Thread: black friday
View Single Post
Old 11-29-2010, 04:31 AM   #13
desertblues
Home for the moment
desertblues ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.desertblues ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.desertblues ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.desertblues ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.desertblues ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.desertblues ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.desertblues ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.desertblues ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.desertblues ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.desertblues ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.desertblues ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
desertblues's Avatar
 
Posts: 5,127
Karma: 27718936
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: travelling
Device: various
No Black Friday in The Netherlands, as Christmas wasn't a gift-giving tradition, until a few years ago. Our family goes for St Nicolas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

I bought all my gifts for St Nicolas on 5 december; for us and the neighbors and their 3 girls….that was the easy part, as we had agreed not to spend more than $40 per person.
For the neighbors we'll put the presents in a jute bag; bang hard on their door and run away so they won't see who brought the gift.

Now the difficult one:
Each gift has to be accompanied by a poem: preferably a long one, mentioning the weak and strong points of the recipient. But always mild and funny. Some years I made about 40 poems; for every tiny present, traditional chocolate character (I get a J) or traditional marzipan pig.
This year I've only got 12 poems to compose.

A lot of family's also make a special project of their presents; they disguise it as something typical for the recipient. For example; a video-lover will get a present that looks like a video-recorder on the outside. The aim of this disguises: to have a laugh and to make it hard to get to the present.
We don't do it any more in our family, as it really can be a lot of work.
desertblues is offline   Reply With Quote