You May Tsk And Cluck

When I look back over different kinds of Christmas I'd have to say the eccentric ones have been the best. Sometimes one goes where the wind blows, celebrating the moment with others being blown by the same wind, or one volunteers some place where the need is great. My family had very pretty, very materially-laden Christmases, but (aside from the beautiful decorations) these don't really form the memory of great Christmases. Great Christmases seem to involve some journey, some risk, some discomfort, and time spent with terrific people.

Sozobe, maybe a summer interim is Summerim? I like that... Margo, you could have a Summerim!

Hey, Tartarin, I don't want to be rude, but Bear and I were having a stimulating conversation about pornography and you post something about Christmas?

What's up with that?

Now Piffka joins in the banter. And she ignores the porno convo!

I guess I'll just leave.

now Im comin out of my funk. Ratzenhofer has a way of restoring the X in Xmas

Gee Gus, I'm sorry. I thought you were mistakenly posting to the wrong thread.

Tartarin -- Discomfort? Well... I admit I am not relating too well to that for Christmas. Have I led too sheltered a life? There have been poignant last Christmases with family members... but those aren't the ones I remember so fondly. I remember the Christmases best when the children were so very young, those when we started our first traditions, and the special trips to the S.W. where we learned how to have Christmas, desert-style.

Steissd, that remark is right on the money in my opinion, very perspicatious, and very succinctly put.

Indeed, I am reminded of an old Arsenio Hall monologue. You are describing someone in a crowd - height, weight, dress, etc. Yet he is the only Black in the group. Why not just say so?

For you BPB:

Let me Sleep (Pearl Jam)

Cold wind blows on the soles of my feet
Heaven knows nothing of me
I'm lost nowhere to go
Oh when I was a kid oh how magic it seemed
Oh please let me sleep it's Christmas time
Flowered winds was where I lived
Thought you burned not froze for your sins
Oh I'm so tired and cold
Oh when I was a kid oh how magic it seemed
Oh please let me sleep it's Christmas time
Oh oh when I was a kid oh how magic it seemed
Oh please let me sleep it's Christmas time
Oh oh when I if I was a kid oh how magic it seemed
Oh please let me dream it's Christmas time

Hmmm - seems I may once again thank my orphling status for much enjoyment!

Having given up on the whole christian thing at 14, I have just converted it into an end of year festival.

My friends do not do presents in any major way - but some of us do buy small gifts for each other if we spend the day together, or have gatherings very close to the day.

I actually get great joy in finding these little things - like when, a couple of years ago, christmas was at my place. I live opposite a park - so I bought everyone a book - and a park-toy! Things such as balls that flashed with lights and made music when thrown - little boomerang type thingies - glorious kites (a galleon was the loveliest - that was my gift to me - it was a delight - and still is). We all went over to the park and used the toys when we had finished eating - they attracted a crowd, in the end, as we ran around trying to launch the kites - which were all spectacular, but cheap - throwing and catching the raucous balls and generally behaving like slightly pixillated kids.

This year, I shall be, I think, buying everyone a richly coloured hand-blown wine glass - looks great on the table and fun to take home. Or, I may see other little treasures on my travels - I do not do special christmas shopping, just haunt places until I see what I want - and finding THE thing is a great joy to me - I love giving pesents i f I know they will be right.

Over the last couple of years, at work, I have delighted in buying little surprises for the team for the few days before christmas - just silly little things - like tiny wooden blocks, origami paper and patterns, frenetically running about string-pull hamsters (it was an in-joke), tiny model dinosaurs or ships or whatnot to make up. It gives lots of harmless fun, as people wonder what on earth will be waiting on the lunch table to play with THAT day.

We also have an hilarious Kris Kringle thing - the gifts are given at the staff christmas lunch, with great ritual and savouring. They MUST be cheap, but great thought and ingenuity goes into them, and they are often accompanied by epic poems and such.

For instance, this year, our boss's fish-pond was torn up when a tree fell - and it has been a trial trying to get the insurance company to cough up properly.

When the thing happened, she thought all the fish were dead, and found them, hours later, on the lawn - many were still alive, and were rescued. They are about, at last, to leave their spartan wading pond quarters, and go back to a real pond. She expressed concern that the new filter might suck them up - and the talk turned to goldfish resuscitation and such which created great hilarity - I would not be surprised if her gift is, therefore, a little goldfish medical kit - with tiny resusc paddles, weeny stethescope and so on - made from odd and ends, and a poem.

So - sorry - but I love the season!!!!

Tartarin said:



The latter is exactly how I would describe the perfect Christmas. As I've said, I just don't like routine, and although it's sometimes nice to have a moment of solidarity with one's family, the family Christmas just seems so... clichéd and uncomfortable, like a misfitting memory. The most rewarding Christmasses are when one escapes the beaten track of normality and the 'pressure' and does something completely different.

Pearl Jam sang:


Aw, how poignant. I felt the magic of Christmas until I was about eight, and then it just always felt like an anticlimax.

Bi-polar bear wrote:
If you're going into such a sodomic business, I hope that you have 'I hate every bone in your body except for mine.'

Dlowan wrote:


I really like your idea... what's stupid about today's Christmas is the stress involved, when surely this should be the one time everyone should relax!

The return of steissd is enough of a gift to me (hang in there), but gus and BPB can float some porn my way too.

Bipolar,

My, you've tapped into my favorite subject.

Christmas sucks.

Perhaps I should post some of my Abuzz christmas rants here, eh?

And by the way...Christmas sucks.

no skwerl, theres probably a CDC quarantine for abuzz rants. Glad to see yer own self here.

I'm just surprised that roger actually remembers an Arsenio Hall monologue....I'm surprised anyone does.

People who think Christmas sucks, suck! <goofy grin> Glad I don't have to buy you a present, I 'd get you a piece of coal. Isn't there anything worth celebrating?

Must admit, I heard on TV (and it is still only November, remember!) a charitable plea that ended, "especially during this time of year." Oh, I want to puke when I hear that. I hate it when people are only charitable now. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Christmas doesn't suck, but it is full of wonderfully dissatisfying dichotomies, like:

"I wish I could be with my family this time of year."

"I can't stand being around my family this time of year."

And:

"I have to do all this shopping for others and I never get anything I want."

"No one ever sends me a gift..."

And:

"I am really looking forward to that wonderful turkey/dressing/potatoes/yams/pie that (fill in the blank of a name of a relative) makes."

"I ate too much of/I'm on Atkins and can't/shouldn't eat that turkey/dressing/potatoes/yams/pie..."

The only thing that is more disgusting is to hear a retailer scream:

"And just in time for Christmas!"

when I was on the child protection team doing child abuse investigations, the day after Xmas was the worst day of the year.

Dys
That's sad :-(