General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!
Sorry to post this but I just read a whole thread about hating Christmas. Well, I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I love the songs, the cantatas, the choirs, the snow, the warm fires in the wood stove, visiting friends and family, the little extra time I get to spend with my wife. I love giving gifts and it is fun to get that special something from my kids and wife. I love Christmas beer (especially from Great Lakes in Cleveland), the wonderful foods, Christmas cookies and the smell of dad's pecan pie.
I don't care about the advertising, the decorations in the stores, the commercialism. Why? I don't let it bother me. We pretty much give one or two gifts to the kids (older now) and my wife and I usually agree on something we mutually want to do to our house. I avoid people I don't want to see. I avoid conversations I don't want to be a part of. But I love the holiday.
Have a nice day!
shenmue
(38,506 posts)My favorite time of year.
yuiyoshida
(41,861 posts)Love Halloween... <3 never get enough candy though
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)My kids have about 20 pounds I'd love to ship to someone else...LOL.
yuiyoshida
(41,861 posts)Candy is great but.... For this, I will just have to wait till Xmas!!
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)My mother every years maes the best butter cookies with her homemade icing and decorations. When we can't get to Ohio for Xmas she sends a few tins to Florida. So good.
yuiyoshida
(41,861 posts)xmas cookies this year. Damn, I guess I will have to renew my membership to Gold's Gym..
freshwest
(53,661 posts)CrispyQ
(36,509 posts)Mine were not nearly as pretty as these, but on a plate of treats, they stood out nicely.
Love the mittens.
at the Gold's Gym comment!
ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)fishwax
(29,149 posts)Last edited Sun Nov 3, 2013, 02:45 AM - Edit history (1)
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,836 posts)The advertising is a pain in the rear but I enjoy the lights and the music (the good stuff) and the parties and the food and the general good feelings. I'm sad for the bah-humbuggers who just can't ignore the commercialism.
caledesi
(11,903 posts)B Calm
(28,762 posts)since then and now it's expensive as hell.
Vashta Nerada
(3,922 posts)GreatCaesarsGhost
(8,585 posts)eridani
(51,907 posts)WCLinolVir
(951 posts)Halloween can't be Halloween, Thanksgiving is just a precursor to black friday. UUGHHHH!! Stop rushing things! Let me enjoy each holiday on it's own merits. Don't crowd my Thanksgiving with memories of a disappointed Christmas.
Vashta Nerada
(3,922 posts)onlyadream
(2,167 posts)MagnumUK
(37 posts)it's just over commercialized pap.
gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)It is whatever YOU make it.
Beartracks
(12,821 posts)japple
(9,839 posts)or department store commercial crap. It is about family, sharing, giving to those who need a bit of extra. It's about childhood, cinnamon wafting from the kitchen, making cookies to give to friends and neighbors, greenery brought in from the woods or farmers' greens markets, candles, cooking that big dinner you've been thinking about all year, or spending time with those you might not have seen for a while.
Get out in your community and find out what you can do to make someone's life a bit better. It doesn't take money to make this happen. You can help a child or adult learn to read, give a ride to someone who needs to go to the doctor, babysit for a single parent who needs a night off, offer to dog/cat sit for a friend, neighbor who needs to get away for a weekend, sit with someone who is in hospice care or provide a respite for their family member. Christmas lives in the hearts and minds of those who care enough to make it a real holiday. Open your heart and you just might find the real meaning of the word: ~~~Christmas~~~
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)this is what the season means to me, too. People trying to be just a little bit kinder to others.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)is everywhere, all the time, non stop from before Halloween until the new year.
japple
(9,839 posts)of conspicuous consumption. Think about doing something actually worthwhile with your Christmas holiday (assuming you have one.) Go to the local homeless shelter or soup kitchen and help serve meals to those who are less fortunate. If you are on this forum, there is absolutely someone less fortunate than you. You have the power to make it a REAL HOLIDAY!
lunamagica
(9,967 posts)ETA. You are brave to post this here. Thank you for doing it!
Iggo
(47,565 posts)XRubicon
(2,212 posts)Not a believer but I love the holidays.
Response to titaniumsalute (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)Sheepshank
(12,504 posts)gotta be at it while the weather holds out. But we NEVER turn it on until after Thanksgiving Dinner. Then it's all out Christmas joy and hullaballoo at our house.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)There will be mesh lights on my shrubs and one white-light reindeer on the lawn.
