Hmmmmm, I do like variety LOL. You forgot to add Breast of Mountain goat decorated with little roast gophers

Depends where you live in Canada as to whether there will be snow on the ground. We spent a christmas in London Ontario last year and we had a good time. 1 foot of snow. We were tourists so most attractions were closed but we still celebrated by eating our lunch at the Hilton, best buffet I've ever had and very cheap. There was no trimmings with the turkey but this is probably because the Hilton is american. Now we are residents here it is great. The shops stocked everything you would want for christmas. The decorations are up already in some shops. My husband has christmas day and boxing day off. And they celebrate boxing day too, the US don't. The sales start on Boxing day too.

[QUOTE (or is that just in Coventry/Birmingham that there's an abundance of homes that look like they were decorated entirely by the local pound shop?).
QUOTE]


Yes I think it might be just Coventry and Birmingham, never saw much tackiness in Edinburgh or Glasgow although I'm sure there were pockets of tack in the hamlets and new towns of Scotland!

There's plenty of Xmas tat out in the gardens here in Vancouver - East Van. is rife with 12 ft inflatable santas and rudolfs! I'm sure they Xmas lights that adorn the houses can be seen from space. I'm not complaining though...it's a good laugh. The house adornment seems to commence about now for Halloween and the fake gravestones and witches' legs sticking out of wells are merely replaced with the xmas stuff around Nov 8th! No one's heard of 12th night here either. You can still see santas full of hot air around Jan 29th! Maybe I'll be the crazy Scottish chick that goes around tearing down the xmas stuff in case of bad luck!

Xmas is very much an individual thing. My other half and I have started a tradition of going to the local cinema on Xmas Eve to watch the Xmas movie. Last year it was Lemony Snicket, the year before that I think it was Star Wars. The local cinema is great as they have someone who comes down and introduces the film and usually chucks in a few jokes. It's very nice actually - a nice change from the impersonal multi-plex!

As we have almost no family here and most friends seem to go away, we've had Xmas on our own bar one English mate who's come around every year, but he's going back home for Xmas this year. If you have kids it'll probably more fun in the traditional sense but we still give each other toys and drink mimosas in our dressing gowns, eat too much rich food and drink too much wine. This year my Dad-in-Law's here so we should have a good one as he's no trouble blesss him!

I much prefer Christmas here than the UK, there seems to be more of a build up to it, my inlaws said that was the first thing they noticed when they came over for Christmas, and then you have a real good chance of snow most years.
I lived in Runcorn when I was in the UK and never saw snow for 4 years prior to leaving.

Chris

Hi

We spent christmas in Whistler and it was magical. We have 3 kids and they loved it we loved it. All the trees had lights and all the shops were decorated.It snowed lots and lots. We did not have the traditional christmas dinner or tree but it did not matter it was fantastic.We went skiing on christmas day. Its totally different and magical compared to the uk. I really do envy you going this christmas we are going to Austria and getting to go to the places we wont be going to when we emmigrate. Have a great time.

Debbie

I'd say most places in Canada get snow.

Calgary does. In fact buy warm clothing, lots of it.

In terms of time off it's like the UK. Some businesses take time, some don't, depends on your industry.

It's a huge Turkey fest, in fact all of their holidays involve eating turkey till you puke except Halloween which is pumpkin or candy till you puke.

Some of them take the 'National Lampoons' approach to xmas.
My mother in law had a psychadelic tree that could reduce epileptics to a foaming coma in seconds.

Expect the UK only colder and with even more tack.

Personally I feel that the tackiness of external house decoration in the UK is due in part to the likes of QVC and Ideal World home shopping channel banging on about Christmas and it's decorations since June. I think there is more inventiveness in North America in general to house decoration for all the holidays not just Christmas. Here people seem to just take the crap the the home shopping channels spew out all year long. Most of the time it all looks so tacky I wanna puke. It's no wonder they all look the same.

Dozzzzy

It's the life size plastic lawn Nativities that get me - and as might be expected, they're internally illuminated - nothing else gets your attention like a glowing Virgin Mary hovering by the side of the road after a long hard day ...

In that case I'd say ease off on the coffee get some rest and lay off the herbal cigarettes awhile

Rich

One thing that tickled me on my first Canadian Christmas Eve was the radio news announcement that NORAD had detected an unidentified flying object approaching us from the general direction of the North Pole.

Have you notied that there's actually a Christmas decoration channel! I first saw it in May!!!!

I always thought this was pretty cute. On their website around Christmas you can see the radar picture of Santa and his reindeer...and to think, when I was a kid the big thing was calling 1-800-ho-ho-ho and hearing a recorded message from "Santa" telling you to be good...