any other Christmas snobs here?

[ulysses]

I love this time of year, always have. I'm putting up our outdoor lights this afternoon, and we're getting a (real) tree tonight or tomorrow.

But dear god, I hate the muzak, the cheap plastic baubles and whatnot, the enforced consumerism (I spend as much as anyone else, of course - support independent booksellers!), the crowds, obnoxious movies based on wonderful classic cartoons, the stupid TV specials featuring bad performers, the form letters from people we haven't heard from all year.

I'm getting my shopping out of the way in one swell foop, and then I'm going to barricade myself in the house with my wife, the pets, a glass of wine, and the Boston Camerata. Bah. Humbug.

;-)

[GOPisEvil]

1. I just never get into the decorating or the music.

The muzak and the baubles make me ill. The crappy television and movies are to be avoided at any cost. There are only two "holiday" movies I watch: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story. :-)

I kinda like the cards, but none of my friends send form letters.

I like that I get together with my friends and parents and enjoy their company, but that's about it.

No house barricading for me - I'd get tired of just having myself around. I can be a real pain in the ass. ;-)

[ulysses]

4. I would add one movie

Scrooged. Love Bobcat. :D

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. Holding up hand.

I dislike cheesiness as a general rule.

Some of the form Christmas letters I get are interesting and informative. But there was one last year that was a classic of everything that is wrong with those letters.

[ulysses]

5. a good general rule, yes.

:)

[arwalden]

3. But do you use those "Chalet Lights"... the mini-lights that

are supposed to look like icicles, but instead dangle from your eaves all tangled up.

They look like they are difficult to put up... which MIGHT just explain why so many folks around here leave their chalet-lites up ALL FREAKING YEAR LONG. (At least they have the courtesy NOT to plug them in out of season.)

-- Allen


P.S. Do you have any plastic 4-foot tall "Noel" candle sticks lining the walkway to your front door?

[ulysses]

8. we have two strings of those things.

Yeah, they're a titanic pain in the ass. We used to have one of those sets that you could program to blink in 8 or 9 different patterns - made the porch look like Las Vegas until it mysteriously developed a short in the cord. O8) I generally go just for the big C9 lights, clear and blue.

And no, no candle sticks, no reindeer, no lighted Santas. Our neighbors do that crap, though.

[arwalden]

10. I Love Seeing Homes With C9's....

... our tree is C7's and C7-bubblers.

Also... I managed to snag 10 boxes of the old fashioned HEAVY leaded icicles. The ones that were banned because of their lead content. They are still the most beautiful of all. None of that mylar crap for our tree. It would spoil the 1940's-50's look entirely.

-- Allen

[pink_poodle]

6. Absolutely. I only decorate an absolute and "tasteful" minimum..........

and I am so with you on the shopping and everything else. I have shopped on line for the past 5 years in order to avoid the malls. We now get a stack of DVD's so that we can watch what we want rather than what they offer us on the satellite. It's always the same old stuff out there. I've been hearing Xmas music everywhere for the past two weeks now just going for groceries and to the bank!

[arwalden]

9. "Tasteful Minimum" At Our House Means...

... ONE electric candle in each window. That's the full extent of our outdoor holiday decorating.

Easy to put up. Easy to take down. Easy on the electric bill.

-- Allen

[Catshrink]

7. I'm with you on the music....

Love choral music done well. Love Vaughan Williams' Hodie. and Handel's Messiah -- the Trevor Pinnock version.

[ulysses]

11. I've got a really nice box set

of the Boston Camerata doing medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Christmas music. Between that and my Anonymous 4 "On Yoolis Night" cd, I'm usually set. :)

[Catshrink]

19. Sounds like my Christmas music collection

a lot of English choral stuff. Need to dig it out for the season.

BTW -- last year I send my older nephew (30y)the Pinnock Messiah for his BD (12/4). I wasn't sure he'd like a recording without all the grandiose symphonic hoopla bue he loved it. He called me to rhapsodize about the kettle drums.

