deskthority

The best Christmases I've had were the last two years, when I was in another country and worked on Christmas eve.

Merry Christmas

[Account and posts deleted on request]

I'm pretty much a Scrooge, I think Christmas has become totally commercialized and there's too much pressure on people to buy crap and outdo each other with giving gifts etc. so I just pretty much hide during the holiday season. I'm not particularly religious either, although if I were, I'd probably be actually offended rather than just annoyed and antisocial. (I'm in the US; haven't ever been out of the country over Christmas, so I don't know if it is the same anywhere else or not.)

I don't hate Christmas, but I do hate some of the things associated with this time of year.
Traffic sucks, shopping sucks, the weather here sucks and a lot of morons seem to crawl out of the woodwork. I try to stock up on food and liquor early because going into town is just a nightmare

I like the food, atleast one part of it, though smoked(both cold and hot) salmon is also good...

I don't even like the food Each year I suggest we drop the gifts, but nobody listen..

Minskleip wrote:I don't even like the food Each year I suggest we drop the gifts, but nobody listen..

http://koti.mbnet.fi/ekaros/Joulu11/Kinkku/IMG_3522.JPG

Such a glorious meat... I don't realy need gifts either...

you won't hear me complaining about Christmas dinner, that's for sure... any excuse for a good meal is OK by me.

Christmas and carneval, been happy on command is just not my thing

sick of christmas here as well.

Minskleip wrote:I don't even like the food Each year I suggest we drop the gifts, but nobody listen..

You could suggest a maximum price. That way everyone wins.

I'm an atheist, years ago we ''borrowed' Christmas as an excuse to eat and drink too much. I'm told the Christians did much the same thing a long time ago.

Best Holiday EVAH!

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?2449 ... until-XMAS!!!!!

hoggy wrote:

Minskleip wrote:I don't even like the food Each year I suggest we drop the gifts, but nobody listen..

You could suggest a maximum price. That way everyone wins.

We kind of have that. I just want to avoid the hassle alltogether.

Each year my relatives say that they don't want any presents, but each Christmas they still get angry at me for not having given them anything.
I am utterly incapable of just going out and buying presents on impulse. I must know what I should get for a person before I set out shopping for it. If I don't know what to get, I can't them them anything.
When I do know what to get, then I always try to get the very best type that is available. That may mean having to visit seven shops and evaluate ten different brands and then going back to the third shop to buy the present.

Anyway... Christmas to me is mostly about food and drink, and that is what I spend money on. The Christmas dinner (at 2 pm on Christmas Eve -- almost seven hours ago now) is the main event. A traditional Swedish Christmas buffet has mostly many varieties of meats and pickled herring, but I am a vegetarian. Therefore, I look to other countries for recipes. I also like to try sweet things from abroad. This year I made Finnish swede-pudding and English (?) nut loaf for dinner. I have also got German lebkuchen (home made), Danish kleiner, English plum pudding, Spanish tùrron, Icelandic beer and Scottish dundee cake (home made, fed with whisky for several weeks).

Merry non-denominational arbitrarily celebratory holiday period to all!

English plum pudding - also known as Christmas pudding in these parts - is amazing.

Did someone mention food?

Xmas, meh. It's too long, too drawn out, too much of a big deal. It's just a day, so I'll give it 10 days, but not a whole month of crazyness.

I've always found Europeans dour.

This thread proves it.

No family = No xmas
Its a great thing though cause i usually get invited to everyone elses holiday fun and get some leftovers outta it as well.
Just bring a bottle of wine and everyone seems to love ya!

One thing that I don't like in my country is that the commercial Christmas starts so early. Shops start with Christmas decorations and music in early November. There are people who eat Christmas dinner several times at restaurants before the actual Christmas. Etc.
By the time Christmas arrives, it is already worn out. It is supposed to last into the first week of January!

The Dutch celebrate Christmas twice. Sinterklaas still rules the clone. Better beard.

This would not go down well in my neighborhood.


I do have to admit the beard IS nice. Unix material even.

Too much makeup on the two guys flanking the Beard, yes?

That's from, uh, climbing down the chimneys. The legend used to be better though. Sinterklaas had defeated the devil, enslaving him as his servant. Real old school Santa!

Findecanor wrote:One thing that I don't like in my country is that the commercial Christmas starts so early. Shops start with Christmas decorations and music in early November. There are people who eat Christmas dinner several times at restaurants before the actual Christmas. Etc.
By the time Christmas arrives, it is already worn out. It is supposed to last into the first week of January!

I ignore Christmas until it is suddenly December 24 and shops are closing early and I realize I've got to buy some gifts ...