Response to titaniumsalute (Original post)
LiberalLoner This message was self-deleted by its author.
johnp3907
(3,732 posts)Especially the music: From the classic carols and cantatas to the silly Santa stuff. Johnny Mathis, Anonymous 4, The Roches, Vince Guaraldi .....
And cookies!
But I can't get into any of it til after Thanksgiving.
pnwmom
(108,994 posts)Fun childhood memories.
Pirate Smile
(27,617 posts)passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)of walking down rainy Portland streets and seeing all the brilliant lights, reflecting off the wet pavement, and people scurrying around doing last minute shopping.
I still love it, even though I no longer participate in the gift giving for anyone but my Mom. I just love the cheerful spirit it brings out in some people, especially children.
Because I don't go gift shopping, I am not bothered by the commercialism any longer. And the family gatherings and big meals and group games afterward will always have a special place in my heart. I no longer participate in that either, but I remember it fondly.
The one thing I can't give up is my ornament collection. I have some beautiful ornaments that hang out year round, but during the holidays I want to put up tiny lights and bring out the rest. The unpacking and remembering all the special ornaments you forgot you had...I love that part.
I think a lot of people are letting a little too much anger and hate take up the space in their hearts that should be filled with joy and love. It's a personal choice we each can make.
gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)classof56
(5,376 posts)And if the Portland streets you mention are in Oregon, I share a bunch of Christmas memories with family in the area, attending Nutcracker at the Keller among them. I have a few special ornaments left me by my late sister, and they always bring to mind the holidays we shared when she was still with me. You are right--we should let our hearts be filled with joy and love, not just at Christmas. Hard to do, I know, in today's world, and commercialism aside, all the music and decorations do indeed lift my spirit. There are so many things we can enjoy--some in spite of what's going on us and some because of it. Thanks for the memory-jogger, and blessings to you and your mom.
passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)Yes, I'm speaking of Portland Oregon. I'm still in Oregon, but live in snow country now, but then it was mostly rain for Christmas.
We have good years and bad years. This has been a bad year for me in terms of family deaths...fortunately, my Mom, at 87 is still doing well...but good times like holidays can help us pull out of the slumps of everyday life. I think holidays are important for that. And they mostly focus on children, and children always bring light to our lives.
I'm not religious, but bless the children and any opportunity we have to focus on love and joy and giving and compassion.
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)enjoy the holidays!
Silent3
(15,265 posts)Last edited Sat Nov 2, 2013, 07:09 PM - Edit history (1)
...but you know, we have our marching orders from Obama to carry out his globalist Marxist Islamic atheist homosexual agenda. Can't shirk that kind of duty just because you're getting all misty and sentimental!
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)nolabear
(41,991 posts)And I didn't by any stretch of the imagination have an easy time of it or outstanding Christmases growing up. But I loved it even then. There's nothing cynical or reasonable or mean about it. I'm not a believer, but I love the hopefulness of birth and renewal and generosity. Like you, if I don't want to be intruded upon I just don't let myself be bugged.
For years, every year I've collected a new ornament and a new song. My Christmas song collection is a crazy quilt of silly, beautiful, exotic, religious, secular, all kinds of things. When I was little we made decorations out of trash, and cut snowflakes out of paper (we were in the deep South so snow was unheard of). I loved the food and the stories and the little kids getting excited. Like you I love thinking about friends and family and trying for gifts that let them know I make an effort.
It's so human.
gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)only because I get paid to sing it! The rest of the season sucks!!!!
liberalmuse
(18,672 posts)It's my favorite holiday. Aside from the rampant consumerism, I love the songs, the spirit and the whole feel of it. The sparkly lights are largely responsible. Most Christians scare me, though. The ones who make sure and tell everyone, that is. The others who actually live their beliefs don't need to let people know.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Last edited Sun Nov 3, 2013, 02:57 AM - Edit history (1)
I think I've always enjoyed the pagan European aspects, the holly wreath, trees, garlands and all that stuff; but the manger scenes have been a favorite, too. And the lights!
Oh, wow, that's the best, with some of the music. It's a good way to end the year, looking ahead. And it just feels good, or at least it used to feel that way.
I don't care for the 'war on Christmas' thing, the right wingers try to make it a line in the sand or an exclusive holiday season for one faith, actually taunting about the wording and not the spirit, that it's only about one, when it really isn't.
