Christmas Meme

Okay, I made this one up, but to be fair, here are my answers. The rules are as follows:

• Link to the person who tagged you
• Tag three random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs
• Let each person know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs

Here are the questions (feel free to substitute the winter holiday of your choice & to add questions):

1. What was the best Christmas present you got as a kid? Maybe a doll house, but lately I've been really remembering my hand-cranked knitting machine.
   
2. What was the best Christmas present you got as an adult? Definitely Netflix from my sister. Without a doubt. LB once managed to surprise me with a gorgeous periodot ring--the surprise was as much of a gift as the ring. I'm very hard to surprise.
   
3. What's your favorite Christmas carol? Santa Baby
4. How long can you stand to listen to Christmas music before you break? A long, long time. I sing along too, totally off key.
   
5. How many Christmas albums do you own? Probably about 8
   
6. Did you ever go caroling as a kid? Yes, I helped organize a group of friends to go caroling yearly.
   
7. Would you willingly eat fruitcake? Only my own.
8. Do you own any Christmas sweaters? Hell no! I was given one once and it was out the door to Goodwill within the week.
9. Do you own any Christmas jewelry? What? I own a plastic Xmas bulb necklace that lights up and blinks. LB got it for me at a gas station.
10. Do you wear them? I do wear it. He says I love it as much as the periodot ring.
    
11. Did your family have any Christmas traditions? Like what? My family always ate spaghetti & italian sausage on Xmas Eve. We also got a jigsaw puzzle every year and worked on it for most of the holiday. I still keep the puzzle tradition.
    
12. Do you buy Christmas presents for your pets? Not really. They have stockings packed away, but I don't decorate much anymore.
13. What's your favorite Christmas cookie? All of them, but especially chocolate crinkles, mounds balls, lace cookies, chocolate chip
    
14. What's your favorite Christmas candy? Again, all of it, especially marzipan, fudge, rocher, the chocolate-a-day advent calendars
15. What's your stocking look like? It looks like this; my mom knitted it. LB's looks like the other one.
16. How do you feel about the "Steal from Your Neighbor" Christmas present game (the one where people pick gifts from a pile, but others get to steal it)? I so do not get this game. I hate it with every fiber of my being--I'm definitely Debbie Downer on this one. It boggles my mind that a "game" where people steal from each other is associated with Christmas. If you can't afford to buy gifts for everyone, just draw names. But stealing? I just can't get into it.
17. What is the oldest ornament on your tree? A ceramic ornament I made in 2nd grade--it has a photo of me in my brownie uniform on it.
    
18. Real or artificial? Aluminum!
    
19. How do you feel about Christmas letters? I used to hate them, but now I write one. Otherwise, I was losing contact with some old friends because I put too much pressure on myself to write each a hand-written note. I do wait until January 1 to take some of the pressure off.
20. Do you have Christmas decorations or lights outside your house? What are they? Bizarrely, LB seemed threatened this year by the neighbor's light display, so he went out to Lowe's and bought some kind of light-up holly swag. Whatever.
    
21. How far would you drive to see Christmas lights? For a free display, I'd probably drive an hour or more, but it has to be pretty big, pretty tacky, and free. My favorite is at Our Lady of the Snows. There's a free petting zoo. They give you a free CD of religious music to play in your car as you drive around. People can dress up in costumes and get their pictures taken as a living nativity set. It looks like this year, you can dress up as an angel in front of a "shimmery cloud background." There seem to be scary life-sized puppets this year too; I can't wait.
    
22. Are you a fan of tasteful or tacky? Oh, tacky. Definitely tacky. I will say that I find the blow-up yard figurines to be lacking in imagination. They've really been the death knell to the creatively tacky. These examples are from various grandmothers:

23. Annie added this one: Do you have any Christmas collections? Obviously, I have a ton of huck towels. I also own several dozen Alice in Wonderland ornaments.
I tag Rachel, Lynda (because she may have Xmas in a semi!), and Anna.