BS: I hate Christmas

Subject: BS: I hate Christmas
From: GUEST,skipy
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 07:53 AM

There is dicussion going on here at work (in our quality office) entitled "I hate Christmas".
I'll not state where I stand on this (yet) but what is the Cat's general oppinion?

Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Ron Davies
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 08:11 AM

Nothing wrong with Çhristmas. Just like anything else, it's what you make it. It's a lot more than Jingle Bell muzak--- for instance, in fact, some of the best and most fun music ever written was written for Christmas--even Jingle Bells has 3 verses--try singing them all. And you also don't have to be a captive of the "Hark the herald angels sing/ Advertising wondrous things" mentality.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Ron Davies
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 08:13 AM

In fact, you could even wait a little while to have this debate.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: greg stephens
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 08:16 AM

I love it. I do sod all but go boating, eat and drink loads, exchange presents, go for walks, read books, and play music for my own pleasure and dont do any gigs. Absolutely brilliant. And on the subject of folk mussic, the whole body of specifically Christmas music is excellent, from traditional carols to Rudolf. The only exception is "Have youselves a merry little Christmas", that's just vile.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 08:45 AM

I normally go abroad for Christmas Skippy now Toby has flown the nest and i am on my own.I love the way the Germans,Austrians and Italians celebrate Christmas.This year i am in Rome for the Vatican Speech from the pope and a well earned holiday.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Leadfingers
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 08:55 AM

There I was wondering why a SONG title was in BS - I have been performing the Adrian May/Chris Weger song of this name for more than twenty years !!!

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: muppett
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 09:10 AM

Nowt wrong with Christmas itself but it's all the Commercialism that goes with it and the falseness of it. What's the 'tis the season to be jolly' about, why can't we be 'jolly' all year round. Yep I know it dates back to the pre Christian tradition of mis rule and the coming back of the sun, but being jolly in the darkest dullest time of the year come on. Has Eid and Divali become Commercialised in the East like Christmas has in the West does anyone know.

I used to go camping up in the Dales over Christmas, till the locals started insisting that I had Christmas Dinner with them. One year I had 4 Christmas dinners at the local pub and in locals houses. Bar Humbug.

Having said that though when my Daughter was young I did enjoy the buying of presents and then watching the suprise on her face as she opened them and watching her in Christmas plays at school.
Last year my Grandson spent hours playing with the boxes rather then his toys we'd got him.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Jeanie
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 09:12 AM

Depending on family circumstances, Christmas can be a wonderful time, or a difficult and maybe lonely one. I think we all have our share of each kind, over the years. To be honest, I haven't enjoyed or looked forward to the past few Christmases: just me, my newly widowed mum, and my teenage daughter, all thrown together for so many days and each, in our own way, wishing for things to be different but knowing they can't be, and trying to make the most of it. Last year I felt, quite literally, like a Christmas cracker being pulled in two directions, trying to please everyone and pleasing no-one. But everything has its season, all things pass, and this year, for the first time in a long time, I am looking forward to the Christmas holiday. My mum has come to terms with things much more, my daughter's outlook on life is one year more grown up, and this will be my first Christmas with the new man in my life ! There is likely to be lots more laughter in our house this year. Last year, in the thick of a pretty grim time, I kept telling myself "It won't always be like this. All things will pass" - they do, and they have. For everyone not looking forward to their particular Christmas circumstances: please tell yourself this. It is true.

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 09:35 AM

there are bits I like, but all the crappy commericalism & false love I try to avoid. Ya gotta buy everyone expensive presents & get dressed up in Christmas finery & party & drink & eat, & party & eat & drink & spend, spend, spend. Then ya gotta visit & love all your disfunctional family & everyone lives happily after. Bah Humbug.

My preference is to contact the family members I want to contact; give money to a few charities; make small pressies that mean something to the people I want to give pressies to; spend the day by myself unless I decide to have brekkie with a group of friends; go to lunch with my section, rather than attend the noisy whole-of-office party; eat & drink the foods I normally have, except for my annual prawn (shrimp) feast which I eat at most meals over several days (yum); listen to my music & get on with crafty stuff.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 09:42 AM

I'm not fond of Christmas, and ever since breaking up with the fiancé, I find it pretty unbearable and lonely. The commercial side reallly annoys me. I do like the old family traditions, but am happy for them to remain as nostalgia. I'll be spending this Christmas in the Sahara somewhere south of Tripoli, all being well, so I think it's safe to say I won't be celebrating it!

