Is it Just Me, or Does Anyone Else Hate Christmas !


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I like Christmas time, but we don't go overboard on decorations, presents or extra food.  I like it because of the carols by candlelight and the Nativity play at church, also the excitement of our you

Boxing Day lunch always has been Bubble and Squeak day for us, usually served around twoish for a few family regulars who join us every year. B@S, all cold meat and stuffing, fried egg and baked beans

Christmas was always dreaded in my family because there was inevitably some disaster. Usually, it was the death of a family member or friend and a sense of apprehension built up as the festive season

Old Cockies recipe...... How to cook a Cockatoo..

First catch your bird, clean and de feather it, drop it in a pot of boiling water, add salt and pepper to taste plus a handful of pebbles.

After a few hours of boiling, take the cockatoo out and throw it away, then eat the pebbles....

Same recipe goes for Pelicans...

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I noticed that the East Bridgford Garden Centre had Christmas stuff on display last  Sunday . Good grief, it gets earlier! 

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I can cope with Christmas Day and Boxing Day.  I would probably be OK with shops full of green and red stuff and endless playing of that bloody awful Slade song if was from about a week before the event.  But I hate the three month build up.

 

Miserable?  Moi?  ;)

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I bet you'd wished you'd written that Slade song Col, and the Wizzard one too. 

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The reason the shops have to promote Christmas so early is that some people are already thinking about what presents to buy for Christmas and the 'festive' displays and music just help get them even more in the mood.   One of my sons is in the 'Visual Merchandising' business and tells me all the  Christmas displays have to be taken down late on Christmas Eve ready for the post Christmas Sales.  The shops always have to be one step ahead of Festivals, unfortunately.  I personally think that they should at least wait until after horrible Halloween before starting Christmas.

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I don't subscribe to the commercial hypocrisy of Christmas.

 

My Christmas shopping is all done in the January sales and then forgotten about until mid December when the presents I do give are wrapped.

 

Christmas is a religious festival, not an excuse to bombard people with plastic, glittery tat and extort as much money as possible, nor to encourage folk to spend extortionate amounts on food that no one will eat and which will be thrown in the bin when so many are starving. In my eyes, anyway.

 

It was my experience, when teaching, that most children didn't understand the religious significance of Christmas and thought it was all about asking for, and getting, expensive presents.

 

So no, I don't frequent the shops when all this is going on and neither do most of my friends. We often get together for beans on toast on Christmas day and one couple in their younger days used to climb Kinder Scout with cheese sandwiches for lunch.

 

There, Bah, Humbug! ;)

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Many Garden Centre's start their Christmas as soon as plant sales plummet, usually about now. They have a 'Christmas season' which runs for about six months, including getting rid of all the unsold stuff for bugger-all in January and February. Many High St names, especially fashions, now seem to start their January Sales the week before Christmas. All about keeping ahead of the game.

 

Your son is right though, when I managed stores on retail parks, we had to change from Xmas to Sale late afternoon on Christmas Eve. In a huge shed, that takes some doing when you just want to get home. Just Christmas Day off and in early Boxing Day, most big-ticket retailers' busiest day of the year.

 

No wonder I always hated Christmas and it hasn't changed since I retired. 

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I like the real Christmas: the carol services, Christmas and Advent music (Bach: Wachet Auff) and making contact with friends that I do not see very often.  I choose Christmas presents for family and friends throughout the year when I see something nice that they would like.  I avoid shopping in December as that is when all the expensive "tat" comes out!   When I worked in Farmers shop in Nottingham we always spent Christmas eve getting out the sale things but we were not allowed to sell the sale items until the shop opened again after the holiday.  New Year's Eve working there was brilliant with a great atmosphere.

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#65

 

I, too, like to listen to and sing carols and love Bach's Christmas Oratorio. For me, it consists of 2 days only, the eve and the day itself. By then, there'll be Easter eggs on sale!

 

By the way, I remember Farmer's! Loved that shop. Mum used to get my ballet costume fabrics from there. Wonderful nets and brocades. Shops like that have vanished.

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I'm with you folks.  As a pastor for a number of years I used to cringe at the hype and silliness.  The bible does not even give us an exact date for our Lord's birth.  It is inferred from certain events of the time.

 

As usual the issue is grab grab grab.  Here, on what used to be called Boxing day in England folks often take unwanted stuff back to the store and get other junk instead.

 

I guess I'm pretty cynical.  Just call me Scroogylugs. :)

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I don't believe in the religious stuff.  So some people would I suppose expect me to ignore Christmas.  But then I can still reflect and enjoy the general warmth and optimism it represents when you get past the commercialism. 

 

I do buy into the general winter festival which certainly in the UK seems to draw on quite a lot of pre Christian symbolism such as Holly, Ivy, etc. We all need a psychological boost in the depths of winter.  I also believe that it would be difficult to overdo the 'Good Will To All Mankind' message.  We certainly need that.

