The Christmas Thread (Got any decoration pics? Post them here!)

[Bluerang1]

Early? Everyone's doing it.

This is just a general seasonal thread, like the Food Thread is for food. What are you plans? How do you celebrate? What's on the top on your Christmas list this year? etc.

On another note, shouldn't Christmas only be for elves? Discuss.

 

[Lolowitz]

Normally on Christmas day, My siblings and I open our presents at home and then go to my grandmother's house for Christmas dinner. (starter e.g. melon/soup, main course e.g. turkey & ham, stuffing, mashed & baked potato's, peas, brussel sprouts, carrots etc, desert e.g. ice-cream & jelly)

I'm not sure about the whole "Christmas only be for Christians?" part. I'm not a Christian myself (or well, not a practising one at all. If anything I would call myself agnostic) Christmas isn't really a celebration of the birth of Jesus any more, It's been transformed into this sort of pagan holiday just for gifts and 'togetherness', It's nice that just for one day a year everyone is together.

 

[Black Ice]

I usually visit my grandparents and attend the dreaded 3-hour church special.

By now, Christmas is probably as much a part of marketing as it is a part of Christianity. Maybe an exaggeration. Just a little.

 

[Pokemon Trainer Touko]

Every Christmas, my sisters and I go to Japan to visit our relatives oAo; And then on 25th December we all gather and have lunch together at my grandma's house (her house is GIGANTICCCC, it has 6 floors and can probably fit 200+ ppl owo;;;;;) And then we go shopping and pack up on the next day and then we go homeeeee on the day after :D

 

[Ho-Oh]

I wasn't actually looking forward to Christmas until the decorations got put up and a Christmas episode was on Family Ties (aka 10 minutes ago) and I have decided from now on I'm looking forward to Christmas. Luckily, I'll be busy next month so I won't need to really "count" down and it'll pass. What's weird is that there's like 34 days or something, whereas normally I'd have "cared" by now (tbh I can't even remember last year) but yeah I really didn't care.

On Christmas, however, we're apparently going over my aunty's house to exchange presents which sucks because we've always had Christmas here (and one day we had it on the 22nd or something ;;) but idc I shall deal with it. Ideally, I just want to eat popcorn on Christmas and not really get presents, and rather unwrap boxes with nothing inside except foam (shush I love opening presents, I kinda don't really like recieving presents lol) AND a stocking full of basic essentials I'll need like toothpaste and stuff (omg you know what I'd love? Some sort of card to get my teeth whitened professionally, I'd sooo enjoy that).

Actually, in terms of presents in general, the only thing I can think of that would be of use would be a tripod for my camera. It's not the best but because upgrading to a DSLR costs "too much" I could probably use it better with a tripod. Other than that I can't really think of anything else I want, other than an email from someone, but given that Christmas = Sunday the chances of that are low so day after at least?

When I was younger I generally wanted a whole lot of stuff I didn't really need. BUT as a kid you don't really "need" anything and you just enjoy saying "omg I have this" (except without the "omg"). I remember one time when one of the neighbours around the corner went around the street, driving in a ute, saying "Merry Christmas" on Christmas day to everyone. A few other children and I went out the front and got a photo taken in front of the van, it was awesome, lol.

OH YEAH AND WE USED TO HAVE CHRISTMAS PARTIES IN THE PARK. Idk, a few days before Christmas it was like these neighbours sorta gathered everyone together and we all sat around in the park, bringing chairs, food, and all kinda talked, and the older kids (I was young then so defs not me) dressed up as Santa and gave out presents to everyone, it was sooo awesome. As I've grown older I realise how much I miss that and I'd love to do something like that again, but idk, since the man who originally organised that has died since :x

I guess the best part about Christmas for us is the combination of food, family and decorations. And the whole build up, I love the TV shows surrounding Christmas, and the fact that we usually have a BBQ that day and yeaah. IT'S ALL SO EXCITING. But yeah, looking forward to it now. :)

OH OH OH OH. AND COUNTDOWN CALENDARS!!!!!!!!!! I used to always use the countdown calendars as a kid they were so awesome :3

...and I think that's all.

 

[Nihilego]

Hm. It's gonna be a bit of a rougher Christmas for me this year for VARIOUS REASONS and honestly I'd like to skip the whole thing and get on with 2012 but that's not going to happen. So, I'll make the most of it while I can! I don't really know what I'll be doing this year, though. Most likely stay at home but idrk it depends on how I'm feeling. If I just wanna be away from home for a while because of VARIOUS REASONS then I might see if a friend would have me round or whatever. I know that a lot of my friends' parents would probably be pretty chill with letting me stay with them for the day unless they're like super-tight on family which most of them aren't. And when do I start buying people things and what do I buy and aaaaaaaaaaa.

As for the Christmas for Christians thing, yeah, probably should be. But people get presents so everyone has it instead. How the world works yo.

 

[miltankRancher]

This christmas will be a different one for me. First time in my sixteen year of existence to celebrate it outside my home country (Yay! Singapore!) So, I guess it will be so much different. Christmas in the Philippines is the happiest they say. I will see to it.

Well, I'm a non-believer, but not an Atheist. I don't believe in the presence or absence of God. All I know is I do good things, I'm good. And christmas is not for Christians only. Why take away a rather fun celebration away?

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

Christmas used to be my favorite holiday, but now that I'm older it doesn't hold the same charm it used to. Nowadays, my Christmas routine boils down to being rudely awakened by the family, opening up a few gifts, then promptly going back to bed, usually in a worse mood than when I was woken up. I can seriously see myself stop celebrating Christmas altogether if I ever get a job and move away from the family, it's just that uneventful and routine for me. Just staying at home and being bored out of my mind. The only benefit of Christmas is the extra bit of cash flow into my bank account. Oh, and all the pretty colored lights.

