holidays......

[she_is_my_addiction]

Okay....I love Christmas. the music, the decorations, the feelings, the snow, the celebrations....

what's your favorite holiday? why? what do you do to celebrate? do you live in the city or the country and how does it affect your celebration?

if you live in another country...tell us about holidays you have there that we don't know about or don't have here.


any other Christmas fanatics around?

edited to add: tell us about your favorite holiday memories. funny, crazy, weird, nostalgic...whatever

also...how are celebrations different in your respective country, state, city, or just your home?

 

[doormouse]

When I was working in retail, I loathed Christmas. People were always in foul moods, queues went on forever, it just lost all its magic. Easter I loved, working in a chocolate shop, and shoppers were less stressed.

Now, I love Christmas!! I have one of those houses with all the decorations, Christmas lights, displays in the windows... if it's anything to do with Christmas, I'll love it!!!

I take the kids out every night to look at the lights, leading up to Christmas. Some people go to so much effort to decorate their homes, even Santa makes an appearance in some streets and gives out lollies to kids.

Shopping for Christmas is normally done six months before Christmas so I'm not rushing out in the crowds, unless there's a specific toy they want. Being in a Christmas club, food arrives on my door step, enough to feed us for months, so no crowds at the supermarket to contend with either. Gotta love Chrisco

The kids reignited my love of Christmas. Just seeing their faces on Christmas morning when they open their presents makes the mess all worth it. That damn string tinsel takes ages to pick up LOL

Ho Ho Ho.

Edit: to add, this year might be a different story. Going to Melbourne to spend it with my family. Ten kids and their partners, 23 nieces and nephews, Mum stressing over cooking for DAYS leading up to it... The brother-in-laws getting drunk and making asses of themselves(they're funny still lol). And the expense of having to buy everyone a present. Normally I escape and stay home for Christmas.. making an effort this year.

 

[English Lady]

I love Christmas. I'm not so keen on it starting in september though Yup there has been christmas "stuff" in the shops since mid september round here and that is just not right in my mind. No wonderpeople can't stand it..it seems to take over the last half ogf the year.

Christmas should be kept in December where it belongs. I love it all but not this damn early. something is seriously not right when you walk into a major shop and see santa and snowmen and reindeer on one side of the aisle and ghosts, ghouls and vampires on the other side of it

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

To me Christmas only occurs thrice a year. The day after Thanksgiving when I join the mobs in shopping for the special gifts for my friends and family, Christmas Eve with the reunions and the expectation, and Christmas morning when you see the expressions on their faces as they get what they really wanted.

Every other day, it can fuck itself.

I like Samhain though. College celebration of it leaves a lot to be desired though.

 

[English Lady]

My sisiter's birthday is early on in December....so I think that helps to start of the party type mood.

I've got to say Easter is a great time of year too but for a completely different reason. it is a very spritual time of year for me.

 

[cantdog]

We have bonfires on the solstices and equinoxes. The scrap and wrecked bits from struck sets always provides more than enough for really big tall ones. The fire does amazing things to the snow around it in the winter one.

 

[EmeraldKitten]

I like Halloween, you can be goofy and dress up and all that fun stuff.
Thanksgiving you can be a total pig and it's okay.
Christmas is magical.

When I worked at McDonalds, we'd wear elf hats and Santa hats, and just be jolly, LOL.
One day, a dirty old man asked me if I was Santa's favorite helper. I told him, "No, I'm his naughty-est elf." LOL. He was speechless.
Anyhow, Christmas has always been fun, minus the scatterbrained shoppers and rude people.

One thing I remember most, is melting crayons with my Great-grandma, and making candles to put in milk jugs. We'd go out and line their driveway on either side with the jugs, and then go light them shortly before the party was to start.
It sounds jakey and trashy, but it was precious.

The whole family would gather out in the country in the middle of no where, and we'd eat and sing and exchange presents.

I remember another year- my grandma has this leather strap with jingle bells attached to it that hangs on the doorknob during the season. Well, she went outside and hid around the side of the house, and jingled it ever so lightly, and I freaked out, just knowing that Santa was going to land on the roof, and know I wasn't in bed, so he wouldn't leave me presents. LOL.