 

My strongest emotional 'kick' from Christmas lies in memories of the Carol Service that High Pavement organised every year at the original High Pavement Chapel. It was always a very warm and relaxed affair.  Singing hymns etc., Stanley Middleton on the organ playing Bach and often also playing silly buggers doing his 'phantom of the opera' grin. Great memories.

 

I usually put up a few lights outside.  Most people in our little Cul De Sac make a contribution to the general ambience. No ice cream cones clowns etc., just coloured lights.  But I'm starting to draw the line now and swinging about putting lights on the top guttering at close to 70 is probably a thing of the past. Mostly now I put the lights up to delight my Grandkids. 

 

It's rather nice to be able to enjoy what I like about Christmas without having to do the 'full on' participation.  Being a Grandad and sinking back into my chair watching the kids.

 

As for food....

 

I don't like Turkey and would sooner have roast beef.

 

But my favourite is the Bubble and Squeak I usually serve up on the morning of Boxing Day.  Left over boiled and roast spuds, sprouts and parsnips. (NO onion!!) All mashed up together and fried in bacon fat or a bit of goose fat. or both.  Keep it going until a brown crust forms.  Turn that in and repeat as much as you like. Serve with bacon, or a fried egg, or whatever people want.  Awesome!!

 

Col

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It would be nice to go back 35/40 years, when Christmas day the women stayed in and cooked Christmas dinner (after getting the turkey from the cattle market) as the women were cooking dinner at least you had a real dinner. Going to the pub Christmas Eve and having a good old sing song, waking up next day with a slight head ache. Making a fool of your self and can't remember what you had done. Having all the family round for dinner TV OFF playing card games, sleeping in the arm chair if you felt tired, sitting down to a Christmas tea with home made trifle and Christmas cake.

Boxing day dinner was ladies day at the pub, only when the kids had flew the nest, you arrived at the pub when it opened by 1 00clock you were happy then you had your turkey and stuffing sandwich's by 2 00clock you were very merry, pub closed then home to have a nod.

WOW !!! what a great time we all had.

Now day's I will only send a Christmas card if I can't wish you "A Merry Christmas"

P.S. I forgot the trimmings which you brought from Woolworth's  6d a trimming. For you young ones out there you started at the centre of your living room and went to the corner of the room, this would be done four time's X then in between you would put lanterns or balloons. The trimming's were not taken down till the 6th of January.

OH!!! What fun we had.

THATS LIVING ALLRIGHT.

 

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#63

 

Bubble and squeak! We had that every Sunday night for supper when I was a child, cooked by my father. We always thought of it as a special treat, not realizing that it was a means of using up the leftovers. As in most households of the 50s and 60s with parents who had been through a war and endured rationing, our motto was Waste Not, Want Not. I still adhere to that today and will always make do and mend where possible, even though I don't need to. It has been instilled in me since childhood.

 

I, too, cut holly and ivy from the garden on 24 December and drape it about indoors with some scented candles dotted about. Nice to listen to Bach, Byrd or, to remind me of my choir days at school, Britten's Ceremony of Carols and reflect about another year almost gone.

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Boxing Day lunch always has been Bubble and Squeak day for us, usually served around twoish for a few family regulars who join us every year. B@S, all cold meat and stuffing, fried egg and baked beans for those that want them. Home made pickles and chutneys.

 

The table set with the same kind of arrangements as Christmas day. More crackers, (the pile of little plastic things growing bigger, only to be thrown out after Christmas is over) Christmas pud, Mince pies, cream and custard, and the much adored Trifle that no one could manage the day before.

 

Followed by my true love, "Cadburys Chocolate Hour". Mmmmm.

 

At precisely 11am on a very very cold Boxing day in 1966 we got married in Gedling Church, so this year we are celebrating our Golden Wedding anniversary. Cheers Miducks.:)

 

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Should have mentioned... Psychologically I look forward to the 21st Dec because that is the date of the Winter Solstice or thereabouts.  So the days getting slowly longer from then on in.  I also breathe a mental sigh of relief when the decs are down and 'normal service' resumes.  New start etc..

 

Col

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#72

 

I also celebrate the winter solstice. It is, as you say, a psychological point at which one feels the darkness lifting and spring is not far away. Then it's time to look for growing snowdrops in the garden and the cyclamen under the trees. Without the darkness, we can't appreciate the light!

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#69. Mary, we still have a get together with our children and grandchildren over Christmas when we play games for a couple of hours (the teenagers can forsake their phones for that long!)  We play the same games every year always finishing with up to 8 of us taking turns to play Jingle Bells, We wish you a merry Christmas, and one Carol on a set of handbells that I have.  They are a very basic set so our choice of songs to play is a bit limited, but everyone enjoys doing it.  I hope that these Christmas get-togethers will be one of the many good memories our grandchildren will have and I really hope they will continue it with their own children in due course, even though we possibly won't be around to see it.  

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