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Raise catholic, I celebrate Christmas and that meant the 25th of December.
We had so many uncles, aunts and cousins in town that we'd start having turkey/ham dinners a couple a weeks before Christmas. And that's when we decorated.
There was not an overdose of Christmas in the stores or on TV or on the radio, so that Christmas was celebrated throughout the 12 days of Christmas, including the father's blessing on New Year's day (still a big day in French Canada - lots of great french songs celebrate the New Year) and of course Epiphany (on the 6th).
We kept on having dinner at relatives' places beyond the 6th, but that's pretty much when the decorations came down.
Nowadays (& this is what irks me), it seems that Christmas is all about what happens before the 25th. On Christmas day, seems everyone's recovering from the night before and the spirit's just not there anymore - No more Christmas music on the radio, the TV's all about boxing day (read, after-christmas) sales.
I wish Christmas could be enjoyed during the 12 days of Christmas, instead of the 2 months (or 6 weeks) before the day.
ok, I'm getting off my soapbox now
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Nowadays (& this is what irks me), it seems that Christmas is all about what happens before the 25th. On Christmas day, seems everyone's recovering from the night before and the spirit's just not there anymore - No more Christmas music on the radio, the TV's all about boxing day (read, after-christmas) sales.
I agree, Sheriff. In my case, I come from a small family. With my mother and my grandparents gone now, Christmas Day seems very much an anticlimax. Dad and I usually have dinner with his cousins, and it's nice, but it still somehow seems anticlimactic.
On the other hand, the climax remains church on Christmas Eve, with the church illuminated by candles, and all the old familiar carols and Bible readings. And that's still very nice. :)
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For me I feel that there are way too many family obligations. Sometimes I feel that people feel they have to be happy and somehow a lot of it ends up seeming fake. It seems that somewhere in me I still have this idea that it should be this wonderful, special, magical time of the year and it just never seems to really turn out that way. I think Jeff puts it very good when he mentions the idea of an anticlimax. I feel the same. My sister has always ruled the holidays. When I was growing up my parents went to her place in Texas. Sometimes I would go, but I usually had school, work, or I just didn't want to go. Now that she lives here she still takes control and sometimes I dread all of the plans. I mean it is always nice and I know she puts a lot of work into things. I don't know, but it just seems like I am in many ways on the outside looking in. She is older than I am so the holidays have been so centered around her and her kids and family. I don't have the kids and the family so I just feel like part of the decorations. It just seems that the holidays are her time of the year. I used to have these ideas in my head of being with someone special through the holidays and always felt that one day I would.That has never really happened. When I was in a relationship during the holidays it ended up turning into a nightmare. Oh well. This Thanksgiving I was invited to California to spend it with a group of great friends. The temptation to do that is incredibly great; however, I know that I would feel guilty about my family obligations. Although, there is something about that idea that is so appealing.
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What irks me about the holidays:
1) People endlessly complaining about how much they "have" to do, buy, cook, mail. It isn't mandatory, people. You can simplify the holidays and make them enjoyable without giving everyone tube socks for gifts and eating macaroni and cheese for Christmas dinner. Sure, you get pressure to overdo from your family and from the rest of society, but what else is new? Overdoing it during the holiday season is a choice.
2) Anyone who brags about not observing the holidays. You're welcome to sit it out if you want, but frankly, I don't care. (That doesn't apply to this thread -- obviously, we were all invited to weigh in.)
3) This is more than a peeve.
For approximately 6 weeks out of the year, we're treated to endless sermonizing about how 'commercialized' Christmas has become, as it this is some kind of rigidly-enforced law that no one has any choice but to obey. (See #1 for details on that.)
But how much of the rest of the year are the sermonizers the least bit concerned about the commercialization of just about everything you can name, and the materialism that has thoroughly polluted Western culture? They're nowhere! And this is particularly true of our esteemed clergy. Anyone want to take a guess on how many sermons, lessons, homilies are given every year on abortion, "the homosexuals", patriotism, prayer in schools and sports events, which political party should be frequented by "God's people" and the moral imperative to contribute to the Building Fund -- and how many are preached about materialism, the worship of money and status and celebrity? Precious few in comparison. Concern about the central moral problem in Western culture gets put back on the shelf with the lights and ornaments and gift wrap on December 26th.
Christmas music in stores and Christmas decorations up in November don't bother me. That isn't worth fretting about.
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But how much of the rest of the year are the sermonizers the least bit concerned about the commercialization of just about everything you can name, and the materialism that has thoroughly polluted Western culture?
Very well put, Marge. All your points, especially No. 3. And although clergy may be particularly guilty of this double standard, it's widespread. You rarely hear anyone question materialism except, occasionally, those on the far left (or, I guess, on the very, very, very far right -- people who are so religious they attempt to live like 19th-century families, for example).
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Great post Marge!!! You sure do speak the truth and you made me think. And yeah as far as the commercialization goes we can also take a look at the other holidays, they are too, but like you say it is not mandatory to participate or complain about any of them.
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I don't like New Year's.
Okay. Well to explain maybe a little bit - I don't like New Year's Eve. I think it's fine to have a designated 'time of reflection' - things I accomplished this year, 10 dumbest celebrity mistakes of the year, etc... But, I don't like the go out and party and toot a horn that it's a new year.
I am not quite sure why I don't like it. Maybe because I feel weird that I don't want to "celebrate."
(Confession - I did enjoy all the fireworks round the world during Y2K New Year's...)
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But, I don't like the go out and party and toot a horn that it's a new year.
I'm with you, BelAir. Years ago, I realized the enforced champagne-soaked merriness of a big partying New Year's EVE could only lead to disappointment, a hollow feeling, and a bad hangover. Yet I didn't want to ignore the holiday. So I started thinking about what would really make a NYE feel special and significant.
I realized I wanted to spend it quietly, in a special evening with close friends and/or family, preferably doing things I wouldn't do on most other nights of the year. So that's the kind of occasion I've sought ever since.
Several years in a row, I've gotten together with my brother, his girlfriend, their kids, and a few other close friends for a lobster dinner. That's been really fun. But it wouldn't have to be lobster. The point is, some kind of special food, lots of candles, music, people you love, and anything else that seems worthwhile.
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I feel similarly about New Year's Eve. I have this belief that the way I ring in the New Year sets the tenor for the rest of the year.
This year, I will spending my last night ever in my mom's current house before she moves across the country a few days later.
I spent years mad at her and moved from the East Coast to the West Coast partly to get away from her. Now most of that has faded and healed for me, And I'm excited that she is moving to the West Coast partly to be closer to me. You never know. Sure am glad we have gotten to this point before the fateful postcard of mortality arrives.
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I spent years mad at her and moved from the East Coast to the West Coast partly to get away from her. Now most of that has faded and healed for me, And I'm excited that she is moving to the West Coast partly to be closer to me. You never know. Sure am glad we have gotten to this point before the fateful postcard of mortality arrives.
Reading that made me feel happy this morning, Clarissa. :)
I don't like New Year's either. Wasn't so bad when I was pushin' 25, but now that I'm pushin' 50. ... :P
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Just my opinion, but your holidays will only be "messed up" if you let them get "messed up".
I agree that people start "stressing" the holiday season waaaaaaaay to early. Christmas stuff gets seen right after Halloween (Thanksgiving always gets glossed over) and BOOM! Christmas is here.
I think that everyone needs to find a holiday activity they can mellow out with, or enjoy.
I always make sure I spend some time driving around town at night, looking at the way people decorated their houses.
Usually each Saturday in Dec is some activity, family party, friend party. Chirstmas Eve and Day is strictly immediate family.
I won't deny that Christmas is shoved down our throats, but we don't have to let it dominate everything, or ruin the way we spend the holidays.
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Good point, Chuck!
I always make sure I spend some time driving around town at night, looking at the way people decorated their houses.
I like doing that, too.
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Good point, Chuck!
I like doing that, too.
Same here. I remember doing that when I was a kid, before the energy crisis of the '70s (which Chuckie is too young to remember ;D ), and Dad and I still do it these days. Plus, for the past couple of years, there has been a drive-through display set up in a local park in my home town to benefit the local hospice organization. My grandparents both received services from the hospice organization, so we usually go to that display, too.
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I always make sure I spend some time driving around town at night, looking at the way people decorated their houses.
I like doing that, too.
Same here. I remember doing that when I was a kid, before the energy crisis of the '70s (which Chuckie is too young to remember ;D ),
Mr. Wrangler, I remember that energy crisis. lmao! I was young, but I remember it.
As for the lights, I remember a few years ago, a few friends and I drove around with a video camera, and made vids of people who had REALLY tacky displays, and made running commentary as well.
then we watched it with popcorn and hot chocolate.
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
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I thought you didn;t have a video camera? ;)
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I thought you didn;t have a video camera? ;)
I don't. I did the driving, it was my friend Tina who did the camera work.
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I don't. I did the driving, it was my friend Tina who did the camera work.
And you are a good driver. I can testify!
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What irks me about the holidays, regardless of whether you observe them or not, or how you feel or want to feel about them, is that Christmas is shoved down your throat for at least a good two months now before it even arrives. You can't go out in public from about Halloween on without encountering it--heck, you can't even listen to some radio stations without Christmas music being presented WAY too early.
No wonder some of us become Scrooges by the time Christmas actually rolls around. It seems like there's been nothing but Christmas for about two months, minimum.
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As for the lights, I remember a few years ago, a few friends and I drove around with a video camera, and made vids of people who had REALLY tacky displays, and made running commentary as well.
then we watched it with popcorn and hot chocolate.
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Now, that sounds like a fun thing to do for the holidays! ;D
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Now, that sounds like a fun thing to do for the holidays! ;D
Jeff, I wish I had the vid to put on youtube. Some of those houses had so much plastic shit on them, if those houses were to burn, they would've burned another hole in the ozone layer.
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ya know, I may have to take a trip out with my digicam, and post some tacky pics up for y'all.
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Here in Seattle, I'm pretty lucky - if I avoid downtown (which I do), and don't listen to commercial radio (which I can pass on very easily), and stay out of stores (which, I'm happy to say, is also pretty easy to do except for brief forays), I don't have to get assaulted by Xmas much at all. Like some of the rest of you, I enjoy seeing how people decorate their houses as I drive by, and I like all those little white lights, so it's pretty tame here.
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I don't like how early the Christmas season is pushed upon us. Here in Florida at least, the new Christmas ornaments come out in the card stores on July 1st of each year, and little by little over the months leading up to Christmas, Christmasy things start showing up in the card stores and other stores, so that by the time Christmas Day rolls around, everyone is so sick of it, they want it to be totally over and done with by December 26. On that day, you see Christmas trees tossed out by the road, and Christmas lights turned off until next year. When we were kids, we didn't even see anything having to do with Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. We'd put up our Christmas tree up and sent out our Christmas cards a week or two before Christmas, and we would leave our tree up and our Christmas lights up until mid January. After all, we didn't feel back then that the holiday season ended on December 26, and it really doesn't. Too bad it's gotten so commerical.
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Is it just me, or are the TV commercials more obnoxious this year?
There's that Target Lady, returned from last year, I think. And the Honda commercial. And the people singing carol parodies to get you out of the mall and into T.J. Maxx and a couple of other stores I can't remember at the moment. And that little--whatever it is--for H.H. Gregg. ...
Oh, and here in Pennsylvania we have Gus the Groundhog hawking state lottery tickets to the tune of "Jiingle Bells."
Bah! Humbug! >:(
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I don't find the commercials obnoxious at all, Jeff.
I don't own a television! yay!!!
I can't tell you how happy I am as time goes on, that I don't have television and I don't want one!
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I don't find the commercials obnoxious at all, Jeff.
I don't own a television! yay!!!
I can't tell you how happy I am as time goes on, that I don't have television and I don't want one!
Not me. Too many shows with too many hot guys to see. I wouldn't want to miss that. ;)
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What's gotten very obnoxious to me about Christmas (or Solstice, Hannukah, and made-up holidays like Festivus) is the endless sermonizing about materialism, especially by our esteemed ( ;) ) clergy. Not the words or ideas themselves, but the fact that they are compartmentalized enough to be as season-specific as Santa Claus and poinsettas.
For roughly 46 weekends out of the year, if you could get a complete list of all the sermons, homilies, lessons preached around the US especially, it would be interesting to see how many are about materialism, the morphing of citizens into "consumers" and its corrosive effect on just about every aspect of life you could name. And then compare that number to the number preached about abortion, homosexuality, the duties of wives to "submit" to their husbands, the moral imperatives of donating to the Building Fund and how God might want the faithful to vote on certain issues on some Tuesday in the near future. The ratio would be a very large one.
The day after Thanksgiving, the official disapproval of the winter holiday starts revving up and the seasonal concern with material goods and material wealth as a measure of worth gets pulled off the shelf, dusted off and sent into high gear. But it all gets put back on the shelf on December 26th, to be pulled out and dusted off again next November. And people wonder why all the winter holiday admonishments don't work.
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Is it just me, or are the TV commercials more obnoxious this year?
IMO there's a tie for the worst one this year. One is the caroller who shows up at some luckless person's house to sing about how lousy that person's Christmas gifts were. The other is the Sprint commercial about a guy with a perfectly look-able Christmas light display whose neighbor, with this weird psychotic facial expression ("why won't you look me in the eye?" the decorating neighbor asks) crosses the street to insult him, for no particular reason.
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I always make sure I spend some time driving around town at night, looking at the way people decorated their houses.
Usually each Saturday in Dec is some activity, family party, friend party. Chirstmas Eve and Day is strictly immediate family.
I love doing that too. There are two houses in our little town that get really decked out. One is a white two-story house with a porch and picket fence, and they have masses of red and white lights (with a little green accent) at night and beautiful porch and yard decorations iin the daytime. The other is a smaller, humbler house whose owner took an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to it: lights every color of the rainbow, elves, nativity figures, you name it and a stylized Christmas tree with chase lights. Haven't decided which one I like best -- the first is so visually beautiful; the second just radiates energy and good humor.
