The holidays: I love 'em! (no spam)

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 8:13 am

That's right: this is a thread for those of you (ahem) us who think the holidays are wonderful, joyous, marvelous, etc. Down with complainers! Down with cynics! Up with puppies, cries of joy and tolerance, for at least a few hours, anyway, until our politicians remind us whom to hate, again!

Tell us why you like the holidays, and how you celebrate it. Joy.

Vicsun · Post by **Vicsun** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 12:52 pm

I love the holidays out of spite for the cynics!

Malta Soron · Post by **Malta Soron** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 3:34 pm

I love the holidays because then I can game all day and nobody is bothering me with work

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:12 pm

I do have a secret love of the holidays. I get to get my cousins together and mock my paternal grandmother with them. It's a family tradition. Unfortunately, it got out of hand a few years ago, and she won't come around any longer. Which is a mixed blessing. No more mean old witch to drive me crazy, but no fun driving her into a fit in front of the whole table by making a "Nana" nametag and imitating her for the kids.

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 9:03 pm

I love the holidays: everyone is out of town to meet and friends and family, nobody to call, visit, annoy or otherwise bother me. Tricky needs NO ONE!

Seriously though, I like the holidays simply for what they are; extra time. You can choose to spend your time watching TV and be annoyed about every other form of commercialism you encouter there or on the streets, or you can just take advantage of the extra spare time. Do something you've been putting off, clean the attic, fix the plumbing, take a long drive to someone you haven't seen in some time.

I'm doing the latter. I'll be spending one week at the North Sea coast with my two best friends. They bought a roomy condo last year and invited me over. Good chances for snow and visible Aurora Borealis, I can't wait to leave.

Sean The Owner · Post by **Sean The Owner** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 9:16 pm

no school! yay! although it costs money to buy people presents, you get the money back anyways from people giving presents to you, whats there to complain about?

and you can drink whatever time is convenient for you(if youre a student working part time or not working at all) since theres no school to wake up for

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 10:52 pm

Can't really disagree with Malta Soron.

I've got two weeks off after Christmas, and I'm going to neglect my partner and family and just spend time by myself. I've got games to finish, books gathering dust that need to be read and plenty of beer that will need to be consumed. It's a season to be selfish, hell I deserve it.

In reality, I'll most likely be doing jobs around the house/garden, fixing friends computers and spending "quality time", with the missus'.

Moonbiter · Post by **Moonbiter** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 11:16 am

I really enjoy “the Holidays” as they call it. I’ll assume we’re talking about Yuletide. I’ve enjoyed it since I was a little kid, and as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to enjoy it for many different reasons.

First of all it’s the sheer entertainment value. Each year at the end of October it’s “headless chicken” time again. I live in a country where we’re not having the same “flock-of-piranhas” feeding frenzy as they have in the USA, but we’re trying our best. The whole show is usually preceded by the media outbursts from various special interest groups that start in late September. First it’s the anti-alcohol groups who’ll have their say, and nobody gives a toss. Then there is the various welfare and charity organizations, screaming and raging against the Consumer Culture. Still, nobody gives a toss. Finally it’s the major religious groups all claiming they’re right….

The most interesting people, though, are those minor groups or single individuals hell bent on spoiling the enjoyment of the Yuletide for everyone else. Those petty, bottom-feeding curmudgeons crawling out from under their rocks each time we approach an event that a lot of people might actually enjoy, to point out everything that’s “wrong” with it.
This very predictable gang of bilious whiners can be everyone from people peddling some personal/political/pagan/atheist/whathaveye idea, who are insulted because the entire planet don’t celebrate “Slurpaah-Ongwu-Ooomph” day with them or are as broke as them, to psychotic nitpickers spewing out their life’s rule of “I’m a miserable twit, and so should everyone else be.” The last category has several subclasses and a strong presence on the internet. They differ from the ordinary squabblings of, let’s say, Catholics vs. Protestants in that they don’t have any particular message other than: “The Holidays suck! Let’s be miserable together!” The funny part is that all these toxic-minded freaks don’t actually have to do what they’re doing! People are perfectly capable of messing up Yuletide on their own, thankyouverymuch! I also happen to really enjoy watching the drones living in the bump’n’grind of stress, avarice, information overkill and emotional poverty that is life in the big city, actually managing to UP THE STRESS LEVEL come December! They don’t need the added grief of the anti-holiday brigade to tell them it stinks; it’s all in their minds already!

So I really enjoy Yuletide because me, my family and my closest friends are nothing like that at all. We use the holidays to kick back, reflect, and enjoy warmth, peace and good company, if we feel like it. For five days+ nobody has any chores or duties or anyone telling them what to do. It's the end of the year too, so in many ways it reflects a brand new start. But that’s not all. From 15th of December it’s unusually good being us! The lunatics are all running around shopping, cooking, planning, attending boring office parties with too much booze messing them up even more, trying to meet the usual end-of-the-year deadlines at work, and so on. We on the other hand, get to enjoy the best seats in the virtually empty movie theatres, or see usually sold-out shows. We get to go to fantastic exotic restaurants that are normally booked solid months in advance, but nobody will visit now because they don’t serve traditional “Holiday cuisine.” If we want to go for a trip to a museum, an art exhibition or skiing up in the mountains, we have the entire place to ourselves. That’s why I enjoy The Holidays. Oh, and we get the bonus perk of being able to shake our heads at, or simply ignore, the mindless masses who let the season mess them up, and the misanthropic dungheels who uses it to promote their own usually pointless agendas.

