Both groups - Final discussion - Christmas

How do you celebrate Christmas? where will you be? What do you want? Christmas traditions in your family? Favourite ever present? Anything to do with Christmas put it here.

Christmas is the only period in the year when you can sing Mariah Carey's songs !
( I don't know if it's a good way to celebrate Christmas )

I prefer this one Morgane



And Christmas is the only period in the year when you can get dressed with this kind of pullover

Admin wrote:How do you celebrate Christmas? where will you be? What do you want? Christmas traditions in your family? Favourite ever present? Anything to do with Christmas put it here.

Most of the time in family with a tiny plastic christmas tree ; we open presents the 25th at noon. But we don't have a "tradition", all year is different.

This year I don't know if I will come back to Grenoble, I want to do a little travel in a foreign country - probably Amsterdam or Copenhaguen.

And I don't want anything but love #poetic #thatsnotwhyAmsterdam

ClémentJaunay wrote:

Admin wrote:How do you celebrate Christmas? where will you be? What do you want? Christmas traditions in your family? Favourite ever present? Anything to do with Christmas put it here.

Most of the time in family with a tiny plastic christmas tree ; we open presents the 25th at noon. But we don't have a "tradition", all year is different.

This year I don't know if I will come back to Grenoble, I want to do a little travel in a foreign country - probably Amsterdam or Copenhaguen.

And I don't want anything but love #poetic #thatsnotwhyAmsterdam

Amsterdam is a possibility, Love is extremely unlikely (unless you pay for it).

Hi,
Did you know that, English borrowed the word "noel" from French, (by the latin Natalis) ?
And the root for "noel" in french is the word "nouvelles", meaning “news.” (for the idea of birth probably).
Indeed, Christmas means conviviality, exchange, fairy but, I find that there are exaggerations or overstatements.



I think Christmas it is (ok a commercial event) a kind of "manner" to spend (time) with our family or near relation. But I think humans have a tendency to exaggerate...

Hello there !

I love Christmas, even though it became a little too much commercial... I enjoy the atmosphere, the decorations, the festive spirit, and I like offering gifts to my loved ones.
John, you may have seen it during our last class, that I totally offer super-great gifts !!!

I think Christmas is a good way to share things with your family, and to spend time with your loved ones. It also means holidays, and I like that !
When I lived in Grenoble, it snowed one time on Christmas Day, and the atmosphere was even more great.

In my family, we usually offer gifts on December the 24th, at midnight, but we don't have any other specific traditions. This year, I'm going to be in the south of the France for Christmas, in the very small city of "Port Barcares" (near to Perpignan).

I would have loved to celebrate Christmas in the "real" Santa Claus Village, in Rovaniemi, in Lapland, but as I'm leaving to Sweden in January, I hope I'll be able to catch up on this!

I have been to Rovaniemi and visited Father Christmas - with my children, of course.

Admin wrote:I have been to Rovaniemi and visited Father Christmas - with my children, of course.

Mister Admin,
And you ?
How do you celebrate Christmas ? With your family or your children ?
You come back to England ?
What do you want to order to Santa ?

Marion Le Moullec wrote:

Admin wrote:I have been to Rovaniemi and visited Father Christmas - with my children, of course.

Mister Admin,
And you ?
How do you celebrate Christmas ? With your family or your children ?
You come back to England ?
What do you want to order to Santa ?

My children have all grown up, got their own lives (and wives and kids) and they all live so far away.

Christmas with a young family is magical, Christmas with older kids is great but expensive, Christmas without kids is just sad and empty.

My wife and I and the dogs go away for Christmas eve and Christmas day to see and do something new and have lunch cooked for us (only 2 days because we don't want to leave the cats for longer than that). This year we've booked a nice hotel on the seafront at Getxo (Bilbao) and we'll spend the 2 days walking on a different beach and along the cliffs and looking at the architecture in Bilbao, drinking thick hot chocolate and listening to the sounds of a Spanish Christmas. then my wife will fly off to see our grand-daughters for a few days and I'll go back home with the pets and catch up on Stranger things, the Walking dead and some good books.