I won't deny that Christmas is shoved down our throats, but we don't have to let it dominate everything, or ruin the way we spend the holidays.
It's easy to get carried away, but IMO more people would make changes if they really stopped to think about the fact that no one is obligated to do anything during the winter holiday. And "changes" doesn't necessarily mean eating macaroni and cheese on Christmas Day or getting your kids socks and telling them to be grateful they're getting that. It just means deciding what you want to do (and spend), and what's worth the work and expense and what isn't. We did that several years ago when it occurred to me that Christmas was becoming a stress-filled chore.
More easily said than done of course, especially if you have kids. But I do know people with kids who have revised their holiday routines and they've reported that they got a lot of flack the first year; the family was used to it after that. I've also been told that it helps to involve family members when possible: someone who dearly wants to keep some tradition that you want to drop might be willing to assume responsibility for it.
We went out of town for big extended-family Christmases for many years, and started a mini-tradition that defused some of the tension that can build when family members who don't always have much in common spend several days in the same house. On the day after Christmas, we would plan a day trip to some local attraction, something with a fairly wide appeal, and would issue a blanket invitation for anyone who wanted to accompany us. It turned out to be a good way for people to get a break from each other without making anyone defensive.
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Not me. Too many shows with too many hot guys to see. I wouldn't want to miss that. ;)
Jeff, there are hot guys on the ski slopes, at the grocery store, in the bars, and even running around on the streets. And you can even reach out and touch them because, they are real!!
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you can even reach out and touch them
That's not always advisable.
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Jeff, there are hot guys on the ski slopes, at the grocery store, in the bars, and even running around on the streets. And you can even reach out and touch them because, they are real!!
And if you do you can be charged with indecent or some other form of assault. ... ;)
Not to mention that this totally misses my point. The point was a reason to have a television and to watch it, not to use it as a substitute for actual human contact and interaction. ::)
You're telling a gay man that there are hot men everywhere? Well, duh. ...
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That's not always advisable.
LOL, I recall how Jack started walking towards Ennis with his hand out to shake, then thought better of it, but tried again a little later!
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What irks me about the holidays...TV doesn't bother me. The economy needs the stimulus, so they're scraping the bottom of the barrel taste-wise jonesing for money.
I think the expectation does.
I had computer problems earlier in the week at work, so I was volunteered to put up our floor's holiday tree. One of the people I work for and I had to have a sotto voce conversation about how neither of us was very Christian/or Christian at all, but how we both like the spectacle, Latin, music and images of an RCC mass (if you could avoid looking at the corpse on the cross with the dripping stigmata and bleeding head :-\ ) and we both mentioned that our Muslim and Hindu co-workers probably didn't think much of the tree or the festivities.
And we had to whisper this, while looking around carefully to make sure no one was overhearing us.
Probably because some people wouldn't be a tolerant as they should be.
Despite the neutral names and lack of emphasis on religion, it's quite obvious the workplace is celebrating Christmas and the expectation is that you just accept it and all the events that go with it.
From lame floor shows put on by co-workers dressed as elves - to games guessing the lyrics to Xmas songs and white elephant gifts...it's all just too cheesy. Makes me want to drink - a lot - at our holiday party that's upcoming.
ETA: I also hate that I'm going to a relative's house and since my cat got sick, and I spent my last $200 of fun money paying for her bloodwork and now can't afford to buy them gifts - I'll yet again feel and look like a poor cousin begging at their table, but to stay home and not go so as to avoid that would also be seen as a slap in the face because you're supposed to be with family during the holidays.
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the good news about a workplace 'holiday tree' is - it's got nothing in the world to do with Christianity! Yule is a European pagan festival celebrating the winter solstice, and there is no doubt whatsoever that the solstice happens.
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the good news about a workplace 'holiday tree' is - it's got nothing in the world to do with Christianity! Yule is a European pagan festival celebrating the winter solstice, and there is no doubt whatsoever that the solstice happens.
Yeah, that often gets lost in the "war on Christmas" rhetoric, for sure.
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ETA: I also hate that I'm going to a relative's house and since my cat got sick, and I spent my last $200 of fun money paying for her bloodwork and now can't afford to buy them gifts - I'll yet again feel and look like a poor cousin begging at their table, but to stay home and not go so as to avoid that would also be seen as a slap in the face because you're supposed to be with family during the holidays.
Couldn't you develop a headache, or something, if you don't want to go? Stay home and cozy up with the cat and a good book? I mean, seriously. I sympathize with people who get stuck spending the time with people they'd rather not be with. Nobody can disprove a headache.
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the good news about a workplace 'holiday tree' is - it's got nothing in the world to do with Christianity! Yule is a European pagan festival celebrating the winter solstice, and there is no doubt whatsoever that the solstice happens.
Don't expect the average American to understand that, though. You'd probably put a lot of noses out of joint if you tried to explain it to them.
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Don't expect the average American to understand that, though. You'd probably put a lot of noses out of joint if you tried to explain it to them.
Exactly. Many people have a blind spot where this kind of thing is concerned.
You spread doubt and appear to the be skeptic of something they hold very dear and associate themselves with and base their entire lives on, betting that their form of religion is 'true' and that all the positive things about it are true...likely they're not going to thank you for it.
And considering that I know that at least two of the people I work with who are in positions of power above me are very religious Christianity-wise, I've no way to know how they would take such comments. So I couldn't really say anything about Yule, the pagan people's rituals and beliefs that are reflected/copied/stolen by modern celebrations of Christmas because it might come back to bite me.
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I may have too much faith in the cultural literacy of my fellow citizens, but I would guess that at this point most of them probably realize that the tree custom was originally borrowed from pagans rather than anything directly to do with Jesus. They might, however, argue that it has become embedded in the Christian holiday tradition.
Over on Slate, two Jewish writers have been debating whether Jews should have Christmas trees. http://www.slate.com/id/2277395/entry/2277397/ (http://www.slate.com/id/2277395/entry/2277397/)
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Exactly. Many people have a blind spot where this kind of thing is concerned.
You spread doubt and appear to the be skeptic of something they hold very dear and associate themselves with and base their entire lives on, betting that their form of religion is 'true' and that all the positive things about it are true...likely they're not going to thank you for it.
At best that might roll their eyes and consider you some sort of killjoy or party pooper. :-\
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I may have too much faith in the cultural literacy of my fellow citizens, but I would guess that at this point most of them probably realize that the tree custom was originally borrowed from pagans rather than anything directly to do with Jesus. They might, however, argue that it has become embedded in the Christian holiday tradition.
Much might depend on the leducation level and sophistication of the people you're associating with. Considering the course of American politics over the past decades, I'm afraid you do have too much faith in the cultural literacy of your fellow citizens.
Oops, my elitism is showing. ...
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What irks me about the Holidays?? Not much about Thanksgiving or New Years, but I am quite annoyed with the secularization of Christmas. I'm a Christian. Christmas is the day that we have selected to celebrate the birth of Christ. If you're not a Christian, or don't care about Jesus, you don't have celebrate Christmas...fine. If you want to celebrate the "season" go right ahead. But I wish people would stop attaching non-religious cultural elements to Christmas.
- Christmas trees have nothing to do with the birth of Jesus, and are a symbol of paganism and commercialism.
- Christmas is NOT about about giving. It is about humanity receiving Christ...a/k/a Emmanuel = "God with us."
- I take mild offense to the use of "Xmas." Why replace Christ with an "X"?
- Many of the standard holiday decorations like stockings, popcorn strings, evergreen garlands, etc. have nothing to do with Christ. I prefer angels, stars, wise-men, mangers, etc. I particularly like lights because Jesus is the light of the world.
- Songs like "Let it Snow," "Frosty the Snowman," and "Jingle Bells" are really celebrating winter rather than Christmas. There are thousands of songs that have been written over the centuries that concern Christ, so I don't see the need to stick seasonal music into Christmas.
- The Grinch didn't steal Christmas, he stole a bunch of objects that were purchased as part of the commercialization of a religious holiday.
- Santa Claus needs to go...and his little elves too.
People always talk about "the meaning of Christmas." Its pretty clear to me: humanity was in such a sorry state that God had to send His son down here to save us. During Christmas we celebrate that act of grace.
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you can blame Queen Victoria for the popularization of the Christmas tree in the United States. It was an image of the Royal Family in the 1860's that was republished in the United States that caused Christmas trees to proliferate here. Prior to that it was more or less limited to Germans and German immigrants. (Of course, that's where the royal family started it, because of the House of Hannover taking the English crown.
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People celebrate Christmas for different reasons. There is no right or wrong way to celebrate Christmas. I celebrate because it´s fun. I like to receive and give presents, I love the food and I enjoy my Christmas tree. Leave us sinners alone to have some fun before we marsch off to hell.
Why people write Xmas? Because it´s shorter
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I agree with much of this Milo.
What irks me about the Holidays?? Not much about Thanksgiving or New Years, but I am quite annoyed with the secularization of Christmas. I'm a Christian. Christmas is the day that we have selected to celebrate the birth of Christ. If you're not a Christian, or don't care about Jesus, you don't have celebrate Christmas...fine. If you want to celebrate the "season" go right ahead. But I wish people would stop attaching non-religious cultural elements to Christmas.
- Christmas trees have nothing to do with the birth of Jesus, and are a symbol of paganism and commercialism.
- Christmas is NOT about about giving. It is about humanity receiving Christ...a/k/a Emmanuel = "God with us."
- I take mild offense to the use of "Xmas." Why replace Christ with an "X"?
- Many of the standard holiday decorations like stockings, popcorn strings, evergreen garlands, etc. have nothing to do with Christ. I prefer angels, stars, wise-men, mangers, etc. I particularly like lights because Jesus is the light of the world.
- Songs like "Let it Snow," "Frosty the Snowman," and "Jingle Bells" are really celebrating winter rather than Christmas. There are thousands of songs that have been written over the centuries that concern Christ, so I don't see the need to stick seasonal music into Christmas.
- The Grinch didn't steal Christmas, he stole a bunch of objects that were purchased as part of the commercialization of a religious holiday.
- Santa Claus needs to go...and his little elves too.
People always talk about "the meaning of Christmas." Its pretty clear to me: humanity was in such a sorry state that God had to send His son down here to save us. During Christmas we celebrate that act of grace.
I only send cards which relate to the Christian story. However I do not object to friends who send me other types of cards as i know the Christian aspect means nothing to them but it is one of the few times when I make obvious my Christian beliefs . Down here in the Southern hemisphere, those snow songs are ridiculous in mid summer. Our family stopped giving presents at Christmas many years ago, so my Christmas shopping was 20 nativity cards and one carton of beer for my brother-in-law and one box of glaced fruit for my sister as they host my Christmas dinner. This year I will be spending 10 days with them as I now live 3000km away so cannot drop in for the day. However I will be hosting them here in February. As I will be away I have not put any decorations up but I only use to put up a few items, mainly a nativity scene and a few (I know) santas and a wreath on the door. I use to like putting up Christmas lights in the trees but sold them all at the garage sale before I left my previous home. When I decided to emigrate, I promised my sister I would return for Christmas but I am not looking forward to it as it is the time when the humidity I hated so much is beginning. I will be home again before New Year. Easter is much more important to me because it has not been so commercialised.
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I thought the X in Xmas had a Christian connotation.
And yes, blame Prince Albert for Xmas trees. I suggest that anyone celebrating Jesus' birth - which arguably if it happened was in the spring not on the date of the celebration of Sol Invictis - take them down immediately. ;) :laugh:
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I thought the X in Xmas had a Christian connotation.
Supposedly it does. It's supposedly the Greek letter Chi.
Wikipedia's entry for Chi Rho: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Rho (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Rho)
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Supposedly it does. It's supposedly the Greek letter Chi.
Wikipedia's entry for Chi Rho: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Rho (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Rho)
Thanks, Jeff. I hadn't been aware of that. Very interesting. 8)
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People celebrate Christmas for different reasons. There is no right or wrong way to celebrate Christmas. I celebrate because it´s fun. I like to receive and give presents, I love the food and I enjoy my Christmas tree. Leave us sinners alone to have some fun before we marsch off to hell.
That's what I'm talking about. They are hitching their own secular meanings/celebrations to a religious holiday.
What if people decided to celebrate Ramadan by drinking every night at sundown? Or if millions of people created a tradition of having a pig roast on Rosh Hashana? Sure, you can do whatever floats your boat on any day you choose, but don't call it a celebration of that particular holiday.
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That's what I'm talking about. They are hitching their own secular meanings/celebrations to a religious holiday.
Yes, that´s exactly what a lot of people (including myself) are doing.
But then, things keep on changing - and the meaning of things change. If a lot of folks don´t celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, maybe it should be considered a secular holiday nowadays.
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Thanks, Jeff. I hadn't been aware of that. Very interesting. 8)
Sure enough!
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Supposedly it does. It's supposedly the Greek letter Chi.
Wikipedia's entry for Chi Rho: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Rho (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Rho)
Thanks. Had no idea. Very interesting.
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I wish people would stop attaching non-religious cultural elements to Christmas.
Of course, when you consider that the Christian Church, sometime in the A.D. 300s, if I remember correctly, attached its celebration of Christ's birth to a pre-existing Pagan festival, I guess you could say the wheel has come full circle.
(That is, I think I remember reading somewhere that it was in the A.D. 300s. Rumors to the contrary, I wasn't present when it happened. ...)
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Thanks. Had no idea. Very interesting.
Sure enough!
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Yes, that´s exactly what a lot of people (including myself) are doing.
But then, things keep on changing - and the meaning of things change. If a lot of folks don´t celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, maybe it should be considered a secular holiday nowadays.
