Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with xmas

Feed the Jews

bq — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 20:45:03 -0800

What is the best place to eat Chinese food for lunch tomorrow (Christmas) in Seattle? I wish to celebrate Christmas in the manner of my people and eat some Chinese food for lunch tomorrow. What is a good Chinese place on the south side of Seattle, including Burien, Renton, etc., that is likely to be open?

Finding a Christmas treat from the past

nassep — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:53:58 -0800

Hello We are looking for a Christmas treat. They were toffee like almonds but I have googled this and only find recipes for toffee almonds. They are sugary, crunchy and In Australia around the late 1980s. We can remember having them but can't seem to remember their name. Any help will be appreciated. Angela

10 degrees of latitude south

zvs — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 13:53:46 -0800

GiftFilter: Gifts for an outdoorsy teenager trapped in the burbs. I'm stumped trying to find a gift for my stepbrother, a high-school sophomore who plays football and recently moved into suburbia from his previous home in the Great North Woods.

He's a snowshoeing, ATV-riding kind of kid, and I think those activities are pretty much closed off to him now. They arrest you on your dirt bike here.

Any bright ideas for a substitute experience? He now lives in a second-tier metro area, so most reasonable activities are an option.

Good online source for Christmas carol tabs?

freem — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 16:45:54 -0800

Anyone know of a reliable source for guitar tabs/chords for Christmas carols on the web? Searching for tabs for Christmas carols brings up the usual plethora of ultimate-guitar.com and 911tab.com links, which feature six different wrong-sounding versions of every carol. A single good source of correctly transcribed christmas carols would be a tremendous boon. Anyone?

Quirky gifts for cheap-ish

catatethebird — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:18:59 -0800

Interesting gifts for my family - give me some inexpensive gift ideas for weird, funny, creative, or out of the ordinary gifts. Bonus if I can order them online and get them on time for Xmas, still. So money is really tight right now, so I'm going bare minimum on gifts this year, but I'd like to get something small for my sisters and both of my parents. I can spend between $20 and $50 each. I'm sick of the classic gift card, perfume, DVD type stuff. What are your ideas for different, quirky gifts (or shopping websites in general)? I'm open to anything - goods, or gift cards for services. Ideally, stuff I can order online, although I'm not opposed to brick-and-mortar stores.

Bonus: I also need a gift for my 18 month old nephew. My sister suggested something with wheels he can scoot around in/on/ride. Your best suggestions for a little car, or rocker, something physical he can wear himself out with (under $50 ideally)?

Roadblock: Who wants to get down?

curse — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 10:33:12 -0800

Every year for our gift exchange, there's a theme. This year the theme is kind of action - adventure related, think about some of the activities on the Amazing Race. I'd like to give something more "do something" than "get something" this year, given the following parameters:

Less than $100
Probably within 1 - 2 hours drive of the East bay / Oakland / Walnut Creek, California
Gift will be for an individual, but with a family, so family friendly preferred
Will mail me a gift certificate / gift card online or via phone.

I'm looking for things like zip lines, running-related, climbing activities, bungee jumping, etc. I don't live in the area so the phone / email / online part is important since I can't go down in person.

Christmas Proposal Ideas?

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 10:03:33 -0800

Little help with Christmas proposal ideas? Proposing soon and am very keen to cash in on the Christmas spirit and propose that night. So far I'm thinking about a surprise, one last present sort of thing, but beyond that I'm not sure what to do. The day is going to be eaten up by family stuff (i.e., late afternoon dinner), but we'll have the evening to ourselves. So far I'm thinking about getting a hotel room to go to with some champagne on ice, roses, etc. Still feel like there's some room to capitalize more on it being Christmas and make this a little more memorable, but struggling to come up with additional ideas. Will continue to churn this through my brain and hope to insert some cool personal touches, but wonder if anyone out there has any general ideas to share?

Thanks!

Help to be become a better xmas shopper

razzman — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:12:03 -0800

How do I become better at buying presents? I procrastinate every xmas because I can't decide what to buy people, the biggest obstacle, I worry the recipient won't like it. Need a breakthrough, what's your super gift-buying workflow? I am absolutely determined not to leave my xmas shopping till xmas eve like I have done for the past 10 years!
I just tried to get started by going on Amazon, and I got the same dread I always get at this time of year. Usually goes like this whether online or in-store - "Don't know what to get, they won't like that, ahhhh....wait until tomorrow then have a look"
I need to break this annoying habit but need help.
I am like this when buying for myself as well except after lots of research I'm happy with what I want and what I get. I can't do the same for others!