[pansypoo53219]

35. if it ain't medieval

IT SUCKS, except that one by the platters or was it the coasters. I am ALL BAH HUMBUG, except the food. absolutely NO MALL and or xmas shopping in stores. in fact, last year, it took me a grand total of 10 minutes on ebay to buy for my 'name', but then i just happened to know he collected wheat pennies and i think he liked the boo boo steal pennie, AND the roman coins and i kept the spending under $30. AND he got some indian heads.
just gotta be creative and avoid what the commercial nature of AMERICA says you have to do.

BAH HUMBUG.
I nearly forgot. i found the ONLY rendition of the nutcracker i can tollerate. IT'S accordian. a very very very good accordianist. Stas Vengleski. look on the web. Its so not the usual trite rendition and some parts i don't remember.

[bleedingheart]

12. I like the tasteful but I have kids and they love the glitz

so we go full glitz...

I prefer real flower arrangements and real trees (although due to allergies we may get a fake one this year)...
I like the smell of apple pie or pumpkin bread baking...all those wonderful things make christmas.

and if I wasn't on steriods I would have a nice eggnog with rum or some spiced and alcholic cider....

hee hee

ps...your in Atlanta right? Have a DU gathering in April and Mr B and I may be able to make it...I am going down there for a wedding!!...(no date firmed up yet)

[ulysses]

14. that'd be cool!

Let me or CatWoman (or someone - no reason it has to be us) know what the date will be and we'll try to set something up.

Hadn't thought about cider yet. Hmm...

[bleedingheart]

15. I will definitely let ya know

and I will also make sure to share my bro's new chocolate martini recipe....ooh ...can't wait until I am done with the prednisone...

[shimmergal]

13. I like almost everything about the season.

Even so, I only put up the obligatory Christmas tree--no outdoor decorations. Finally got an artificial tree I really love a few years ago--it's white, and I use clear and pink-tinted twinkle lights on it. It's a whole lot easier to take down than a real tree with the hassles of fire hazard and falling pine needles, although when my kids were little they always insisted the tree had to be "real."

Don't spend as much on gifts as I used to either. Last Christmas, when I was very broke, I only spent about $100, for nine different family members plus a couple of gift exchanges. What helped fill this out was: 1) I had over $100 gift card credit at a Walgreen's chain, due to their 10% rebate for prescriptions since I wasn't covered by insurance. I watched their apecials and bought a lot of neat presents that way. 2) Casino and merchant giveaways had let me accumulate a collection of fairly nice novelty gifts.

This Christimas I'm expecting to be able to do a little more.

[ulysses]

21. do you bake at all?

For several years now, I've done a lot of baked goods for our in-town friends. It keeps the cost down and they tend to appreciate something they know I've worked at (everything's from scratch).

[shimmergal]

24. If I have time, I bake.

Probably will this year, as I have no job at present except freelance assignments.

However when I bake it all gets eaten by family members before I can give it away. For homemade gifts, I'm much likelier to use my handmade stuffed animals or other crafts I've done.

[Catshrink]

31. I don't bake, but I make an awesome bourbon ball.

Ummmmmm. Two of 'em will get you snockered, three of 'em will get you a DUI. Delicious.

[ulysses]

33. heh

We tried to make rum balls for our wedding reception (we did all the food ourselves). We used just a little too much rum. Ms Uly's family doesn't drink. 'Twas an interesting reception. :D

[Lars39]

16. Snob here.

I remember back to when I was young. We had a tree with cheap glass ornaments(which are now heirloom quality,BTW), school-made and scout-made ornaments, red ribbons, and maybe some tinsel. If there were ornaments sitting around, they were simple ones, like plastic santa boots or rudolf, and not many at that. Remember making a tree out of a magazine? We didn't do wreaths; mom would take cuttings from the tree and tie them together with a red bow that she painstakingly ironed out every year. We never decorated cookies, we were just grateful to get cookies, 'cause mom didn't do dessert too often. I don't remember being hauled all over the place shopping, either.

[ulysses]

18. homemade ornaments

My mom sent me a box last year with a lot of the old painted dough and wood ornaments my sisters and I made when I was little, so that we can share them with our kids (and help them make their own, of course). I'm not big on "designer" trees either.

