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This may be a tad early for some of you but what the hey…………
How does everyone celebrate Christmas? Do you get to have snow where you are (if so do you want a spare guest?) do you go away for the holidays (….’scuse the American sounding line there
) do you have turkey and all the trimmings etc?I’m a bit of a Christmassy person myself, only having spent the vast majority of the last…… eons of years….. in warm climates it’s never been the same and I am soooooo looking forward to this Christmas when I’ll be in nice n cold Umbria
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I celebrate it sparingly.
It means a great deal more to my mum as a fairly religious person (to the extent of becoming a part-time Lutheran minister once she retired) and grandmother to several small, excitable children. To that end I expect we’ll probably pootle along to the German church in Stretford at some point, which I don’t mind too much as a language practice exercise; and it’s really a small, simple gesture to keep both parents happy.
Other than that, once I’ve touched base with all the family and friends back up North, I start to tire of the excess, inertia and toy-fuelled tantrums of infants pretty quickly, and will most likely want to be going for a long walk on the hills by Boxing Day, and back to work soon after that.
I can’t remember the last White Christmas we had in Saddleworth – it did start snowing on Boxing Day in either 1980 or 1981, though, and refused to let up until it had dumped several feet of the stuff up in the hills. "Proper" winter, that!
KT – did you really mean "nice n cold Umbria", or "nice n old Cumbria"?
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Umbria GC – I’ve been invited back for a week – so I can’t have outstayed my welcome in October
Your Christmas sounds nice, especially the walk. I always love going for walks on Boxing Day when I’m in a cold country. Umbria should be beautifully chilly
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When I had a "real" job I always volunteered to work, or at least be on-call (hoping beyond hope for a call) at Christmas – which probably gives some indication of what I think of it!!!!
I have no time for, what I consider to be, the superstition around which the festival is based and nowadays the whole thing, to my mind, is over commercialised exploitation anyway.
Having said that we do have an "open door" policy for any relatives or friends who want a child / television free Christmas. With a big meal at lunchtime, opening presents after dinner, then games in the evening. As I said, absolutely no television though – it is the one day it is banned in the house.
Boxing Day – well that is easy – the only difficult desision is where exactly to go racing, although it has to be said the King George is hard to resist!!!
No television for us either! Stockings in the morning….. (if Santa has found me, he does seem to have a lot of difficulty keeping up I have to say
) then dinner, the usual siesta and then a walk before pressies in the evening – then it’s mulled wine by the fire .
Christmas for me is very very simple as I am not a religious person.
I am divorced and don’t live with my kids so Christmas day consists of ringing the kids the first thing in the morning and having a good chin wag with them. Then I’m afraid it’s all a blur….
We are a very close family but all the kids are grown up now (apart from mine who are 6 and 7), so Christmas just consists of the pub while the women (that’s my mam and sisters) cook the dinner. Then it’s a family meal before playing those stupid DVD games while getting more drunk.
My girlfriend will usually come round on the evening and we will just get drunk and watch all the crap tv
.But Boxing Day is the big day for me, becuase that’s when I spend the day with my kids and we have a kids Christmas. So basically, Christmas day is a ‘getting drunk’ day, while Boxing day is my Christmas, if that makes sense
Mike
Your Christmas sounds nice, especially the walk. I always love going for walks on Boxing Day when I’m in a cold country.
Aye, and there’s no paucity of walking country up round mum and dad’s!
One thing I have never ever done, oddly enough, is go racing on Boxing Day – usually it’s either been a matter of cost, or of only having a few days with the folks and wanting to spend it with them before heading back daaan saaaf. It’s the latter instance again this year, unless I get any work lobbed my way at rather short notice.
I expect Boxing Day evening will be spent with some old schoolmates in a house in Prestwich, battering everyone at that x-box music game with the short name (Buzz?) and then watching with amusement whilst everyone else gets poorly trying (and failing) to out-drink Mrs Column. She drinks for two of us – she’s some woman.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I still love Christmas even though working at M&S as I do means Christmas starts around the beginning of September and is the most stressful, frantic, crazy time for everyone. The best part about Xmas in retail is that i work in the HR office for 99% of the year but it’s traditional for the office staff to do the ‘turkey run’ for the last three days before the Big Day which consists of manning the distribution point for dishing out all the mountains of sumptuous food customers have ordered. It’s jolly, there’s carols playing, biscuits for everyone and it’s just such a "Christmas-spirity" type of thing that it can’t fail to get you in the mood. I even wear a pointy red hat
Then Christmas itself can be a bit of a let down because I’m back at work within two days for the sale. Ugh! And as the kids are almost grown up now there’s no toy opening any more but I love the way the house looks, love how special the presents are and it’s just a nice friendly, lovely time. The telly’s pretty crap these days, but it doesn’t seem to matter when there’s present opening/fiddling and eating to be done!
Christmas this year will be where I live. I normally go up to Cumbria with my wife and two children ( 3 and 5). It is a wonderful place to be in winter, (Cumbria) bloody cold but scenic where we are.Log fires are a must , The in laws are great but don’t drink much so this year i’ll be be getting into the booze more than previous! (shallow I know but that’s what I’m used to with my family!
) Either way they are both great holidays and i am lucky. But since the kids have been about Christmas is all about them. I do’t want them to grow up as the whole xmas thing is so magical for as long as they dont become spoilt brats… 
) do you have turkey and all the trimmings etc?
) then dinner, the usual siesta and then a walk before pressies in the evening – then it’s mulled wine by the fire 
….in between times, on the phone to relatives in Australia, only to find they spent the day on the verandah enjoying a Chicken Salad!- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.