Getting back to the title of this thread, I completely disagree. As I said earlier, if you want to celebrate some other holiday that happens around this time, fine. If you want to celebrate winter, cool. But don't superimpose secular meanings or cultural elements on the religious traditions of Christmas.
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I like to celebrate the Yule on the winter solstice...it's a secondary Celtic holiday. This year there will be a lunar eclipse on the solstice so it should be very exciting! I'm planning to take a nighttime hike. I also celebrate Christ's birthday, usually on Christmas Eve by going to services and meditating. Christmas Day is a time for celebrating with family and exchanging small presents as tokens of our love. Santa Claus rules over Christmas Day, and I also look forward to merriment and feasting. New Year's Eve is dedicated to friends and looking forward to the coming year. My philosophy is with so much happening at the end of the year, you have to compartmentalize!
Early Christians probably chose the solstice for Christ's birthday arbitrarily, and they appropriated many things from other religions. After all, the most holy Christian Day...Easter...is named after the Greek Goddess of Rebirth!
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Getting back to the title of this thread, I completely disagree. As I said earlier, if you want to celebrate some other holiday that happens around this time, fine. If you want to celebrate winter, cool. But don't superimpose secular meanings or cultural elements on the religious traditions of Christmas.
We are already way past that point, and I don´t have a problem with it.
Besides, how many national holidays do we have to chose between? Not many really.
Let people have fun. Life´s too short.
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Of course, when you consider that the Christian Church, sometime in the A.D. 300s, if I remember correctly, attached its celebration of Christ's birth to a pre-existing Pagan festival, I guess you could say the wheel has come full circle.
(That is, I think I remember reading somewhere that it was in the A.D. 300s. Rumors to the contrary, I wasn't present when it happened. ...)
I´ve read that too. And besides, all ideas, both religious and non-religous, are build on previous existing ideas and traditions. Nothing exists in a vacuum.
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This year there will be a lunar eclipse on the solstice so it should be very exciting!
Oh, wow! :o I didn't know that! That's neat! I need to pay closer attention to my almanac!
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. This year there will be a lunar eclipse on the solstice so it should be very exciting! I'm planning to take a nighttime hike.
well, don´t forget to pack a tree! :D
That sounds super nice, Lee
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Is it just me, or are the TV commercials more obnoxious this year?
There's that Target Lady, returned from last year, I think. And the Honda commercial. And the people singing carol parodies to get you out of the mall and into T.J. Maxx and a couple of other stores I can't remember at the moment. And that little--whatever it is--for H.H. Gregg. ...
Oh, and here in Pennsylvania we have Gus the Groundhog hawking state lottery tickets to the tune of "Jiingle Bells."
Bah! Humbug! >:(
:laugh: :laugh:
Now, every time I see that HHGregg commercial I'll crack up laughing! :laugh:
That commercial is as annoying as hell! That little thing is annoying throughout the year but he's especially annoying during Christmas, isn't he? :P
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That's what I'm talking about. They are hitching their own secular meanings/celebrations to a religious holiday.
What if people decided to celebrate Ramadan by drinking every night at sundown? Or if millions of people created a tradition of having a pig roast on Rosh Hashana? Sure, you can do whatever floats your boat on any day you choose, but don't call it a celebration of that particular holiday.
I think what happens is that everything gets sort of sucked into the vortex of what we inescapably call "Christmas." Partly because of the predominance of Christians in Western industrialized countries, partly because it's such a huge opportunity to sell stuff, partly because early Christian evangelists tended to make their religion appealing to pagans by appropriating the pagans' own customs (fertility symbols at Easter, lists of saints that resemble pantheons, a rough approximation of the solstice conveniently designated the birthday of someone whose actual birthdate is unknown), partly because however you feel about Jesus it's a pretty nice opportunity to celebrate during a time of year that in Northern climates would otherwise be dreary or even forbidding ... it has become this huge mismash of a holiday, involving all sorts of different attitudes and customs and motivations.
And yeah, we wind up with people who aren't all that religious making a big deal about a holiday that's supposed to designate the birth of Christ. We have Jews turning a minor holiday into a much bigger event involving gifts. We have songs about snow and cold sung ostensibly in honor of someone who lived in a warm climate. All sorts of cultural contradictions.
Is everyone who celebrates "Christmas" thinking about Jesus? No, of course not. But nor are they, for the most part, doing anything deliberately malicious or anti-Christian (unlike drinking for Ramadan or pig-roasting for Rosh Hashana would be). You could, of course, make a strong argument that all this selling stuff and making money in the name of a religious observance would not have met Jesus' approval. But since our economy now fervently depends on that big year-end influx of consumer dollars, I wouldn't expect someone who is concerned about businesses doing well to favor eliminating that aspect of the season.
As for the rest of it, a secular approach to Christmas is mostly about people simply wanting a little fun and good cheer, seizing an opportunity to get together and eat good food and dress up and contribute to charities and express affection for their loved ones and fellow human beings. Is that so wrong? Would Jesus -- the guy who turned water into wine so a wedding party could have more fun -- object?
So they call it "Christmas" even when it's not really about Christ, and doesn't involve Mass. Maybe you could campaign that they change the name. Good luck with that, and FWIW I don't think Bill O'Reilly would approve.
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Is that so wrong? Would Jesus -- the guy who turned water into wine so a wedding party could have more fun -- object?
It is wrong if, and he would object when, people do this stuff without acknowledging Him. I don't think He would appreciate being used as a hollow excuse for all that.
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It is wrong if, and he would object when, people do this stuff without acknowledging Him. I don't think He would appreciate being used as a hollow excuse for all that.
Well, Jesus has been dead for a couple of thousands of years, so I don´t think he minds too much.
In order to get back OT, I have tried to come up with something that irks me about the holidays but I haven´t come up with anything yet. I´m sure I will as we slowly approach it :D
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Well, Jesus has been dead for a couple of thousands of years, so I don´t think he minds too much.
We Christians believe that He arose from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. So no, He's not dead from our POV.
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We Christians believe that He arose from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. So no, He's not dead from our POV.
oh right. Well, good for him.
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The most beautiful Chi Rho I know of, is in the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript dating to 800, in Trinity College in Dublin. I was lucky to see this up close in 1980:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/KellsFol034rChiRhoMonogram.jpg/438px-KellsFol034rChiRhoMonogram.jpg)
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It is wrong if, and he would object when, people do this stuff without acknowledging Him. I don't think He would appreciate being used as a hollow excuse for all that.
Well, people have a right not to be observant Christians. And they have a right to engage in merriment and gift-giving. And they have a right to do that at this time of year. So it seems that your main beef is, as I said, that that they use the term "Christmas" to describe the occasion for their activities. In other words, you apparently are asking that everybody who's not devoutly celebrating the birth of Jesus to stop calling what they're doing "Christmas."
Yet when people DO that -- when, for example, they say "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas" -- then people like Bill O'Reilly jump all over them for NOT calling it Christmas.
So secular celebrants can't win either way.
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Well, people have a right not to be observant Christians. And they have a right to engage in merriment and gift-giving. And they have a right to do that at this time of year. So it seems that your main beef is, as I said, that that they use the term "Christmas" to describe the occasion for their activities. In other words, you apparently are asking that everybody who's not devoutly celebrating the birth of Jesus to stop calling what they're doing "Christmas."
Yet when people DO that -- when, for example, they say "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas" -- then people like Bill O'Reilly jump all over them for NOT calling it Christmas.
So secular celebrants can't win either way.
I'm not Bill O'Reilly. If people want to say "happy holidays" to indicate something more generic and less religious, I'm fine with that. As a matter of fact, I would prefer that to insincere Christmas greetings. The problem we have with "happy holidays" is that many people feel compelled to replace "merry Christmas" with it in order to be politically correct. That is also insincere. If you mean "merry Christmas," say it. If you mean "happy holidays," then say that.
And no, those who do not acknowledge the birth of Christ are not celebrating Christmas at all, they are celebrating the season or the "holidays." If the only reason for me to say that I celebrate Hanukkah is because my birthday typically falls during that holiday, I'm really not celebrating the holiday at all. As it is, I do acknowledge the miracle that God performed, which is the reason for Hanukkah. The fact that it often coincides with my birthday makes it a double-whammy for me.
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The problem we have with "happy holidays" is that many people feel compelled to replace "merry Christmas" with it in order to be politically correct. That is also insincere. If you mean "merry Christmas," say it. If you mean "happy holidays," then say that.
People who say "happy holidays" don't do it to be "politically correct," whatever that means in this case. They do it because:
1) The person they are greeting may or may not be Christian and therefore may or may not celebrate some holiday other than Christmas
and
2) Most people celebrate at least two holidays, plural, this time of year. Western Christians, for example, celebrate both Christmas and the New Year. So rather than saying "Merry Christmas and happy New Year," they shorten it to "happy holidays."
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The most beautiful Chi Rho I know of, is in the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript dating to 800, in Trinity College in Dublin. I was lucky to see this up close in 1980:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/KellsFol034rChiRhoMonogram.jpg/438px-KellsFol034rChiRhoMonogram.jpg)
That is really really beautiful!! However, it doesn't look like an X to me, it looks like a P. I saw a beautiful animated film about the Book of Kells earlier this year.
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Why are you saying "Merry Xmas?"
Most of the time, I say it to someone I know who I know is a Christian. If they're not a Christian or I don't know what they are, I say Happy Holidays.
Nothing PC about it at all.
If Christians want to celebrate Christ on his holiday without all the partying and gift-giving, colorful clothing and decorations - which is pagan - perhaps they need to look to the Puritans. In England, they once outlawed Christmas for some of the reasons Milo pointed out. Catholic celebrations of Christ's birth were torn from the pagan party book and considered bad.
Christ's birthday was supposed to be a solemn celebration, meant to be spent in church and in silent contemplation and studying of Jesus' life and teachings.
Apparently not too many people were down with that when everyone else was having fun, eating, drinking, dressing up and exchanging gifts.
You're fighting a losing battle Milo trying to return Christmas to Christ. It's a battle the Puritans lost and the early Christian leaders knew better than to fight. The celebration of the Solstice is always going to be party time and it's been that way since before Jesus and will outlast his celebration as well.
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That is really really beautiful!! However, it doesn't look like an X to me, it looks like a P. I saw a beautiful animated film about the Book of Kells earlier this year.
That's the Rho. The Greek letter Rho looks like an English (Latin) "P."
I agree that's a very beautiful image, but I have to admit I don't see the Chi, either. :(
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The Chi is highly stylized. It's the giant thing that dominates the page, with a diamond-shape in the center. The arms of the chi are very curvy and asymmetrical.
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a rough approximation of the solstice conveniently designated the birthday of someone whose actual birthdate is unknown
At the time it was designated, it was believed that it was the Solstice. The Roman astronomers who revised the calendar under Julius Caesar made a big boo-boo in their calculations. They thought December 25 was the Solstice. I'm not sure when the error was finally cleared up. I presume it was before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar (our present calendar) in the 1580s, but I've never been able to find when the mistake was corrected.
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What irks me about the Holidays?? Not much about Thanksgiving or New Years, but I am quite annoyed with the secularization of Christmas. I'm a Christian. Christmas is the day that we have selected to celebrate the birth of Christ. If you're not a Christian, or don't care about Jesus, you don't have celebrate Christmas...fine. If you want to celebrate the "season" go right ahead. But I wish people would stop attaching non-religious cultural elements to Christmas.
- Christmas trees have nothing to do with the birth of Jesus, and are a symbol of paganism and commercialism.
- Christmas is NOT about about giving. It is about humanity receiving Christ...a/k/a Emmanuel = "God with us."
- I take mild offense to the use of "Xmas." Why replace Christ with an "X"?
- Many of the standard holiday decorations like stockings, popcorn strings, evergreen garlands, etc. have nothing to do with Christ. I prefer angels, stars, wise-men, mangers, etc. I particularly like lights because Jesus is the light of the world.
- Songs like "Let it Snow," "Frosty the Snowman," and "Jingle Bells" are really celebrating winter rather than Christmas. There are thousands of songs that have been written over the centuries that concern Christ, so I don't see the need to stick seasonal music into Christmas.
- The Grinch didn't steal Christmas, he stole a bunch of objects that were purchased as part of the commercialization of a religious holiday.
- Santa Claus needs to go...and his little elves too.
People always talk about "the meaning of Christmas." Its pretty clear to me: humanity was in such a sorry state that God had to send His son down here to save us. During Christmas we celebrate that act of grace.
I am sorry but this seems like a very narrow channeling of the words or happenings
during the Christmas season. There are many different religions and non religious celebrations of this time of year. Christmas is only one of those. The Jewish religion has
their festival of lights this time of year. The naturists or Druids celebrate the Winter
Soltice, this time of year, and there are the many other different kinds of celebrations that all seem to culminate at this time of year. Then there are the athiests that don't have a certain holiday to commemorate, but then does that mean that they are not allowed to have a festival and as they referred to on the Seinfeld show "The Festivas for the rest of us?"
I personally think that any of the holiday celebratory things that people choose to
adhere to. Or not? Its their business, it gives them pleasure, and it does after all promote the economy. We all know that that is a deeply needed thing these days. Or economy that we all know needs all the help it can get, heedless of the reason. Some
years we have lots of holiday traditions we adhere to, and other years, not so much. It usually has to do more with our finances than anything else. I think people should be left to do their holiday celebrating as they see fit. Not have to submit to other peoples opinions of how they should behave.
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I got out of the race years ago, first for financial reasons and then later I couldn't wrap my brain around resuming it. For years, I tried to make sure my family had a 'good' Christmas by buying gifts ... from everyone to everyone else.
It is mind-boggling to consider how much $$$ I spent and stress I put myself through - getting gifts to everyone from everyone else. Criminy.
It was pointless. When I stopped, all the gift-giving did.
Now I have my small tree, my small worship group (with carols this Sunday!) and community service, which goes on year-round as it should.
I like the question about where those opposed to consumerism are the rest of the year.