I'd say some of my best memories are at Christmas.. my mom and grandma and great-grandma always tried to make everything perfect. And now, because of my little nephew, that tradition is still being carried out.
People probably think we're nuts, because even when there isn't any kids around, we talk as if there is a Santa we have to get ready for.
It is too much fun.

Good thread.
~K

 

[OhMissScarlett]

When I worked in the hotel business, I hated every holiday and every new season with a passion. If we weren't dealing with tourists having a look at the leaves in the fall, we were dealing with them coming to look at the eagles during hard winter. I went to every holiday celebration with my family completely exhausted and stressed out from work. Every halloween I went to parties dressed as a hotel manager becuase I didnt have time to find a costume.

After my son was born and got old enough to be really excited about every holiday, it changed me. Now, since I stay home and actually have the time to enjoy the holidays, I've become one of those people who goes out looking for the perfect Christmas tree, bakes cookies and decorates every inch of the living room. I sing along to the Christmas music in the stores, it no longer gives me cold chills and feelings of dread.

 

[doormouse]

I've always been jealous of you guys having a 'white' Christmas.

Here, it's always hot. We'd wake up Christmas morning and run to the lounge. Santa would have our sacks(pillow cases) spread out across the room with our names on them. They'd always be overflowing with presents too > spoiled brats lol

We'd have a huge Christmas lunch. All the married sisters would come over with their kids and there would be people everywhere lol

Turkey, chicken, ham, lamb, casseroles, coleslaw, potato salad, corn, greens (peas and beans), roast potatoes, rice salad, for main... umm... god it's been years I can't remember what Mum used to dish up.

For dessert there was always pavlova, cheesecake, trifle, ice cream. Big meals on Christmas day.

We make up for not having Thanksgiving then lol

What do you guys eat for Christmas?

 

[she_is_my_addiction]

hm....Christmas dinner....

turkey or ham (sometimes both)
stuffing
gravy
hollandaise sauce
veggies (broccoli, beans)
mashed potatoes
sweet potatoes
rutabega
red, white, and green jello (mom would make the white part out of cream cheese, marshmallows, crushed pineapple...and something else I can't remember...)
pumpkin pie
apple pie
homeade whipped cream
ice cream
other desserts

....i'm sure I've forgotten something...

edited to add:
cranberry sauce from a can
homemade cranberry sauce
salad
coleslaw

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Halloween is my holiday of choice....I love everything about it.

Christmas...No.

I've worked over 17 yrs in retail, my last job was as a store decorator so Christmas started in July prepping all the swags and trees and wreaths until they went up just before Halloween. I never enjoyed it and this past one was horrible, I spent it between the ER and ICU, so hopefully, now that I no longer work there, I may enjoy it.

but I'd much rather carve a pumpkin and dress like death...lol.

 

[carsonshepherd]

I spent many years as a pastry chef. I hated and dreaded Xmas because I'd work 14 hour days, making Yule logs and gingerbread houses, German cookies. Aagh. Easter we did cakes, more 14-hour days. One year my birthday was on Easter and I totally forgot about it!

Now, not being in the business anymore, I don't hate holidays with the passion I once had. Maybe I'll get back some of my interest in them.

Since I don't believe in Christianity I celebrate only the family and traditional aspects of those holidays, anyway. So I guess Thanksgiving is a big one because there's nothing religious about it. I may even go home for thanksgiving this year... better than raw turkey at the "In Laws."

 

[~photoguy~]

ok, this may provoke a flame .. but here goes ..

I recently met someone who *never* celebrated Christmas until she was 30 and managed to escape the "church" her parents (and she) belonged to. Their "religion" considered Christmas and all other holidays to be "pagan". members of this so-called church were also forbidden from reading anything other than literature provided by the church.

Anyways .. she finally started questioning all these bizarre beliefs and was kicked out of the church .. and now is starting to enjoy holidays and build traditions with her kids .. the way that many of us have since we were born...

I was saddened to hear that her childhoold was devoid of any holidays, presents, xmas trees, carols, easter egg hunts, haloween trick or treating, etc etc.