[Lars39]

30. Oh, and pipe cleaners and bead-type ornaments were big, too.

Especially the one with my brother's nerdy bow-tie picture on it. :)

[roughsatori]

17. I love Christmas time and do my best to make it meaningful

to myself and those around me. I am a non-theist Buddhist, with a profound admiration for the figure of Jesus Christ (and to those of you who will say it was a myth: that is OK too, it is an archetype that invigorates me spiritually.


My parents are older so I put up most of their decorations for them. I love doing it. I am one of those people who likes giving presents--I give friends and family presents for no real reason during the year--but at Christmas I like to give people things that will touch them. I try to include a Religious/Spiritual gift with the other things I give. My father who is a Catholic loves when I give him books comparing and contrasting Buddha and Jesus. I could go on an on. It is funny. I am known as a very hard-nosed, ready to argue, even sort of a cold person--but even as a child I would read the Biblical Scripture to my brothers and sisters and essays on the "meaning of Christmas."

As for decorations, I love Nativity scenes. I own quite a few: an old Lenox China one, a Fontanini, A pewter one, a handmade Mexican one, etc. I have CDs of Renaissance and Medieval Christmas music (which drives my family crazy as they think it is pretentious ).

I love real trees too but being a Buddhist I feel that it is wrong to harm any sentient being so I bought my parents a "fake" one.

[ulysses]

20. LOL

I have CDs of Renaissance and Medieval Christmas music (which drives my family crazy as they think it is pretentious ).

My wife doesn't care much for it either. We usually alternate between my music and her Bing Crosby-type collection.

[salinen]

22. Super offensive

to have all these "christian" holidays. Reinforces that religion by giving time off and parties. It should be called "Christian promotion time". That's why I like Thanksgiving and Holloween and Presidents days. Man do I loathe Christ's mass and Easter.

[ulysses]

23. so...

you're saying you're not big on fruitcake?

;-)

[roughsatori]

27. That was the funniest response I've read in ages NT

[Cheswick2.0]

36. why not just be grateful for the time off?

I have never known a single person who became a christian because they like the time off. Now if only christians got the time off that might be different.

Around here they give the schools the first day of hunting off. I have yet to become a hunter because of it.

Happy Presidents day!

[roughsatori]

25. I gave my Mom a Lenox Nativity Scene while she was in the Trailer-Park

that I was raised in. If you have ever seen the pictures of the run down, awful looking trailer parks--that is the kind I was raised in.
So my intellectual snobbery and Christmas snobbery where a joke and embarassment to my family.

As a teen I made the announcement that ONLY hand-blown glass ornaments would be permitted on the tree. Now I think it is funny. What must my parents have thought to be living in the "white-trash" section with a son who listened to Mozart, had posters of Duchamp's and Titian's works (and Patti Smith and David Bowie) in my tiny, tiny room (there were 8 of us) and talked about the poor translations of the Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek words from the Bible. I am smiling right now, imagining my father who dropped out of school in the 5th grade and my mom who was the "educated one" with her 8th grade education tolerating my absolute snobbery. They must have been Saints not to whip my ass. LMAO

[bleedingheart]

28. I love my fontanini set!

its my only luxury item that I continue to add to....

[roughsatori]

29. I see the bemusement in people faces when I talk about

which pieces to get next. Some of my friends are absolutely befuddled and angry about my new talk of "Should I start collecting the Fitz and Loyd Nativity."

[buddhamama]

26. i love this time of year

the same as you. putting up the tree, Leon Redbone or Frank playing in the background, getting together with friends, But i don't buy.

the only person who gets gifts is my son.

[ulysses]

32. that's cool

:hi:

[buddhamama]

37. in my defense

so you won't think i am total jerk, i will make people stuff.

i guess my problem is the insincerity. take the Wal-Mart story for instance. is it worth hurting another being to get that CD or toy to 'show' how much you love someone? in my situation, when i have to go out during the holiday season i am the same person. if i say hello or smile at a complete stranger, well, i would normally do that. i am not going out of my way to do it.

it is a sensitive subject with me, because i have gotten a lot of heat for my approach to this time of year.

[ulysses]

38. no need to defend it!

