The merging of Thanksgiving and Christmas

Cookie said:
Agree, chocolate is nice to have all winter (and year round). Or at least good cocoa.
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I'm not a big chocolate fan but I understand the attraction. Substitute some good halvah or marzipan and I'm there.

Every culture has special holidays and celebrations. And we love a party with nice food, music and wine to share with our families and friends. It's always good to have something to celebrate.
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Since I put myself outside the normal societal celebrations I decided to invent my own - Philstivus. It contains several small and large celebrations each month, for a plethora of occasions, but since I've become a sick old man the celebrations have pretty much faded away.
 

That sounds like a good idea --- we aren't very elaborate - even a butter tart and a cup of tea with a friend on a Sunday afternoon is nice.

Love marzipan on dark fruitcake too.
 

SifuPhil said:
Doesn't bother me as I'm a non-celebrant, but I can see how the concept of Thanksmas or Christgiving would bother some people.

Add in Halloween and you've got a trifecta.
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Where I live it is a trifecta. Santa, Rudoplh, the elves, et al butt their noses into pumpkin day and Xmas ads and movies start on Oct. 31.
I think it's because Xmas has become a commercial holiday for buying cards, gifts, special foods, etc. and has nothing to do anymore with goodness, kindness and the birth of Jesus.
 
Fruitcake - I'd all but forgotten fruitcake!

I was always the guy that would gladly accept the leftover pieces of fruitcake, and sometimes entire one, at the end of the day to take home.

Then I'd sit cross-legged on the floor in front of the TV and devour them - NOM, NOM, NOM!!!

Geeze, now I have to go out on a fruitcake-and-marzipan run ...
 
chic said:
Where I live it is a trifecta. Santa, Rudoplh, the elves, et al butt their noses into pumpkin day and Xmas ads and movies start on Oct. 31.
I think it's because Xmas has become a commercial holiday for buying cards, gifts, special foods, etc. and has nothing to do anymore with goodness, kindness and the birth of Jesus.
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That's sad ... so sad.

I remember Halloween being all we thought about from around the beginning of September. After it was over, and only then, did we even start to consider Thanksgiving, and even then it didn't require as much lead-time.

Christmas? You never saw any Xmas stuff on sale or on TV until AFTER T-giving - Black Friday ensured that. Even though I wasn't the religious sort I would get all puffy-eyed when I started hearing the classic Xmas songs.

Now, as you said, it's turning into ThanksChrisWeen.

P.S. I just Googled "ThanksChrisWeen" after I wrote it - 4 web results and 7 unrelated images. Maybe I should register that name?
 
SifuPhil said:
Fruitcake - I'd all but forgotten fruitcake!

I was always the guy that would gladly accept the leftover pieces of fruitcake, and sometimes entire one, at the end of the day to take home.

Then I'd sit cross-legged on the floor in front of the TV and devour them - NOM, NOM, NOM!!!

Geeze, now I have to go out on a fruitcake-and-marzipan run ...
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Fruitcake gets a bad rap for some reason but I've always liked it........even when I worked overseas and was in a place where receiving mail was possible one always found it's way to me around Xmas time.
 
Philly, I have two year old dark fruitcake (I made it myself,) it is covered with marzipan and royal icing. I am eating a huge wedge of it right now! Nanananana. I will have homemade Xmas pudding for Xmas this year also.
 
Shalimar said:
Philly, I have two year old dark fruitcake (I made it myself,) it is covered with marzipan and royal icing. I am eating a huge wedge of it right now! Nanananana. I will have homemade Xmas pudding for Xmas this year also.
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You, m'Lady, are a tart of the first order. Stand and deliver! :pirate:

*falls to the floor dramatically, weeping*
 
Tart eh?? I also have jars and jars of homemade mincemeat---containing no meat but containing most of the same ingredients as my pudding and Xmas cake. In December I shall make mince tarts in large muffin pans, using my trademark all butter pastry......take that, you fiendish highwayman! Canadianim never give up their Xmas baking!!!!! Weep on you cad!!!
 
Shalimar said:
Tart eh?? I also have jars and jars of homemade mincemeat---containing no meat but containing most of the same ingredients as my pudding and Xmas cake. In December I shall make mince tarts in large muffin pans, using my trademark all butter pastry......take that, you fiendish highwayman! Canadianim never give up their Xmas baking!!!!! Weep on you cad!!!
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Zounds, m'Lady - thy cruelty is matched only by thy wickedness!

Actually I've never understood mince - what is it? Animal? Vegetable? Mincemeat - so there's some kind of animal in it?

Thinking back, I can say that never in my life have I had mince of any sort.

Highwayman? HIGHWAYMAN?!? The lowest form of humanity! I am, I shall have you know, a privateer, fully licensed and approved by good King George himself!!!
 
I believe originally mincemeat did contain meat Phil, now it depends on the recipe. Personally I don't see the point. I prefer mine which tastes like fruitcake. Do you like shortbread? I think the word mince means ground up.
 
Shalimar said:
I believe originally mincemeat did contain meat Phil, now it depends on the recipe. Personally I don't see the point. I prefer mine which tastes like fruitcake.
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So it's a ... a base ingredient of some sort, that can be flavored?

Do you like shortbread?
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Once again I must confess my ignorance of normal life - I've never had shortbread either. I thought shortbread was pig kidneys ...

I think the word mince means ground up.
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Ah, okay. So when I make mashed potatoes I could call them mincepotatoes?
 
Ok. Mincemeat which is a dessert, contains a mixture of fruit, spices, butter, and either fruit juice or booze. I can it in jars. Shortbread is a rich desert cookie or bar, made of primarily flour, butter, sugar. Sooo good. About the potatoes I suppose you could call them minced if you wish. Lol.
 
Shalimar said:
Philly, I have two year old dark fruitcake (I made it myself,) it is covered with marzipan and royal icing. I am eating a huge wedge of it right now! Nanananana. I will have homemade Xmas pudding for Xmas this year also.
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Shal, my great grandfather was a chef and our family has been using his boiled fruit cake recipe since around 1880. Passed down from generation to generation.
 
I have very fond memories of family Thanksgivings and xmas as a child and young adult. Obviously, being in the UK there is no Thanksgiving celebration here. We flew to Michigan to be with family every xmas since I moved here from 2000 to 2011, but no longer do so. Instead we find summer visits much more fun, although I do miss xmas day itself. But I don't miss the snow, slush and cold.

I always feel nostalgic on Thanksgiving Day, but it wouldn't help to go back to be with family as what I miss is my parents, grandparents, great aunts and uncles...everyone who is gone.
 
I recon we should celebrate the Spring and Autumn Equinox and the Summer and Winter Solstice. Four equally spaced NATURAL events and probably the origins of many religious festivals. (We do tend to celebrate the winter solstice)
 
And what about Rudoph?
 

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