# Do you like Christmas?



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Do you like Christmas? 
The holiday - the festival - the institution, I mean. I wouldn't want this to be a thread about religion, but rather, your 'Christmas habits'. Peace & Goodwill to all! 

So - do you like Christmas? Do you tick off Present Lists, store up recipes, have your cake ready months before, electrify the front of your house?

Or do you hate it - the overeating, the commercialism, the sentimentality, the whole caboodle?

Or are you like me - like some bits of it, loathe others?

I like - going to church; getting and receiving cards; Christmas Dances with dancers wearing zany clothes & decorations; traditional carols. Christmas decorations (in moderation); some bargains.

I hate - overeating; shopping crowds; naked greed; hypocrisy; being trapped with relatives; horrible TV; overdone Christmas decorations; 'swinging' Christmas carols.

I'd love to hear your views. :tiphat: Thanks in advance for any replies. Oh, and Happy Christmas! :angel:


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## poptart (Jul 15, 2013)

I think I've gone through all the extremes. Loved it as a child, and when my own family were young it regained that wonder of anticipation. Then it became a drudge, nothing but worry and hard work and eye-watering credit card bills. Now I don't feel strongly about it at all, but try to enjoy it as much as I can.

Happy Christmas to you too!


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Love the lot of it! The religious and the social. I take part in as much as is decent. Advent and all the preparation, the early morning mass, the gift giving.

But I also love the food, cakes, Christmas pudding, meeting friends for drinks. Today we bring my parents for a Christmas lunch. Later in town, meet a pal for a few drinks. I like the atmosphere in town too, all the drunken panic and frenzy, the carols and charities, the lights and the hurried faces. Films on TV! Can't wait to watch the last two Harry Potter movies while noshing on Christmas cake. 

But it I only "began" my Christmas yesterday, buying a tree and listening to Christmas fm radio. Up until now I had ignored it all, apart from the really important part, which happens in the church...


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Growing up in Scotland, Christmas was a bit of a non-event. The feast has no biblical sanction and as such was not celebrated by the Church of Scotland. My mother used to tell of the minister's wife ostentatiously sewing in the manse window (providing it wasn't the Sabbath) to show that there was nothing special about Christmas. The big do, celebrated by everybody, was Hogmanay (aka New Year's eve aka a night of festive jollity). The Scots have done well out of Bank Holidays. Now they have Christmas and Boxing Day as do the English, but they have *two *days off for New Year as well.

Having said that, we always enjoyed Christmas - midnight mass with the choir singing carols beforehand and then family round for lunch. As Kieran says, the best part is the religious celebration.

Nowadays, with the Christmas shopping season starting in mid September the whole thing has become far too commercial. This is from 1962, but sums up the trivialisation of Christmas;






Having said all that, I do enjoy nice food, family round and especially the atmosphere in church at midnight mass.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

I like Christmas, so long as I can do what I want. That usually involves an intimate family gathering and then curry for dinner. I personally have rejected the commercial aspect of the holiday. That said, it is a bit awkward when relatives show up at my house with a large haul of presents, and all they get off me as an ear-bashing over the vices of and consumerism and greed.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

I do...We celebrate both catholic and orthodox christmass but catholic more...I love the spirit and positive energy


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

I love it. I don't love the exams that approach almost directly afterwards....


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

I'm mostly ambivalent. Parts of it I enjoy, parts I don't. 

I resent the commercial aspect, yet enjoy buying gifts for people. I hate what the "Christmas Shopping Season" has done to Thanksgiving day, though. If I were dictator of the world, I would decree that all the gift giving take place on New Year's Day, which is a secular celebration, and leave Christmas to the religiously observant as a purely holy day for them.

The lights, decorations, music, and time off are pretty cool, though.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

I love all the bad things as long as religion doesn't come into it.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)




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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

moody said:


> I love all the bad things as long as religion doesn't come into it.


The eating, drinking & merry-making? Then for you, they are 'good things'! 
(Reminds me of Hamlet: 'There's nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so'...)


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Beautiful day 'ere dont like the dark clouds...Anyway it is the same day as once a day of ''Our Lord And Protector Sol Invictus''...So it kinda covers both pagan and christian beliefs...


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

That reminds me of the story of the Oxford (or Cambridge) student who said he was a sun-worshipper in order to avoid having to get up early to attend college chapel; the next morning he was woken at 4.00 am - 'The Master's compliments - dawn will be breaking in twenty minutes!'