You *know* I don't think you're a jerk at all, love. :) You're absolutely right about the insincerity of the whole combat shopping mojo. Let me know if anyone gives you any heat this year and I'll come smack 'em. :D

[ewagner]

34. fast becoming one

The back of our house looks onto a circle and the neighbors there have over the years gotten into the christmas lighting competition thing. I think they use more electricity on that circle than they do in downtown Baghdad. I am starting to rebel against decorating at all. I don't care what the neighbors think. (because I don't put out American flags on every "patriotic" occassion, they already think I'm an anarchist) Last year I put up those bloody "icicle" lights across the roofline over the garage, but this year, I'm REBELLING!

Last year we replaced our ugly concrete covered portico with a natural wood deck/porch. My wife strung green garland around the porch and accentuated it with red, velvet bows. No #$%^#@ lights!

Because of our son, we will put up a Christmas tree this year, although our policy is not to purchase one until 10 days before christmas. We'll hang ornaments from my son's and my wife's childhoods on the tree as we do every year. Like many of my fellow DUers, I struggle a lot with the spiritual vs commercial nature of the holidays.

[Cheswick2.0]

39. I need to make a change this year

for the last several years I have been putting a different color light on each of five schrubs running along the front of the house. It was really pretty but I am tired of it and need a new idea. I have all these strings of lights that are different colors. I want to do something simple. If I could figure out how to do one star or write PEACE across the deck I would do that. I don't like the prefab messages though.

Inside I have several nativities. My tree tends to have a theme or color. One year it was all crystal, one year all variations on red glass balls in various tones. I don't use garland or tinsel anymore unless it is ribbon garland. last year I went on a blown glass fruit kick. I have enough fruit ornaments to cover a tree but I combine them with glass balls.
I have these clear ornaments which are deer. I would love to have enough of those to cover a whole tree. Other than the tree I put up the cards I receive. That is about it.

[Paxdora]

40. No More Dead Trees For Me

Adorn the Living!

[bloom]

41. I'm not getting into the whole thing so much

with the kids grown up and all.

Plus it was more fun decorating our 100 year old house and our cabin.



Now - I think the theme will be simplicity. Make a wreath. Have a few greens that I can snip off of our trees. We'll probably get a plantable tree - our yard needs another one, anyway. I may get some more candles.

I'm not at all inspired to see any Christmas shows - or listen to music esp. either. Maybe the Celtic stuff. Something international might be nice.


I have enjoyed themed trees. The kids liked having a traditional Santa Claus ornament kind of tree and I would want something else. So we would have two. In the year 2000 - I had a Celebrate the Universe tree with planets and stars and shimmery things. One year my daughter and I sewed a bunch of angels and we had a an angel tree. Last year - I think we just used misc. from whatever and mixed them up.

We never put a tree up before a week ahead - so I don't have to worry about it, yet.

[ikojo]

42. I'm Jewish so I don't DO Christmas decorations of

any kind but I do enjoy looking at a tastefully decorated house.

Some people are so creative.

[LWolf]

43. Yes.

Here I am. :hi:

I'll do all of my shopping online, so that I don't have to face the stores. The only shopping I'll do will be at the grocery store.

I will do a minimal amount of decoration, because I'm working too hard and too many hours; decorating is one more chore to take up time I could be relaxing. So I'll debate about a tree until Christmas Eve; probably won't decide about tree or lights before then.

I'll hole up for the season here at home with pets. My sons will show up on the day, and we'll hang out and do whatever we feel like; not much advanced preparation, other than food for 3 people or so. My older son will keep us in live music. Then both boys will challenge each other to a chess tournament. The younger son will win 2 out of 3 games. We'll sit around and watch movies or play card or board games. Other family and friends may join us...or not.

I'll clean house, light a fire, burn some candles, drink some wine/beer/cider/hot buttered rum, and bake cookies with my grandson.
Maybe do a gingerbread house. Listen to my favorite holiday/winter music.

I like to make gifts for friends; I only buy things for my 4 closest family members. Candles, herbal creams/salves, ornaments, or whatever I feel like making. This year I'm thinking of making bath salts.

[Lady Freedom]

44. You guys are really grinching me out! Do you know that?