Christmas Favorites

I found this over at Jean's place, and being as I'm killing time with a salesguy in and out of the store, I thought I'd play. If you want to play too, mention it in comments so we can come and read about your Christmas favorites as well!

Your Name: Valerie

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate most of the time!
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrapped...unless he did his shopping before Christmas Eve, in which case he simply can't wait. Or unless the store doesn't offer wrapping. Or...
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Multi-colored on the tree, white on the bushes outside.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No.
5. When do you put your decorations up? Any time after the beginning of December.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Cookies. Gonna be a problem this year.
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child: Going to my grandmother's house on Boxing Day (Dec 26 to all you non-Canadian types). My mom had 8 sibs (with a total of 33 cousins in my generation) and we all gathered for turkey dinner, games and all the mandarin oranges we wanted. And we made a Christmas program for the grandparents. Every year.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? We weren't ever a Santa family.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? As a child, always, all of them. My family has Germanic roots, so tradition. When we started our own family, we did Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with his, so it balanced out the gifts.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Lots of lights! Very nearly every single ornament on our tree is hand-made. I collect angels, so there are many choirs of angels.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love to look at it, HATE to drive in it.
12. Can you ice skate? Yep. I'm Canadian, after all...
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Books. And I had a cool Spirograph.
14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family. I'm really excited that the kids and their spouses will be home this year. Hyper, even. And remembering the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Besides baking cookies?
17. What tops your tree? An angel, of course. See #10!
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving. Especially hand-made gifts.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? One Small Child.
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? I can take them or leave them. They're great crushed...I make chocolate cookies, dipped in melted chocolate, dipped in crushed peppermint. Drat, I hate diets.

Wanna play? Please do!