Where can we get a corner Christmas tree?

asnider — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:21:28 -0800

Help me find a quarter/corner Christmas tree. My wife and I live in a fairly small home and we have been trying to find an artificial Christmas tree designed to fit in a corner, much like this one from Marks & Spencer.

The problem is that we can't seem to find one like this in Canada (or even online, with a few exceptions that seem to be either permanently sold out or unavailable for shipping to Canada).

Ideally, the tree would be pre-lit with multi-coloured lights (we'd rather it not be pre-lit at all than to have white lights) and between 5 and 6.5 feet tall. We live in Edmonton, AB and would prefer to be able to buy it locally instead of paying for shipping if that is an option.

Yuletide Traditions for the Newly Married

asnider — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 10:17:07 -0800

Help a couple of newlyweds start their own Christmas traditions. This Christmas will be our first as a married couple and we want to start developing our own traditions (to compliment and/or replace those of our parents). Obviously, a lot of Christmas traditions are focused on kids. We don't have kids yet and don't plan to have any for at least another year or two.

For the past few years, we've spent Christmas Eve, Christmas, and usually Boxing Day at my parents' place (since Mrs. Asnider's parents live on the other side of the country and flights at Christmastime aren't cheap). Now that we're married, we don't want to do this. We'll probably still spend Christmas Day at their place, spend the night, and then go home on Boxing Day.

We're looking to start our own holiday traditions for those days that we're not with family, especially Christmas Eve, and I'm hoping that the hive mind can provide some suggestions.

General holiday traditions are welcome, but I'm specifically looking for things that you or someone you know started doing when they were newly married and/or newly living together and didn't yet have any children to play Santa to.

For what it's worth, neither of us is particularly religious but we often go to midnight mass at the Catholic Basilica downtown because my wife was raised Catholic and usually enjoys the Christmas mass.

How to manage family Christmases when our kid doesn't believe in Santa Claus, but her cousins do?

bunglin jones — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:07:20 -0800

How to manage family Christmases when our kid doesn't believe in Santa Claus, but her cousins do? We don’t want to lie to M, our daughter, by telling her that Santa Claus exists, but we also don’t want to upset her cousins who have been brought up to believe there’s truth to the whole Santa Claus story. The cousins get together for Christmases and I’m trying to work out how to handle this situation.

I’m completely confident in how I’ll explain to M about the Santa Claus myth and why others believe in something that we don’t, but how do I respond when one of her cousins (ages ranging between 5 and 8) asks about what presents M got from Santa? If it helps at all, when asked the same question by adults I say “we don’t’ have Santa Claus in our house” and leave it at that. But I don’t know how to convey the same sort of message to a kid who believes in Santa Claus without shattering their beliefs – the kid will ask why Santa doesn’t visit the Jones house and from there…well, I can’t think of a way for it to end well. In case I’ve not made it clear, I do not believe it’s my place to tell someone else’s kid that Santa Claus doesn’t exist.
Also, when M is older, she’ll probably be asked the same sorts of questions while in the company of other children and I’d like to give her some guidance about how to answer these questions without destroying innocent dreams along the way.

In case it matters, this issue won’t come up at all this Christmas, as M is not even 2 years old, but for future Christmases it almost certainly will. I just really, really want to be prepared.

I’d especially love to hear from parents who’ve raised their children to be Santa Claus non-believers, but I’d welcome suggestions from anyone who might have an idea about how to handle this.
And, just to be clear, I am NOT asking whether or not I should raise my kid to believe in Santa Claus, though I have looked at the answers to this question.

Oh, oh, fake mistletoe

xiaolongbao — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:53:52 -0800

Best fake mistletoe to order online or pick up in NYC? Have you purchased a sprig (clump?) of fake mistletoe that pleases you? I would like to put one up over our bedroom door to sneak some kisses with my fiancé this holiday season. I've seen this one on Amazon, which looks good, but I'm afraid it might poison my two adorable catchildren.

Online ordering preferred, but NYC suggestions also gratefully accepted.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Can you help me generate a playlist of unusual artist/xmas song pairings?

mrzer0 — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 08:49:08 -0800

I recently saw a video that makes me want to create a playlist of unusual/surreal Christmas music. That is to say, odd pairings or covers of classic Christmas songs. I have a small set of criteria inside. What do you got? The video that started it all for me was this one:
Scott Weiland - Winter Wonderland.

A friend linked that up "without comment." Its just so surreal, to me anyway.

Other examples include:

Chris Cornell - Ave Maria
Bob Dylan - It Must Be Santa
And of course, the classic Bing Crosby & David Bowie - Little Drummer Boy

My criteria is this: 1) The artist must be relatively well known or from a relatively known band/group. 2) The song must be a classic one, not one made up by the artist (for example: I would exclude the song Oi! To The World).