Mom and Chris 'need' too much and finances are too tight for me to go on a spree to meet all their needs at once, so a few small gifts will have to suffice.
We needed a hand-held showerhead for her baths - I advertised on freecycle, and within the hour I had one I am planning to pick up today. With the exception of a few precious gifts, I furnished my apartment this way - between freecycle and craigslist.
All a round-about way of saying, you can eliminate much of the commercialism if you decide you want to.
Edit to add - I think it's easier for me because my family didn't much care - I was the one who wanted the 'real Christmas' - all those Brady Bunch episodes growing up.
::)
And about New Year's Eve - I tend to stay home, though there have been a couple of better-forgotten exceptions in the past few years. I like to go for a hike on New Year's Day.
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http://monstrousbeauty.blogspot.com/2010/03/chi-rho-monograms.html
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cpJKHrU-0N0/S7QKRYnVkxI/AAAAAAAAAU0/LTuj4jOoIlk/s1600/XPDurrow.jpg)
Chi-Rho Page
The Book of Durrow
650 - 700?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Durrow
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cpJKHrU-0N0/S7QLr7lMkvI/AAAAAAAAAU8/mIMngznxIzw/s1600/Lindisfarne.jpg)
Chi-Rho Page
The Lindisfarne Gospels
698 - 715?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindisfarne_Gospels
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cpJKHrU-0N0/S7QYGZfYdnI/AAAAAAAAAVM/BJyhbyhyMkE/s1600/StGall.jpg)
Chi-Rho Page
St. Gall Gospels
750?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Gall_Gospel_Book
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Rho
The Chi Rho is one of the earliest forms of christogram, and is used by Christians. It is formed by superimposing the first two letters in the Greek spelling of the word Christ ( Greek : "Χριστός" ), chi = ch and rho = r, in such a way to produce the monogram ☧. Although not technically a cross, the Chi Rho invokes the crucifixion of Jesus as well as symbolizing his status as the Christ.
The Chi-Rho symbol was also used by pagan Greek scribes to mark, in the margin, a particularly valuable or relevant passage; the combined letters Chi and Rho standing for chrēston, meaning "good." Some coins of Ptolemy III Euergetes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_III_Euergetes) (246-222 BCE) were marked with a Chi-Rho.
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This year there will be a lunar eclipse on the solstice so it should be very exciting!
I double-checked my almanac. Not only is there a total lunar eclipse on the Solstice, but the moon is also full! :o How exciting is that? :D
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Thanks for the Chi-Rho info. I thought there was some sort of Christian symbolism. So basically the X is standing in for 'good'.
I double-checked my almanac. Not only is there a total lunar eclipse on the Solstice, but the moon is also full! :o How exciting is that? :D
WOW!!!
Even more reasons for we pagans to break out the bubbly!!
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History of Christmas in America:
The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. Anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit was fined five shillings. By contrast, in the Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith reported that Christmas was enjoyed by all and passed without incident.
http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm
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you can blame Queen Victoria for the popularization of the Christmas tree in the United States. It was an image of the Royal Family in the 1860's that was republished in the United States that caused Christmas trees to proliferate here. Prior to that it was more or less limited to Germans and German immigrants. (Of course, that's where the royal family started it, because of the House of Hannover taking the English crown.
Christmas trees started to appear in the US in the 1850s. It was generally a reflection of Queen Victoria being the trendsetter in the US at that time, but obviously took off on its own after that. The earliest references to Christmas trees in western Missouri (some German immigrants; not many that far west) are from the mid-1850s.
The earliest illustrations show what we'd call "table top" trees today.
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People celebrate Christmas for different reasons. There is no right or wrong way to celebrate Christmas. I celebrate because it´s fun. I like to receive and give presents, I love the food and I enjoy my Christmas tree. Leave us sinners alone to have some fun before we marsch off to hell.
Why people write Xmas? Because it´s shorter
I don't identify as a Christian anymore and haven't for more than 2 decades but I love Christmas. Holidays are part of our psychic landscape, so it isn't surprising that people attach various meanings to them. I now think of Christmas as 1) an acknowledgement and celebration of the themes of new life, and light starting to increase at a cold, relatively dark kind of year; it isn't hard to get a spiritual meaning out of that and 2) a celebration of the best of my family's history. Works for me. My sister, a former Catholic convert and now a fellow member of the "Nones", has struggled with that too.
Christmas carols and certain scents can pack a psychic punch for many people that blows all the sermonizing and disapproval away like specks of dust. Scents, especially, tend of have that override effect.
As far as people saying "Happy Holidays", "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Solstice" is concerned, IMO people who are bothered by that need a sense of perspective. It's amazing, the things folks get bent out of shape about this time of year.
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Oh, and here in Pennsylvania we have Gus the Groundhog hawking state lottery tickets to the tune of "Jiingle Bells."
Bah! Humbug! >:(
Gus must be a gamblin', winter-lovin' cousin of Puxatawny Phil!
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I double-checked my almanac. Not only is there a total lunar eclipse on the Solstice, but the moon is also full! :o How exciting is that? :D
Some details about the eclipse -- looks like most or all of us will be able to see it one way or another:
"A total lunar eclipse will take place on December 20/21, 2010. It will be visible after midnight Eastern Standard Time on December 21 in North and South America. The beginning of the total eclipse will be visible from northern Europe just before sunrise. The end of the total eclipse will be visible rising at sunset for Japan and northeastern Asia, it also appears very visible to the Philippines just after sunset (as in Partial lunar eclipse). It will be the first total lunar eclipse in nearly 3 years, the last being on February 20, 2008."
(Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2010_lunar_eclipse
"On the heals of the Geminid meteor shower, a total lunar eclipse will be visible on the first day of winter, December 21, 2010. About 1.5 billion people will be able to view this total lunar eclipse.
"This early celestial Christmas present will be visible totality on four continents: all of North and South America, in Asia it will be visible in much of Japan and Korea, as well as western and northern parts of Europe. People in Hawaii and the North Island of New Zealand will also be able to view the total eclipse. In Africa and most of Asia, the eclipse will only be partial.
" 'Unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse can be viewed by a great number of people over a vast area of the globe,' Ben Burress, staff astronomer at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, Calif., said in a statement.
It has been nearly four years since a total lunar eclipse was visible in North America and it won't be until "Tax Day", April 15, 2014.
Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/christian-worldview-in-national/total-lunar-eclipse-will-be-visible-dec-21-2010
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[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uSvFVqlLKM&feature[/youtube]
::)
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[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uSvFVqlLKM&feature[/youtube]
::)
I like it. :)
Like how the people are popping up behind the couch, and the laughter when they're finished. "Yaay, we done it!" :D
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;D
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS5WjGvFDuo[/youtube]
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[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi2J0ihhhsw[/youtube]
In Sweden we have this tradition every year, the 13 th of december. Its a lucia tåg, and its the same thing every year. i have probably seen it atleast 32 times, so it has become very boring thing for me! I am glad its over for this year. I wonder what i will feel about it when i sit in the a nursing home. I probably will become crazy
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The youtubes and news about the eclipse are great, but do they really irk y'all? They might do better in another thread. :)
Meryl
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[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uSvFVqlLKM&feature[/youtube]
::)
This is really great!
They have each only one or two bottles, it must have taken quite a lot of practicing to actually play a whole tune.
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;D
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS5WjGvFDuo[/youtube]
Truman!
You gotta show this to Crybaby!! :laugh: :laugh:
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This stupid ass song irks me, and any time I hear it start, I turn off the radio.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok5rOO2v2dU[/youtube]
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I gotta get this off my chest too.
:laugh:
Ok, I'm adult, and I know not everyone is having a merry Christmas.
But are Christmas songs like this necessary? Really? A song about a guy waiting on line behind a child who is buying shoes for his mother, who is gonna see Jesus tonight?
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNsvE33pRSw[/youtube]
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I gotta get this off my chest too.
:laugh:
Ok, I'm adult, and I know not everyone is having a merry Christmas.
But are Christmas songs like this necessary? Really? A song about a guy waiting on line behind a child who is buying shoes for his mother, who is gonna see Jesus tonight?
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNsvE33pRSw[/youtube]
Chuck,
I saw this presented as a play when I was working down in Huntsville, AL. It bothered me quite a bit - I felt very manipulated emotionally.
Lynne
>:(
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This stupid ass song irks me, and any time I hear it start, I turn off the radio.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok5rOO2v2dU[/youtube]
Chuck, I'm sorry, but--I love it, I think it's adorable!!
"Dominic the Italian Donkey song and video Dominick the Donkey is a well known Christmas song written by Ray [Richard] Allen and Lou Monte and first sung by Lou Monte in 1960. For decades the song was only occasionally heard. Oldies 103.3 WODS of Boston, Massachusetts and WCBS-FM in New York are common stations that play the song around Christmas . It was perceived to be too novel for the softer music stations and too old or corny for CHR/Top 40 stations. But beginning in the early 1990's, more contemporary artists began to record Christmas music. As a result, younger skewing radio stations began to feature more Christmas music on their stations, even going wall to wall on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. While there were more Top 40 core artists doing Christmas music by 1992, the stations still needed to play older artists to supplement the newer Christmas music. A few stations found this song and began mixing it into their Christmas rotations. The song got very positive feedback and as a result, this song began to gain airplay in many formats. Many people assume it was a recent recording and do not realize this song has been around for over 40 years"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Monte
Lou Monte
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominick_The_Donkey
Dominick the Donkey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ok, it's not a Christmas song, exactly, but--
Here's the newest musical comedy short from SNL, and I have a feeling
we're going to be hearing it A LOT this week--plenty of people are going
to be irked! (It's a hoot, though!)
Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akon:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQlIhraqL7o[/youtube]
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Ok, it's not a Christmas song, exactly, but--
Here's the newest musical comedy short from SNL, and I have a feeling
we're going to be hearing it A LOT this week--plenty of people are going
to be irked! (It's a hoot, though!)
Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akon:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQlIhraqL7o[/youtube]
I like the women's expressions, and the "best 30 seconds of my life." :laugh:
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This didn't have anything to do with the holidays but it said a lot about the human condition!
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OK, one more doesn't-actually-irk-me-about-the-holidays comment: Andy Samberg is such a cutie; so preferable to Justin Beiber in the Internet Sensations Who Break Through to Become Successful in Other Media category, in my book. Sometimes to be honest I find his videos a bit tiresome, but that huge goofy grin goes along way toward making them tolerable or even entertaining.
This one is my all-time favorite, featuring not only Andy Samberg but also Seth Rogen and his eyebrows. Bill Hader has a funny cameo, too. I'm such a bad mom that, yes, I have watched this with my teenage sons.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NisCkxU544c[/youtube]
Now back to discussing irksome holiday events!
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OK, here's one. What irks me about the holidays is that they have become so fraught with ... everything, that people actually come to dislike a season that's supposed to be fun. Today alone, I heard that my 18-year-old niece "hates" Christmas, and a 34-year-old friend doesn't really like it much. Each has his/her own valid reasons, and I don't blame those people. I don't even blame the holidays themselves. But it is disturbing that an event that on the surface should only give pleasure instead inspires dread.
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OK, here's one. What irks me about the holidays is that they have become so fraught with ... everything, that people actually come to dislike a season that's supposed to be fun. Today alone, I heard that my 18-year-old niece "hates" Christmas, and a 34-year-old friend doesn't really like it much. Each has his/her own valid reasons, and I don't blame those people. I don't even blame the holidays themselves. But it is disturbing that an event that on the surface should only give pleasure instead inspires dread.
I think it´s the hype. Then if you wind up not having fun, it makes you feel as though you have failed.
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It is the hype, I agree. The key, I think, is to set your own expectations and be firm when family (or whoever) starts the pressure for more of you.
For a personal example, Mom has decided she wants to 'shop' for Chris, Ronny, my brother, and me.
Well, I should have expected it. And I'm glad actually - because - her showing interest in life is always good! But now we are celebrating the 28th or 29th, depending on Ronny's schedule. And I am going to sit down with her at the laptop and help her choose the gifts. I guess Chris can do the same for mine. I'm not going back to the days of actually doing everyone's shopping.
And it's no problem to be flexible about the date, to my way of thinking.
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"Dominic the Italian Donkey song and video Dominick the Donkey is a well known Christmas song written by Ray [Richard] Allen and Lou Monte and first sung by Lou Monte in 1960. For decades the song was only occasionally heard.
Never heard it or even heard of it--until yesterday. It played on the PA system in the bar/restaurant where I was having brunch with friends after church. I guess, maybe, I'm kinda glad that there was too much ambient background noise for me to actually hear it.
The funniest thing about the experience is that one of the servers on duty yesterday is named--you guessed it!--Dominic! He was convinced the manager was playing the song on purpose just to annoy him! :laugh:
(BTW, he's quite a cutie wth a dimple to die for. ... ::) )
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There are many different religions and non religious celebrations of this time of year. Christmas is only one of those. The Jewish religion has
their festival of lights this time of year. The naturists or Druids celebrate the Winter
Soltice, this time of year, and there are the many other different kinds of celebrations that all seem to culminate at this time of year. Then there are the athiests that don't have a certain holiday to commemorate, but then does that mean that they are not allowed to have a festival and as they referred to on the Seinfeld show "The Festivas for the rest of us?"
Maybe you didn't read the other posts I made in this thread. I have no problem with Jews celebrating Hanukkah, Druids celebrating winter, or anyone celebrating whatever other holiday happens to occur during this time of year. My "irk" is with secular celebrations of Christmas. If you're calling what you celebrate "Christmas," and don't acknowledge Christ, you're not celebrating Christmas at all.
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You're fighting a losing battle Milo trying to return Christmas to Christ. It's a battle the Puritans lost and the early Christian leaders knew better than to fight. The celebration of the Solstice is always going to be party time and it's been that way since before Jesus and will outlast his celebration as well.
They can party all they want. But if they're going to call it Christmas, they can at least give Jesus his props.