Admin wrote:

Marion Le Moullec wrote:

Admin wrote:I have been to Rovaniemi and visited Father Christmas - with my children, of course.

Mister Admin,
And you ?
How do you celebrate Christmas ? With your family or your children ?
You come back to England ?
What do you want to order to Santa ?

My children have all grown up, got their own lives (and wives and kids) and they all live so far away.

Christmas with a young family is magical, Christmas with older kids is great but expensive, Christmas without kids is just sad and empty.

My wife and I and the dogs go away for Christmas eve and Christmas day to see and do something new and have lunch cooked for us (only 2 days because we don't want to leave the cats for longer than that). This year we've booked a nice hotel on the seafront at Getxo (Bilbao) and we'll spend the 2 days walking on a different beach and along the cliffs and looking at the architecture in Bilbao, drinking thick hot chocolate and listening to the sounds of a Spanish Christmas. then my wife will fly off to see our grand-daughters for a few days and I'll go back home with the pets and catch up on Stranger things, the Walking dead and some good books.

I went twice in Bilbao : I advise you to visit the Guggenheim Museum by F. Gehry !
It's a beautiful architecture ! Gehry created a spectacular structure !

The highest part of the Museum is crowned by a big skylight in the shape of a metal flower.
You can admire the different configurations of each perspective. I remembered an impressive artworks installed in front of the museum by the french artist Louise Bourgeois : a very big spider !

My teacher of art history told me that the museum has been built around an enormous Richard Serra’s installation "The Matter of Time" and not the opposite !
The installation was installed first the museum ! (I don't know if I am clear but it is diffucult to explain...)




Richard Serra's installation : When you are in the installation it's a disconcerting, disturbing feeling !

Hello Guys !
I celebrate Christmas next to Châteauroux, at my grand mother house. Sometimes I go to the Cristmas mass because I find that the mass is warm with the decorations in the churches.
For diner, generally, in my family the dessert is a chocolate beech with chestnut cream. Furthermore, I love chocolate and christmas is the occasion to have the calendar of Chrismas.

Admin wrote:I have been to Rovaniemi and visited Father Christmas - with my children, of course.

What a Christmas ! Was it nice ? Did you celebrate Christmas below the nothern lights ? I guess your children were totally amazed ! Be a child and visit Rovaniemi might be wonderful !!

BROSSET Céline wrote:

Admin wrote:I have been to Rovaniemi and visited Father Christmas - with my children, of course.

What a Christmas ! Was it nice ? Did you celebrate Christmas below the nothern lights ? I guess your children were totally amazed ! Be a child and visit Rovaniemi might be wonderful !!

It was wonderful.

Cut down our own christmas tree. Sleigh rides with reindeer , Husky sledge rides, snowman making, ice cutting, ice fishing and lots of other things.

Hi there !
I will celebrate chrismas with my family ! I'm very happy when chrismas holidays comes, not because of the gifts but because I'm not very close to my family and Chrismas is the only way to be all together, at least one day, my little sister, big bro and my old parents AND of course my number one, my love, my sweetheart Gaspard  
I will celebrate the 24th in my little village of 476 inhabitants, deep deep deep in the countryside !
I will leave a glass of Whisky for my father under chrismas tree and then the 25th we will open the presents and then in the afternoon we will see my grandparents who lives at 20 meters of my home ahaha. Later I will passed the rest of the holiday in La Rochelle and Ré Island and then in the Pyrenees in Gourette where I will try to learn to ski  

Céline I want to visit you in Sweden !!!!

