Goldie Munro
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Am I the only one who really can't get into the Christmas consummer fling?
Bah Humbug!
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Goldie Munro
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zeb1094 said:
There are so many times that I can get with my family and celebrate something - Christmas now just seems to be about how many presents you get, how expensive they were etc - it really has become the celebration of consummerism to me.
Goldie Munro
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Liar said:
Yup they are out there doing it!
G
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Goldie Munro
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lilredjammies said:I don't do the frenzied shopping spree thing. I get one or two presents per person for the people I really care for, then enjoy the time with my family.
I will admit to going a little nuts in the decorating department. "Lavish" is one of my favorite words.
Shame on you!
Liar
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Ok, lemme rephrase that:Goldie Munro said:
What exactly are they shopping that takes them all of a month? I mean I buy presents for my family (which is not a unique thing for chrismas) some December afternoon when I'm in the mood and not too busy. And I usually bring wine to the dinner on the day. Other than that...naah.
Goldie Munro
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Liar said:
Don't you see the adverts? Don't you want spend over your limit on your credit card?
Goldie Munro
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Liar said:Actually, no.
Actually I already do.
Ok - like the rest of us then!
Stella_Omega
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I hate it. I am broke, and scared, as I always am, it seems- at the end of every fucking year.
XMAS used to be a holiday of hope- a reminder that the darkest days will end.
The USA has turned it into a holiday of smugness.
FUCK THAT!
XMAS used to be a holiday of hope- a reminder that the darkest days will end.
The USA has turned it into a holiday of smugness.
FUCK THAT!
Goldie Munro
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Stella_Omega said:I hate it. I am broke, and scared, as I always am, it seems- at the end of every fucking year.
XMAS used to be a holiday of hope- a reminder that the darkest days will end.
The USA has turned it into a holiday of smugness.
FUCK THAT!
Not just the US
yui
A Different Scene
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*laughing* Do you have any idea of what is involved with Christmas in Japan?! And there are like, mebbe, six Christians in the entire country!Stella_Omega said:The USA has turned it into a holiday of smugness.
FUCK THAT!
It's not just the US.
Peace, Stella.
Give what you can give and don't mourn what you can't.
australwind
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Spending money unnecessarily for gifts that aren't appreciated for people that don't reciprocate...........yep...its all about keeping the economy afloat.
Even having to spend time with family members is not something I would normally choose to do...so why should I feel I am supposed to rush off and be jolly with people I don't want to see?
Yes, this is a time of year I find especially difficult.
Even having to spend time with family members is not something I would normally choose to do...so why should I feel I am supposed to rush off and be jolly with people I don't want to see?
Yes, this is a time of year I find especially difficult.
rgraham666
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yui said:*laughing* Do you have any idea of what is involved with Christmas in Japan?! And there are like, mebbe, six Christians in the entire country!
It's not just the US.
Peace, Stella.
I'm surprised there are that many yui, considering being a Christian was once a capital offence.
Me? I always try to remember the true reason behind Christmas. "On Earth, peace, and goodwill to all people."
Helps keep a sense of perspective, ya know?
Goldie Munro
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australwind said:Spending money unnecessarily for gifts that aren't appreciated for people that don't reciprocate...........yep...its all about keeping the economy afloat.
Even having to spend time with family members is not something I would normally choose to do...so why should I feel I am supposed to rush off and be jolly with people I don't want to see?
Yes, this is a time of year I find especially difficult.
I completely understand what you are saying!
Goldie Munro
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rgraham666 said:
Its hard to remember that in the cacophany!!
Stella_Omega
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I was in Japan for Xmas, 1985. I bought my husband a really nice black bunny plushy with green eyes. He bought me some of the beautiful, Very traditional, noodle bowls- brown and black glazed ones, you know which ones I mean?yui said:*laughing* Do you have any idea of what is involved with Christmas in Japan?! And there are like, mebbe, six Christians in the entire country!
It's not just the US.
Peace, Stella.
We bought a Shinto braid for the door, and that was it. It was lovely.
elsol
I'm still sleeepy!
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*burp*
Christmas, Birthdays, Valentine's days == ElSol Point Grabbing Opportunity's with the SigOther.
My only problem is that my girl's birthday is the December 31... that's so close to Christmas it doesn't stretch out the point grabbing opportunities enough.
I need a girl with a bday somewhere in june.
Sincerely,
ElSol
Christmas, Birthdays, Valentine's days == ElSol Point Grabbing Opportunity's with the SigOther.
My only problem is that my girl's birthday is the December 31... that's so close to Christmas it doesn't stretch out the point grabbing opportunities enough.
I need a girl with a bday somewhere in june.
Sincerely,
ElSol
JRaven
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What I like best...
