So why have I bored you with this? Well, I really like the idea of it. If it works, this may become somewhat of a tradition (with changes depending on what did and did not go well). I'd like to know if you have any traditions that you quite like, if there are some personally created events that fill you with childish glee.