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: alanabit
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 10:30 AM

The ones on my own in Cologne, with all my friends away were the loneliest days I can recall. However, most of them have been spent with family and friends. I currently have young children and I look forward to Christmas as much as they do. I always look forward to contacting old friends at this time. It's a good tradition and I love it.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Gypsy
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 11:04 AM

I love the Christmas season...........(yes, SEASON, it is far more than one day, ya know) commericalism is not a problem for me, since i don't buy into it. I do church work throughout the year in the community, but at this time, can get assistance doing it.   I love the renewel of this season.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 11:17 AM

I hate Christmas television programming which is for the most part, dreck.

I hate forced jollity and the expectation that everyone even celebrates the same holiday.

I hate the fact that people use it as an excuse to overeat, and overspend, and overindulge themselves in ways they wouldn't at other times of the year.

I hate that the Christmas lights down on Oxford Street here in London are the CHEESIEST lights I've ever seen and have been used again and again since gaslight went out.

My solution is to hide away until it's all done and dusted.

That part I love.

..xx..e

(But I AM looking forward to Sir jOhn from Hull adding something here. It'll make going through yet another Christmas well worth it!)

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: GUEST,Rasheed Sharma
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 11:38 AM

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: GUEST,Rasheed Sharma
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 11:40 AM

Nowt` wrong with Christmas. Our turnover was up over 16% last year. Roll on the 25th.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Folkien
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 11:41 AM

I love carols (even though I'm an atheist) and watching films like A Christmas Carol, but I don't like the commercialism and the way that the shops start putting out their christmas stuff in September! I prefer the pre-christian idea of celebrating the winter solstice.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: nutty
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 02:31 PM

I'm with Muppett.

Christmas has become too commercialised, the amount of money that is spent is grotesque and the wasted food and goods (check out the sales, which now usually start on Christmas Eve) would be of far more benefit going to needy third world children.

The shops here are already full of wrapping paper and Christmas cakes and there is still well over 2 months to go.

I really feel sorry for parents trying to protect young children from all the hype.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 02:39 PM

X-mas is like anything else in life... you get out of it what you WANT to get out of it...   So some wanna focus on how 'negative' it's become (like it never had any negatives before)... and some wanna go the other way and just cover it with sugar and mint...

For me it's a time for friends and family... good food, and good song... dark beers and old whiskey... For gifts and charity... For helping those who are less fortunate... For sponging a little off of those who maybe have too much! LOL (Rich neighbourhoods are sometimes the BEST place for caroling! ) For holding hands, and eskimo-kisses... For a little excess and a whole lotta everthing else...

Ya know... just like every other day of the year...

And well, X-mas has 'twinkle-lights' and everything is better with 'twinkle-lights'!

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: GUEST,Hesperis(nocookie)
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 03:35 PM

I'm with Clinton Hammond on this, for once. :)

Hmm. Caroling. Must do that this year.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Dave Wynn
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 03:36 PM

Depends whether you live in the "West" or Africa. Isn't there a Christmas song about this?

Spot

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: waterdragon
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 03:46 PM

I don't hate Christmas as such,I'm one of the unfortunate people who have birthdays at Christmas.This means your celebration gets lost or diminished amongst all the other commercial crap.I guess this happens at other festivals as well but Christmas seems to overwhelm almost everyone.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 04:23 PM

I like Christmas - the smell of snow and Christmas trees, peppermint and cinnamon, lights in windows, cookies... BUT Halloween is my favorite holiday...jack o'lanterns, witches and ghosts, candied apples, the smells and colors of fall, etc. I keep some of my decorations out all year. Maybe it is the magic of a costume - being someone you aren't and maybe wish you could be.

The only thing I miss about New York is the huge Halloween Party I used to arrange in our co-op's gardens. Spooky stories, a treasure hunt, little kids allowed once a year to run through the gardens at night. Hot apple cider and home baked cookies. I had more fun than anyone.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 05:15 PM

I'm with you SINSULL - Hallowe'en is my favourite - lots of traditions that I like to keep.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Polly Squeezebox
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 05:17 PM

I love Midwinters Day - and the thought that the days are lengthening again.