What she belonged to was an evil cult !! I'm so happy that she saw the truth and escaped

**shudder**

 

[oggbashan]

Bondi Beach

One memorable Christmas Day I went to Bondi Beach (Sydney, Australia for those who don't know where Bondi is).

There was an unseasonable storm. It was raining - warm rain of course - and the surf was about 5 metres.

I went body-surfing for about an hour before returning to a parents friend's house for Christmas Dinner with all the usual trimmings.

I wanted to be able to say that I'd surfed at Bondi on Christmas Day. I can. Those waves bashed me around so much I was picking sand out of my chest for weeks.

Og

 

[Goldie Munro]

I do like Christmas but I hate all the build up and cafuffle surrounding it - it is just too commercial.

I don't think I can remember having a white Christmas in Edinburgh ever! I was on a beach in Spain one year not long a go in my bathing suit - that was weird!

My fav celebrations are either very personal (anniversaries) or group (family get togethers, birthdays, weddings) - they mean more to me than the more social holidays.

 

[matriarch]

Christmas was always a time for families, particularly children. Like Goldie I abhor the interminable build up, the commercialism, and always tried to keep it low key, until the week before. Then we would decorate the house with holly and ivy that the boys had been out to help me pick. Their job was always to decorate the tree, while I was in the kitchen making mince pies and sausage rolls, and himself was upstairs, manfully trying to wrap presents (not a man thing).

I always left them stockings, even as adults when they were still spending Christmas with us as single men.

While the youngest was at University, instead of advent calendars, I made them both up a bag containing 25 tiny, silly, individual presents, one to be opened on each day. The youngest was a very popular lad on his floor, with everyone wanting to see what 'Matt's mum' had given him. Toys, chocolates, knick-knacks. It was a great success.

We always visited the parents on Christmas morning, and had lunch together as a family. Until we moved away from the home town. Then it was phone calls, after a Santa visit a week before.

This year will be the first time I have spent Christmas on my own. Its going to be very different.

I usually enjoy a meal on Midwinter Eve with a close friend. The same meal, same decorations - greenery, candles, but celebrating the turning point in winter, and the coming of spring. Its a very special time for the two of us. More than a touch of the pagan in Mat.

 

[cloudy]

I hate to admit it, but after working in retail (clothing) for damn near 20 years, I've become a bit of a scrooge when it comes to holidays. They were something to dread, and just survive, not something to celebrate.

This will be the second holiday season that I've not worked, but the dread is still there.

 

[she_is_my_addiction]

My home life always left something to be desired, but I distinctly remember Christmas time being a little bit better than the rest of the year. Around Halloween time, I always managed to do something that would piss my mother off greatly, no matter how small the problem, and I'd never be allowed to go trick-or-treating. Thanksgiving was stressful and always resulted in horrible blowouts between my mother and father or my mother and...whoever else happened to be around for her to use as a punching bag, literally and figuratively. Christmastime was always a bit better, the buildup, Christmas Eve, and the actual day. Usually my sister and her husband and recently, her kids, would come from the West Coast back to the Midwest, and my brother and his wife would always join us. Occasionally my sister-in-law's father would come along too, so there was always a full house. Our close friends and neighbors would spend the holiday with us too, so there was always a feeling of safety around me, as I knew nothing would happen between my mother and I with all these people around. Part of me wanted to out her savage, terrible side, but no one would have been able to do anything anyway, so I kept quiet. As a result, I've always loved everything Christmas. Not only that, but growing up in the third largest city in America was always fun, looking in the windows at Marshall Fields to see the displays, seeing the huge Christmas tree, and going ice skating in one of the downtown rinks. Going shopping at Water Tower Place and trooping into FAO Schwartz was always fun too. And standing on the bridge over the Chicago River, cups of hot chocolate in hand, was magical.

 

[Guest]

... I'd much rather carve a pumpkin and dress like death...lol.

I love that line, Abby .

I loved Christmas until I was ten (when my father died). Then I loved it again when my sons were boys. Now it mostly means an extra holiday from work (we get a week off with pay, uni closes down) and a nice time with family, or a trip to Venice (spent two there and will again this year).