...about the Christmas shopping rush is the people. I love to mingle with the crowds and observe people. From the mothers trying to keep ducklings in tow to the young guys totally bewildered, I love to watch them.
Then on Dec 24th, I'm in a mad rush to get something, anything!
Jenny
...about the Christmas shopping rush is the people. I love to mingle with the crowds and observe people. From the mothers trying to keep ducklings in tow to the young guys totally bewildered, I love to watch them.
Then on Dec 24th, I'm in a mad rush to get something, anything!
Jenny
scheherazade_79
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I hate Christmas, too. I'm fed up of hearing the same bloody songs every single fucking year. After the first eight years of my life, the novelty wore off and I found myself seeking something new - which never came. A couple of decades later my ears are still being assailed by the strains of Cliff Richard's "Christmas Time", Slade's "So here it is, Merry Christmas!", and other songs which weren't even that good the first time round.
There's also the Christmas card pretence. Why do we send cards? Because other people send them to us. How many of us buy extra Christmas cards just in case someone unexpected sends us a card? I honestly don't see the point in them.
There are also the joys of Christmas shopping, where the media encourages us to go into our overdrafts, use our credit cards and even take out loans so that we can make a couple of big companies richer. People turn nasty over Christmas shopping, Christmas parking spaces, Christmas checkout queues and Christmas traffic jams.
We load up our shopping carts with enough food to feed a small African nation, then sign up for Weight Watchers immediately after we've eaten it all.
We even have the same films and TV programmes on TV year in year out...
Yup, bah humbug and all that - at 26 I feel I've outgrown Christmas.
There's also the Christmas card pretence. Why do we send cards? Because other people send them to us. How many of us buy extra Christmas cards just in case someone unexpected sends us a card? I honestly don't see the point in them.
There are also the joys of Christmas shopping, where the media encourages us to go into our overdrafts, use our credit cards and even take out loans so that we can make a couple of big companies richer. People turn nasty over Christmas shopping, Christmas parking spaces, Christmas checkout queues and Christmas traffic jams.
We load up our shopping carts with enough food to feed a small African nation, then sign up for Weight Watchers immediately after we've eaten it all.
We even have the same films and TV programmes on TV year in year out...
Yup, bah humbug and all that - at 26 I feel I've outgrown Christmas.
G
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matriarch
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scheherazade_79 said:
You haven't outgrown christmas, because none of that is christmas.
That is the commercial and greedy world of consummerism trying to sell us their christmas.
Up until my two boys were in their late teens, I refused to be drawn into the rush.....I would quietly go out a couple of weeks before and get what I could afford, for the boys, the ex, my parents, and stow them away until christmas eve. I stopped buying and sending christmas cards when my list got to over 150 people. Now I only send cards to my parents and immediate family, and one or two friends and relatives who live abroad. Instead I make an annual donation to my chosen charity for that year. I started producing an annual newsletter, set up like the front page of a newspaper, with photographs and details on the main events within the family for that year. These were sent in the new year to the people on the old christmas card list who we rarely saw from one year end to the next, but liked to keep in touch.
Christmas Eve (or if they really got the nagging right) I would finally allow the boys to put up the christmas tree, and it was their job to decorate it. During the day we would have gone for a walk through nearby woody lanes and picked holly and long strands of ivy to decorate the house, and for me to decorate the ornate Victorian Staircase, entwined with ribbons. If there was any left, it would be spread around the fire mantle, over pictures and mirrors, or made into candle holders. In the evening, while they were arguing over which ornaments looked best on the tree, I would be in the kitchen usually cooking mince pies and sausage rolls, while the ex prepared the vegetables for the next day (keeping me well doused in christmas cheer).
And in the background we would have playing the service of Nine Readings and Carols from KingsCollege Chapel, Cambridge, enjoying the heavenly voices of the world famous Kings College Choir.
When the boys finally went to bed, we would set too, wrapping presents, and stacking them under the tree along with the ones already there from grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends.....and filling their stockings, which they had left on the bottom of their beds. Their squeals of delight the next morning as they opened the gifts in their rooms, is the sound that usually awoke us on christmas day. Its a sound I'll never forget without a lump in my throat, tears in my eyes, and joy in my heart.
Its also a christmas that is long gone. The boys are grown up and have their own homes, their own lives. Himself and I have gone our separate ways. No more children, no more unabounded joy......just greed, greed and more greed.
My Christmas this year, will be spent with the love of my life. I will wake up on christmas morning to see her face on the pillow beside me. That is the only gift that has any significance to me.
The christmas we see around us now, for the next month, has nothing whatsoever to do with christmas. Remember that, and you may just survive.
~ Mrs. Humbug ~