Wish Book Please!

The otter lady — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:11:54 -0800

How do I get a FLOOD of Christmas catalogs? Every year we joke about how Christmas catalogs come earlier and earlier and how much silly stuff there is. Sometimes we buy things, sometimes not, but we have a great time looking through the catalogs and seeing what silly things they are selling this year.

Lately, with most of our shopping being done on-line and most traditional mailing being done through amazon.com etc, we seem to have fallen off a lot of the old mailing lists. This is good in some ways, but it just doesn't seem quite the same without all the silly, gaudy, tacky, amazing things that catalogs used to offer... especially when we'd get some ODD ones (why are we getting a taxidermy catalog?? and look at this one of Egyptian-themed gifts!) etc. Since we are poor this year I thought it would be fun for Mom and me to have a veritable FLOOD of catalogs to page through and laugh at....

Is there a simple, easy, free way I could just sign up onto a list to say "yes, please send me your Xmas catalogs!" We might buy something, and all catalogs will be recycled!

Thanks for any help!

Help me pick the best xmas card every

bq — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:33:18 -0800

I need the awesomest secular Christmas card ever to send out for my small business. Please show me your funny or cool suggestions. I own a small business and I need to send out about 350 holiday cards this year. I am in a niche business and I try to make every mailing I do stand out. Last year I found these amazing pop-up cards by Robert Sabuda. Everyone I talked to mentioned the cards and how neat they are. I'd like to top them or at least match them. Please help me! The Sabuda cards were a great bargain as well, because they are alphabet cards so even after tossing all the religious ones they were a great deal.

Here are my requirements and wishes:

a) Can't be religious. At all. I'm Jewish. So no stars on trees, no ornaments, no presents, def. no Jesus, no Merry Christmas, and MAYBE Santa is OK if he's funny.

b) Costs less than $3 per card

c) Is awesomely funny or cool or nerdy or whatever

Turn ons: Interactive. Has something to do with Seattle. Has something to do with maple trees, maple leaves, maple seed pods. Has something to do with world peace. Has something to do with nature or do-goody-ness.

Turn offs: angels, Thomas Kinkade, sappy, Canada

Lovely Weather for Whiskey Shots Together With You

Juliet Banana — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 06:21:01 -0800

I live in Chicago. I would like to spend Christmas in a bar. What bars are going to be open on Christmas? What bars would be likely to be open on Christmas? -My favorite bars are Big Star, The Whistler, and Cole's, which are all going to be closed.

-My taste in bars leans slightly (ok, super) hipstery (see above list of favorite bars) but dives are fine as well.

-No chachi sports bars. I am, tragically, deathly allergic to bros. I can see some Wrigleyville bars being open but I'd rather drink at home or perhaps a garbage dumpster behind a McDonald's.

-It is not necessary that they serve food.

-It's OK if you don't know for sure they're open but think it's a good chance; I'll call and confirm.

Christmas Lights in South Jersey and Philly

troublewithwolves — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 07:59:17 -0800

My family and I are going to drive around the Philly / South Jersey area to look at Christmas lights. Pretty displays are good, garish displays are better! (we hear Hershey PA has some kickass lights, but it's unfortunately too far away for our purposes.)

How to divide Christmas when families are so far apart?

alchemist — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 01:20:52 -0800

How to reconcile Xmas when are families are so far away from each other? This is the first Xmas my SO and I will spend together. We'll be spending it with her family here in Denmark (where we all live although not in the same city as her family). That means that for the first time in a looong time I won't be spending Xmas with my parents.

I usually travel to visit my family for Xmas because it's the one time a year that we all see each other mainly because they live 9,000km away in South America (my brother also flies in from the US with his wife and child). An added bonus is my parents live in a tropical country where, for one glorious month, I can escape the dark, cold, windy, depressing danish winter and return with recharged batteries (and a great tan).

My SO sees her family multiple times a year, but obviously Xmas is a special family time. If I don't travel for Xmas and plan to spend every other year with her family that means I only see my family every 2 years. This is a tough trade-off and I'd like to find a solution. Is it reasonable to ask my SO to accompany me to my parents for *every* Xmas (since I'd like to spend this holiday time together with her as well obviously - this is also assuming that she gets along with everyone there). Should we split up for Xmas/New Years every other year (that'd be a bit sad to be sans SO while everyone else there has theirs)?

AAArrghh... Xmas family/travel blues....

Any ideas/suggestion/own experiences would be GREATLY appreciated!

