How Would You Celebrate Christmas?

1. 61

   avamillicentposted 12 years ago

   
   2 days more and December is here. ^_^
   
   What could be more exciting than planning on celebrating Christmas.
   I was thinking of breaking the traditional mellow get together and go for something exciting.
   
   But as of the Moment, I have no idea on how to do that.
   
   What are your Thoughts?
   How would you celebrate Christmas this year?

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   1. 77

      MickeySrposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      "I was thinking of breaking the traditional mellow get together and go for something exciting. But as of the Moment, I have no idea on how to do that. What are your Thoughts?"
      
      . . . come to my house; 6 kids, 4 spouses-in-law, and 12 grandkids . . . in a small house with a tiny living room, with a tree in it. And - the night before all this, Christmas Eve, we all go to my wife's mother's house (singing carols in the various cars all the way), then our tiny home Christmas morning, then to my mother's house Christmas afternoon (for our traditional a Mexican feast), then to my wife's father's Christmas night . . . to the trunk to a house, to the trunk to a house, to the trunk to a house, etc - Christmas is far from mellow with us.

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      1. 61

         avamillicentposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         can you accommodate a family with 9 members? )

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2. 68

   laurathegentlemanposted 12 years ago

   My family always gets together, and we usually spend a couple of days at my grandmothers house. This year, my grandmother is in the process of selling her home and moving into a MUCH smaller house in an assisted living community, so we're making the switch this year to my aunt and uncle's house in Maryland. It's going to be the start of a new tradition!
   
   For me, Christmas isn't about WHAT you do, it's about spending time with people you love! I don't need something new and exciting - I just need my family. (ALTHOUGH - I have always kind of wanted to try one of those gorgeous December cruises, where you get a chance to escape the cold winter weather and hit up Bermuda or Mexico!)

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   1. 61

      avamillicentposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I also would love to try that. but it is a bit expensive.

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3. 74

   WriteAngledposted 12 years ago

   I would really love to go away with my daughters from the beginning of December, for about 5 weeks, to a place where Xmas is ignored, so we could get away from crowded shops, moronic Xmas music and all the other hype we are forced to endure at this time of year. Unfortunately, practicalities make this impossible for us.
   
   So I will spend the C-day itself plus the days around it with my daughters. We will probably go geocaching one day, possibly go to theatre/cinema, and out for a meal, and otherwise do nothing much. I will most likely work some of the time as well, as there always seems to be a panic among clients around that time.
   
   On the way home, I will drop in with my fiddle on an all-day pub session of West Gallery carols. Unlike the mostly turgid Victorian carols and vacuous pop songs heard everywhere, these are great fun to sing and play and together with Welsh plygain carols are the only Xmas-related things I find enjoyable.

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   1. 77

      MickeySrposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yikes - WriteAngled, that all sounds so miserable, I feel bad for you . . . this is our favorite time of the year. However, we don't take whatever Christmas crap is shoved at us, we make every Christmas just the Christmas we want to celebrate . . . we don't eat a ham or turkey but enjoy enchiladas, we don't watch some Hallmark drivel but look forward to Fred Astaire & Bing Crosby's  'Holiday Inn', and we don't listen to some lame Mariah Carey or Rascal Flatts Christmas ear-bile but listen to Darlene Love (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXVcrWO5FCg) and Eric Clapton (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDYVrqBZ … 6DC93EBA8E). It seems to me the way to genuinely enjoy life is not to try to escape from those bits that bother you, but to not take what's offered and simply do thing the way you prefer.

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      1. 74

         WriteAngledposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         What's miserable about my expectation that I will go geocaching, see a film or play and have a meal out? These are some of the things I like to do all year round! I don't save up such activities for what society deems to be holidays, but if having a state holiday means my daughters are more free to enjoy these things with me, then I'll take advantage of that fact.
         
         However, I have no problems doing work during state holidays either, because I often go off and do things I want to do when other people are slaving at work. I do not wait for priests, politicians or employers to tell me when I can enjoy myself.
         
         What I find appalling is the huge mountain of expectations people build up about Xmas, which is fuelled by the drivel put out primarily for commercial reasons on TV, radio, in shopping centres, etc. 
         
         Then, year after year, so many become totally disillusioned when it all turns into several days of stress and/or boredom, plus an after-trail of debt in some cases.
         
         The other thing that is awful is how people, who are totally on their own with no family whatsoever are so often made to feel on the fringes of society at this time.
         
         As far as I'm concerned, Xmas should stay a festival for those following the diverse Christian pathways, and not be turned into a hyped-up overdose of sentimentality.

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         1. 77

            MickeySrposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            WriteAngled, I didn't mean to imply that those things you hope to do around Christmas are miserable things to do, I suppose phrases like "get away from" and "forced to endure" suggested to me a rather miserable circumstance for you to be dealing with at Christmas time.
            
            As to the "huge mountain of expectations people build up about Xmas" - I can't believe there is anyone on the planet who builds up a huger expectation about Christmas than my younger son, and all his siblings and mother are right behind him - and year after year none are disillusioned. The world, our culture, the commercial media, etc, all try to tell us all year long what we're supposed to be interested in and desire . . . I don't think manliness has anything whatsoever to do with watching football, drinking beer, driving and working on cars, etc - I don't listen to 'them' any other time why would I listen to 'them' about Christmas.
            
            I understand 'they' shove it in your face every chance 'they' get, but there are so many other things happening all around us to get agitated about instead of some boob trying to sell me new extra whitening toothpaste . . . I know he's out there waiting for me, but I also know there are people out there hungry and  children watching their mommy getting hit, etc, etc - since I don't, Christmas or anytime, let 'them' tell me what I should be interested in or what I should desire, they just don't bug me like a lot of other things do.
            
            As to people "with no family whatsoever are so often made to feel on the fringes of society" . . . I don't think they are "made" to feel anything - what they feel is what THEY feel. There are a lot of people with no family, all alone, who delight at Christmas time, who volunteer or participate with others in some way. Perhaps you could geocach some shelter or public kitchen and bring Christmas to some lonely people, maybe that would be a special Christmas for them and you.
            
            As far as Christmas staying "a festival for those following the diverse Christian pathways" - there is only one Christian path, Jesus Himself said that He is the only way . . . man, like those you complain have confiscated Christmas to sell products, have concocted a variety of religious notions that they identify as "Christian", there is a 'Christendom' that includes "diverse pathways", but there is only one single actual authentic Christianity. And Christmas, has little to do with Christianity don't you think? It has become a nearly fully secular, civil holiday with it's own traditions that have nothing to do with the birth of Jesus.

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4. 0

   Emile Rposted 12 years ago

   If I could spend Christmas anywhere, I'd love to go to a theme place where we have a cabin, with a horse drawn sleigh to get around in and a bear skin rug to keep us warm. With bells on the horse's harnesses so they'd jingle while we rode. And chestnuts to roast at night.
   
   I just think it would be a hoot to live in one of those silly songs for the holiday.

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