Holiday Photos anyone?
 

Who wants to start a holiday photo thread? I do!
Anything, holiday plants, decorations, etc...

Here's mine.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3784/1...812d20a8a1.jpg
Angel at Rockefeller Center by tindomul1of9, on Flickr

Sixth Avenue
 

near Bryant Park.

I need to take a good picture of those large red ornamental balls on the fountain, too. I love those!! :D

Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Disney's Hollywood Studios - every year in December, and really really nice, at least it feels a little bit like Xmas:evil:

Pretty NYCorchidman!

---------- Post added at 12:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:05 AM ----------

Tindomul, I was looking for many many years to be in NY right around the xmas time, and see in my imagination spectacular decorations everywhere. Such a disappointment for me, when I went to NY for the first time in winter:-( It still feels more Christmasy in NY than here in Miami for sure, and I went there many time during Christmas since that first time, however I can honestly say that any European city beats NY in decoration 100x times:-))) Let me not even start about these sweet street markets in Paris, or Vienna or Prague with hot wine cooked with sugar and cinnamon sticks, fresh baked goodies, polish sausage "euro" hotdogs with anything you can imagine on the top:-) I think that's what I miss the most from Europe, our Christmas!

Wow, they go nuts with decorations by you guys. Nice stuff!

---------- Post added at 12:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:12 AM ----------

I have to agree. In Colombia at Christmas time, its just a riot of lights and colour and nativity scenes, and everything else. In comparison, it is kinda dull around here.

The best part about that is that there is awesome music synchronized with the light shows, mostly Trans-Siberian Orchestra plus famous Christmas songs, it is really nice to see:-) Here in Miami, every single palm tree has the lights already since November:-)

True about some European cities. :)

NYC, as dull as it is, is still probably the best in the US as other places are basically just big ol same house with similar boring Wal Mart bought decorations everywhere! lol

I think it's mostly just some expensive stores along 5th avenue, and a few nice department store show window displays, and a few corporate buildings on the 6th avenue. that's about it. :yawn:

enough for me, though. :)

True true Tindomul, unfortunately Christmas in the USA is very commercialized and all about shopping. It is very different back in home, we do care more about traditions at this holiday time, every family is baking whole December traditional Christmas cookies, decorating inside and outside the house, and than during xmas itself keeping centuries old traditions, traditional foods and treats, it is very different than here:-) I have never ever felt like xmas in Florida, it is also our hot weather, no snow. BUT I do keep Czech traditions, and I am already baking our traditional cookies, the first finished are linzer tart cookies, very traditional Czech cookie, will follow by chocolate rum balls, rum punch truffles and from Scandinavia nut rolls made from cream cheese dough:-) And of course, home made eggnog with our European rum (rum in Europe is made from potatoes, totally different flavor:-)))))!

I spent one Christmas in Ft. Lauderdale and it was pretty much typical US town in Christmas without snow. lol

kind of like many towns in Cali.

NYC decoration really sucks, as you said NYCorchidman, one big tree at Rockefeller's with huge crowd, and lighted stars on the Fifth avenue, that's pretty much it! I do like to spend holidays in the mountains, love Colorado - spent pretty much last 5 Christmases in Breckenridge or Aspen, decoration there, in these small cities, is much better than the whole NY:-)))) Jackson Hole is not bad also, so is Lake Tahoe:-)

I used to live up in the Rocky area. had enough of snow. lol

Here is a photo from 2 years ago, I think. This is on the market square (with the church in the center of it) of Wageningen, the Dutch town where I live. I like this photo, it looks like something out of a Dickens novel.

The holiday season has been in full swing since mid-november, since the Dutch are celebrating Saint Nicolas on the 5th (called Sinterklaas). It's the main gift giving holiday here. It's even better than Christmas I think. When you give gifts you also have to write a silly poem with it that hints about the gift contents, and there's a tradition in many families of making a 'surprise' to give the gift. Basically you take your wrapped gift, and then re 'wrap' it in a funny or complicated way (sort of like the box in a box in a box...). Or you give 2 gifts, and serious one, and a joke gift (ex: a friend who loves puzzles got a smashed vase with a tube of glue, in a convincingly done box.) And instead of everyone all opening the presents at once, they are done one by one, with the poems read to all that are present.
Ok it's also become a commercial holiday, but it's more about the act of giving/receiving than about the gift itself.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7289/1...c306f44c_b.jpg

Christmas here in the UK has become so commercialised to these days. Some towns/cities do a good job with decorations, others not so much. I'll try and find some shots from last year when I get home, haven't been anywhere that's been done up so far this year.

Rosie, it's getting that way everywhere, unfortunately. I do remember the times when we used to make the gifts for our parents, and friends, even creating the Christmas cards and wrapping material every single year. It was not about the gifts so much. I do remember xmas in good old England, went to go to Kingston couple times in December, Trafalgar square had always nice decorations:-) I still do carry little bit of that here, this year's gifts for all my friends are my own orchid calendars with my own pictures, that I did create, I do calendars often, each year with different theme, or use my pictures and have some gifts created with them - one year I had the pictures printed on these mugs that are black but once you pour hot water, the picture appears, very cool! And the best gift for me is always some trip, I love to travel, and I do cherish travel memories so so much more than expensive gifts:-)

Some of my favourite gifts for the last several years have been the home-made cake and sweets from my uncle and aunt. Another aunt has made jewellery as gifts in the past (which she now does for a living as well) :)

Wow. I'm surprised to hear that my town beats NYC. I'll head downtown to take some pics. Our Christmas decor is mostly put on by local businesses, but the sense of community here is something I haven't experienced anywhere else I've lived. It sounds like it would be wonderful to spend Christmas in Europe though.

Looking forward to see the pics:-) Yeah, the plan was for this year to head back home for xmas, it just did not work out, so we hope next year we are all packed and ready to go there, hubby, doggies, whole enchilada:-)))

Awwwwwwww now you making me want an eggnog and a Linzer tart-- I remember those from when we lived in germany--yummy

---------- Post added at 04:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:27 PM ----------

Beautiful Photo-should be on a Postcard.
Saint Nicolas ( Sinterklaas) we had this too in germany -there they called him ( Nickolaus) I hope i spelled it correctly--- i forgot too many words already :(
at Night you put your Shoes on the windosill and in the morning you find some goodies in your shoes :)

Orchids4ever, linzer's are ready in the fridge, always the first thing I bake:-) and so delicious! And I think many Euro countries have St. Nicolas, we have him in Czech as well:-) It happens on the 6th December, in the evening time, he walks always with devil and angel, and he knocks at the door, if the kids were good the whole year round, their stockings are going to be filled with small toys, treats, and fruit, if they were bad than there will be only coil! However, no matter how bad we were, it always ends with the good stuff, of course, but scary as hell when you are little kit too:-) I loved it!

Talking about holiday decorations, I always loved Christmas tree, I would love to see pictures of different ones here. or a years I was decorating very same tree, silver blue with glass icicles, drops, and our loved Swarovski and Tiffany crystal decorations! it was always so gorgeous, however juts to decorate the tree took me over 2 hours, there is probably over 50 Swarovski and Tiffany crystal figurines, all carefully packed in small tiny boxes, so I had to take every one out of the box, and place on the tree, the same with icicles and drops. This year, since I have no time and much mood to do it, I decided to go with old decoration we had when my sister was there with the kids - small teddy bear and other plush decorations, and red theme, and I must say, it was some 30 minutes job but it looks cute too! Let's see some pictures of other decorations, I love to see what people do and use!
Firs pics are crystal silver blue tree, the last 2 are this year!