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http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/christmas.html
(http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/christmas_banner2.jpg)
C harles Dickens has probably had more influence on the way that we celebrate Christmas today than any single individual in human history except one.
At the beginning of the Victorian period the celebration of Christmas was in decline. The medieval Christmas traditions, which combined the celebration of the birth of Christ with the ancient Roman festival of Christ with the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia (a pagan celebration for the Roman god of agriculture), and the Germanic winter festival of Yule, had come under intense scrutiny by the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell. The Industrial Revolution, in full swing in Dickens' time, allowed workers little time for the celebration of Christmas.
The romantic revival of Christmas traditions that occurred in Victorian times had other contributors: Prince Albert brought the German custom of decorating the Christmas tree to England, the singing of Christmas carols (which had all but disappeared at the turn of the century) began to thrive again, and the first Christmas card appeared in the 1840s. But it was the Christmas stories of Dickens, particularly his 1843 masterpiece A Christmas Carol, that rekindled the joy of Christmas in Britain and America. Today, after more than 160 years, A Christmas Carol continues to be relevant, sending a message that cuts through the materialistic trappings of the season and gets to the heart and soul of the holidays.
Dickens' describes the holidays as "a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of other people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys". This was what Dickens described for the rest of his life as the "Carol Philosophy".
Dickens' name had become so synonymous with Christmas that on hearing of his death in 1870 a little costermonger's girl in London asked, "Mr. Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?"
(http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/fezziwig02.jpg)
Dickens' cherished little Christmas story, the best loved and most read of all of his books, began life as the result of the author's desperate need of money. In the fall of 1843 Dickens and his wife Kate were expecting their fifth child. Requests for money from his family, a large mortgage on his Devonshire Terrace home, and lagging sales from the monthly installments of Martin Chuzzlewit, had left Dickens seriously short of cash.
The seeds for the story that became A Christmas Carol were planted in Dickens' mind during a trip to Manchester to deliver a speech in support the Athenaeum, which provided adult education for the manufacturing workers there. Thoughts of education as a remedy for crime and poverty, along with scenes he had recently witnessed at the Field Lane Ragged School, caused Dickens to resolve to "strike a sledge hammer blow" for the poor.
As the idea for the story took shape and the writing began in earnest, Dickens became engrossed in the book. He wrote that as the tale unfolded he 'wept and laughed, and wept again' and that he 'walked about the black streets of London fifteen or twenty miles many a night when all sober folks had gone to bed'.
At odds with his publishers, Dickens paid for the production cost of the book himself and insisted on a lavish design that included a gold-stamped cover and four hand-colored etchings. He also set the price at 5 shillings so that the book would be affordable to nearly everyone.
(http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/carol_cover_color2.jpg)
The book was published during the week before Christmas 1843 and was an instant sensation but, due to the high production costs, Dickens' earning from the sales were lower than expected. In addition to the disappointing profit from the book Dickens was enraged that the work was instantly the victim of pirated editions. Copyright laws in England were often loosely enforced and a complete lack of international copyright law had been Dickens' theme during his trip to America the year before. He ended up spending more money fighting pirated editions of the book than he was making from the book itself.
Despite these early financial difficulties, Dickens' Christmas tale of human redemption has endured beyond even Dickens' own vivid imagination. It was a favorite during Dickens' public readings of his works late in his lifetime and is known today primarily due to the dozens of film versions and dramatizations which continue to be produced every year.
Preface to the Original Edition
(http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/carol_scrooge-marley_abbey.jpg)
I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.
Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C. D.
December, 1843.
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http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/carol.html
Original Illustrations
John Leech provided eight illustrations for A Christmas Carol.
Four woodcuts and four hand colored etchings:
(http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/original_carol_extinguish.jpg)
(http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/original_carol_marley.jpg) (http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/original_carol_ghost_present.jpg)
(http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/original_carol_ignorance_want.jpg) (http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/original_carol_phantoms.jpg)
(http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/original_carol_fezziwig.jpg) (http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/original_carol_ghost_future.jpg)
(http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/original_carol_bishop.jpg)
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Oh I just love a Christmas Carol. It is one of my favorite works of literature. It also scares me to death -- all season I'm on edge because I watch every Christmas Carol show/movie/production shown on TV and I've collected just about all of them on DVD. I'm even working on a screenplay of A Christmas Carol with a twist. Who knows, perhaps soon you'll see a production of my version of this classic.
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Oh I just love a Christmas Carol. It is one of my favorite works of literature. It also scares me to death -- all season I'm on edge because I watch every Christmas Carol show/movie/production shown on TV and I've collected just about all of them on DVD. I'm even working on a screenplay of A Christmas Carol with a twist. Who knows, perhaps soon you'll see a production of my version of this classic.
With a twist
or
With a Twist?
;)
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With a twist
or
With a Twist?
;)
Ebenezer Del Mar?
Oy! :o
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Ebenezer Del Mar?
Oy! :o
Oh! Now someone has to write a !A Christmas Carol"inspired BBM fan fic
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Oh! Now someone has to write a !A Christmas Carol"inspired BBM fan fic
That could be entertaining. I do remember a BBM Christmas fic called Silver Bells that quite nice.
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Oh! Now someone has to write a !A Christmas Carol"inspired BBM fan fic
Indeed, and instead of the main character mumbling "Bah humbug!" over and over, he (or she) can just say "sh*t" every other line, like in the movie. :laugh:
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With a twist
or
With a Twist?
;)
;D
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Indeed, and instead of the main character mumbling "Bah humbug!" over and over, he (or she) can just say "sh*t" every other line, like in the movie. :laugh:
:laugh: Loving it!
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Oh! Now someone has to write a !A Christmas Carol"inspired BBM fan fic
I'd be surpized if it hadn't been done already.
I think in the very faaaar back of my mind I might have read about such a story, ages ago.
To bring this thread back on topic, well kind of:
I don't think there's anything about Christmas that irks me. I truly love it.
Okay, there's one thing, but it really hasn't anything to do with the holiday itself: it irks me when I see chocolate Nikoläuse (Santas) and Lebkuchen (sort of gingerbread) in the shops in - August! :o
Yes, I've seen them in the last week of August. That's insane.
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That could be entertaining. I do remember a BBM Christmas fic called Silver Bells that quite nice.
There's also one about the Twelve Days Of Christmas.
Trying to get the curve back to topic once more ( ::) at me ;)): I'll look for it, and you can look for the Silver Bells link (I'm sure Monika is interested) and we open a new thread in the FF section. Sounds good?
Edit:
Here's the new thread about Christmas themed fanfiction: http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,48384.0.html (http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,48384.0.html)
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They can party all they want. But if they're going to call it Christmas, they can at least give Jesus his props.
I certainly don't call it Christmas. But as was pointed out earlier, you try to call it something else - because as you said it's all about the paganism and not Jesus - people get called out on the floor by conservatives who've appropriated all the pagan-ness and want others to call it that, whether we want to or not.
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(I'm sure Monika is interested) .
yes!
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Oh I just love a Christmas Carol. It is one of my favorite works of literature. It also scares me to death -- all season I'm on edge because I watch every Christmas Carol show/movie/production shown on TV and I've collected just about all of them on DVD. I'm even working on a screenplay of A Christmas Carol with a twist. Who knows, perhaps soon you'll see a production of my version of this classic.
What's your favorite version? Mine is the Patrick Stewart one, but Scrooged is one of my all-time favorite Christmas flicks.
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What's your favorite version? Mine is the Patrick Stewart one, but Scrooged is one of my all-time favorite Christmas flicks.
I've never seen the Patrick Steward version. I own a copy (on tape!) of the George C. Scott/Hallmark Hall of Fame version, which I watch every year. I like it for its production values (filmed on location in Coventry), and it's great supporting cast, including David Warner, Edward Woodward, Roger Rees, Frank Finlay, Susannah York, and a host of other fine British actors.
It also introduced me to "The Sussex Carol," a lovely traditional English Christmas carol.
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What's your favorite version? Mine is the Patrick Stewart one, but Scrooged is one of my all-time favorite Christmas flicks.
Not to get OT, but IMO, the Patrick Stewart one was boring. Never thought I'd say that about something Patrick Stewart is in. :P The George C. Scott one I didn't buy maybe it's his face, but he never looks remorseful. I like the older versions and the Albert Finney musical one. The movie Scrooged disappointed me, because
SPOILER AHEAD!!!
all the guy did at the end was say 'Sorry'. He didn't make it up to anyone.
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This might irk some--
but not me!
;D
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDBMzGq1vhs&NR=1[/youtube]
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This might irk some--
but not me!
;D
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDBMzGq1vhs&NR=1[/youtube]
The Muppets are never irksome. :)
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Not to get OT, but IMO, the Patrick Stewart one was boring. Never thought I'd say that about something Patrick Stewart is in. :P
Unexpectedly, I got to see the Patrick Stewart version last night--I noticed that TNT was running it. I was impressed by the realism of much of the production--in the Hallmark/George C. Scott version, even to me, even the cobwebs in Scrooge's rooms seem just a little too perfect. OTOH--and no offense intended to anyone who prefers this version--especially in some early scenes, where you see Patrick Stewart in profile, with the shape of his head and his lean figure dressed in black, I thought he bore a startling resemblance to the vampire in Nosferatu. Or, worse, yet, an Edward Gorey cartoon. :( And then there was the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come: with those two bright eyes within the cowl and no visible face, he made me think of an overgrown Jawa. :(
Minor quibble: While I haven't double-checked, I suspect the early 1840s may be too early for Tiny Tim to have known Silent Night in English, and I also doubt that God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen was sung in church at that time.
I need to research cast lists, too, because I would swear that the elderly actress who played Mrs. Dilber in the pawn broker scene was the same actress who played Mrs. Dilber in the Hallmark/Scott version.
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This might irk some--
but not me!
;D
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDBMzGq1vhs&NR=1[/youtube]
Here's a sacrilege: I find "The 12 Days of Christmas" irksome (when sung by anybody, but probably especially Muppets). So repetitive and boring! It's Christmas carols' answer to "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall."
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Here's a sacrilege: I find "The 12 Days of Christmas" irksome (when sung by anybody, but probably especially Muppets). So repetitive and boring! It's Christmas carols' answer to "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall."
There's always The Twelve Days of BBM Christmas (http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,31203.0.html)!
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There's always The Twelve Days of BBM Christmas (http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,31203.0.html)!
THAT one I love, Paul! :D :-* I just revisited it yesterday when you bumped it. Thanks!
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Ok, I've been holding this one in reserve-- ::) :laugh:
Ha! All Swedes please comment!
http://www.slate.com/id/2239252/
Nordic Quack
Sweden's bizarre tradition of watching Donald Duck cartoons on Christmas Eve.
By Jeremy Stahl
Posted Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009, at 7:01 AM ET
Three years ago, I went to Sweden with my then-girlfriend (now-wife), to meet her family and celebrate my first Christmas. As an only partially lapsed Jew, I was not well-versed in Christmas traditions, and I was completely ignorant of Swedish customs and culture. So I was prepared for surprises. I was not prepared for this: Every year on Dec. 24 at 3 p.m., half of Sweden sits down in front of the television for a family viewing of the 1958 Walt Disney Presents Christmas special, "From All of Us to All of You." (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0908282/) Or as it is known in Sverige, Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul: "Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas."
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAHk8nPAa-8&feature[/youtube]
Kalle Anka, for short, has been airing without commercial interruption at the same time on Sweden's main public-television channel, TV1, on Christmas Eve (when Swedes traditionally celebrate the holiday) since 1959. The show consists of Jiminy Cricket presenting about a dozen Disney cartoons from the '30s, '40s, '50s, and '60s, only a couple of which have anything to do with Christmas. There are "Silly Symphonies" shorts and clips from films like Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and The Jungle Book. The special is pretty much the same every year, except for the live introduction by a host (who plays the role of Walt Disney from the original Walt Disney Presents series) and the annual addition of one new snippet from the latest Disney-produced movie, which TV1's parent network, SVT, is contractually obligated by Disney to air.
Kalle Anka is typically one of the three most popular television events of the year, with between 40 and 50 percent of the country tuning in to watch. In 2008, the show had its lowest ratings in more than 15 years but was still taken in by 36 percent of the viewing public, some 3,213,000 people. Lines of dialogue from the cartoons have entered common Swedish parlance. Stockholm's Nordic Museum has a display in honor of the show in an exhibit titled "Traditions." Each time the network has attempted to cancel or alter the show, public backlash has been swift and fierce.
Kalle Anka (pronounced kah-lay ahn-kah) gets its name from the star of the show's second animated short, a 1944 cartoon called "Clown of the Jungle," in which Donald Duck is tormented by a demented Aracuan Bird during a luckless ornithological expedition. The short is typical of the random violence of many early Disney cartoons. The sadistic Aracuan (regularly mistaken in Sweden for Hacke Hackspett, or Woody Woodpecker) sprays Kalle with seltzer, bashes his head in with a mallet, blows him up with an exploding cigar, threatens to kill himself simultaneously by hanging and gunshot, and ultimately drives the infuriated Kalle insane.
Watching Kalle Anka for the first time, I was taken aback not only by the datedness of the clips (and the somewhat random dubbing) but also by how seriously my adoptive Swedish family took the show. Nobody talked, except to recite favorite lines along with the characters. My soon-to-be father-in-law, a burly man built like a Scandinavian spruce, laughed at jokes he had obviously heard scores of times before. Nobody blinked at the antiquated animation, the cheesiness of the stories, or even the good-old-fashioned '30s-era Disney-style racism. (In the 1932 "Silly Symphonies" short "Santa's Workshop," there is a scene involving a black doll who yells "Mammy" at the sight of Santa Claus then moons the screen. It was eventually censored from the American version of the cartoon but remains in Kalle Anka. )
The show's cultural significance cannot be understated. You do not tape or DVR Kalle Anka for later viewing. You do not eat or prepare dinner while watching Kalle Anka. Age does not matter—every member of the family is expected to sit quietly together and watch a program that generations of Swedes have been watching for 50 years. Most families plan their entire Christmas around Kalle Anka, from the Smörgåsbord at lunch to the post-Kalle visit from Jultomten. "At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, you can't to do anything else, because Sweden is closed," Lena Kättström Höök, a curator at the Nordic Museum who manages the "Traditions" exhibit, told me. "So even if you don't want to watch it yourself, you can't call anyone else or do anything else, because no one will do it with you."