JMHO.
sheshe2
(83,898 posts)O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur
zur Sommerzeit,
Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit
Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Dein Kleid will mich
was lehren:
Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit
Gibt Trost und Kraft
zu jeder Zeit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Das soll dein Kleid
mich lehren.
http://german.about.com/library/blotannenb.htm
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)I kid.
I TRY to not let all the ads and commercialism bother me, but it's tricky when you're already sick of Xmas images and the red and green color scheme by early November.
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)I think I miss most of it for a few reasons.
1. I don't go to malls nor other major department stores. My wife is not much of a shopper either. We buy everything online.
2. Besides live sports I never see commercials due to the DVR. I don't pay attention to newspaper or circular ads.
3. I don't work in retail. I can probably understand a retail worker hating the holiday.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)Oy vey.
Faygo Kid
(21,478 posts)What's with that? None of the overpaid execs have to work - just their employees ripped from their families Thanksgiving evening.
I never got the whole Black Friday thing anyway. Sure wasn't a big deal a generation ago.
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)I don't like it either and I DO feel bad for the workers.
Gore1FL
(21,151 posts)malaise
(269,157 posts)and I'm an atheist.
Nothing beats the Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Years time of year. Just something about beating the cold (well, when I'm up north anyways) by consuming good food and drink with my favorite people.
mecherosegarden
(745 posts)The sound, the smell, the decorations... I love Christmas!
efhmc
(14,732 posts)BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)ScreamingMeemie
(68,918 posts)This year we are hoping to surprise my daughter with a visit. I can't wait.
ChazII
(6,206 posts)make for a yummy Christmas meal. It is often warm enough to have Christmas dinner outside.
penultimate
(1,110 posts)When I celebrate, it's always 'cause the people around me do it and I do it for them...
I'm just a big stick in the mud. I hate ice cream and cake too, btw.
rollin74
(1,990 posts)Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)we never get any snow here on the CA coast...
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)When we stay in Florida I really miss the snow and wintery weather. I DON'T miss it any other time though.
bunnies
(15,859 posts)I cant stand Christmas. Nothing about it appeals to me. We dont even celebrate it at our house. Ick.
Stellar
(5,644 posts)Everything! I love the Christmas Carols (Nat Cole and Johnny Mathis) I love the winter snow, The gift giving, wrapping presents. I love the Christmas parties, I love the Christmas movie and cartoons and I love the Lord Jesus and right now I'm missing my beloved Mother that made Christmas so special for our family. Also, my dad who is now in home hospice....and that makes me feel like crying because a lot of my family is gone. Yet I still look forward to CHRISTMAS!!!!
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)Stellar
(5,644 posts)I needed that.
coldbeer
(306 posts)Great pilsner. But I drink beer out of cans. Great Lake is bottled.
I drink more than a 12 pack a day. Great Lakes is too expensive.
I am on Social Security so my budjet is $.61 cents a can. I jog
10k a day, every day. I have worked union and have served over-
seas in the infantry so figure my age. Go donkeys!!! Oh, and I
love Christmas. and my grandchildren.
eqfan592
(5,963 posts)It's just too much fun! And this year will be our baby girls first Christmas!!! I think our Christmas season started the day she was born
krakfiend
(202 posts)My wife, kids and I are the same, but we still celebrate and enjoy the holidays. From the tree to the lights and singing. Its a great 3 months from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Xmas. Happy Holidays Y'all.
tavernier
(12,400 posts)and we've had both. We manage to appreciate the true gifts and blessings more during harder times. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy when times are generous and it's chicken instead of feathers, but I think the tougher times make me think more about others in need, and I tend to loosen the purse strings.
Yup, hang silver bells on me and put me in your column!
840high
(17,196 posts)OKNancy
(41,832 posts)I saw a silver branch type Christmas tree with little crystals in the Pottery Barn catalog that sold from $40.00 to $100.00. I thought.. I can make that myself. I just got the stuff and will start on it later this month.
I'm a nut for decorating. My tree is so stuffed you can't see the green. It's the one time of year you can be gaudy and outrageous! I have Christmas shit everywhere.
Gift giving is easy in my family as we only buy for the immediate family ( 4 people) and for all the extended family we play dirty Santa or draw names.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)"It's beginning to look a lot like christmas" being piped into every store you go to. There are rules against cruel and unusual punishments.
