One of my kids’ favourite games is Would You Rather. We’ve played this on road trips and family walks and it’s not uncommon for the card game version to make an appearance when guests come over for supper (some of the questions – and answers – are hilarious).
I want to spread lots of festive cheer via my blog this season, and what better way to accomplish this than reader interaction?
Fingers crossed the voting mechanism works properly. And, yes, you can select more than one option this year. Happy voting!
Loading ...
Team Ginger all the way. I didn’t grow up eating sugar cookies, so I’ve never fully understood the appeal. They’re delicious (copious amounts of sugar + butter = hard to go wrong), but I don’t go out of my way to make/eat them.
Loading ...Eggnog is a hard pass. I think coffee with Peppermint Mocha Creamer sounds particularly festive and I’ve been adding a sprinkle of cinnamon to my ground coffee before percolating. Yum.
Loading ...I love a fresh blanket of snow on Christmas morning. But this is rare in our part of Canada. We almost always have a green Christmas (often with fairly mild temperatures), and then the snow comes from January through March. Best case scenario? A white Christmas, followed by leaving Canada on December 26th for a warmer climate until mid-April. #RetirementGoals
That said, either way…I LOVE Christmas!
Loading ...
I love Christmas trees and honestly think any tree looks beautiful once you add some twinkle lights and sentimental ornaments. We have a small artificial tree in the basement that John and I bought before our first Christmas as a married couple. It’s a bit Charlie-Brownish, but very special to me.
When we bought our home 5 years ago, we started getting a real tree for the main floor. We’ve debated getting another (bigger; the basement one is very small) artificial tree, but haven’t made the switch quite yet. I love the smell of fresh trees, and there’s something fun – and maybe even delightfully old-fashioned (?) – about decorating around the imperfections of a fresh-cut tree.
Christmas hack alert: if you do buy a real tree, here is a secret. A friend of ours owns a Christmas tree lot and her trick is to hold the tree firmly around the trunk and hit it down onto a hard surface (we go to the end of our driveway) VERY hard 10-20 times. She also sometimes sets up her tree outside and uses a broom to “sweep” up and down the tree. Both actions will dislodge loose needles. We always bang our tree outside before setting it up in the house and our trees end up dropping very few needles.
Loading ...
I am Team White lights all. the. way. Growing up we had coloured lights on our tree for years, and even as a child I remember being elated when we made the switch to white lights. I find many types of multi-coloured lights can look dull and a bit depressing?! I love the clean aesthetic and bright shine of white lights. Even for outside lights, I prefer at least a mix of white + colours (think alternating white/red bulbs). And I am NOT a fan of blue lights – ever – at Christmas. Blinking lights tend to be jarring, but I can see the appeal.
Loading ...
Listening to Christmas music is probably the best option in terms of getting me into a festive mood. I prefer to layer activities, though; for instance, I usually wrap Christmas presents while listening to my favourite holiday albums. Or I’ll bake Christmas cookies and then deliver them to friends while we’re out looking at Christmas light displays.
Loading ...Growing up we had to wait an agonizing length of time in the morning; my parents insisted on getting dressed (my Dad would even shave!) before settling in to open stocking gifts. We’d pause, have breakfast, and then tackle the gifts under the tree. I suppose at some point when I was a frustrated adolescent – and thought having to wait until 7:30 am to open Christmas gifts was tortorous – I likely vowed to let my kids get up at the crack of dawn and open gifts helter-skelter.
This hasn’t happened.
We tend to roll out of bed at a leisurely time, open stocking gifts, eat breakfast, clean up a bit, and then slowly work our way through gifts under the tree. The kids don’t seem to mind.
Loading ...Yes! Every year since I’ve been married and even before that I exchanged cards with close friends. My mother sends out dozens of cards each year, so I think I inherited the habit from her. In many cases, it’s the only time of year I communicate with certain far-flung relatives. I have scaled back this year and decided not to send out cards to some people I haven’t seen in years (and don’t have a familial relation to); I’ve decided it’s also okay to let some of those old, loose connections slide and focus on those nearest and dearest.
Your turn. Do you have personal insights to share about any of the questions above? If you had to come up with additional (holiday-themed) Would You Rather questions, what would you ask? I’ll use some of your suggestions to make another Would You Rather Christmas poll later this month!
Header photo by Olesia Buyar on Unsplash
Discover more from The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
J
We have white lights on our (pre-lit, artificial) tree, and colored lights outside. To me this is the perfect combination. I forgot I could vote for more than one thing…I think all of those things will get me in the holiday mood. Decorating, seeing friends, going to a party, listening to music, wrapping gifts, all of it. Christmas to me is about family and friends, so my official answer was the party.
I used to have a friend who loved to play ‘would you rather’, and his choices were always disgusting. “Would you rather have the skin of your legs peeled off in layers by a vegetable peeler, or your eyes doused in hot sauce?”