The article continues--and continues--and continues!, this is a long article, interesting, but very possibly irksome--again, Monika, Sophia, Sonja, Berit--please do tell us about your feelings about Kalle Anka!
:o ::) ;D
http://www.slate.com/id/2239252/
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Weird and fascinating. Makes me feel more okay about my odd habit of watching Orlando on New Year's Eve.
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Minor quibble: While I haven't double-checked, I suspect the early 1840s may be too early for Tiny Tim to have known Silent Night in English, and I also doubt that God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen was sung in church at that time.
Silent Night wasn't written until 1859. God Rest Ye was written in 1833, and mentioned in the original Dickens.
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Wow. Suddenly I'm not so embarrassed by my own habit of watching Charlie Brown and the Grinch every Christmas season.
Is Donald Duck to Sweden as Jerry Lewis is to France? ???
I used to watch Gone With the Wind on New Year's Eve.
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Ok, it's not a Christmas song, exactly, but--
Here's the newest musical comedy short from SNL, and I have a feeling
we're going to be hearing it A LOT this week--plenty of people are going
to be irked! (It's a hoot, though!)
Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akon:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQlIhraqL7o[/youtube]
thank you John, for giving me ..... the best laugh this Christmas. Now I know what Christmas song I will play when we have have Christmas dinner. ;D
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Wow. Suddenly I'm not so embarrassed by my own habit of watching Charlie Brown and the Grinch every Christmas season.
Is Donald Duck to Sweden as Jerry Lewis is to France? ???
I used to watch Gone With the Wind on New Year's Eve.
One year, my mother and brother decided to rent a movie on Christmas Eve. I asked which one, and they said they were thinking about getting Leaving Las Vegas. I wasn't even going to be there, but I had to forbid it. That's the most depressing movie ever. Luckily, they heeded my warning.
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Ha ha, I LiKE this Swedish tradition of watching Kalle Anka. :)
Do tell us about it, lovely Swedish Brokies. Do you and your families follow the tradition?
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Nordic Quack
Sweden's bizarre tradition of watching Donald Duck cartoons on Christmas Eve.
By Jeremy Stahl
Posted Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009, at 7:01 AM ET
Three years ago, I went to Sweden with my then-girlfriend (now-wife), to meet her family and celebrate my first Christmas. As an only partially lapsed Jew, I was not well-versed in Christmas traditions, and I was completely ignorant of Swedish customs and culture. So I was prepared for surprises. I was not prepared for this: Every year on Dec. 24 at 3 p.m., half of Sweden sits down in front of the television for a family viewing of the 1958 Walt Disney Presents Christmas special, "From All of Us to All of You." (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0908282/) Or as it is known in Sverige, Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul: "Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas."
Oh, that sounds delightful! And it isn't any more out of character for Cthe season than It's A Wonderful Life, which isn't even primarily about Christmas.
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I need to research cast lists, too, because I would swear that the elderly actress who played Mrs. Dilber in the pawn broker scene was the same actress who played Mrs. Dilber in the Hallmark/Scott version.
It was the same actress:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809131/ (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809131/)
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ha ha ha, John you are so right. This is something more then half of the population watch. And we do organize everything around it.
Donald duck and another show that's shown later in the evening called Karl-bertil Jonsson julafton (Carl-Bertil Jonssons Christmas, its a Swedish cartoon) And its true, if someone refuse to watch it young or old. Let me tell you that person will definitely hear about. But for me this ain't something that irks. I kind of like this tradition, the combination of Christmas and cartoon. ;D
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fde1DCmdxAI[/youtube]
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the combination of Christmas and cartoon. ;D
I have fond childhood memories of Mr. McGoo's Christmas Carol. ;D I wonder whatever became of that? ???
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I have fond childhood memories of Mr. McGoo's Christmas Carol. ;D I wonder whatever became of that? ???
Best. Ever.
BEST. EVER!
This was my favorite part:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOJBU95pVmw[/youtube]
8) 8) 8)
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BEST. EVER.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JiFO9-Mj-k&feature[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYuSTdBiw08&feature[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRL8z6R5kDw&feature[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rif88PpSV5w&feature[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjmtNIpu0Io&feature[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRZDg6KYXv0&feature[/youtube]
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Thanks, John! Now I know what I'll be doing on Christmas! :D
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BEST. EVER.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JiFO9-Mj-k&feature[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYuSTdBiw08&feature[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRL8z6R5kDw&feature[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rif88PpSV5w&feature[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjmtNIpu0Io&feature[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRZDg6KYXv0&feature[/youtube]
:laugh: I will have to make time to watch these at home tonight. ;D
I'm glad if I brought back good memories to you, John. :)
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And to think if I hadn't become obsessed with "Brokeback Mountain" I would never have known this. Life can always surprise you. ;D
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Nordic Quack
Sweden's bizarre tradition of watching Donald Duck cartoons on Christmas Eve
:o
Oh, U.S. and Disney, what hath ye wrought?
:P :-\ :laugh:
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Ha! All Swedes please comment!
Don't look at me!!!!
I don't celebrate Xmas, and I don't have a TV!!!!
I'm innocent, really!!!
::) ::) :laugh: :laugh:
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But other than that, what the article says is basically true.... ::) ::) ::) ::)
(did you HAVE to dig that out, John?? Why not post something about the Nobel price,
ABBA, herring, IKEA, Volvo, Joe Hill, Dag Hammarskjöld, Linné, smörgåsbord, or even Swedish fish.... something
we can be PROUD of! Instead you post about Kalle Anka !!! ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::))
;D :laugh:
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Ha ha, I LiKE this Swedish tradition of watching Kalle Anka. :)
Do tell us about it, lovely Swedish Brokies. Do you and your families follow the tradition?
My folks is Jewish.
So we don't celebrate Xmas. I did watch Kalle Anka now and then while I grew up,
mainly to see what all the fuss was about. It's quite entertaining. It's true that
the show is deeply ingraved in the Swedish culture, for whatever reason.
You can reference to it in whichever context, and everyone will get it.
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And to think if I hadn't become obsessed with "Brokeback Mountain" I would never have known this. Life can always surprise you. ;D
Aren't you glad you know it now, Meryl? :laugh:
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(did you HAVE to dig that out, John?? Why not post something about the Nobel price,
ABBA, herring, IKEA, Volvo, Joe Hill, Dag Hammarskjöld, Linné, smörgåsbord, or even Swedish fish.... something
we can be PROUD of! Instead you post about Kalle Anka !!! ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::))
How about lutefisk? ;D
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Aren't you glad you know it now, Meryl? :laugh:
You bet, Sonia! It will be a great conversation piece for me at holiday parties this year. ;D
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How about lutefisk? ;D
I don't like lutfisk. I think it smells soap.....
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thank you John, for giving me ..... the best laugh this Christmas. Now I know what Christmas song I will play when we have have Christmas dinner. ;D
Glad you enjoyed it, but--Ha! What do you think, Sophia--an Andy Samberg/Kalle Anka Mash-Up?? ::) :laugh:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQlIhraqL7o&feature[/youtube][youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAHk8nPAa-8&feature[/youtube]
I have to say--this works quite well! Start both videos at the same time, mute Kalle Anka, and--let 'er rip!
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My folks is Jewish.
So we don't celebrate Xmas. I did watch Kalle Anka now and then while I grew up,
mainly to see what all the fuss was about. It's quite entertaining. It's true that
the show is deeply ingraved in the Swedish culture, for whatever reason.
You can reference to it in whichever context, and everyone will get it.
Thanks, Sonia, for the explanation! I had sent the original article to a friend living in Shanghai, and he forwarded it to some expat friends who are part of the Swedish Diaspora--maybe we'll hear a response!
Meanwhile--
Kalle Anka suddenly reminded me of--
Mele Kalikimaka (the Bing Crosby Hawaiian Christmas Song)--
How irksome is that?? ::) :laugh:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEvGKUXW0iI[/youtube]
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How about lutefisk? ;D
That too. ;)
It may not taste very good, but at least it isnt' embarassing! ::)
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You bet, Sonia! It will be a great conversation piece for me at holiday parties this year. ;D
That's right. You just go ahead and enhance your dinner conversation on our expense! ::) ;D
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That's right. You just go ahead and enhance your dinner conversation on our expense! ::) ;D
I already did at the dinner table tonight. ;D
I think it's funny and only a tad strange, but in no way embarrassing.
Besides, we Germans can relate easily. We have the same tradition for New Year's Eve. We all watch "Dinner for One" (The 90th Birthday) - year after year, faithfully. And it's always the exact same, no variation, no different clips or moderation or anything. It's great, I love it! :) It belongs to New Year's Eve just like firecrackers.
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^^^^^^^^^
We do that too.... ::)
But we call it The Countess and the Butler. 8)
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^^^^^^^^^
We do that too.... ::)
But we call it The Countess and the Butler. 8)
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
You're kidding.
Seriously?
I understand though. It's so friggin cold in Sweden in winter. If I lived there, I'd do nothing else but watch TV and ... the other thing. ;D
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:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
You're kidding.
Seriously?
Oh yes, seriously. In Denmark too.
But on different hours. My mother usually watches it first on Danish tv, and then on Swedish! ::) ;D
Didn't know you watched it in German too.
I understand though. It's so friggin cold in Sweden in winter. If I lived there, I'd do nothing else but watch TV and ... the other thing. ;D
*wonders what the hell Chrissi means by that.... drinking coffee? folding origami? making paper cuts? mending socks?
cleaning? going to IKEA? listening to ABBA? eating herring? getting drunk? -- gives up*
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Oh yes, seriously. In Denmark too.
But on different hours. My mother usually watches it first on Danish tv, and then on Swedish! ::) ;D
Didn't know you watched it in German too.
We watch it at different times. It's scheduled in all (I think) third programs, which are about 12 programs. Some of them show it multiple times this day. Everybody picks whatever time s/he likes, it's not all people watching at once, like Kalle Anka.
*wonders what the hell Chrissi means by that.... drinking coffee? folding origami? making paper cuts? mending socks?
cleaning? going to IKEA? listening to ABBA? eating herring? getting drunk? -- gives up*
Nice guesses. ;D
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*wonders what the hell Chrissi means by that.... drinking coffee? folding origami? making paper cuts? mending socks?
cleaning? going to IKEA? listening to ABBA? eating herring? getting drunk? -- gives up*
Nice guesses. ;D
Walking the dog? Shoveling snow? Dancing around the Yule tree? ;D
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[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQlIhraqL7o&feature[/youtube][youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAHk8nPAa-8&feature[/youtube]
I have to say--this works quite well! Start both videos at the same time, mute Kalle Anka, and--let 'er rip!
I dutifully complied with your suggestion - and you're right! It does match up surprisingly well.
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...the passive aggressive behavior of stressed-out people. To give you an example, my spouse gives me nice presents (this year it was a wonderful fancy cowgirl shirt)...but he leaves the price tag on. :-\
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I already did at the dinner table tonight. ;D
I think it's funny and only a tad strange, but in no way embarrassing.
Besides, we Germans can relate easily. We have the same tradition for New Year's Eve. We all watch "Dinner for One" (The 90th Birthday) - year after year, faithfully. And it's always the exact same, no variation, no different clips or moderation or anything. It's great, I love it! :) It belongs to New Year's Eve just like firecrackers.
This is for Chrissie--
Happy New Year!!
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lzQxjGL9S0[/youtube]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_One
Dinner for One
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Thanks to everyone for the Christmas cards!
(http://chzgifs.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/dogsversusmailp1.gif)
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:o :o :o
Yeah, don'tcha hate when that happens? :laugh:
Thanks for your card, too, Paul, and all my Brokie pals. :-*
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What irks me about the holidays? Having to go back to work when they're over. :-\
I've reached the point in my current job where I can now easily save up enough vacation time that I don't have to work between Christmas and New Year's. I could get used to being a gentleman of leisure. Unfortunately, it all comes to an end Monday morning. :-\
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This is for Chrissie--
Happy New Year!!
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lzQxjGL9S0[/youtube]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_One
Dinner for One
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Even if I'm not Chrissi, I enjoyed it a lot! ;D Thanks for finding it John!
From Wikepedia:
The sketch presents the 90th birthday of elderly upper-class Englishwoman Miss Sophie,
What the hell ???
I mean; can you be anything else than elderly when you're 90?? Why mention it at all?
I'd say it goes without saying that when you're 90, you're also elderly....? ::) ::) ::)
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This reminds me of a conversation I recently had with my sister. When are you elderly? She is 76 and does not feel elderly yet. Hopefully at 66 I am not elderly. :) Those of you in your 20's and 30's may have a different opinion. The same thing occurred with middlle-aged. However I am now willing to admit that I am probably past middle age. When I was in my 20's, my best mate was 18 and often called me 'old man' and 'over the hill'. Now that he is in his 50's and a grandfather, I often stir him about that.
And Jeff, when you are retired you cannot wait for the silly season to be over and everyone else goes back to work so things are normal again. Here in the Southern hemisphere that is not until late January unfortunately.
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What irks me about the holidays? Having to go back to work when they're over. :-\
I've reached the point in my current job where I can now easily save up enough vacation time that I don't have to work between Christmas and New Year's. I could get used to being a gentleman of leisure. Unfortunately, it all comes to an end Monday morning. :-\
Now this is something I don't have to deal with. I only get out early on Christmas Eve, and off Christmas Day, and the same for New Year's Eve and New Year's day.