 

[Mr Cat Dog]

RED CUPS! And COCA-COLA ADVERTS! That's essentially 'Christmas' at the moment for me. There are a few street lights up, but nothing major. But the amount of people queuing up at Starbucks to get a Gingerbread Latte or the amount of times I've seen the Coca-Cola Santa Claus makes me wonder if it's not already December 23 or something! (It's not... I've checked a calendar multiple times!)

 

[Esper]

I wouldn't mind Christmas so much if people were actually nicer to each other (holiday spirit, anyone?) but people tend to be ruder around Christmas time. If they're not being rude they're too busy getting their seasonal coffee to be nice to anyone. It's just a stressful holiday with gifts and family and dinners. Everyone knows that it's the one holiday you can't allow to be messed up so everyone gets bent out of shape over it. And GAWD FORBID you don't do something overtly Christmas-y and get that one person who is always around and takes it too seriously on your back about "getting into the spirit of things."

 

[Impo]

I'm already tired of Christmas Carols and it is only November

 

[Oryx]

The only carols I've heard are the ones I put on myself last weekend.

I loooove Christmas, it's so great. This Christmas, I get off of school on the 18th I believe, and then I'm taking a road trip with my boyfriend back to his home in California. Then on the 24th I'm flying to NYC and spending the rest of the holiday with my family. :) Going to be greatttt.

Christmas has too many aspects of paganism for it to be "just for Christians" anymore. Jesus wasn't even born in December. They should just make a real religious holiday when he was born, and let Christmas just be a non-religious fun holiday like it is for most people nowadays.

 

[lacella]

my family celebrates noche buena (sp?), where we stay up until 1am on christmas day, have a huge midnight feast and open gifts. problem is... i usually end up sleeping through it, haha. i need to up my stamina this year!

the next day is usually church and food food food food. some years we've gone to the beach (i'm in australia, so summer).

 

[Alternative]

I consider Christmas this year to be somewhat like the 3DS when I got it. When I first heard about it I wasn't so hyped about it, and then as it got closer to the release date I wanted one really badly. It's similar to that for me, the closer it is, the more hype I get for it. I love Christmas, and the giving spirit of things. Last year for our family picnic I got to dress up as santa and that was fun and I want to do it again. ^_^

As for the entire christmas spirit side of things, my family is getting to the point in life where my mum and dad are getting sick and tired of it, and my sister's only in it for the presents and stuff like that, losing the whole "santa" spirit if you catch my drift. I want to try and get into the Christmas spirit some more, helping out with cooking lunch and stuff, it's so much fun. :D

As for my usual plans for Christmas Day and stuff, depending on where I am since I spend every second year at my grandma's house for christmas, and they come to my house for the other years is always different. When it's up at my grandma's house we usually get up and open presents and stuff and have a nice family lunch. Sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad, which actually happened with an incident a few years ago. There was a huge fight between my mum and her brother and I couldn't stand it and it was terrible. We haven't seem him ever since. But I like the christmas rituals at my house. On Christmas eve we order lots of Pizza and get some fancy cocktail sauce to eat with chicken or prawns. Then the next day we get up and have a small Christmas lunch.

General things which happen around Christmas though is that we get up super early to open presents because of my sister, and I feel really groggy in the morning from getting up early, and then do whatever.

Next year I'm going to try and plan to spend Christmas with one of my aunt's because they have younger children and it's so much easier to spend Christmas with them because of their little christmas spirit and it's so uplifting for everyone. <3

 

[Dakotah]

You know Christmas is in the air when in every store you go carols are being song on those overhead speakers. Christmas lights are going up on homes, and just the other day we had our first taste of snow (albeit a very light dusting with no accumulation).

Christmas, it seems, is coming earlier and earlier every year. At the store I work at, as soon as October 31st passed, down came all the Halloween decorations, and up went the Christmas ones.

But I don't mind all that, because Christmas to me isn't about celebrating any one particular day. In my mind, every day is Christmas. Or at least, it should be.

As to the question posed, whether Christmas should be reserved strictly for Christians, as has been pointed out earlier, Christmas was originally celebrated as the Pagan Winter Solstice. So no, Christmas shouldn't be for Christians alone. It should be shared universally. And as far as I'm concerned, what day you celebrate Christmas, if at all, shouldn't matter either. Because as I said earlier, every day should be Christmas.

 

[phonastik]

Go to the beach with the dog, have a barbecue, relax in front of the air conditioner. Eat leftover salads for the rest of the month. See family that we never see otherwise. It's nice.

 

[Hassan_Abdillah]

I'm from a mostly Muslim community in South Asia so Christmas doesn't really mean much to me. Except for the new shows and stuff on telly, the carols or Santa-related movies and so on.

When I was young...well, young-er, I got pretty excited about it though. There were those five star-hotels, which are rare sights in the context of my country, where there were Christmas celebration. Nothing too fancy, just some guy in a fat suit giving out chocolates and kids hounding over them.

Somewhere down the line all of this stopped making sense.

This year...I don't know maybe I'll hang out with my Christian friends.

 

[chella182]

Pub with my friends on Xmas Eve until about half 11.
Go home, grab my gran's presents and go up her house with my mam.
My gran opens her presents at midnight and my mam opens some and I open one.
Xmas day I open my stuff, nose around it a bit, then go out for one last cigarette before gran comes down for dinner.
Eat dinner.
Get very bored at the inane conversations and rubbish TV.

That's pretty much it.

 

[Bluerang1]

I've spruced up the top post a bit ^^ So what's on the top of your wishlist?

 

[Nihilego]

Legit I really don't expect anything this year, but if anything, just some money would be pretty cool. I'd always rather take the money than the gifts since I can put it towards something bigger which I really want!