This is my time. Yuletide. Noel. The Holiday Season. Long, long ago, I adopted this time as mine. I live, eat, drink, breathe, hear, watch and wear this time. I enter it early and eagerly, and exit it reluctantly. I give it much thought. It gives me much joy. There’s not enough time in this time. I never waste this time.
1 Do you have any traditions (personal or shared) for the holidays without which, the holidays would not seem right?
2 There are lots of local holiday shows coming up: Central Wisconsin School of Ballet’s Nutcracker, Wausau Community Theatre’s A Christmas Carol, Wausau Lyric Choir’s Messiah. Do you partake of holiday shows? Are you in any?
3 Do you listen to holiday tunes or despise them? What are the greatest and worst holiday tunes ever? (I love holiday music, secular and non, but I truly wish never to hear The Waitresses’ “Holiday Wrapping,” or Elmo & Patsy’s “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer,” again. “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas,” makes me smile and I am often moved by a well-done version of “O Holy Night,” but the more obscure “The Holy and the Ivy,” is probably my fave.
4 It’s probably true that there’s no such thing as a bad baseball movie, but how about holiday movies? What do you consider notable faves or flops? I love the classics — It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street (the first one), A Christmas Carol (1951 version is best), but am most partial to The Bishop’s Wife.
5 What’s your most treasured holiday memory?
6 What is your “Rosebud”?
Boogenstein
7:13 pm on December 5th
Negative answers except for 3 and 6.
3. Pogues – Fairytale Of New York
6. I have no idea what you are referring to but I will answer “Vodka or Whiskey” just in case!
Tom Neal
11:10 am on December 7th
geeze, boog … you can adopt our holiday tradition (see #1 below).
1. Our annual Wausau Wassail party (#10 this year) which was preceeded by about nine more in Texas. It’s a night of holiday music, warm wassail and cold milk punch (danger!) to drink, plus cold beer, wine, lots of food, friends and burning of the Yule log. Pain in the butt to put together, but it wouldn’t be the holidays without it.
2. Daughter Molly is in her, what 10th?, Nutcracker.
3. Being wed to Jane Noel, carols are omnipresent. But, I might go with Boog’s choice.
4. The 1951 A Christmas Carol and the Christmas Story (”You’ll shoot your eye out!”).
5. 1991 and 1994 … the Neal kids made their debuts.
6. Boog … watch Citizen Kane. My Rosebud might be an Eddie Matthews baseball card.
Melissa Sullivan
9:14 am on December 8th
1. Can’t really think of one tradition…it’s the tree, the lights, the music, the smells, the food. One food I must have at Christmas is meat pie with ketchup. It’s a Christmas thing from my Mom’s peeps from Luxembourg.
2. Not this year. Emma dances at the School of Ballet, but we didn’t sign up this fall because of her other activities.
3. Boogenstein nailed it. And I just discovered “Don’t Shoot Me Santa” by The Killers…awesome. My favorite traditional carol is Hark The Herald Angels Sing. Jewel, of all people, does a great version.
4. A Christmas Story, and Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas.
5. Hmm…I just remember that no matter how little money we had when I was growing up, my parents always managed to make sure we had tons of presents and get whatever we wanted at Christmas. We went without the rest of the year, but Christmas was an orgy of greed. Now that I’m an adult, I have no idea how they pulled that off.
6. That’s a nearly impossible question.
Rob Mentzer
9:52 am on December 8th
1. We have this thing where we exchange gifts with family members. That is a pretty good tradition, I feel.
2. I am going to go to A Christmas Carol because one of the reporters here is in it, and I do not want to miss that…
3. Neither love nor despise. But Laura put some holiday tunes on in the car yesterday and I heard that “Last Christmas I gave you my heart” song by Wham! and I thought, this is a pretty good Xmas song…
Lisa Shilts
7:40 pm on December 8th
1. My favorite tradition is going to the Neal’s Wassail party!
2. Last year we went to the Dan Hartwig/Andy Zynda Christmas Then and Now show at the Grand – it was WONDERFUL! We are going again on Sat. the 20th. We are also going to see “A Christmas Carol” on the 19th, as we are highly cultural people!
3. Just heard one of my favorites, Bing Crosby and David Bowie singing the Little Drummer Boy! What a unique and wonderful tune. I am almost as addicted to holiday music as Jane, I love all the classics, especially anything with Karen Carpenter’s beautiful voice. I hate the Chipmunks.
4. Favorite Holiday Movie: “Die Hard” of course!
5 I don’t have a specific treasured memory, and not any special ones from my childhood. I think mine are of my children, making cookies and opening stockings.
I have a great photo of Kyle asleep on the couch, age 4, asleep but holding his new silver sword SO TIGHTLY.
One year my boys were cutting out cookies with me, and Kyle, abut 7 said “I can’t wait to taste Christmas!”
6. I had no clue about Rosebud! But I looked it up,
no favorite toy but see #5 for favorite memories.