Elisabeth
That is the perfect combination! I grew up with coloured lights outside and as long as they’re BRIGHT (and not the weird “cold” LEDs), I love coloured lights outside.
Party is a great combination of all those things – brilliant assessment of that question.
My kids love Would You Rather. As a rule, the more disgusting/horrible the options, the more they will enjoy it.
Melissa
I’ve only just started to appreciate ginger as I’ve got older so maybe I’ll grow into ginger cookies. We have an artificial tree which we got when our eldest was one, so we’ll keep using that until it falls to bits because since we have it now it’s the best environmental choice. We have white lights but they do have the option to flash. I agree with you about the coloured lights. We started out with a beautifully colour-coordinated tree with blue, purple, pink and gold decorations but now it is a mash mash of our original decorations and all the others we’ve accumulated over the years including at least one of the kids from kindergarten. My kids now pull their noses up at that now, but I love it. I also forgot that you can pick multiple options. I would have probably put down Christmas music to get in the mood as well as attending a party if I had remembered. And I picked a green Christmas because here that’s all we have. I think the best weather here for Christmas is the high twenties. Not too hot for eating but not too cold for a summer dress.
Some questions: Would you rather eat turkey, ham, seafood etc
A live question at my husband’s Christmas is would you rather Plum pudding or Chocolate Pudding. They usually have both and I always choose the chocolate pudding there because my mum makes the best plum pudding and there’s always some leftover.
Do you normally have pudding over there? If yes then another question could be would you rather custard, cream or icecream with your pudding?
As you can see the Christmas food dominates my thoughts about Christmas celebrations.
Elisabeth
It’s okay. Food dominates my mind at Christmas, too!!!
Turkey for me ALL. THE. WAY. And we don’t do “puddings” in our house. I had plum pudding once and I was so disappointed. Really? This is what all the fuss is about? But I realize it is a beloved favourite for so many.
High 20s on Christmas Day sounds pretty lovely to me.
Wow – you’ve had your artificial tree a long time, too. Stay tuned for my post tomorrow…we might opt for a fake tree upstairs next year!
coco
can you believe i’ve never tried eggnog? i don’t know why! I should next time i’m in the US during Christmas.
We have a small fake tree with basic decoration as it’s too big to be moving countries. Our most pleasure christmas item is the advent calendar house 🙂
Elisabeth
I am NOT a fan of eggnog. Yuck. But it’s obviously a much beloved drink in North America!
Suzanne
I love voting and I love seeing everyone else’s choices — this was so fun! I am team both artificial and real tree. I LOVE the scent of a real tree, and I love the idea of bringing nature inside to live with you for a few weeks. But I am also terrified of fire, so an artificial tree allows me to relax. I actually fought my husband for years on getting an artificial tree, but I’m so glad we have one now!
Elisabeth
I also love, love, love the scent of a real tree. Like you, I am always scared of fire, so water it A LOT, and never, ever leave the lights on overnight/while we’re away. We walked by someone’s house today where we know they’re gone the whole day and the tree was on. YIKES!
Kyria @ Travel Spot
My Christmas card list started to get really big and I was not really enjoying having to send them out, so I started culling my list each year. If I had not heard from the person in a certain amount of time, I took them off. There are some relatives who I left on, as I do see them every few years or whatever, but I feel like part of the joy for me is the connection and if that is lost or nonexistent, it does not really bring me as much joy, hence the culled list. I do feel a bit Grinchy striking someone off, but I feel that it has to be done.
Elisabeth
I culled quite a few names this year, too. It was pretty obvious who I could remove and I did it and have allowed myself to do it without guilt. I’d rather focus on the people closest and dearest (and, frankly, the ones who write me back – some friends/family NEVER send cards. While I give family a pass…one friend from university never, ever sends a Christmas card, so why am I sending one her way? So I didn’t this year and it felt strangely empowering.
Nicole MacPherson
I voted but I need you to know that in many cases my opinion was “all of the above.” Particularly with regards to the lights!
Elisabeth
This doesn’t surprise me in the least <3
Lindsay
My guy and daughter have stronger Christmas feelings than me and he has incredibly strong feelings about old-fashioned colored lights on the tree (not LED, not blinking, not small bulbs). With our cacophony of ornaments, I think white lights might look more organized and better spotlight the other decorations, but I don’t feel strongly enough to propose or negotiate this (I have friends who alternate what lights they use yearly)….
Elisabeth
I think it’s funny how there is almost always someone who has much stronger feelings. My Dad didn’t care about how anything looked at Christmas, except the tree topper had to be this ancient star with VERY suspect wiring.
Your tree sounds lovely and festive and fun <3
Beckett @ Birchwood Pie
I’ll never turn down a ginger cookie, but I love a good ol’ sugar cookie. Bonus points if it’s a frosted sugar cookie.
