'Twas the night before... and please tell me we're not still running errands

HALLIE EPHRON: It's the day before Christmas so why am I in a store? I've been to the market a gazillion times in the last week and yet, inevitably, there's something I forgot. It's usually something boring yet essential. Like eggs. Or heavy cream. Or butter.

In our non-religious household we celebrate with a mishmash of traditions on Christmas eve. No tree, though my grandkids will hopefully create paper-and-sequin ornaments for the potted Norfolk Pine that I've nurtured since it was a sprout and now stands four feet tall in the corner of my dining room. Brisket and potato latkes for dinner. Banana cream pie for dessert (a new tradition).

And after dinner, this year trying something new, charades that our 5-year-old Frances Louise can play with the answers children's book titles (Mr. Brown Can Moo, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom...) 
At some point someone will read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and I'll try, unsuccessfully, to get people to listen to "A Child's Christmas in Wales." We'll listen to "The Nutcracker." And... then I'll probably have to send someone to the 7-Eleven for something I forgot to buy for breakfast.

In the morning, there will always be a Christmas card for me, drawn by my husband. Here's one from a few years back...

Do you manage NOT to have to go to the stores at the last minute? And what's your night-before-Christmas tradition?

RHYS BOWEN: Luckily we have a couple of stores that stay open on Christmas day, so if someone knocks over the carton of eggs, we can replace them.

I try to be organized. I have three big soups made, half a ham for emergencies, hopefully enough mince pies and sausage rolls for between meals. Christmas Eve is low key for us. Both daughter Jane and son Dominic are with in-laws, so it's just daughter Anne, newly arrived from LA with her little dog and us. I have to sing with my church choir at 9 p.m. vigil mass, then we may play a competitive game of Boggle or Scrabble before bed.

On Christmas Day Jane's family arrives for brunch. We open gifts, Dominic and Meredith meet us to go on a walk, then it's tea, more presents and a big turkey dinner, after which we play something... reverse charades is a new favorite, but Taboo also fun! This year we are without Clare's family from Phoenix, so it's a manageable number that won't require a second dinner table.

I like to think I'm super organized but one year we were thrown a curve ball when the power went out on Christmas morning. We ended up with Chinese take out at our festive dinner table! Now I think I'm better about rolling with the punches... and sorry, too many metaphors in that sentence! Happy Holidays to everyone.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What is reverse charades, Rhys? And we are having a very quiet holiday..the kids are all in California, so we will have champagne and beef tenderloin and I will gripe that we never have a tree and Jonathan will say we're Jewish and I will say a tree is a tree. That is our tradition!  And I will try not to open any presents on Christmas Eve. We always tried to get mom to let us when were were kids, and she never would. Now I see why.  And maybe we will go see Vice. (And Hallie, now I am trying figure out how to act out Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.. will there be enough room? LOVE that book!)  

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My last minute item might BE my tree - as of writing this on Friday, I still don't have one, and there's really no time to get to one of the local lots before Sunday. Check with me in the comments to see if I've got it up by Christmas Eve! Maybe I can claim I'm renewing the 19th century German and Austrian tradition, where the tree is erected and decorated in secret on the night before Christmas and the children first see it in the morning.

Our Christmas eve tradition consists of either Chinese take out or a simple crock pot meal, watching DIE HARD, and attending either the 5pm service (with the Christmas pageant) or the 10pm service (with the Portland Brass Ensemble playing.) Other less-hallowed traditions include everyone asking me where the wrapping supplies are, worrying whether the goose is defrosting fast enough, and staying up much later than I want to in order to... meet Santa when he arrives. In a house full of young adults who stay up later than I do, Santa may arrive very early in the morning instead.

There are always, always last minute ingredients to buy. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be stopping in at the local Hanneford on the way to church. For some reason, no matter how much butter I buy, it's never enough.

LUCY BURDETTE: I think we're having crabcakes and shrimp for Christmas eve--that will definitely be a day-of purchase. Then we ride our bikes to the 7 pm service of lessons and carols. This year I know my friend Erik is singing O Holy Night--he's got a beautiful tenor voice and I am so looking forward to that! Christmas day we are flying to California to see the kids and grandkids. I'm planning nothing because with 2 kids under 3 years old, it would likely all fly out the window anyway!