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)grocery shopping here
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)If the worst thing that happens to you during the course of a day that you have to hear a few Christmas tunes...is not a real big deal is it? Please.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)after two months. That, and the whining christians claiming persecution when someone says "happy holidays" to them.
japple
(9,839 posts)Subvert the holidays. ?itok=Tb0y6_I
Make it a time to be joyful just for not participating in the madness. Print a bunch of BUY NOTHING DAY stickers and plaster them on the back of the toilet stalls in your local mall on Black Friday. Enlist a group of your friends to push shopping carts through the stores on Black Friday and buy nothing.
Get creative, make something happen. Don't sit around an whine about those whining x-tians. WAKE UP...it's up to us.
https://www.adbusters.org/
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)I don't shop a lot other than for groceries, and I don't own a TV so I see very little Christmas advertizing.
This year much of my Christmas shopping is already done, because I've been picking things up, especially on some trips I've made, and a total of three different people are getting embroidered pillowcases from me. Next year several other family members will be getting them.
One year I gave everyone in my family a hand crocheted scarf, and all the women and girls also got earrings I made. If I lived closer to family I'd probably inflict baked goods on them.
Once in a while when I'm out in public it does seem as if someone is aggressively saying "Merry Christmas!" as if to pointedly ignore those who may not celebrate. I just give a big smile and say "Merry Christmas!" right back.
My (now ex) husband is Jewish, and we chose to raise our two sons within the Reform tradition. But we also did standard Christian/secular things like Easter baskets and Christmas. I do not agree with those who say if you're in a mixed marriage like that you absolutely must choose and only give the kids one tradition. It's very easy to tell the kids why they don't get Christmas gifts from the one set of grandparents but do from the other. While I do understand that some people do choose only one tradition, I do think it's the height or rudeness to return the Christmas gifts from the Christian side of the family. Which I've seen happen.
What I most want to say to those who hate Christmas, don't bother. You expend a lot more energy hating it than you would in simply ignoring it.
And I sincerely hope that on Christmas Day itself you volunteer at a homeless shelter.
Initech
(100,102 posts)Pretzel_Warrior
(8,361 posts)Who give Democrats a bad name. Must all traditions be rejected? Must all celebrations be subjected to revisionist history and arched eyebrow of the universally skeptical and unhappy liberal?
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)I agree. I can understand some people might not be much for celebrating a certain holiday...but HATING a holiday seems rather odd. I try not to get worked up enough to hate anything...except Tea Baggers.
minivan2
(214 posts)I love everything about it, except the consumerism.
On a side note, since when did DU become a far right Bill O'rielly loving Born Again Christian forum.
meadowlark5
(2,795 posts)Has always been my favorite. It's the one time of year our family makes sure they get together. The colors, the smells, the food, the music. The kids get a few things they really want and the husband and I buy something we both want. One year it was a flat panel tv.
I do most of my holiday shopping online. I started that 5+yrs ago and it has made my holiday season quite Merry Not having to set foot in the mall during the month of December has done wonders for my holiday spirit. I can't stand that part of Christmas - the mall and the mayhem shopping
RBInMaine
(13,570 posts)I too love the foods, evergreens, gift-giving, parties, lights, etc. etc. Well, I have to confess some of the songs are religious, and I have to say that I even like some of their messages insofar as peace and love, etc. and many of their melodies, but I think the very idea of some mythological being or other is pure and total hogwash. I am indeed a very proud atheist. I think believing in mythological beings in the year 2013 is entirely beneath any sense of intellect and reason. However, it is a SEASON about light, and love, and peace, and caring, and giving, and celebrating life, much of which was done in the solstice celebrations on which most of the season is truly based and which were co-opted by the Christians because the ancient solstice celebrations were deemed a threat, much like the ancestral rituals of "Halloween" in ancient Ireland which is why they started All Hallows Day aka All Saints Day. Christ, if he even existed, could not have been born at the time of the solstice. No shepherds were out then.
So I love the season and celebrate all the solstice-rooted activities you mention and peace, love, giving, etc., but I don't go anywhere near a church. If Christ existed, he was a great guy who preached many nice things. But rising from the dead and being essentially a god? That is mythological fantasy that we have long since grown out of. It is a season of love, peace, giving, and joy, and we can ALL honor and celebrate those things.
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)I'm a church organist.
RBInMaine
(13,570 posts)LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)That's fine. Christmas is fine. However, when I say I hate Christmas I mean the two-to-three month buy buy buy season with the obligatory omnipresent Christmas song musak (some of which is really terrible) and the faux merriment. It's oppressive for some. If you don't feel oppressed by all that - good for you.
