Advent Calendars and Gingerbread Men

Both of these are typically for children, but I quite like them too! In the UK you will find in every single bakery all year around GINGERBREAD MEN. Typically with a smiley face and shirt buttons, the eyes and buttons made out of what WE mean by Smarties (more like M&M's I guess?).

Usually these are bought for children rather than get them a messy chocolate muffin or something, I know my brother used to loooove them - he probably still does! I realised a few weeks ago that I hadn't ever seen Gingerbread men in the USA. My boyfriend explained to me that it's more of a seasonal thing. We went to Starbucks a couple of days ago and I was reading the cards in front of all the pastries and things, and was all excited see the words "Gingerbread"...until I realised it was actual ginger...bread...How disappointing!

I don't go to bakeries very often so I don't know if they've started selling them? But it's like the more they keep it from me...the more I want one!! I'll have to ask my boyfriend's step-dad, he's a baker, so he'll know!! Otherwise, I might have to add it to my list of things to attempt to bake myself! :)

The other difference I noticed is ADVENT CALENDARS. In the UK as it gets ANYWHERE near to Christmas, all the shops are filled with advent calendars. These are made from cardboard with the numbers up til Christmas on doors in a random order. Each day leading up to Christmas you open a door and VOILA there's a chocolate! Each chocolate is either shaped like something Christmassy (a wreath or a tree), or has a picture stamped upon it. The cardboard itself usually has some cool picture on it. You can get simple Cadbury's ones like the one above, it's just some Christmas related picture, like snowmen or Father Christmas ("Santa Claus"); or you get ones relevant to what children's films are out at the moment, like Star Wars Clone Wars or Tinkerbell (my brother's and mine respectively, for the past couple of years!!)

The chocolate is usually pretty cheap tasting, I normally just find the number and open the door, then give my siblings the chocolate! But either way, it's a tradition. I don't know of a single person who hasn't had one of those advent calendars...many of my friends still do!!

I went out the other day with my boyfriend's sister (I need to come up with "code names" for these people!) and her friend, and we ended up in one of the stores for a few bits and bobs. The friend wanted to buy an advent calendar for her daughter as a fun project and to help her learn her numbers. I was on board with this, I'd love to see what kind of advent calendars there are over here! Well...it was different!

I couldn't see what I'd consider to be an advent calendar anywhere! It was weird. I suppose ours are techinically disposable, you buy a new one every year. Well all the ones I could find were these wooden ones with removable drawers...you put little presents in each day yourself and you get the same one out every year...! I admit that's pretty cool, but it was a little bizarre to see such a huge difference. The friend said they probably did the "disposable" calendars, but she wasn't sure where.

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with either country's "traditions" or anything, I'm just musing about the differences that I've noticed. I never really realised just how different some things are, and how weird that would make it seem! I like to try and include both of our culture's traditions, I think that's important to our relationship, for example this year we celebrated both 4th July (Independence Day) and 5th November (Bonfire Night). Tomorrow I'll be having a Thanksgiving Dinner.

But I'm not sure what "traditions" I have for Christmas. Me and my Mum go to the Crib Service every Christmas Eve, well their church doesn't seem to have that. We try and make the Christingle service but usually forget!! We hang our stockings on the mantle piece and then take them to bed with us every night, well...they don't have little kids, or stockings! We leave milk and a mince pie for Father Christmas, as well as a carrot for Rudolph...again, no little kids. Our Christmas tree is made up of decorations that we all made over the years, as well as multi-cultural decorations. I always set up the nativity (who'll do that this year?). We all go out en masse to watch the Switching on of the Lights, where the school choir sings and Father Christmas turns up with a sleigh pulled by a donkey. We have some semblance of a Christmas dinner that doesn't really resemble what most people consider Christmas dinner (family of fussy people!). We usually have international guests over Christmas through HOST...I can't think of anything that I could "bring across", it all seems country and family specific!!

I hope that I might be able to webcam my family sometime on Christmas Day though, I doubt it'll be able to be while they open the presents, not with the time difference and everything!!

The rules are strict - you do NOT get out of bed before 8.30am! You do NOT go downstairs and mess!! This usually turned into - Don't bother Mum and Dad before 8.30am...but bothering your poor tired big sister is fine! And they'd sneak downstairs anyway. Last year was the first year my next youngest sister (now 16) wasn't the first one awake!! Once 8.30 rolls around then we all go into my parents room and open our stockings, then we all go downstairs (can't go down til everyone is ready). We get to open ONE present (so choose carefully!) and then you HAVE to have breakfast. NO MORE opening until after breakfast (or we won't bother eating!). It then starts off we take it in turns to open presents, carefully reading out loud who bought what. But it usually just turns into a free-for-all!! All of these rules I'm quite fond of, and they make sense! So I imagine I'll be enforcing similar rules when I have children of my own :) But this will be the first Christmas for me where such rules aren't required! I might actually get some sleep Christmas morning, rather than having one sibling or another bouncing into my room every few minutes from 5am onwards...!! :)

Well this post kind of ambled all over the place didn't it! I'm sure I had a point somewhere :) Yesterday my boyfriend's sister was telling us about all the Christmas events going on in the area, like the switching on of lights, christmas markets, carolling, and it just got me thinking about Christmas and traditions. I'm very excited to be making NEW traditions, it's just a little strange I suppose! And eeeeverything is strange and different, I think that's part of why I'm finding it SO weird. If I was having my first Christmas away from home in the UK then it would still seem mostly familiar, but here...I'm struggling to find anything that's familiar!! But different isn't bad, it's just different :) Different is interesting! It just takes getting used to.

(NOTE : ARGH! I can't seem to fix the paragraphs for that last section, no matter how hard I try. Sorry if it makes it hard to read!!)