Maharlika · Post by **Maharlika** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 5:56 pm

It's a time for me and my family to spend more time with each other. For most of us Filipinos, this is something we look forward to. Essentially, we don't give too much premium on the material gifts we receive nor the banquet in store during the "Noche Buena" (Christmas Eve Dinner). It is more on the opportunity to spend quality time with our loved ones.

That is why it pretty much sucked for me when I was living in Thailand for 6 years. Christmas Eve was non-existent for me. If I think about it during that time I just ended up feeling miserable.

Philos · Post by **Philos** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:52 pm

At work, my office is a fairly social group, but this time of the year really brings it out. I am blessed with a really great group of immediate co-workers. Just before Thanksgiving 5 or 6 co-workers literally made a Thanksgiving dinner and brought it in for our office. I mean turkey, dressing, and all. Truly was a nice surprise.

We do something similar for Christmas, (it'll be Friday week from now), but this time the entire place becomes a hugh Christmas luncheon. Every shop fixes food and we wander from office to office sampling different things. Thing like these make it a lot of fun to come to work this time of the year. Kind of helps make up for the long hours we sometimes have to put in during the rest of the year.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:58 am

My wife's affection for Christmas is a social thing. She likes the idea of nicely decorated tree, with presents exchanged under it. It brings back memories of her childhood with his parents and three siblings. She also puts up a knitted manger scene that she did in her early teens, with a Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, 3 Magi, a cow, and 3 sheep. Invariably, the sheep end up in the arms of Mary and the Magi, while the Baby Jesus is riding on the back of the cow. I have no idea how that happens.

Bear in mind, she's a completely lapsed former Methodist, agnostic about any godhood, and crudely sarcastic about church ritual, the bible, etc. So in her case, Christmas has become a time of good memories divorced from its religious context.

Moonbiter · Post by **Moonbiter** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 8:58 am

You know Fable, that's exactly why I like Yuletide too.

My mom is from Slovenia, raised as a Catholic, but completely non-religious, probably because of that. She still puts up a beautiful antique set of handmade miniatures that she brought here, with the stable, the baby Jesus, the animals etc. Yes, they also all end up in slightly odd positions.:laugh: It's Christmas for her, despite her views on religion. When we decorate and gather our little family to celebrate, that has to be part of it or something would be missing. It's just symbols, like snow, the tree, the decorations, the gifts.

I found this Dobbs: A tree grows in Seattle - CNN.com a while back. It pretty much sums up my thoughts on a lot of things.

BlueSky · Post by **BlueSky** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 12:37 pm

For the last few years of my marriage, before the divorce:laugh: I hated the holiday season, the pressure, the in-laws...etc.

But these past couple of years, with very good friends, my daughter and son-in-law, have re-newed my love of the holidays...with people that actually mean something to you, it makes all the difference. Growing up with an obessive mother that had to have everything matching and in its place.
I now tend to have a tree and house decorated with every color scheme and decoration available...have been quoted as saying, if its in the box marked Xmas its going on the tree, which has resulted in a Halloween bat being on our tree for the last 3 years running, its now a holiday tradition!:laugh:

Chimaera182 · Post by **Chimaera182** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:32 pm

Christmas is now looking up.

I quit my seasonal job, which was killing me both on the inside and the out. No more listening to cheesy corny Christmas crap that'll drive me up the wall; now I can listen to it in the comfort of my parents' house. No more working myself into the ground, no more stress. I won't get the 12-hour Christmas I had last year that I was so afraid of reliving. My family has a little ritual for the days leading up to Christmas; it's corny, I promise you, so I won't go too deep into it. But last year I missed out on two major parts of the ritual, so Christmas sucked for me. This year, I wanted things to be different, especially since next spring I am finally graduating from college, and there's no telling where I'll be after that. So, I keep telling myself that this will be my last Christmas (melodramatic, no?)

Alas, my parents already got a Christmas tree without me; this would be one of the major milestones in the ritual leading to Christmas. I already feel cheated. But, at least this time I'll have five days before Christmas in order to participate in... um... well, there are the movies, at least. I can take comfort in that. So this year it won't be so bad.

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 8:20 pm

The evil twin of my "The holidays: I hate 'em!" thread. Or is that the evil twin? Regardless, think sweet thoughts about this time of year, expel some gas in three-part harmony to the tune of "Hark the Herald Angels," and post happy thoughts about the season!

imawindowlickr · Post by **imawindowlickr** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 8:03 am

The best part of the holidays for me is that it never goes away. I just take a drive to the country or find a Trailer park.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 6:32 pm

Weelll...

Last year's holiday season was pretty crappy, so this year we are compensating by doing all kinds of seasonal things... Lights (er..tastefully done, nothing overboard), baking, good cheeses, wine, spirits.. We might even get a wreath for the front door.
I have to confess, I am liking this...

At this rate I'll be kicked out of the Scrooge Appreciation Society...

Loki[D.d.G] · Post by **Loki[D.d.G]** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 7:49 pm

This holiday season is the final one I will be able to enjoy with my friends and family in my home country. So, going to try to eke out as much fun as possible from each day.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:11 pm

Loki[D.d.G] wrote:This holiday season is the final one I will be able to enjoy with my friends and family in my home country. So, going to try to eke out as much fun as possible from each day.

How will you spend those days, and what home country do you mean? Who is family, in your case?

Queen_Articuno · Post by **Queen_Articuno** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:30 pm

Holidays

I like Christmas because of its religious overtones (That's right! Sue me! :laugh

and because I get two whole weeks off of school. Whoopee!

(My secret wish is that I get a Nintendo Wii for Christmas this year!

)

And I'm a Lutheran, and PROUD OF IT!!!!!!