And now, let the ridicule begin - 3, 2, 1......
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)I don't like the commercial part either. But you and I can't stop that. There's lots of things I don't like. If people want to engage in the buy buy buy that's their prerogative. You and I don't do that.
As for the Christmas music....frankly I don't seem to even notice it much. Most of the time it is very background in public places which I don't much attention to I guess. Yes some is bad, but some is beautiful. Handel's Messiah is always wonderful. Some of the hymns are glorious (not to God necessarily) in tune and choir.
I learned a long time ago to appreciate music for the sound more than the lyrics. As an atheist church organist I can play the hymns and direct the choirs without being wrapped up in the meaning of the lyrics.
I usually hate love songs as well. But many times I love the tunes to love songs. The cheesy lyrics...not so much.
we can do it
(12,193 posts)titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)However...my folks are still int he Akron area and Dad always sends a sixer of GL Christmas Ale. I'm also getting some Hoppin Frog Frost Xmas Ale this year.
we can do it
(12,193 posts)titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)The owners are really cool and they have become quite a force in the craft beer world.
yawnmaster
(2,812 posts)I said eom. I have nothing else to say.
samsingh
(17,601 posts)Festivito
(13,452 posts)Lighting a tree, carving the turkey, burning a yule log, really puts me in that holiday spirit.
jmowreader
(50,562 posts)The thing I noticed from six years working in retail hell, is people change from jolly, happy souls to complete assholes not because of the crowds or anything, but because they expect you to give them the store free. It might not be a universal but it's damn close to it, and the most obnoxious people are the ones wearing more than one piece of Christian-themed bling.
One of my best friends from Home Depot was a 50-year-old guy (when I knew him, he's probably 60 now) who'd been working retail his entire working life...he's a devout Christian but he locks himself into his bedroom after his shift ends on December 24 and gives strict instructions to leave him the hell alone (in those words) until December 26. I'm not even sure he eats on that day.
WCGreen
(45,558 posts)Well, he was one of my BF, we have grown apart since I took ill. The whole time I new him I was in AA and never got to taste the home brew as we called it...
we can do it
(12,193 posts)TBF
(32,090 posts)I am always eager to get through Halloween, put away all of summer (here in Texas I can still be wearing tank tops late October) and get the house ready. Yesterday I ordered our holiday cards
WCLinolVir
(951 posts)I love Christmas ornaments. I collect them every year. They have to be on sale
though. One year I had so many lights I kept blowing the breaker. I'm dreaming of a fourteen ft tree. I hope it snows in Richmond this year. 2-3 years ago we had @ two feet of snow and it was just magical walking in the old Church Hill area with all of the gas streetlights and the decorated Victorians.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)hfojvt
(37,573 posts)but the songs? Some of the songs have GOT to go.
And Christmas in October is one thing, but Christmas in November? What about Armistice Day and Thanksgiving?
nolabear
(41,991 posts)Rebellious Republican
(5,029 posts)Armistice Day and Christmas in one song.
Armistice Day (which overlaps with Remembrance Day and Veterans Day) is celebrated every year on 11 November to commemorate the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morningthe "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918.
After World War II, the name of the holiday was changed to Veterans Day in the United States and to Remembrance Day in the countries of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Armistice Day remains an official holiday in France and Belgium. From 2012, Armistice Day is an official holiday in Serbia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=sSuUw75u2Jo
During the first Christmas of WWI German soldiers are heard by British troops singing "Silent Night" (in its original German). The British troops respond by writing in mud on a piece of wood "Merry Xmas" and raise it above their heads in their trench so the Germans could see it. The British troops yelled out "Merry Christmas, Fritz!" The German troops responded, "Merry Christmas, Tommy". Soon, one brave German soldier walked across No Man's Land with his empty palms up, and a single British soldier climbed out of his trench to greet him. They shook hands. Then troops from both sides poured out of their trenches along the western front and celebrated Christmas as friends. An amazing and touching event.
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)Not that I remember the Holiday from the 1920s
but to me there is a big difference between
Armistice Day - a day to commemorate the end of a war
and
Veteran's Day - a day to honor the people who have fought in wars.
rollin74
(1,990 posts)Matariki
(18,775 posts)instead of the Halloween to New Year's onslaught we're subjected to it.