I hate the commercialism of Christmas.

I hate the over expectations that people get because of all the 'must have' adverts on TV, that seem to say you can't have a perfect Christmas unless you buy their product.

I hate the return to work - sometimes just 2 days after THE day - when as a Court Duty Officer for Probation I am required to look for endless bail hostels for men who can't return to the family home because over expectations and excess alcohol have led to domestic violence over the holiday period.

Christmas is wonderful for children and for those newly in love - for the rest it can be the saddest time of the year.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: leeneia
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 06:05 PM

Why rush? Christmas is three months away. Enjoy autumn, Hallowe'en, Thanksgiving, Guy Fawkes Day and St Nicholas Day first. On St Nicholas Day, you put candy or trinkets in your loved ones' shoes, to be found on the morning of December 6th.

People who spend time talking about the commercialism of Christmas are letting commercial enterprises take over their lives again, just in a new way. Instead, spend the time sharing recipes for squash, to be cooked in a cozy kitchen on a cold, gray November afternoon.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 06:31 PM

I must admit I'm a lover of the festivities but I can't get into the preparation this year - I've usually started buying pressies by now but I think I will give it a miss totally this year.

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 06:49 PM

I hate the commercialism, but have decided to join in this year. I've made a whole heap of Christmas cards to sell, profits going to either the Mudcat (if anyone here buys them) or the British Heart Foundation. The biggest shame is that I can't provide a link to any pictures of them yet!

And I've been going round the shops this week exclaiming loudly that it's only just bloody October and the Christmas stuff is out already!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Joe_F
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 06:59 PM

As a Jewish atheist, I think Christmas is one of the best things about Christianity. But in these latter days I am often alone on that day, so I have put together a reading list for it:

James Agee, "Lines Suggested by a Tennessee Song", in _The Collected
Poems_, pp. 71-75
W. H. Auden, "For the Time Being", in _Collected Poems_, pp. 269-308.
John Betjeman, "Christmas", in _Collected Poems_, pp. 153-154
Rudyard Kipling, "Christmas in India", "Eddi's Service", in _Verse:
Definitive Edition_, pp. 53-55, 512-513
Matthew 1-2; Luke 2
David McReynolds, "The Bowery: A Ghetto without a Constituency", in
_We Have Been Invaded by the 21st Century_, pp. 38-43
Edna St. Vincent Millay, "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver", in
_Collected Poems_, pp. 177-184
Ogden Nash, "I Remember Yule"
George Orwell, "As I Please", in _The Collected Essays, Journalism and
Letters_, Vol. 4, pp. 256-259
Jean Ritchie, "Brightest and Best...The Ritchies Take Christmas", in
_Singing Family of the Cumberlands_, Chapter 10, pp. 146-178

For this company, I recommend the last. If there is such a thing as a Mudcat Christmas party, it could do worse than to take turns reading that, singing the songs as they come up.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 10:53 PM

I like to use it to mark the change of the year. Even though I live in China and apart from a few Christians Christmas is not a holiday here. However that does not stop rapid capitalist commercialism from hitting the stores but at least it is not until the start of December.

Christmas trees and decorations go on sale, the stores get decked out in festering, oops sorry, festive decor and the Chinese go out and buy it all, but still wonder why they are doing it. My neighbours ask for serious advice on where they can put there trees....

The stores all play festive music, trouble is they seem to have only one cd which sounds like the Chipmunks on dope singing Disney style carols and songs. My local supermarket had a live sized robot Santa which swungs its hips in a rather lavicious and suggestive manner whilst singing a variety of songs including 'All I want for Christmas...' , 'Frosty the Snowman' , and best of all 'Here comes Santa Clause'.

But that is an advance on some decorations I saw in a hotel in Northern China about 10 years ago. In the middle of the lobby was a big Christmas tree with a pile of plastic snow nearby on top of which was a nice cardboard hut painted and decorated to look like a log cabin. Santa peered out of the window and dancing around below the window where some rodents dressed in wee festive jackets and nice hats. I thought they looked rather realistic so I went to look closer. They were realistic as they were indeed rather large stuffed rats! I did enquire where I could buy a set from but it seemed they were ordered and made locally by a taxidermist. Luckily the fairy on the tree was just plastic as that might have presented some challenges.

