This year, my family celebrated Christmas on the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving. We approach the holidays “creatively” and have previously celebrated Christmas at times ranging from Black Friday to The Day Itself. Thanksgiving and Christmas were combined about 15 years ago, when it became clear that gathering TWICE was simply impossible.
A designated “game master” defines our gift giving arrangement. This year my niece organized a combination of “Secret Santa” and “Jolabokoflod”. Jola…what?
Here’s an explanation of this popular new holiday tradition
This is how it worked for us. Each of us sent a (private!) message to the game master, listing:
- a book we wanted
- a favorite genre or author
- a pet peeve (I nixed historical fantasy fiction)
- OR our willingness to let Santa choose
SOMEBODY heard that in Iceland on December 24, families exchange books and spend the evening reading and drinking chocolate, or possibly eating chocolates. So we also submitted our chocolate preferences – dark or milky, soft or chewy, favorite brand… Turns out caramel sea salt/dark chocolate is the winner. Ghirardelli was the most popular brand. Seventeen family members participated.
Here’s the outcome:
We didn’t photograph the chocolate. Use your imagination!
*In case you are wondering, I used GoogleTranslate to approximate “merry” or “happy”. I wish you a Gleodileg Jolabokaflod! You can pronounce it any way you like.
I already finished reading my gift book. Stay tuned for a review!
AMG Reading Journal 