The boys generally spend Christmas Eve with their mom and come to our house around noon so that’s when presents start. I think they’ve spent Christmas Eve with us twice in my time with them. It’s the one day of the year when the kids are guaranteed to get up before the adults. Seeing those faces peek in on us with big bright expressions of joy is a picture that I will carry with me forever.
Elisabeth
A good ginger cookie is probably my favourite cookie. Yum. My mouth is watering right now.
Kids on Christmas is joy personified.
Ernie
This was fun. I’m just getting back to reading blogs as I’ve been dealing with the media circus and delightful outpouring of support from our friends and from community members. I think I sent you an email invitation to read my blog while it is temporarily on a private setting. I didn’t even know that was a thing.
I’m with Nicole – I like all sorts of lights. I guess one question I have for people is what do you do with stockings? Have you had the same stockings for years? Do you put big ticket items in there, or what stocking ideas do you have? I’m thinking we need to get all new stockings for the kids, because I have 6 that match and we now have 8 kids. Hmm. What to do? The ones I have are not going to be easy to replicate and they aren’t my favorite. *I feel a blog post forming here . . . off to draft this to poll my readers.
Elisabeth
I did get the invite the last 24 hours has been CRAZY so I haven’t been able to figure out how to log in yet, but I will. Great questions about the stockings and I will add these questions to my next Would You Rather/other Christmas posts.
Linda
Love ginger so much! Love all Christmas activities except holiday parties aren’t my thing anymore, but I love coffee dates with a good friend (so excited about a new coffee shop that opened about 3 blocks from my house! So smart to open Dec 1!)
If you are a church goer, would you rather go to church:
on Christmas Eve in the evening?
on Christmas Eve to the super-late service?
on Christmas morning?
My family goes to a 7pm service on Christmas Eve but we always grumble about not liking Christmas Eve dinner to be rushed. Still, it is our best option.
Would you rather
stay at home for Christmas?
travel to stay with extended family?
rotate staying home and travel?
have family come stay with you?
We travelled most of the 45 years we’ve been a family, and I have told my siblings that we won’t be travelling for Christmas anymore, which means that we miss out but my immediate family loves a simple, quiet holiday at home.
I hope you all enjoy this lovely tine of preparing for Christmas!
Linda
Elisabeth
Ohhh. A new coffee shop just before Christmas. That sounds like something straight out of a Hallmark movie – haha.
I am a church-goer and I’ll answer now that I would rather Christmas Eve in the evening, but I will also include this in my next poll.
I’d rather stay at home for Christmas. No contest there.
That’s a lot of travelling! I’ve only done it a few times and between weather and kids being sick I was NOT. A. FAN. Maybe when they’re older? But there is something wonderful about being home for Christmas.
NGS
I never turn down a cookie – ginger or sugar – I’ll take whatever.
I have VERY STRONG opinions on lights. For an inside tree: No blinking. None. I will not accept it. I might accept a slight twinkle as if it’s actual candlelight. And the lights will be white. Lots of them. And a WARM white, not cool with blue undertones. AND AND AND. This is crucial. Your lights must match. You can do whatever you like outside in terms of white or colored lights, but I still say NO BLINKING.
I like a real tree, but we are Team Artificial because it turns out I’m allergic to firs and decorating the tree turned into a very strange rash-y situation. Sad face.
Elisabeth
I never make sugar cookies, so I tend not to eat as many of them…but I also have a hard time turning down festive sweet.
NO BLINKING. I agree. I’m shocked you’ll even allow a slight twinkle. Look at you, Engie. Living life on the edge!!
Warm white goes without saying. Blue is horrible. LEDs, in general, are horribly clinical looking.
Lights not matching is literally enough to make me break out in hives. PEOPLE ACTUALLY MISMATCH LIGHTS? I just cannot even…
Christa
I actually barely do Christmas at all, so couldn’t answer all of the questions. I do love fairy lights though.
sarah
Real tree! Tiny red and white lights! THAT’S IT.
Elisabeth
Noted 🙂
Jenny
Well you know I love this? But I want to know WHO is the one person that doesn’t like cookies???!
Our tree has colored lights, but I’ve been wanting to switch to white. I’m not sure if I can convince the family, and when I looked into it this year, lights were kind of pricey. Christmas is expensive enough without replacing all the tree lights! Maybe one of these years though.
Elisabeth
Lights ARE pricey and we have zero extras in reserve as two sets stopped working between getting packed up last year and unpacked this year.