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

No other holiday holds as much magic.
I LOVE IT ALL. the gifts, lights, music, food, spirit, crowds, EVERYTHING.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Ingélou said:


> The eating, drinking & merry-making? Then for you, they are 'good things'!
> (Reminds me of Hamlet: 'There's nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so'...)


Yes because I'm strictly non-religious,what did you think I meant ?


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I've always had a special place in my heart for the Christmas season, because the anticipation of it is almost as fun as the day (night for my family) itself. It's the time of year when I really get back to my Scandinavian roots, where we do all the traditions that my mom and dad have passed down. The MUSIC, the foods, the Advent candles, the decorations, the overall atmosphere in the home is so endearing.

I've really come to miss the anticipation of Christmas ever since coming to college. In grade school, the anticipation went wild because I would help with all the preparation, and I would long for school to be over. However, now when I'm in college, I'm not at home either, so I don't partake so much in the preparations (I did get to decorate the Christmas tree this year, however). Concerts, Finals Week and Jury fill up my whole mind during December so that it races by much more quickly than it use to. What? Today is the 20? Where did all that time go?? I remember in grade school that each day dragged out arduously. And when I move back home tomorrow night, there's only a few days for me to get acclimated to the Christmas spirit for real! I've listened to some Christmas music on the internet, but it's just not the same as the particular albums my mom gets out to play in the house the whole days: Swedish/Finnish carols, Classical renditions of carols, the Nutcracker, and much more. I feel that almost the best part of Christmas (the anticipation) has been taken away from me these past years, and it's hard to make up.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

I love Christmas for what it is, and I hate it for what it tries to be (ie., commercialism, too many lights, corny movies)

And then there are all the sappy Christmas songs. A straight week of neo-classical Stravinsky is the perfect cure for Christmas Sap Overdosage! Highly recommended.


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

I've always been indifferent to all the specially appointed holidays. Last December 31, when I hadn't planned something with friends as I usually would, I was taking a shower when the clock hit 0:00; only the festive bangs of fireworks reminded me of the time. Christmas is similar, as it hardly alters my behavior or my outlook, and since it isn't very important here, I scarcely notice it to begin with.

Actually, now that I think about it, I do like Valentine's Day - a nifty excuse to ask someone out!


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

I like the idea of Christmas just fine, but the reality of it being a holiday of overtly material indulgence is a turn off.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

I love Christmas, the religious side and not. I love going to church around Christmas time, the advent wreath, the Nativity scene and I love listening to Christmas classical music like oratorios and such. But I also like the secular side with the gift-giving and the ornaments and decorations and the shopping. All in all, always a great time of year, even if I'll never see snow here in the Bay Area


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## Pantheon (Jun 9, 2013)

I certainly enjoy the cold, the walking with several layers of coats and gloves, hate the fact that here the chances of a white Christmas are about as negligible as those of a blue moon appearing. 
I love Christmas markets and looking for presents, although I hate the consumerism and fuss, like most people I suppose. "Small is beautiful"?? 
We have a tradition in our family to watch/read A Christmas Carol to revive the spirit. 
However I'm annoyed by the fact that my parents seem to buy tree decorations every year even though our tree is completely bursting with various baubles and tinsel. Oh well, spread the Christmas cheer !


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Yes, _storing_ the Christmas decorations during the year is a bother. Artificial trees are a faff - Prince Albert has a lot to answer for! 

Ours are kept on the top (inside the wooden parapet) of our Victorian wardrobe. The crib figures are wrapped in tissue inside a biscuit tin; we have fairy lights & a fibre optic tree (doesn't need baubles - we used to have a cat); also a poly-bag of trashy bits, such as *Taggart's Christmas sporran attachment*, a legless felt-bodied Rudolph. 
(One of these days I'm going to sabotage it. :devil

I rely on our display of cards, blutacked onto the fireplace, to make the lounge festive. I only put one strand of tinsel up, stretched across the mantelpiece; otherwise I use the glitzy tat for the *Haggis Supper Dance*, between Christmas and New Year, as our hostess stipulates 'tinsel a must'.

(It's worth making a twerp of oneself for the haggis, imported from Scotland!  )

How about you all? Do you have a real tree? Where do you keep the stuff the rest of the year?