It was different for the recent holidays as they fell on Saturday, so I had the day after off as I don't work Sundays. It will be that way this year, as the holidays will fall on Sundays, so the banks will be closed on Monday.
;D
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Ok, it's two days after the 12 days of Christmas, but this
is just too odd not to include it in our very disparate thread:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK2q3rjKCvI&feature[/youtube]
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What irks me about the holidays? Having to go back to work when they're over. :-\
I've reached the point in my current job where I can now easily save up enough vacation time that I don't have to work between Christmas and New Year's. I could get used to being a gentleman of leisure. Unfortunately, it all comes to an end Monday morning. :-\
That irked me this year too, Jeff. I usually don't work between Christmas and New Year's, but this time I *wanted* to work and be finished with the job. But I wasn't 'allowed' to. So I went ahead and filed for unemployment for that week (not that I expect to need it, but it won't hurt to not have the 'waiting week'). And the first week of January was 3 days - Friday being an 'off' Friday - so nothing is going to get done until maybe this Monday and everything will be dragged out until the end of the month.
Meanwhile, I could be more actively pursuing new jobs...a topic which I should take over to my blog...
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I really enjoy New Year's Eve, but I don't go get drunk and kissy-face with strangers: it's all about the fireworks for me, and even standing in the snow is OK. While many people know that gunpowder was invented by the Chinese millenia ago, they don't know that it was invented specifically for use in fireworks on New Year's Eve. The ancient Chinese shot off fireworks on the last night of the year on into the beginning of the next year to confuse the evil spirits - those folks knew that those evil spirits would be so confused by the flashing lights and the noise they wouldn't be able to follow people into the New Year. So I guess that makes me a real traditionalist!
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Can't recall if I posted this or not, but the holiday weekend is coming up. Normally, we spend it with one relative or another. I normally don't care who, but it's OK. I only have one long afternoon to spend with relatives I like or sorta like doing nothing but eating and socializing (I rarely exchange gifts, because after I buy gifts for my friends and my sister and her child and my work friends, I'm usually broke and don't have the money for gifts for my half-brother and his wife and 4 nieces and nephews and cousins and aunts and uncles), but usually THEY can afford to give me gifts and they always treat dinner and never ask us to bring anything. So going over there, I always feel like the "poor relative", so I don't really care to.
This year, my cousins decided to start being more 'family' so they invited us for the holidays. Well, so did my brother. I was thinking OK, we spend Thanksgiving with one and Xmas with another.
Nope, my sister accepted all invitations - for both of us - and now my weekend is all but taken up with visits to relatives. That is not how I wanted to spend my long weekend.
Tonight when my sister called, I let her know I was only going to one relatives. She started instantly to get upset and I retorted, "What's wrong with that? So what if you're the only one to go? Nobody is making you..."
She was like "Fine, spend Xmas alone."
My sister has no hobbies. She socializes. That's her hobby.
So rather than feel guilty like she wants me to, hopefully she'll get the point that she shouldn't make plans for both of us without asking me first...but I doubt it. I think I'm just sick and tired of my decisions always being perceived as wrong or that my actions will make the difference for someone else's enjoyment and therefore I'm responsible if I don't make the effort to please someone else.
And it's not and I'm not. I'm not the "life of the party". I am not particularly close to my relatives. There is no reason in the world when I make my decision my sister couldn't just say "Oh, OK." instead of getting all over me like she did,
"So I get to go alone again?"
Like that's some sort of awful thing and totally my fault she has to go through it or something. >:(
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Della, if your sister accepts invitations for you without your permission, you are not obligated to go. Contact the hosts directly and explain your decision. Then talk to your sister and emphasize that you are not her companion or escort. Tell her what engagements you are prepared to keep for the weekend and draw the line at that. After all, the Dalai Lama has said, for a better life, spend some of each day in solitude. Many people, myself included, need that for optimal mental health.
For a handful of years, my husband decided that our family should travel to another town on Thanksgiving to be with his brother's family. It was always a big production and I wasn't welcome to bring anything or help. Finally, I decided I would stay home. I cooked a full Thanksgiving dinner last year and my mother and I sat down together to eat it. It was delicious!!
This year I had a full table with a variety of friends and family. I felt truly fulfilled! We will see the brother's family on New Years Eve, so everything seems well balanced.
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Many of us -- and not to be sexist but I think most of us are women -- tend to feel that other people's preferences are more important than our own. I fall into this trap myself, especially with my kids. (Obviously I have some extra obligations regarding children/dependents, but that shouldn't mean their preferences ALWAYS trump mine.)
But here's my advice:
Remind yourself that it's your holiday, too, and that your preferences are just as important to you as other people's are to them, and just as worth following. Observe that your choice upsets your sister, but don't take responsibility for her objections. Remember that she has to make her own choices, too. Then move on.
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Many of us -- and not to be sexist but I think most of us are women -- tend to feel that other people's preferences are more important than our own.
That reminds me of how, as an "only child," I had it constantly drilled into me that "you can't always have your way." I think the intent of that drilling was admirable, and this isn't exactly the same thing, but I think the end point is similar: You are made to feel like you're a bad person if you don't always put other people's preferences ahead of your own.
Or, at least, you are made to feel like you're a bad person if you allow them to make you feel that way.
At the holidays, this sometimes takes the form of "you have to have a present for so-and-so because he/she has a present for you." Even this year, I got that from my dad. :-\
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This year, for the first time in almost 20 years, I´m not gonna spend Christmas with my sister and her family. I´m just gonna hang out with my folks. I am so looking forward to a quiet, boring and relaxing Christmas this year. Yay! I+m just not the type of person who enjoys watching three kids rip open packages for three hours straight.
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That reminds me of how, as an "only child," I had it constantly drilled into me that "you can't always have your way." I think the intent of that drilling was admirable, and this isn't exactly the same thing, but I think the end point is similar: You are made to feel like you're a bad person if you don't always put other people's preferences ahead of your own.
Or, at least, you are made to feel like you're a bad person if you allow them to make you feel that way.
Jeff, I was going to add this in my previous post but decided not to get into it. But since you bring it up: I think when we were kids (late '50s, early to mid '60s) it was often the other way around: parents' priorities came first. Kids were to be seen and not heard -- perhaps not always, even then, but nowadays you NEVER hear that phrase except ironically -- and when the dad came home from work the mom sent the kids out of the room so he could relax in peace with his newspaper and martini. Aside from the occasional trip to Disneyland or whatever, adults' wishes set the agenda.
At least, that's what I gather based on my own dim memories of childhood along with what I've seen in Mad Men and the movie Far From Heaven. ;D
So I suppose baby boomers, resenting that treatment, vowed that they would do things differently when they became parents. And they do.
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Thanks for the support guys. We got into it again this morning.
We were e-mailing and she did a "Oh, BTW, I told our relatives that you decided not to come to dinner. And since you're not going, I'm going to wait until they come into town and meet them for dinner. They asked if you were mad at them, and I said, no it wasn't them it was you."
Notice how she's spun the situation so that I'm the bad guy and now HER Xmas is ruined because I'm not going.
So I e-mailed her back and asked her - rhetorically - if she had told them that the reason I wasn't going was because she had made plans for us without asking me. And there was no reason in the world she couldn't go without me.
She retorted that "Oh, my bad. I just assumed you would want to be with family on Xmas. So when ARE you going to see them?"
I replied, "When I fucking feel like it. They invite me, I DO have a choice in saying yes or no. And yes, it is your bad when you make plans for other people and they can't make your schedule. Ask next time." :D"
She replied, "Fine, I'll just apologize for you next time I see them."
I e-mailed her back not to bother, since she had put me in a very awkward position with my relatives and now I have to apologize for a situation I didn't create.
She hasn't responded to that.
I'm just so furious now and of course, it's completely ruined the relaxation I was looking forward to this weekend and I have to apologize to my relatives but I'm going to nail my sister in it because she's acted and responded so incredibly childishly I can't believe a grown woman has actually pulled the
"If you're not going, I'm not going and so I'm going to be all alone and it's all YOUR FAULT!"
Stuff you thought had gone away in grade school
>:( >:( >:( >:( >:(
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I think even Miss Manners would say you are not obligated to apologize to your relatives, at least not abjectly. She would probably recommend a quick pleasant call, since at least third-hand you were invited to their home, to say you're sorry there was a miscommunication between you and your sister about your availability, but that in fact you can't make it for the holiday. And that you would love to see them sometime when they're in town and hope they have a wonderful Christmas. Then hang up.
Meanwhile, immediately banish from your mind any shred of guilt you might feel about your sister. As an objective observer, I can't help wondering if maybe she did mean well, sincerely thinking you would want to be at the relatives' on Christmas. If so, that would somewhat soften her culpability for arranging it without asking you, but it doesn't make you any more obliged to go. Next time she'll know to ask. And she has no business laying a guilt trip on your for it, since she is perfectly free to go on her own. If she doesn't, that's her choice, and has nothing to do with you.
Then you have Miss Manners' permission to enjoy your holiday with a perfectly clean conscience.
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RESOLVED:
I e-mailed my relatives the apology, explained the situation simply and noted that my sister's melodrama caused an innocuous situation to blow up into something that it wasn't.
My relative was very gracious. She replied instantly that they were just worried that something was going on that they didn't know about. They were glad it wasn't anything serious and then she laughed and reminded me that she, too, has a sister prone to melodrama and that it must run in the family and that I must admit it keeps the level of excitement up.
She then invited me to dine with her and her husband when they come into town next week and I happily accepted.
So, happy ending to the damage control I had to do. :)
Thank you everyone for your support! :-*
Now to deal with my sister tomorrow. ::)
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I object to the sugar. Everywhere I turn someone is trying to force processed sugar on me.
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"From All of Me to All of You."
Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul!
(Did everyone watch this at 3pm this afternoon?? ::) )
(http://disney-clipart.com/christmas/Donald-Duck/Donald-Santa-hat.jpg) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_All_of_Us_to_All_of_You)
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bk8Ukqlf1M[/youtube]
Merry Christmas!!!
;D
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[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGTVRbpAuRo&feature[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAHk8nPAa-8&feature[/youtube]
.
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"From All of Me to All of You."
Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul!
(Did everyone watch this at 3pm this afternoon?? ::) )
(http://disney-clipart.com/christmas/Donald-Duck/Donald-Santa-hat.jpg) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_All_of_Us_to_All_of_You)
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bk8Ukqlf1M[/youtube]
Merry Christmas!!!
;D
Of course I did!
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http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/christmas.html
(http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/christmas_banner2.jpg)
C harles Dickens has probably had more influence on the way that we celebrate Christmas today than any single individual in human history except one.
At the beginning of the Victorian period the celebration of Christmas was in decline. The medieval Christmas traditions, which combined the celebration of the birth of Christ with the ancient Roman festival of Christ with the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia (a pagan celebration for the Roman god of agriculture), and the Germanic winter festival of Yule, had come under intense scrutiny by the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell. The Industrial Revolution, in full swing in Dickens' time, allowed workers little time for the celebration of Christmas.
The romantic revival of Christmas traditions that occurred in Victorian times had other contributors: Prince Albert brought the German custom of decorating the Christmas tree to England, the singing of Christmas carols (which had all but disappeared at the turn of the century) began to thrive again, and the first Christmas card appeared in the 1840s. But it was the Christmas stories of Dickens, particularly his 1843 masterpiece A Christmas Carol, that rekindled the joy of Christmas in Britain and America. Today, after more than 160 years, A Christmas Carol continues to be relevant, sending a message that cuts through the materialistic trappings of the season and gets to the heart and soul of the holidays.
Dickens' describes the holidays as "a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of other people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys". This was what Dickens described for the rest of his life as the "Carol Philosophy".
Dickens' name had become so synonymous with Christmas that on hearing of his death in 1870 a little costermonger's girl in London asked, "Mr. Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?"
(http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/fezziwig02.jpg)
Dickens' cherished little Christmas story, the best loved and most read of all of his books, began life as the result of the author's desperate need of money. In the fall of 1843 Dickens and his wife Kate were expecting their fifth child. Requests for money from his family, a large mortgage on his Devonshire Terrace home, and lagging sales from the monthly installments of Martin Chuzzlewit, had left Dickens seriously short of cash.
The seeds for the story that became A Christmas Carol were planted in Dickens' mind during a trip to Manchester to deliver a speech in support the Athenaeum, which provided adult education for the manufacturing workers there. Thoughts of education as a remedy for crime and poverty, along with scenes he had recently witnessed at the Field Lane Ragged School, caused Dickens to resolve to "strike a sledge hammer blow" for the poor.
As the idea for the story took shape and the writing began in earnest, Dickens became engrossed in the book. He wrote that as the tale unfolded he 'wept and laughed, and wept again' and that he 'walked about the black streets of London fifteen or twenty miles many a night when all sober folks had gone to bed'.
At odds with his publishers, Dickens paid for the production cost of the book himself and insisted on a lavish design that included a gold-stamped cover and four hand-colored etchings. He also set the price at 5 shillings so that the book would be affordable to nearly everyone.
(http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/carol_cover_color2.jpg)
The book was published during the week before Christmas 1843 and was an instant sensation but, due to the high production costs, Dickens' earning from the sales were lower than expected. In addition to the disappointing profit from the book Dickens was enraged that the work was instantly the victim of pirated editions. Copyright laws in England were often loosely enforced and a complete lack of international copyright law had been Dickens' theme during his trip to America the year before. He ended up spending more money fighting pirated editions of the book than he was making from the book itself.
Despite these early financial difficulties, Dickens' Christmas tale of human redemption has endured beyond even Dickens' own vivid imagination. It was a favorite during Dickens' public readings of his works late in his lifetime and is known today primarily due to the dozens of film versions and dramatizations which continue to be produced every year.