Wishing you all a wonderful season...

JENN McKINLAY: I am always at the store on Xmas Eve! It’s a curse I can’t seem to break. Probably, because I usually spend the day baking before we go to church and I always forget that one random ingredient. Sometimes it’s molasses for a last minute shoefly pie or whatever crazy idea has leapt into my head. This year, because our family lost a beloved member I have not even bought one present. Hub and I are donning our battle gear as I write! Pray for us - we’re going to the mall (gasp)! 

Happy Holidays, everyone. Peace be with you.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Fingers crossed I don't have to go to the store on Christmas Eve! I did part of my my food shopping on Saturday and picked up a few more things yesterday. 

For years, we've gone to a big get-together at my in-laws on Christmas Eve, starting at five or six and usually not getting home until close to midnight. This year, the party is starting early, at two, in deference to the little ones. So I am really, really hoping that we may get to enjoy a quiet Christmas Eve at home after that.

My dream Christmas Eve  would be spent watching Love Actually with a cup of hot chocolate in front of the fire, then reading "A Child's Christmas in Wales" last thing before I go to bed.

All this, of course, is assuming I'm not still wrapping!! Or cooking! Wishing you all a wonderful holiday!

HALLIE EPHRON:

What are you day-before traditions? Cooking or Chinese food. Love Actually or Die Hard? Goose (really, Julia?!?) or ham? Wrapping or UNwrapping??

All right, once and for all, are these Christmas movies or not?

JENN McKINLAY: Every year a debate looms large in my house over certain movies and whether they are actually Christmas movies. Admittedly, I am a soft touch. If there are some holiday lights and carols being sung, I'm gonna say it's a Christmas movie. There are others in my house who are bigger sticklers. So, let's hash it out. Here are the five most debated movies in no particular order. Reds, do you consider them Christmas movies or no?

1. DIE HARD

2. GREMLINS

3. LOVE ACTUALLY

4. HOME ALONE

5. TRADING PLACES

Let the heated arguments and popcorn throwing commence!











HALLIE EHRON: I am embarrassed to say, I have only seen one of these. LOVE ACTUALLY. Which I love, actually, and is for me the perfect deliciously silly Christmas movie. I'd add A CHRISTMAS STORY, with its “Little Orphan Annie” decoder ring, a triple-dog dare on the schoolyard and the Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle... and the leg lamp. 

RHYS BOWEN: I've seen them all, except for Die Hard, for which you'd have to tie me to a chair and gag me to make me watch it. Home Alone was a Christmas movie but not my cup of tea. I personalize too much when children are in bad situations. But I do love LOVE ACTUALLY. I watch it every year. There are so many poignant threads going through it. It is true and real and touching. (apart from Hugh Grant trying to dance).

JENN: I like Hugh's dancing. Don't judge me!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I've never seen Home Alone--well, wait, I guess I've seen parts of it, which have the kid outwitting dumb burglars and it's all very prat-fally. I keep thinking, why would he be home alone? I know there's some reason, but meh.  Gremlins and Trading Places, I have not seen one frame of them. Am I completely out of it? Die Hard--LOVE. Love that movie, It has everything: party, family, bad guys, suspense, hostages. Everything you need for the holidays. Love it. And Love actually? LOVE. Love! When he says: You learned English? And she says: Just in cases? Awwww.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: 
1. Die Hard, definitely! Rhys, you might like it better than you think.
2.Gremlins, have to admit I've never seen it. Even the ads gave me the creeps.
3.Trading Places, yes, and love this movie. I'd never seen it until a couple of years ago, when Rick MADE me watch it. Now it's on my yearly list.
4.Love Actually, well, duh. Best Christmas movie ever. Is it time to watch it yet?
5.Home Alone, another one I have to admit I've never seen. I just couldn't get around the kid being left in the house. Should I reconsider?

LUCY BURDETTE: You're forcing me to rethink watching the first three, which I've never seen. LOVE ACTUALLY, definitely, no one would argue any differently. I haven't seen HOME ALONE for maybe 25 years. But it was one of our son's favorites so we saw it more than once back in those days. He had all the parts memorized and would parrot them back to us. I still use this line from time to time: "There has to be a way to find twenty-thousand dollars!"

Well, how about it, Readers? What do you think of the most debated holiday movies? Yea or nay?