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Ingélou said:


> *Taggart's Christmas sporran attachment*, a legless felt-bodied Rudolph.
> (One of these days I'm going to sabotage it. :devil


Of course Rudolph is legless, that's why he's got a red nose!


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Real tree, things kept in attic, thank goodness no Taggart's Christmas sporran attachment that Ingélou will eventually sabotage D), little glass figures, yes, no tinsel, yes lights, glass bulbs/ornaments, etc.. 

I do have a favorite glass ornament that I have had since I was around 3 years old. It's gold, nicely shaped, and wonderfully decorated itself. It goes somewhere under the star near the top of the tree every year.


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

From my one of my fav comic books


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Speaking of Rudolph


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

tree was erected today !! a bit late this year. No work for 2 weeks, just hanging around, walking the dogs, listening to classical music, cooking a bit more attentive (but nothing ridiculous here..), yeah I quiet like Christmass.
We've dealt with the family-issues years ago and we are old enough to walk our own path, so non of the negative stuff around this holiday here. 
Bourgeois cocooning rules !! 

And best wishes to all here, ofcourse

cheers,
Jos


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## JohnnyRotten (Aug 10, 2013)

Yes, I like Christmas for the excuse of over indulgence. Then comes the penance!


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

There is so much death and darkness and primitive feelings i like something thats beyond that, shining...Beautiful


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I hate that I am so often bullied into participating. This is the part that makes me furious. If folks wouldn't bully people, having such high expectations of participation to the point of tedium and exhaustion, I might -- _might_, I say! -- find it endurable.

Here is a very long rant I posted as a video. The vid turned out pretty awful. I want to re-do it, so no link. It's aimed mostly at Americans because I think we may have the most grueling hoopla about this holiday. Of necessity a little bit of religion is brought up, but only to help explain my background and aversion to the season. Names have been changed so clues to the video are not evident. (I gotta remember to take the thing down soon.)



Weston's Long Video Rant said:


> Hello, folks!
> 
> I confess I am a huge fan of progressive or non-mainstream rock music, particularly that of the classic band Jethro Tull. I enjoy them so much, I think everyone else should too. In fact I propose a world wide holiday, Jethro Tull Day! It should either be October 25, the release date of the band's first album, or March 30, the 1674 birth date of the agronomist for whom the band was named.
> 
> ...


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Ah, Weston, thank you, I was really hoping you'd participate. It's good to know people's views.

I can sympathise with quite a lot of your 'rant'. In the UK, there's a growing market for quiet or 'alternative' Christmas holidays, but they're expensive, so maybe just chilling out with a sympathetic friend might be the way to go?

Taggart & I have always had to go to rellies' houses or host Christmas for my mother, except for *one* year. We saw my mother on a day trip on Boxing Day, & my in-laws in the New Year, so Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were ours. We went to Midnight Mass - magical - then lay in bed the next morning *for as long as we wanted*. We ate beef sandwiches, watched films on telly, played scrabble, popped out for a short walk - to tell the truth, I don't entirely remember. The details have all melded together in *a golden haze of bliss*!

Hope you find your own customised Christmas Cloud soon! All Good Wishes for You-Know-What!


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Flamme said:


> There is so much death and darkness and primitive feelings i like something thats beyond that, shining...Beautiful


That's nice, Flamme.
I'll reciprocate with my favourite carol, to mark the _Feast of the Unconquerable Son_...


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Can't say about Christmas because it's not celebrated here. But we celebrate Diwali, and I hate that because of all the fireworks, the pollution, the "festivity" and all the stuff about being supposed to be happy on a specific day. I could forgo all the stupid festivals for as long as I'm alive...


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Ingélou said:


> Ah, Weston, thank you, I was really hoping you'd participate. It's good to know people's views.


My sincerest hope is that I do not throw a wet blanket on others' enjoyment of the holiday, or that anyone feels I'm pointing a finger at specific individuals -- especially in this forum. All I was hoping for is a little courtesy for myself and others if we choose not to participate. Also the rant was for like-minded individuals to feel they are not alone. Fortunately I have wonderful friends who respect my needs this time of year, and so does my family now. They are laudable folk for putting up with an aging eccentric uncle.


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## Igneous01 (Jan 27, 2011)

I dont really care - I still work and live the same way that I do on any other day. Christmas to me is nothing special, just another day, like any other.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Ingélou said:


> Do you like Christmas?
> ...