Preface to the Original Edition
(http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/images/carol_scrooge-marley_abbey.jpg)
I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.
Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C. D.
December, 1843.
“I might easily have been, for any care that was taken of me, a little robber or a little vagabond,” he once said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/opinion/sunday/dowd-a-victorian-christmas.html
(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo152x23.gif)
(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/opinion/sectionfront/sundayreview_logo_large.png)
Op-Ed Columnist
A Victorian Christmas
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: December 24, 2011
WASHINGTON
AT the end of his life, Charles Dickens did not have great expectations for Christmas.
He had separated from his wife, describing his marriage as “blighted and wasted.” His mistress was not around. He was disappointed that his sons lacked his ambition. His final Christmas, he wrote a colleague, was painful and miserable.
“The Inimitable,” as he had christened himself when he was young and celebrated, was drained from traveling to give paid readings and suffering from such severe gout that he could not write clearly or walk well. He was confined to bed all Christmas Day and through dinner, bleak in his house.
Literature’s answer to Santa Claus, as Robert Douglas-Fairhurst writes in “Becoming Dickens,” had always gravitated to the holiday.
“Christmas was always a time which in our home was looked forward to with eagerness and delight,” his daughter Mamie said.
Dickens would dance and play the conjurer. “My father was always at his best, a splendid host, bright and jolly as a boy and throwing his heart and soul into everything,” recalled his son Henry.
Douglas-Fairhurst wonders if this “inventor of Christmas” might have developed his “ruthless” determination to enjoy the day because of the traumatic year he spent as a child working in a rat-infested shoe-polish warehouse in London after his father went to prison for debts. Did England’s most famous novelist need “to recreate his childhood as it should have been rather than as it was?”
The biographer notes that Dickens, in his fiction, “rarely describes a family Christmas without showing how vulnerable it is to being broken apart by a more miserable alternative. In ‘Great Expectations’ it is the soldiers who burst into Pip’s home on Christmas Day, saving him from a dinner in which the only highlight is Joe slopping extra spoonfuls of gravy onto his plate. In ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood,’ the young hero goes missing on Christmas Eve, leaving behind several clues that he had been murdered by his uncle. Saddest of all, in ‘A Christmas Carol,’ Scrooge is forced by the Ghost of Christmas Past to observe his boyhood self left behind at school, and weeps ‘to see his poor forgotten self as he used to be.’ ”
Douglas-Fairhurst points out that Dickens’s fiction teems with ifs, just-supposes and alternative scenarios, “what might have been and what was not.” He even wrote two different endings for “Great Expectations,” one where Estella and Pip don’t end up together and one where they seem to.
“Pause you,” Pip says, “and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.”
Dickens was rescued from the warehouse and sent back to school when his father got out of prison and wangled a Navy pension. But that year drove home to him how frighteningly random fate can be.
“I might easily have been, for any care that was taken of me, a little robber or a little vagabond,” he once said.
His need to control his fate may have led to a mild case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. He routinely rearranged the furniture in hotel rooms, acknowledging that his “love of order” was “almost a disorder.”
Dickens — whose bicentenary will be celebrated on Feb. 7 — worked himself to death at 58, but he always feared obscurity was lurking.
In October 1843, he had the idea for “A Christmas Carol.” As Claire Tomalin writes in another new book, “Charles Dickens: A Life,” he told a friend “he had composed it in his head, weeping and laughing and weeping again” as he walked around London at night.
He had visited one of the “ragged schools,” set up in poor parts of London by volunteer teachers to educate homeless, starving and disabled pupils, and the novella, published that December, was his screed about the indifference of the rich toward those less fortunate.
Scrooge gets redeemed from an alternate life as a misanthrope, and Tiny Tim is saved from death. But two “wolfish” children, a boy named Ignorance and a girl named Want, are not rescued, but rather left to haunt readers’ consciences.
In his 1851 short story “What Christmas Is As We Grow Older,” Dickens makes the case that the holiday is the time to “bear witness” to our parallel lives, our “old aspirations,” “old projects” and “old loves.”
“Welcome, alike what has been, and what never was, and what we hope may be, to your shelter underneath the holly,” he wrote.
Maybe, he suggests, you end up better off without that “priceless pearl” who does not return your love. Maybe you don’t have to suppress the memory of deceased loved ones.
“Lost friend, lost child, lost parent, sister, brother, husband, wife, we will not so discard you!” he wrote. “You shall hold your cherished places in our Christmas hearts, and by our Christmas fires; and in the season of immortal hope, and on the birthday of immortal mercy, we will shut out Nothing!”
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Thank you, John. No 'bah humbug' for me. By chance, I heard a lovely reading of 'A Christmas Carol' tonight on the radio, read by Jonathan Winters. He had distinct voices for all the characters. I had also forgotten how short the story actually is.
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"From All of Me to All of You."
Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul!
(Did everyone watch this at 3pm this afternoon?? ::) )
(http://disney-clipart.com/christmas/Donald-Duck/Donald-Santa-hat.jpg) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_All_of_Us_to_All_of_You)
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Oh we sat there, in front of the TV, grandma, ma (thats me :laugh:), pa and the two kids....22 and 17.....and we enjoyed every minute of it. We missed when Walt himself stood on the mantlepiece, wishing us Merry Christmas but that was taken away many years ago so....
Christmas starts with Donald himself!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bk8Ukqlf1M[/youtube]
Merry Christmas!!!
;D
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Thanks for the Dickens reading.
This has been a good holiday season except of course for my sister's tantrum.
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, happy Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa to others and of course, it was a great Solstice and Saturnalia earlier.
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One thing that irks me about the holidays is, I'm afraid, a personal problem:
I'm terrible, just terrible, at coming up with ideas for gifts for people until Christmas is practically breathing down my neck. >:(
I don't know if this is a guy thing, or if this is specifically an inherited/learned behavior that I got from my father. (In days long ago he used to drag me to the mall on Christmas Eve morning to find something for him to give my mother. ::) ) But I'm still terrible at it until it's almost too late. >:(
I'm almost as bad thinking up people who might enjoy receiving a Christmas card. This morning I kind of got overwhelmed thinking of people from church who have been kind to me, or who are not in good health and might appreciate an unexpected Christmas card. These folks are all local, so there is hope they might receive a card by Wednesday, but, sheesh, why couldn't I think of doing this two weeks ago, when there was plenty of time? ???
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Thank you, John. No 'bah humbug' for me. By chance, I heard a lovely reading of 'A Christmas Carol' tonight on the radio, read by Jonathan Winters. He had distinct voices for all the characters. I had also forgotten how short the story actually is.
Happened on your post, thanks so much for posting, which sent me running to google...sometimes I love the internet...
Jonathan Winters' "A Christmas Carol"
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/12/25/midday1 (http://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/12/25/midday1)
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Happened on your post, thanks so much for posting, which sent me running to google...sometimes I love the internet...
Jonathan Winters' "A Christmas Carol"
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/12/25/midday1 (http://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/12/25/midday1)
Sweet! Thank you so much for finding this. I had another listen tonight.
"There's more of gravy than of grave about you." :)
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"There's more of gravy than of grave about you." :)
"You may be ... a fragment of an underdone potato." ;D
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"You may be ... a fragment of an underdone potato." ;D
Is that a quote from A Christmas Carol?
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"You may be ... a fragment of an underdone potato." ;D
IT's called a seed potato...it's this part that makes the new plants!
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Is that a quote from A Christmas Carol?
Yes! When Scrooge encounters the ghost of Marley, he says"
“You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”
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OK. I'm gonna really stick my neck out here and 'fess up that what really irks me about the holidays is the song White Christmas.
I know the whole world thinks it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it annoys the heck out of me; the way people swoon and go all gooey over it also annoys the heck out of me.
I think this is because I grew up in a place where a "white Christmas" was a rarity rather than the norm. And even when there was snow on the ground at Christmas, it usually wasn't enough even to bother about. Only once--once!--in my growing up or later was there a snowy Christmas worth dreaming about. It certainly doesn't qualify as the "ones" (note the plural) "I used to know."
I much prefer The Christmas Song, aka Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.
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IT's called a seed potato...it's this part that makes the new plants!
Beg pardon? ??? I don't understand what that has to do with a fragment of potato that hasn't been cooked thoroughly? ???
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You're right about the song, Jeff. I can barely remember any white Christmases that we've had, and it's not like you go out and do anything with the snow, you're busy opening gifts and visiting with each ohther.
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You're right about the song, Jeff. I can barely remember any white Christmases that we've had, and it's not like you go out and do anything with the snow, you're busy opening gifts and visiting with each ohther.
Thanks for not "clipping" me, Chuck. :-*
If I knew where to look, it might be interesting to know exactly how many "white Christmases" my home town has had since weather records began to be kept.
I will admit to remembering one "white Christmas" when I was a child, when there was so much fresh snow we walked to church on Christmas Eve in the traffic ruts in the street because nobody had yet shoveled their sidewalks--but that's the only Christmas that might fit the song, and I don't dream about a Christmas like that one. I was a little boy then, and you can't go back.
If I have any dream about Christmas now, it's being able to be in several places at once, so that I could share Christmas with "family of choice" as well as "family of birth."
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I dislike the song for exactly the opposite reason. Christmases here are almost always white, and I don't like winter. This year may be different. At the moment, there are only tiny scraps of snow on the ground, thanks to a series of days in the mid-30s to low-40s. There's a snowflake icon on my phone's weather app for tomorrow, but since the temperature forecast is 34, that snow probably won't stick more than an hour. Which is fine with me!
Next week: single-digit highs.
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What irks me about the holidays is the cheesy Christmas songs that you catch a bar of here and there as you go into stores and then can't get out of your head for days after! It seems like the bad songs stick worse than the good ones! Those sung by Andy Williams or, worse yet, Perry Como. I would mention the names but then I'd bring down the earworm curse on you!
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What irks me about the holidays is the cheesy Christmas songs that you catch a bar of here and there as you go into stores and then can't get out of your head for days after! It seems like the bad songs stick worse than the good ones! Those sung by Andy Williams or, worse yet, Perry Como. I would mention the names but then I'd bring down the earworm curse on you!
No kidding, Lee! For some reason, I can't get this one out of my head. Ughhhhh.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lPw9hkk3II[/youtube]
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You should live in a country where it is midsummer yet they still sing "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" ;D
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I really like White Christmas, even though the weather is pretty much the same as Jeff and Chuckie said. We barely ever have a white Christmas - that's why we're dreaming of it! :laugh:
And I guess here the song is not as overplayed as in the US.
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according to what I heard on the radio yesterday, the biggest complaints about the holidays are longer lines in stores, and more traffic.
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No kidding, Lee! For some reason, I can't get this one out of my head. Ughhhhh.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lPw9hkk3II[/youtube]
That one is the very worst. I worked at Macy's for two Christmas seasons and heard it like three times a shift. The. Worst.
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according to what I heard on the radio yesterday, the biggest complaints about the holidays are longer lines in stores, and more traffic.
I was on line at the post office on Saturday, late morning and there were exactly three people in the line. The two other people were complaining about the line and also the fact that the US government is so lazy and corrupt, loudly, so that the one lone postal employee behind the counter could hear. He was polite and jovial the entire time. Fortunately, I only had to wait a couple of minutes.
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In both Australia and New Zealand, the Postal services are now private companies with Govt controls. Most post services are now agencies in supermarkets or newsagents. The dedicated post shops are not open on Saturday. And in NZ post deliveries are to be reducedto 3 days per week some time next year. I would think a queue of 3 was nice and short.
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I am in Sydney and went to the local shopping mall to help my sister yesterday. She lives just 3 blocks away but car parking is impossible. However she cannot carry very much. My arms are now longer after the walk home ;D
It annoys me all the crowds and rushing about. Even Dunedin was busy (but nothing like Sydney) when I went to the shops last week.
We do not buy presents in our family. All I buy for Christmas are cards (3 weeks ago) and yesterday I bought some glace fruit for my sister and today I will buy some beer for my BiL and some bottles of wine (NZ naturally) as I am visiting friends for lunch over the weekend.
I bought some vitamins (cheaper in Australia than NZ) and 500 Euro which I will need next April.
My sister just had to buy food because I am staying, we will have a proper Christmas dinner and she has her in-laws over on Saturday (I will go out to avoid them).
I am counting the days until I can go back to the peace, quiet and cool of Dunedin next Tuesday.
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When I have to mail something during the holidays, I go to a "Mail Boxes Inc" location right down the street.
Very fast, and almost always I'm the only one in the place.
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I'll stick my neck out again with something else that I know will make me sound like a spoiled brat (maybe I am?).
At Christmas very dear and very well-meaning relatives tend to inundate me with loads of "consumables" that my waistline doesn't need and I really don't want: Candy, cookies, you name it. Moreover, if I were loading up a car for my return home, it wouldn't be so difficult, but when you have to travel by public transportation, it can be very difficult to lug all this stuff home.
This year I was gifted two bottles of wine; I left them both at my dad's house because there was no way I could get them back to Philadelphia on the train today. (The wine was in addition to cookies AND candy AND hot chocolate mix.)
I do appreciate the thought, but I wish they wouldn't overdo it so much. At least I have the cookies and candy to share when I go back to work January 5. :-\
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who's feeling irked this year?
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What irks me right now is it's too warm! We need some snowflakes in the air to have a proper Christmas shopping season. It feels more like lemonade weather than hot cocoa!
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What irks me right now is it's too warm! We need some snowflakes in the air to have a proper Christmas shopping season. It feels more like lemonade weather than hot cocoa!
I agree, hunnerd percent!
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What irks me right now is it's too warm! We need some snowflakes in the air to have a proper Christmas shopping season. It feels more like lemonade weather than hot cocoa!
I agree, hunnerd percent!
Yup! We were discussing this at the Christmas party I went to on Saturday, and how they could've done a bbq party instead of cooking in the kitchen. LOL
The hosts of the party were wearing shorts!