Seasonal gift giving dilemma

mistertoronto — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 08:53:54 -0800

Did I give her an xmas gift? Should I be giving her a(n another) xmas gift? We've been dating for a few months, nothing serious, we both have too much going on to commit to a full-time relationship, but over the last little while we have been getting closer. We're just taking it slower.

Two weeks ago, after dinner and a movie, I gave her a small gift, a vintage brass compass from store I frequent in my area, I wrote a small note about how it reminded me of her and included it with the gift. It thought it was a great way to cap the evening.

We had a quick coffee last week, and this week she's back in town before a long trip and said "she'd love to see me and give me my xmas gift" -- and asked when i was free.

What's the harm in getting her another gift? smothering her? She's gotten a little peeved once or twice when I kept paying for dinner, or drinks.

Did she interpret my gift as an xmas gift?

If not, should I be looking for something for her? cause I would've given her the compass later had I known she was going get me something.

Why does stuff disappear from Costco.com website without an out of stock indication?

Twinedog — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 04:46:16 -0800

Why does stuff disappear from Costco.com website without an out of stock indication? I have noticed in the last couple of days while trying to do some Christmas shopping for myself for a couple of rather big ticket items, Sony Bravia TV's and Blu Ray Players that certain electronics seem to disappear from the website without even an out of stock indication.

One has reappeared recently. I had even gone so far as to check my local warehouse and they had scores of them on the floor. However a certain amazing deal on a TV has disappeared. I literally am staring at a printout from yesterday.

Nothing comes up when I search for it by item number, browse for it in its categories etc.

Why doesn't it atleast show up as out of stock? Do manufacturer's require them to pull down items at random times? Is there any way to know if an item is likely to reappear on the website?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Tree of Life

Funmonkey1 — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:39:39 -0800

Oh Christmas Tree - Our tree is too big for our stand, yet we love it. What's the best to keep it watered using cheap engineering tactics? I think it is possible to use fish tubing with a small bowl to keep the tree watered, but am not a scientist. Space to deliver water into the stand (with tree) is ca. 3mm. The base holds at best 2dl water without tree, so figure .5dl with tree.

It's a fresh cut scandinavian tree and needs constant supply or it won't make it to jul (xmas).

Any ideas greatly appreciately. Cutting the stem to feed more water into the base is ok, but still need to find a way for constant watering.

Google has nothing for 'arthritis-friendly purse'

She Kisses Wyverns — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 01:51:04 -0800

I’m looking for a purse with several credit/debit card holders that hold the card(s) snugly but are easy to remove for someone with severe arthritis in their hands (think claws). Recipient is in their 70’s, female, with plain tastes. We’re in the UK so it’d be great if the item could be a) purchased online with guarantee of delivery before Xmas or b) bought in a department store like Marks & Spencer or Debenhams.

Philips alarm clock

devnull — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 15:54:27 -0800

Where can I buy a Philips AJ3050 (or AJ3051) alarm clock radio? The problem: Philips don't make it any more!

I'm sure a store somewhere has a new one, all boxed and ready, sitting on a shelf. I tried Ebay, Amazon marketplace and Froogle. I even tried offline shops. No luck. How can I track one down online?

gift recomendation?

dougiedd — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 23:34:10 -0800

21 year old nephew Christmas gift recommendation? he is going to Austria for a semester from states loves to ski.loves food.

Gift ideas for my boyfriend’s dad?

t0astie — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:27:22 -0800

Help me pick a great gift for my boyfriend’s dad. I’m spending Christmas Day with my partner’s family. They do a Kris Kringle for the adults, and I’ve drawn my partner’s father. I’ve only met him twice (the dad, not my partner). He seems lovely but I have absolutely no idea what to get him. I’ve asked my boyfriend of course, but he is not exactly brimming with ideas. Help! Some details about the giftee: 70+, recently widowed (12 months), likes lawn bowls, enjoys a drink, one-time industrial chemist, retired maths teacher still involved in maths clubs and promoting maths in schools. Church-going Catholic. Likes to travel, quite adventurous and independent. Three children, two grandchildren, lives alone. Has a computer and is reasonably tech literate, but not that into gadgets/online stuff. Still has dial-up!

Added degrees of difficulty: I live in remote South Australia. The giftee lives about 1100km away in Melbourne. There is pretty limited shopping where I live. I can buy online and, if necessary, organise for it to be posted to another family member in Melbourne. I can wrap it when we arrive for Christmas. The Kris Kringle price limit is AUD $100.

And most importantly: He's a lovely bloke and I'd like to get him a great present!