Yes I like Christmas.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 01:56 AM

If we're hating Christmas already, we must be only days away from dreading the obligatory holiday visit with our relatives. Wheee!

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Rasener
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 02:48 AM

We go away every year

Hey Ho its off to Butlins for my wife , 2 daughters and me of course.

The children love going to Butlins or Pontins because there is so much to do, and everybody is happy and enjoy themselves.

Advantages of doing that are

We can drink as little or as much as we like

No Christmas Dinner to prepare

No relatives to argue with

Don't have to listen to the relatives going on about the past life

Don't have to listen to the relatives going on about how good they are

Don't have to play stupid party games like Monopoly, when all you really want to do is break wind or go to sleep after the meal

Lots of entertainment

No driving over Christmas

Oh we tend to buy all presents over the Internet, thus avoiding all the horrendous qeueus and getting home thoroughly knackered and still haven't got all the presents

I must admit, I don't like all the pre christmas hype, but I do love going away for Christmas

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Rasener
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 02:51 AM

I do hate queues and the bloody spelling of it :-)

queues

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: jacqui.c
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 07:20 AM

For me Christmas is about sharing and I've been lucky enough to have had some wonderful Christmases with family and friends over the years. I enjoy cooking Christmas dinner and sitting down with dear ones to eat it. I now have two grandchildren and join in the fun of their present opening.

I hate the commercialism as well, the anticipatory pre-Christmas period now seems to start in September and, by the time the day has arrived, it has become rather 'tattered' for the long stay in the shops. I'd like to see no commercial allusion to Christmas until at the earliest December 1st, but can't see that as ever happening now.

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: JennyO
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 07:39 AM

Time for this one again:

"Christmas has been cancelled"

Tune: Lili Marlene

Words: Paul Mortimer

Christmas has been cancelled,
Santa Claus is dead.
When the scandal broke
He put a bullet through his head.
Pinned to his chest they found a note
Admitting what - the papers wrote:
That he was on the payroll
Of Toltoys and K-tel.

It was bigger still than Lockheed
Worse than Watergate.
Kids throughout the world
Called for his head upon a plate
The myth was destroyed and in its wake,
Old Santy stood there a callous fake.
And evidence is mounting
That he was C.I.A.

The Church it tried to brand him
A charlatan and worse.
The Pope said 'Keep off Christmas, mate,
We used that number first,
As a time when all good Christians sing
Of Jesus Christ and cribs and things.
Of course it's only bulldust
To get the faithful in.'

Further allegations
Have made the papers wail,
That Santa's love for children
Was way beyond the pale,
He always liked to give out toys
To little girls and little boys.
It seems that he was harmless
But some don't understand.

Well we can still be jolly
And celebrate New Year,
And we'll be nice to other folks
More than once a year.
With no tinsel trees or plastic snow
Or jingle bells or yo ho ho's.
And no more f***ing reindeer
Or little drummer boys.

Repeat first verse.

Jenny

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: fat B****rd
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 08:03 AM

Maybe I'll come back in December and post. Meanwhile in sunny Aylesbury UK Xmas trees have already been put up and taken down. Bumhug !!

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 10:17 AM

In Oz Christmas involves heat waves, bushfires & (often) traditional English dinners cooked in heatwave condition. Weird. But we put santa-snow on windows, decorate with icicles & such, and send cards with robins & winter scenes. Weird. Tho we can also get Australian cards showing Santa on the beach, and buy Oz animals in Christmas guise.

I was in my favourite craft shop today looking at the goodies, fair enough, crafty stuff takes a while to make, but did they need to be playing CHRISTMAS CAROLS!! I didn't buy any makings (yet), but I did get 3 tiny christmas decorations as my tree is only 6' tall & I collect minis whenever I see them.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: I hate Christmas
From: Blowzabella
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 10:33 AM

I like having time off work (in my job I tend to take most of my holidays in the winter!), having time to go shopping for treats in markets instead of rushing round the supermarket, pretending I can cook by busying myself in the kitchen for hours, playing lots of my favourite early music, lighting the fire,listening to the radio, reading old Christmas stories, making pommanders out of oranges and generally anticipating the magic that is Christmas...

usually, however, the day itself ends up being a bit of a let down...but I never learn