I like 'Twelfth Night' too, 'The Day of the Kings' in Mexico. I love the idea of "time out of time", which the church used to celebrate more than now, when "misrule" was the key to appreciating life.

I guess my favourite 'holiday is the Mexican 'Day of the Dead', Nov. 2. It's nice that it coincides with H'ween (great kids' holiday) and 'All Saints' Day', Nov. 1 (Catholic thing for me).

Almost forgot 'Ash Wednesday'. I find it profound to go up to the altar, have the priest make a cross on my forehead (out of the ashes from the old palms of the last Palm Sunday) and say, "Remember you are dust and to dust you will return."

Perdita

 

[sweetnpetite]

I just hung up a christmas garland. I feel more festive already.

I love christmas, but I have mixed feelings. Its a very stressful time of year. And I have some bad memories attached.

However something happens every year, just as I approach my darkest hour, to restore my faith- a christmas miracle.

Most people just don't get it when I say that I believe in Santa. They think I'm just dilusional. I think they are dense.

 

[she_is_my_addiction]

I just hung up a christmas garland. I feel more festive already.

I love christmas, but I have mixed feelings. Its a very stressful time of year. And I have some bad memories attached.

However something happens every year, just as I approach my darkest hour, to restore my faith- a christmas miracle.

Most people just don't get it when I say that I believe in Santa. They think I'm just dilusional. I think they are dense.

SnP...It sounds to me like we understand each other about Christmas. I believe in Santa too. And it isn't delusions. It's a glimmer of hope, a morsel of innocence left to us by the grace of God...or whatever it is that holds your belief. It's happiness, festivity, and refusal to wallow in the anger and disdain that surrounds Christmas.

I too, believe in Santa.

 

[sweetnpetite]

SnP...It sounds to me like we understand each other about Christmas. I believe in Santa too. And it isn't delusions. It's a glimmer of hope, a morsel of innocence left to us by the grace of God...or whatever it is that holds your belief. It's happiness, festivity, and refusal to wallow in the anger and disdain that surrounds Christmas.

I too, believe in Santa.

Although it's mostly a metaphorical belief (I mean, come on- I know who puts the presents under the tree!) it amazes me the number of poeple who think it's perfectly rational to believe in God and Angels but crazy to believe in faries, elves, or Santa Clause.

I do believe that there is a spirit of Santa Clauses, something more than just the feeling of goodwill that people hold in there heart at the hollidays, sort of a seasonal diety, if you will.

 

[she_is_my_addiction]

Although it's mostly a metaphorical belief (I mean, come on- I know who puts the presents under the tree!) it amazes me the number of poeple who think it's perfectly rational to believe in God and Angels but crazy to believe in faries, elves, or Santa Clause.

I do believe that there is a spirit of Santa Clauses, something more than just the feeling of goodwill that people hold in there heart at the hollidays, sort of a seasonal diety, if you will.

Amen.

 

[sweetnpetite]

I love Christmas. I'm not so keen on it starting in september though Yup there has been christmas "stuff" in the shops since mid september round here and that is just not right in my mind. No wonderpeople can't stand it..it seems to take over the last half ogf the year.

Christmas should be kept in December where it belongs. I love it all but not this damn early. something is seriously not right when you walk into a major shop and see santa and snowmen and reindeer on one side of the aisle and ghosts, ghouls and vampires on the other side of it

REally, couse I would love it if half the year was christmas and the other half was halloween

 

[SensualCealy]

I loved Christmas more as a kid, even after the Santa deal came out in the open. We would have dinner Christmas eve, and head to town for Evening service. This started at 7pm, I was an alter attendent, by the time the third communion came around our minister and the three of us who helped him out were all feeling pretty good on the communion wine.

The last service was the carol service, I think it was set up that way so we didnt have to follow a program. Most carols were tried and true, no words had to be followed when you knew them off by heart! lol

Now my kids both understand the 'deal' with Santa, and they have always known the real meaning of Christmas even if we never attended Church over the holiday's. One thing I think I miss the most.

Time to get the lights out!
C