disneytati

Shipping to Brazil is rarely available, and when they do ship to Brazil, it's too expensive. In this case, it would be more expensive than the calendar itself...

I had forgotten about Home Alone 1!!! I just love that movie!!! I've never watched Polar Express, I'll try to download it online...

I've never even seen one, only in pictures. I wanna buy one this year!!! I really hope I can find one for a good price up there in the US.

I still like doing that!!! It's more thrilling than unwrapping it carefully..

Oh, that's a cool price!!! Do you guys think I can get a calendar at a nice price when I go up there for Thanksgiving??

Could you explain to me what "squash" and "corn on the cob" are? We don't have them down here, I got kinda curious...

My husband is the one who wraps. I am not very good at this...

That's a very nice tradition, Amber! I would like to have that here!!

That's funny!!! My husband would like that one!!! He loves drills and tools. But most stockings here can't even hold stuff, they're fake stockings, just for decoration, as we don't have this tradition of putting stuff in them.

The traditions are the same, as most of them are "imported" from Europe and the US. We have the same carols, translated to Portuguese. Food is different, as it's high summer here, usually boiling hot (40°C!!!). That's what we serve in my house: rice "farofa" (roasted flour with butter and sausages) ham (I have no idea if it's similar to yours, but ours is decorated with peaches in syrup and cherries) turkey (sometimes) slaw (steamed potatoes and carrots with mayonnaise) or "salpicão" (grated carrots, chicken, ham, peas with mayonnaise) cheese (it's a spicy one that comes in a red can, in the shape of a ball)codfish snacks (smashed codfish with smashed potatoes, get this dough and make balls, then fry) fruit salad ice-cream "rabanadas" (slices of bread dunked in milk,then in beaten eggs and fried, then passed on sugar with cinnamon) homemade Christmas cake (family recipe that nowadays I am the only one who can make, as my grandma died and my mom never wanted to learn) "panetone" (something between cake and bread, with nuts, raisins and fruits inside) Sangria and Coke to drink Xmas trees are the same, but the smaller ones, as we rarelly have big houses here. We have the same decorations you have but with not as much options as you guys have up there. No outdoors decorations either, only lights on balconies and around window frames. Some streets have xmas light competitions among apartment buildings. Santa is exactly the same, they tried to create a new outfit for him (poor guys at the malls, they usually melt in those heavy winter suits!!!), like a topical/surfer/beach one, but people didn't like it. Kids didn't believe him that much... LOL So, they went back to the traditional one, even in the boiling hot brazilian summer!!!! I love Christmas. I would really like to spend Xmas up there once, as my approach to it is very similar to yours. People here don't enjoy holidays the same way you guys do, so it sounds kinda childish here the way I watch xmas movies, listen to xmas songs... I just don't fit, you know. This is the biggest issue in my life, I am brazilian but don't really like it. My tastes are very similar to yours, and I feel more at home when I am up there. I am trying to move up there next year. Maybe I'll get to see snow for the first time!!!!

In my family, we have a Secret Santa game. As we don't have much money, buying gifts for everyone is too expensive, and everyone ends up with very small gifts. So, the game is a way of getting everyone a nice gift. We usually leave my daughter out, as she's 2 years old, and everyone ends up buying her gifts anyway. We usually have a $20-$40 price range (in my currency, which is like $8-$16 dollars).

Well, I also have a mother-in-law nightmare before xmas story, so I guess in-law problems are the same all over the world... Last year I agreed to spend Christmas Eve at my mother-in-law's. Here, it's the main celebrations day, Dec 25th already has that after Christmas feeling... Anyway, it was 6PM, we were ready to leave home (with our baby and everything), she calls us and says: "can we postpone it? I am not feeling very well..." We hadn't prepared anything for ourselves, as we were going to have Christmas dinner there. I got sooo pissed!!!! How can someone "postpone" Christmas!?!?!?!! I rushed to the bakery, they sell Xmas dinner items to go, like a buffet. You pay by kilogram of food. Of course, at 6PM there were only leftovers... That's what we had for xmas dinner last year. Thank God we had a great lunch with my dad, and a big xmas dinner with my mom on Dec 25th. I'll never agree with such an idea again in my whole life!!!!

We don't have stockings here, as nobody has fireplaces at home... So we just don't have such tradition. We use stockings as decoration, sometimes. I have a big one, hanging on my front door, instead of a garland. But no stuffers.

It all depends on your point of view.... In some issues, I've been really naughty... but as I am a nice girl, I think Santa will give me that PC.

I usually have two family gatherings, with my mom and with my dad. This year, Christmas Eve is with my mom, and xmas day lunch with my dad. We open gifts on Christmas eve, except for Santa's (that's xmas morning).

I just love the Xmas treats you have up there!!! Like Xmas M&M's, cereal or cookes. I always bring them to my friends and family and they go like: xmas M&M's??? Cool!!!!!!!!! There's no such thing here.

I think advent calendars are sooo cute!!! We don't have such things here, but I think it's really cool. When my daughter grows up a little, I'll try to create this tradition with her, and then I'll buy a calendar up there in the US.

Well, here we have lots of different stuff, as it's usually boiling hot here at Christmas. At home, we usually serve: rice "farofa" (roasted flour with butter and sausages) ham (I have no idea if it's similar to yours, but ours is decorated with peaches in syrup and cherries) turkey (sometimes) slaw (steamed potatoes and carrots with mayonnaise) or "salpicão" (grated carrots, chicken, ham, peas with mayonnaise) cheese (it's a spicy one that comes in a red can, in the shape of a ball)codfish snacks (smashed codfish with smashed potatoes, get this dough and make balls, then fry) fruit salad ice-cream "rabanadas" (slices of bread dunked in milk,then in beaten eggs and fried, then passed on sugar with cinnamon) homemade Christmas cake (family recipe that nowadays I am the only one who can make, as my grandma died and my mom never wanted to learn) "panetone" (something between cake and bread, with nuts, raisins and fruits inside) Sangria and Coke to drink I just love Christmas supper!!!!

My husband has already asked me for a new shaver...

Mine too! But I have never seen the original version, though. I have the 1994 version, with Mara Wilson as Susan. But now my VCR is broken... I'll try to download it online and burn a DVD, so that I can start my Xmas tradition: Miracle on 34th Street, Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, A Christmas Carol... Every year, when November comes, I start watching such movies every day! PS: I am soooo happy that we have a holiday discussion forum!!!! People down here in Brazil just don't even talk about such things, it's kinda ridiculous here for an adult to watch xmas movies, and like them so much!! Very few people decorate their houses because they have fun doing it, they just do it because everybody does, or because their children keep asking them to. That's one more thing that adds to my theory that I was born here, but I am just not brazilian in spirit... sorry for the outburst... it's just that I feel homesick in my own country.

I wasn't going to Sears, but now I'll have to, as my daughter wants that Barney Laptop.... I just hope I can get out of Walmart soon enough.

Yeah, I totally agree!!!!!

How does snow feel like? I mean, the closest I've ever got to snow was when I went to Portugal, and it had snowed the day before, so I saw the snowed road from the bus window. I asked the driver to stop a little, but he couldn't... I wanted to touch it. So, how does it feel like? Could you try to describe it for me?

The most I'll do is to download songs and movies and burn them to a CD. I use the PC normally to internet, and to type stuff at Word.

So, we should be getting them anytime soon!!!