Jenny
Btw I’m commenting from my phone and meant to say you know I love this!!! Not ask a question.🙄
Elisabeth
I know you love these sorts of posts! There will be more <3
Lisa's Yarns
I have strong opinions about things so love these kind of posts! Eggnog is so disgusting. But I don’t even drink milk so it’s not remotely appealing to me. Bleh. And I know I’m yucking someone’s yum by saying that! I do love sugar cookies, though! I grew up making/decorating/eating them. I have a sugar cookie decorating party every week (well except this year thanks for the death virus). My favorite Christmas cookie is a peanut butter blossom/kiss cookie. But I have never tried to make them GF. I know you can but I don’t want an entire batch of kiss cookies around because I will eat far more than I should!
Favorite Christmas movie would be a good category. There are so many I love like Miracle on 34th Street (original and re-make are both great), Home Alone, The Grinch (which we have watched countless times and I have yet to get sick of!), etc. I’m excited for Paul to be old enough to enjoy Home Alone. I love that movie! I also like Christmas Vacation but it is NOT kid friendly! I do not like A Christmas Story. At all. So maybe another category would be what Christmas movie do you loathe?
Elisabeth
Eggnog is gross to me. It’s like thick, spicy, tangy milk. Hard pass.
The Grinch is SO great. I hated A Christmas Story the one and only time I saw it (just a few years ago). I will be doing a Top Five/Bottom Five Christmas movie post soon, so stay tuned!!! There will be feelings, I’m sure…:)
Kyria @ Travel Spot
Lisa, I am not sure that we can be friends anymore, because Home Alone may be on my bottom five! Sorry! I guess I am yucking your yum now? (actually I like eggnog flavor, like in ice cream, but not the thickness of the actual drink).
Elisabeth
Oh I LOVE the original Home Alone. Classic Christmas viewing for me!
While I don’t love the flavour it’s the thick texture of it that really sets me off. I literally just got goosebumps and shuddered when I thought about what eggnog tastes like 😐
Oat Nog is much better, IMO, and a delicious addition to coffee around Christmas.
San
Jon and I just had a heated discussion about white lights vs. colored lights. I am Team White Lights all the way… Jon argues having some colored lights can be fun too. Since I am the one who’s doing the decorating in our house though, we only have white lights (and Jon’s not passionate enough to change that LOL).
Elisabeth
I’m with you on Team White Lights!
Stephany
I don’t know if I did something wrong but every time I tried to select multiple answers, it told me I wasn’t allowed. Wah!
I used to be firmly team real tree, but artificial trees are just SO MUCH EASIER. And pre-lit artificial trees are the DREAM. My mom and I got in our most epic fight the year we had a real tree and a) couldn’t get it to fit in the stand just right and b) had the worst time stringing lights.
Elisabeth
Oh no – bummer. Maybe I messed up when I was making the form? Sorry.
Artificial trees are definitely easier (though I don’t love storing them).
Kate
How fun! I am team colored lights but ONLY if they are incandescent and not LED. I can’t stand LED Christmas lights. My husband put it best when he said “they’re the only kind of light that seems to not actually illuminate anything!” We use the old C9 bulbs on our house and they give off the most welcoming glow.
What always kicks off the true Christmas season for me is listening to various Christmas recordings that my family members have made over the years. Back before cell phones and social media, my mom used to create Christmas tapes (yes, actual cassette tapes) of us playing our recital pieces for our respective instruments, short interviews with us, and a few carols we would sing in harmony with her playing the piano, and mail them to extended family members who lived out of town (many of whom are music teachers and had a vested interest in our musical education!). Two of my sisters went on to take voice lessons and each self-recorded a few CDs in high school. The nostalgia is STRONG whenever I listen to these (although I admit I often fast forward the tracks featuring the first few years of violin/viola playing 😉
A strong runner-up is my Dad’s favorite Christmas album, by the a capella group First Call. I know every musical riff and my brain starts to “hear” the next song on the album as soon as one finishes. The style is sooooo incredibly 90s but I genuinely love it because of how much it reminds me of him!
Oh, and a parenthetical to the drink question: I do love a glass of eggnog with rum during the holiday season. Like, just one for the whole season, and then I’m good. Other than that, my white peppermint bark coffee creamer in my coffee does the trick!
Elisabeth
It was so much fun to read about all these special musical traditions, Kate <3
I agree - LED lights are not really lights. They look SO depressing to me.
White peppermint bark coffee creamer - SIGN. ME. UP!
Anne
Thanks to you and Stephany, I now know the joy of peppermint mocha artificial-as-anything creamer for the holidays. Mmmm… Eggnog is disgusting, ginger>straight sugar any day, and Christmas music (particularly piano, e.g., George Winston) is my favorite. That said, Luther College in rural Iowa has a fabulous Christmas at Luther program that they record and livestream every year. (They are a Lutheran college, of course.) You can get virtual watch-anytime tickets for $20 and it is a fabulous mix of newer and classic Christmas music. I do love to listen to that every year. <3 (Sorry – very long and irrelevant tangent!)
Elisabeth
I love a good tangent <3