Kind of depends, I've had some good Christmases, some bad ones, and in between ones. There's also the issue of what's going on in life in the time leading up to Christmas (and the attached New Year period), and also what comes after. So its a time to reflect on what's happened in the year, the good, the bad and the downright ugly. I do like that aspect of tuning out around this time, even though sometimes its difficult to kind of peace amidst all the hoopla going on.

I'm not a fan of the commercialisation of Christmas, but I suppose its a thing retailers rely on to get a big of a boost in their sales. I like giving and recieving presents but go by the axiom of 'its the thought that counts,' not necessarily the price tag attached. I like a good meal and treating myself, but everything in moderation. I sometimes attend church on the day too, the choirs put extra effort at this time to make the music great, and it usually is.

One thing I like is the buses decorated by the drivers, its even more quirky when you see Santa Claus driving the bus as well:










Can't help but smile when I see them or get on board and reply "Merry Christmas!" Even when I'm not in such a great mood!


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Love most of it, hate just a bit.

Love seeing family, eating great food, the aura of the season, the lights, the smells, the joy, all wonderful.
Hate the lame santa ads, hate how crazy malls get, hate people who only think about what gifts they're gonna get


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Ingélou said:


> Do you like Christmas?
> The holiday - the festival - the institution, I mean. I wouldn't want this to be a thread about religion, but rather, your 'Christmas habits'. Peace & Goodwill to all!
> 
> So - do you like Christmas? Do you tick off Present Lists, store up recipes, have your cake ready months before, electrify the front of your house?
> ...


I love Christmas. I think it is a cultural aspect of many societies irrespective of religious background. It just brings people together in a good way.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I'm more of a Mōdraniht man, myself.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I've just read a really good article on *A Christmas Carol* by Simon Callow (who's published a biography of Dickens). He points out that Dickens wrote the book not in a haze of sentimentality but with white-hot anger at the inhuman treatment of poor children. I think the quotation he gives from Scrooge's nephew Fred is spot on:

*I have always thought of Christmas time as the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men & women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.*

Obviously we are not the class-ridden Victorians who think consciously of some people as being 'below us', but the thought has its own modern relevancies.

I would like to do what Scrooge vows to do: '*I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year*.'


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## Ebab (Mar 9, 2013)

Ingélou said:


> Do you like Christmas?


_
[Copying from another thread:]_ Where have we come from? - Sense our roots. Find the strength to move forward again, our aims re-adjusted, with a refreshed sense for the truly essential.

And it isn't necessarily all enticing. For me, this time also deals with grief, with open issues, with feelings of inadequacy …

Right now, I don't feel so well, but it's part of the game, and I wouldn't want to suppress it.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Ingélou said:


> I've just read a really good article on *A Christmas Carol* by Simon Callow (who's published a biography of Dickens). He points out that Dickens wrote the book not in a haze of sentimentality but with white-hot anger at the inhuman treatment of poor children. I think the quotation he gives from Scrooge's nephew Fred is spot on:
> 
> ...


Yes Dickens was a campaigner for the poor, he came from an underpriveleged background himself, and he contributed to the move to give the poor basic rights such as education. He was passionate about this, his novels did come from his experiences in some respects, there's a view that Great Expectations has autobiographical elements.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Ingélou said:


> I would like to do what Scrooge vows to do: '*I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year*.'


This, exactly. I wonder how many who are quick to raise the Scrooge epithet have actually read this story. It is more to do with misanthropy. Christmas is but the setting. For those who need a holiday to remind them to be generous once a year, so be it. It's not a bad thing if that's what it really does I suppose.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

@Sid James: 'David Copperfield' also - particularly the experience of working in the blacking factory, which scarred Dickens for life, and Mr Micawber is based on Dickens' father. 

We watched 'A Christmas Carol' on TV yesterday & I was struck by the fact that the superior turkey replaced the goose at the end. Of course, the Victorians began by feasting on roast beef. I wonder, do TC members eat a traditional Christmas dinner, or do you prefer your own version? Any vegetarians, is there a 'non-meat' traditional dinner?


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## Ebab (Mar 9, 2013)




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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

I no longer do anything for Christmas except go to church on Christmas Day.


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

The local classical station has gotten a little carried away with the Christmas music.

