A big thank you to everyone taking part so far, it's very nice to hear about all the different traditions and events that happen in December.

I had originally thought that the GOG Winter sale would be starting closer to Christmas, which is why the giveaway ran until the 21st. But as the sale has already started and will have ended by then, I have changed the closing date to Friday 12th December at 18:00 GMT. This way the winners can take advantage of the Winter sale when spending their $5.99 prize.

So just one week left to enter!

*BUMP* ^__^

Not in but thanks for the giveaway.

Mission accomplished, thanks! :-)
Quite a big family you've got there. Those reunions are one of the best things about Christmas. There's so much hustle and bustle the whole year, that I really enjoy slowing down and seeing my people, eating , drinking and having nice and pleasant talks. Yep, definitely looking forward to that.

It is the family on my wifes side. Her father has 13 siblings, so when we meet for christmas most of them show up and then all of their kids and grandkids show up too. Makes for a LOT of people lol. Love it though :)

I wanted to talk about Mikuláš and Lucka, but helpo1 already covered that.
So, I'll just share a chronological explanation why mid-December to mid-January is a very tough period for my very own Slovak stomach in Serbia.

19-20th December - Sveti Nikola (St. Nicholas), there is a popular joke that during these two days that one half of Serbian population are hosts other half guests, so practically whole country is celebrating.
24-25th December - Christmas eve (particularly popular day for heavy drinking among Slovak populace in my hometown) + Christmas
31 December - New Year celebration
1st January - Reprise of New Year celebration (often better than the original)
6th January - Traja králi (Three Kings), whenever I try to convince my mom that it's not such an important day and that she doesn't need to make another round of cakes as we had plenty of that during 25-31th December period, she just plays deaf. And later of course complains how she is exhausted.
7th January - Serbian Christmas
13th January - Serbian New Year celebration
14th January - Serbian reprise of New Year celebration

If this is enough for an entry, count me in, if not it's ok I don't mind.

Thanks for the giveaway.

Although I'm not eligible to participate, but consider this a share of knowledge lols.

For Chinese, there is a Winter Solstice Festival or we called it "Dongzhi". It falls on around 21/22 December according to East Asia time.During the festival, the family will gathered to make and eat "tangyuan" or balls of glutinous rice, it actually symbolizes reunion.They are made of glutinous rice flour and sometimes brightly coloured. They are cooked in a sweet soup or savory broth with both the ball and the soup/broth served in one bowl.

The festival is originated from Zhang Zhongjing in the Han Dynasty. During the cold winter day, he saw the poor suffering from chilblains on their ears. He ordered his apprentices to make dumplings with lamb and other ingredients, and distribute them among the poor to keep them warm, to keep their ears from getting chilblains as he felt sympathy for them. Since the dumplings were shaped like ears, Zhang named the dish as dumpling soup that expels the cold. From that time on, it has been a tradition to eat dumplings on the day of Dongzhi.

The festive food is also a reminder that celebrators are now a year older and should behave better in the coming year.

In. Not enough love for this wonderful topic!
Of course there is good ol' Festivus which was started by the TV Comedy Seinfeld.
I've known quite a few people who actually celebrate it but probably not to the exact specifications as described on the show!

Festivus

I will select the lucky winners a little later than planned, probably first thing in the morning. This will give the winners the weekend to take advantage of the sale and maybe get two games for their $5.99 prize.

Edit: You can still enter until I draw the winners tomorrow.

Argh! I did not enter this and I meant to. I wasn't going to be in, but I was going to find something to post about. Alas, the time has taken over - well, that happens, I guess. Ddickinson, I love your ongoing chat giveaways - always a pleasure. I'll try to be more prompt on the next one!

Meantime, though, here's a picture of my nephew celebrating Chanukah a few years back:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/linus/4195542528/

I missed this earlier, and since it says I can enter, I guess I am in

We haven't been able to do as much for Christmas in recent years, but we still decorated a bit. We've enjoyed spiced apple cider and eggnog. We tried a really good recipe for Norwegian Christmas Cabbage last night and it came out very well. We used kielbasa with it, so the little bit of bacon was just for the oil. Tasty! I imagine we will still visit the relatives the area closer to the big day itself.

Oh what they hey, I might as well enter:) Thanks for YAAGA, ddickinson.

I don't practice a religion, so about something from the Forgotten Realms, one of my favorite fantasy settings?

Alban Arthan (winter solstice)

The longest night of the year
Gods commonly watching over this holy day: Selune, Auril, and possibly some of the silver elven deties (in W&R of the realms it does say that moon elven magic is affected by the moon).
On this day many people burn bayberry candles (till they go out on thier own) and hang wreathes of holly.
Colors red and green.
On this day powers affecting cold or darkness at thier most potent.



Happy whatever-you-celebrate to everyone here!:)