My love (don't be jealous) :

I will spend Christmas with my brother and his friends at Toulouse. Yes Andrea i am going to Toulouse too ! Maybe we will meet here. When i will be there i will tell you. My Sister is going to spend her Christmas Eve with her friends but i will stay in touch with my Dad and Mom in Morroco even if they are not into it. Christmas is :




What does this image mean to you ? Does it represent Christmas for you.

So, to me this Christmas will be a lot different. I always spend Christmas with my familly, on the beach, having a huge dinner during Christmas Eve. We put up a lot of Christmas decoration, we make homemade beer and we bake ginger cookies. In Brazil, Christmas happens in the summer, so being near the beach is the best option. So, it's a little bit sad that I can't be with them this year.

But, on the other hand, I have a friend coming from Brazil, and we are going to travel together from Christmas to New Year's Eve. Actually, during Christmas I'll be in Amsterdam, visiting the city for the first time.

I hope you all have a great Christmas!

Mayra! It looks so cool to celebrate Christmas in the sun but don't worry it's nice too with the freezing cold, you're more in the mood!

About me, it's a traditional Christmas day with family at home, I would like to celebrates it with my cousins because as you John Christmas without kids is a little bit sad, but my parents celebrates already the New Year with uncles...so it's not planned in the program!

Last year I visited the north east of France it was amazing during this period!!! Strasbourg, Colmar and Nancy! I really advise you to go see one day! better as Disney Land ahah!

Hi,
As you I will spend Christmas at home, with my family. (I'm looking forward). I like Christmas because this party brings everyone together to have a good time. But what I like most about Christmas is the meal, and especially the dessert with the Yule log. My favorite is the passion fruit
And Christmas would be nothing without its famous Christmas movies

I Wish you a Merry Christmas !

Pochic Morgane wrote:Christmas is the only period in the year when you can sing Mariah Carey's songs !
( I don't know if it's a good way to celebrate Christmas )

Best Christmas song ever 

This morning, the snow in Angouleme made me think that I hadn't spoken yet about my Christmas ! 

So at home, Noel = work, gifts, work and eat! As you know, my parents have a bakery so on the 24th I prepare a small meal and go to bed early because the next day is a very big day. And on the 25th December, I get up around 5 am, I open my gifts and after I decorate the logs with littles Santa Claus, Christmas tree and sugar mushrooms and I prepare all the orders to help my parents until 1 pm. Finally we celebrate Christmas with my all my family even if we are exhausted... But that's how I love Christmas 

Hello everyone !  
I love the christmas period. What I prefer the most is the decorations I think, I love the street and the shop at Christmas time ! Unlike you Marion, I love when the houses have a lot of decorations and lights, we don't have too much in France but in little villages in the north east of France there are some houses like that  
My parents are from Lorraine, so in my family we celebrate St Nicolas, at the first sunday of December (so today ). We have a small present to wait for Christmas and it's the day to decorate the christmas tree and the house.
When I was young I was living in Normandie, so each year we were going in Lorraine or in Les Vosges for celebrating Christmas with our family under the snow !
Now we are too far so approximately one year to two our family come in Angoulême for Christmas.
My big sister live in Suisse now so I hope we'll do a Christmas Eve there !

My Christmas will be like every year, i'll join my familly and we will celebrate Christmas in my grandmother house. It's always fun and we are going to eat tons of good stuff because my grandmother is one hell of a cook. I hope i'll get what i want for Christmas, i think i was nice enough this year ! I also hope that my little sisters and brother will like my gifts.

Hi lovely people !

Like everyone of you I like Christmas ! Everybody is happy and it is the time to reunit all the family around the same table.

During Christmas time, I love going to Christmas market. Strolling over there and especially drink hot red wine. I have never been to Strasbourg Christmas market but I really want to go someday. Have you ever been there ?




When I was younger the best was the presents but now it is just spending time with my family and EAT WELL. I try to cook in Angoulême but it's always better when my mum or grandma cooks. I look forward to come back to Rennes to eat and also see my cats As Clémence's cat they have fat !