In the last two days I've heard a string quartet arrangement of Frosty The Snowman three times, which is about 2.5 times more than I needed to hear a string quartet arrangement of Frosty The Snowman.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Well, whether you like Christmas or not


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)




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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Ingélou said:


> That reminds me of the story of the Oxford (or Cambridge) student who said he was a sun-worshipper in order to avoid having to get up early to attend college chapel; the next morning he was woken at 4.00 am - 'The Master's compliments - dawn will be breaking in twenty minutes!'


Certainly that was during a summer semester, summer solstice at that!


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

For me, Christmas is mostly the good cooking that comes between Thanksgiving and Easter good cookings. Watching the kids go loopy with excitement used to be good too, but none of them are kids anymore. Still, Christmas with tribal members is way better than a colonoscopy.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Ukko said:


> ...Still, Christmas with tribal members is way better than a colonoscopy.


Well put it this way - there's not much that's worse than the medical procedure which you talk about! :lol:


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Gorged myself in New Year's Eve Buffet yesterday. I am so stuffed. Filipinos are very fanatic about Christmas. We celebrate it starting in September until the First week of January.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

I was going to write about my resentment about the fact that, while the whole world is celebrating Christmas on December 25th, the "big holiday" here is only New Year on December 31st/January1st and then the "Orthodox" Christmas on January 7th, and how left out and trapped in a cage this fact makes me feel when all the friends I have in the West start sending Christmas cards, but I have changed my mind halfway through writing.

Yes, I love this time of the year. There is a special feeling in the air - merriment and festivity. It is also the time to step back and do a revision of the year that has gone by - all that has happened good and bad, and all the ways you have grown as a human being.

I used to celebrate in all kinds of ways - from big noisy parties, to staying at home and reading the Bible like the old Puritans did (that was at the time when I was far more religious than now), to a quiet get-together with my family. Not sure yet what I will do now - probably get some champagne and spend the night on Skype with my man, joining in my family's celebration from time to time.

As for the materialism and shopping craze - we human beings have not yet lost the will and ability to decide for ourselves, how much we want to participate in that part of Christmas, right? No reason to reject the whole thing because of just one aspect of it.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

We've been listening to Christmas music for a few days already, in less than an hour we start our Christmas six course dinner that I prepared (with plenty of excellent wines), and tomorrow we have a family dinner at my brother's. If only my father would still be there, it would be perfect.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Art Rock said:


> We've been listening to Christmas music for a few days already, in less than an hour we start our Christmas six course dinner that I prepared (with plenty of excellent wines), and tomorrow we have a family dinner at my brother's. If only my father would still be there, it would be perfect.


I feel the need to express the often expressed; as long as you remember him, he is there. This evening I will raise a glass to my siblings, who have all gone on before me, yet are still with me. Because love doesn't die with the flesh.

:cheers:


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

The cottage hearth beams warm and bright,
The candles gaily glow;
The stars emit a kinder light
Above the drifted snow.

Down from the sky a magic steals
To glad the passing year,
And belfries sing with joyous peals,
For Christmastide is here!
—Christmas

Merry Christmas to all!


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

By HP Lovecraft


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Cool retro mostly american music  Soo soothing especially in combination with crackling of the woods in fire...


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## Ebab (Mar 9, 2013)

Art Rock said:


> We've been listening to Christmas music for a few days already, in less than an hour we start our Christmas six course dinner that I prepared (with plenty of excellent wines), and tomorrow we have a family dinner at my brother's. If only my father would still be there, it would be perfect.


 I'm sure that you miss him.

Two years ago, we celebrated Christmas with my father for the last time. He always really enjoyed family celebrations. At the time he was terminally ill, but as fate happily allowed, he was able to sit by the table like always and enjoy the company especially of his two beautiful granddaughters. He ate very little, took only one sip of wine (which was not a good sign), and excused himself early, but really, there was no need for him to feel embarrassed in any way (which he would have loathed); the conversation and the mood _really_ was - almost - as casual and merry as always.

My father died only eight days later - which none of us had really anticipated, but we were lucky to have wonderful professional help, and they kindly but firmly made us realize just soon enough so we could make our good-byes (but that's another story).

Anyway, I will never forget that Christmas with my father. We were once more all together, and he was _among_ us, _loved_, and I couldn't be more thankful for that sentiment.


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