Help!

[dimestore-hippy.livejournal.com]

I need some help! 

I want to write a Briley fic about Christmas and dinner and Patrick and all that, but I've never had a traditional Christmas dinner. Or at least, the last time my family had one I was like 6.

So ideas people?

Also, ideas may be used in my Transformers fic as well . I'm doing lots of christmas themed stories for the season, but dinner and relatives? I've no idea what's traditionally made or discussed or anything.

....That makes me feel kinda sad.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Sorry if this isn't allowed (since it's not ONLY for Ben/Riley....) You can delet if it isn't. I just didn't have anyone else to ask. My friends would think I'm a bit weird for asking, really. They would. They know nothing of my fanfic writing haha.

Hopefully if I can get some tales of Christmas with family the Briley will be written in the next week or so and posted as a Christmas present for you all!

Thank you!

Comments

[onduril.livejournal.com]

Well, your idea sounds interesting. But I can only describe a german christmas dinner. If you want that I will gladly help you.

[dimestore-hippy.livejournal.com]

Any thing to give me an idea of what a family gathered around one table etc is like!

That hasn't happened in my family since I was really little. (My parents aren't big on holidays, and a christmas dinner of one is kind of depressing haha so my hols are just with them eating normal everyday dinner in seperate parts of their house so we can all watch tv lol)

[onduril.livejournal.com]

Ok, ehm...
I'll just describe our day.
We start with putting up the tree and either me or my sisters or brother have to decorate it. It's always rather big because my dad is one of those who likes his trees big...and our living room is rather spacious as it is one big room which includes the dining room and the kitchen. Thus a small tree would be lost in the rom. However. Last year we forbade our father to buy the tree because he always takes the crappiest tree which is really...just crappy.
After one of us has then decorated the tree...which is a small ordeal with a family of 6 and everybody says different. But it#s still al ot of fun. Our dog runs around as if he were crazy...his favourite sleeping place is now taken with the tree.
After the tree is decorated and we have calmed down, (we don't argue really...but it could get a bit louder) my mum starts to prepare the dinner. By now its about 3-4 pm. We are 4 women and each and everyone of us has to help. Although our kitchen is big it gets really crowded...especially if my dad and my brother get in after having done some work in the garden...like chipping wood for our fireplace...and 'Demand' some food. We then always hand them a piece of bread and cheese and shoo them out of the kitchen to get cleaned up.
Finally...around 6pm or so...we have finished preparing the food...the roast is in the oven, the potatoes and everything else is prepared, we are finally able to get ourselves ready.
The only thing we do is set the table and wait for everybody to get back down again.
My father puts on some christmas music and we start with the soup.
We most often talk about the last year and what has happend. This year will probably be about my brother...because he has made a huge step in his life...and about my grandma..because this is the second christmas without her and its still kinda weird. After the soup we have the roast and potatoes etc.
We have never fought on christmas. We try to leave all problems at the door. That's why we don't talk that much about recent things...but more about the year. Because those problem most often are already over. And after desert...we have a little bit to drink..a digestif so to speak. And...as it is Germany we the hand out the presents.
At the end of the evening we go to the midnight mass, if we want to. Depends on the mood. Last year we didn't go because it didn't feel right without grandma.
Well...that's all I can think of right now. If you want to know anything else just ask.

[dimestore-hippy.livejournal.com]

Thank you! (I've done this backwards. Just realized that. I've been gone all day and just now reading all these, and I've replied from the bottom up haha. Oops)

So you put the tree up on Christmas? Not early? I know decorations usually end up going up the day after Thanksgiving here in the US and it's probably different other places since there IS no Thanksgiving, but you're the second person who's said they put the tree up on Christmas day.

Do you decorate any more? Like lights outside? Over the top inflatable holiday creatures? (Really, just down the road from me there's this inflatable snow globe with Rudolph and a snowman going round and round on like a merry-go-round!)

It's so interesting reading all these, especially yours- so detailed! It's been a great help! (I so should have started from the top haha. Oh well, to late now.)

[onduril.livejournal.com]

Well, we do have one of our trees decorated with lights. But the tree is in our backyard, so you don't really see it from the street. But my parents office is facing the street and we put up a dancing Santa my parents brought home from their trip to the US some years ago. And we have some little lights up in the windows facing the street. Other than that we don't have much decoration outside.
I guess it just isn't that common, but I also know some people whose house is very much decorated with lights and santa figurines etc. But it's still rather uncommon.
As for the christmas tree. I know some families and friends of mine put their tree up way earlier than we do. But it's always been that way at home. But Thanksgiving is way to early for us (as we don't even have that holiday..^^). Most people buy the tree about 2 weeks before christmas and some put it up then, and others put it up around the 22.-24.
Oh...I just remembered...in the time from December 1. to december 24. we have a so called advent calendar. It's basically a little gift calendar for everyday of december up until christmas. You can either buy them at the supermarket...most often they are filled with little chocolates, or small toys for children. Or you can make one yourself. I got one from a good friend of mine and I don't know what's inside. So everyday I take one little package down and I'm really getting thrilled about what's inside.
I don't know if you got one of those things in the US...but I love this tradition, because with an advent calendar you can put all your promises of not gaining weight on christmas aside because, with december 1. you start eating a whole lot of chocolate.^^

[dimestore-hippy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we have advent calendars. But there's no chocolate or anything. Not that I've seen anyway.

