What makes a good Xmas/Chanukka etc 4 u?

Subject: What makes a good Xmas/Chanukka etc 4 u?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 05:03 AM

Answering a thread about TV programmes my brain took a parallel jump and I thought of the things we used to watch on TV, or do, around Christmas, that I miss and would gladly watch/do again.

So, what used to make Christmas (or Chanukka, or Sinterklaas, or whatever you have in your faith/culture around this time of year) a special holiday for you? Take a trip down memory lane with me. Please, no "feed the world" and "peace and prosperity for all", we are all adult folkies and therefore suitably pessimistic and used to wrist-slashing. Here is my list:

My Christmas would be special, if only I could:

a) Sit on Christmas Eve around my Mum-in-law's old kitchen table butchering sprouts, carrots, parsnips etc while swapping stories with the whole extended family (3 children with spouses, 4 grandchildren and assorted friends staying over or popping in) and getting sloshed on her hor home made evil brew.

b) Be woken up by my children in their single-digit years on Christmas Day with a bastard of a hangover (me, that is) to open the presents, only to realise we're 2 hours late putting the turkey in the oven and there's no way we'll be eating lunch before 3pm.

c) Sing carols all morning from compilation tapes or cds, while watching the kids opening their presents and chasing after them with a bin liner collecting torn up wrapping paper and parcel decorations (to be reused next year).

d) Look a prat in my paper hat while I forage like an idiot among the remains of Christmas crackers for another unfunny rhyme or joke, while getting sloshed on some decent plonk.

e) Go to sleep watching TV around 5, be woken up by the 6 o'clock news, only to find another 6 or 7 heaving snoring bodies draped over furniture around me.

f) Get the "high tea" out and onto our laps (cold cuts, coleslaw, her home made pate, crusty bread, cauldrons of tea and coffee to stand your spoon in) in time for the 2004 Morecombe And Wise Christmas Special. Pebble-dash the living room with bits of food and beverage as we splutter our way through the programme.

h) Get some good whiskey out and put the world to rights.

i) Go to bed promising "never again".


Your list?

Subject: RE: What makes a good Xmas/Chanukka etc 4 u?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 05:03 AM

Should be BS perhaps - although I am referring to traditions....