Normally you just bend the day up and theres a picture behind it. It's almost always religious. So the the pictures are like a lamb, or the baby jesus or something, so they're were never really big in my family after my Grandparents passed. (My parents have never been religous people)

I'm going to start writing, hopefully, tomorrow. I'm decorating outside today with my mom. She actually gave in when I argued for decorations haha.

[onduril.livejournal.com]

I can only recommend the chocolate ones.^^..They make you feel happy for the day. I love chocolate.^^
We also do have the religious ones, but my family isn't that religious either so we never had one of those.
I wish you good luck with decorating outside. Don't fall off the ladder. And I hope you have fun doing the decoration. And I'm looking forward to your story.

[rose-sparrow.livejournal.com]

My family's Christmases aren't quite what you'd call traditional, but we've had a few that were maybe a little.

Basically, we put up the tree together (my stepmom likes to play Christmas music while we do) and fight over who gets to put the star on top. Usually, I don't get involved in the cooking area, because I'm dangerous with a stove, but we have rolls, potatoes, ham and stuffing, or we did, at least, once. (But I think that's a pretty traditional meal.) Most of the time, it's not really all that formal, but that's the best I've got. Hope it helps.

[dimestore-hippy.livejournal.com]

Oh it does, thank you!

And no one ever lets me cook anything other people will eat haha. Do you think the Gates family would be more star or angel on top? Or some weird artifact that has something big to do with something in history? It IS the Gates Family tree!

(Ours, and this will be the 3rd year for it, has had my smallish clear with glow-in-the-dark stars beach ball on the top. Our angel was badly damaged in hurricane katrina in 2005 and we just never replaced it lol)

[dark-dreymer.livejournal.com]

My dad always cooks Christmas dinner and he starts about lunch-time while everyone else is busy lazing around and trying out their presents; he'll normally have it finished within a few hours. Rather than dish everything out he simply places each food item in a seperate dish and then gives everyone an empty plate so we can all take as much as we want. Normal food includes: Chicken/Turkey (varies from year to year), potatoes (Both roast and boiled), brocoli, carrots, parsnips and of course gravy (We also have brussel sprouts and yorkshire puddings, but I think they're both a bit too British to be included in your fics.) There's always WAY too much and a bunch gets leftover so we put it in the fridge and slowly eat through it over the next few days. Normally afterwards everyone will just sit around in the lounge and we'll either put a new DVD on or just chat.

Hope this helped, but this might be a traditional British christmas and differ greatly from an American christmas so it might be best to wait for a few more replies and compare notes ^^

[dimestore-hippy.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I think this might work for the Gates family (and Riley!) It sounds pretty close to what I remember as a kid. You think Ben would LET Patrick cook the meal or vise-versa? Haha, I'm so looking forward to writing this!

[zxully.livejournal.com]

If it helps, a traditional Polish Christmas contain this fish - carp, I guess - and also a couple of Polish dishes which don't have names in English, like bigos or barszcz. There should be twelve dishes, we share wafer, listen to carols and usually gather together, the whole family (in my case, it's four people), talk, eat, and all that stuff...

But I'm pretty sure the Christmas in USA looks totally different, there's probably some turkey or I don't know... Have you tried Wikipedia for help? I know it's not as helpful as actual people but it can put some light on the case. :)

[dimestore-hippy.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Surprisingly, this is actually closest to the last few years Christmas with my family (which is now down to just my parents and I).

Half of my family is Polish (My grands on my Dad's side) so we had my Grandmas favorite fish recipes to work from. Last year it was sushi though lol. Still fish...sorta.

And since I AM American, you'd think I'd know more about a 'traditional' American Xmas haha. I guess tradition is more familial then national. Like I don't think any one hides an ornament on the tree Christmas Eve and the first person to find it Christmas morning opens the first present. It may be a family thing but we do it every year.

But I think Patrick Gates would be a stickler for a big Christmas feast with all the history he's probably dug up on it!

[chwheeler.livejournal.com]

At my house, our Christmas dinner is usually pretty similar to our Thanksgiving dinner. We just usually make a ham along with a turkey. So that means mashed potatoes, corn (and other veggies), stuffing (although we're wierd and don't put the stuffing in the turkey), yams, rolls, cranberries, and pie. Lots of pie for dessert! We actually eat around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. We open our presents really early in the morning, after which I'll help my mom cook. (And then, as our own family tradition, we go to the movies. :D But I would call that a normal "tradition".)

I like what someone else said, that Patrick would be fairly historical about Christmas.

[chwheeler.livejournal.com]

*wouldn't! I meant "I wouldn't call that a normal 'tradition'". Why is there no way to edit comments??

[dimestore-hippy.livejournal.com]

There really should be, I know!

Thank you! My family's never actually stuffed the turkey or chicken though we call it stuffing as well...

I'm finding the people down here- I live on the Gulf Coast now- actually tend to call 'unstuffed in the poultry stuffing' it's actual term- Dressing. (But dressing will always be what you put on a salad to me!)

[dreidan.livejournal.com]

justin bartha is jewish so i dont know if he would celebrate xmas though.

[dimestore-hippy.livejournal.com]

Thats fine. But is Riley Poole? It's a National Treasure fic, not a real-person one.

[dreidan.livejournal.com]

oh yeah thats true