Gearheadotaku wrote: I call for a GRM late December party. Activities shall include: Video game races or slot cars, much bacon for munching, paintball target practice on a figure of Santa, and a snowy parking lot autocross. Who's with me?
For the SnowX, how many seconds do you get for hitting parts of the nativity?
Toyman01 wrote: I love it. Always have and always will. Last year there were 24 of us all piled in my parents house. What a blast that was. Three generations under one roof. The commercialism has gotten out of hand, but I just ignore it. It's all about family and friends to me. The rest is just background noise.
I had a big long rant written up about this, but the short version is: on my father's side alone, if all 7 of his brothers and sisters come, there typically would be 30 people in a house across the three generations. 90% of them I can't relate to, partially because their initial upbringing was based on a farm (I'm as much an Alberta redneck as the next person and have lived on acreages for a lot of my life and done a lot of labour of the land so to speak, still doesn't help after an hour) and we are the most normal city based people of them all (the only other ones my aunt married a millionaire oilfield consultant and I have zero in common with both cousins, who are now 14 and 16 while I am 23). I am the third oldest of all of the 3rd gen, and only the second to have actually done something with my life (my sister being the first), while also being one of the first to have an almost truly white collar job.
So yea, Christmas basically becomes an awkward me telling everyone what I've been doing for the year (repeatedly, it's nice that they care to ask) and mainly talking about my racing exploits... which are badass I'll admit, but after that, we run out of things to chat about. The best Christmas' are where I spend time with my immediate family, and my 3 best friends (who are also all friends, and whose parents are also all friends). Now THAT, is a good time :D
HATE it.
Having said that:
www.amazon.com - Seriously. Point and click. No traffic, no parking, no crowds, no tellers, no mayhem, no stripped store shelves, no awful music, no awful decorations. Even pay a bit more and they'll wrap it and mail it where it needs to go. Awesome. About as detached from Christmas as I can get and still keep family.
I used to love Christmas, but that didn't last long. The most wasteful time of the year. People are at their worst behavior in some instances. It makes no sense to me that I should have to spend money and buy people stuff they don't need or want. Chopping down a gazillion trees every year makes no sense to me, either. Chop it down, place it inside the house, decorate it, then throw it out once New Year's is done. What a waste of time and resources. My best Christmas ever was spent on the beach. I should make that my annual tradition.
There are really only 2 things I dislike about my spouse: she's a smoker, and she ADORES the Christmas season. My bad for not making the first one a condition of marriage. The second one I didn't see coming, and probably thought it was charming at first, but now I just want to smash all the holiday music CD's that find their way into the CD player right before Thanksgiving.
And yes, I do 99% of my shopping on Amazon or the internet. What a wonderful change to holiday shopping. Point, click, receive. No Black Friday, no rude shoppers, no stressed out store clerks.
I guess I'm in the minority but I aside from the cold weather I like Christmastime. I try to sneak in to see the balloons being blown up for the Macy's parade after work, and see some of the parade depending on my schedule for turkey day. We have a big family dinner the sunday after Thanksgiving at my house, then depending on my work schedule I my get to see people again on Christmas or Christmas Eve. We don't get too stressed out shopping because once we (mine and my wife's brothers and sisters) got older we agreed to just shop for the kids. It's much more fun to see them open something they really wanted and run around playing than to open another ugly sweater I'll never wear.
Hate it, hate it, hate it.
I just had this exchange with the wife. She asked what I wanted for Christmas. "Nothing." "Nothing?" "Nothing." "There HAS to be something..." /me beats head against wall until unconsciousness.....
Then let's not get into the decorations I hate to put up every year because I get about 5 minutes of help with while I spend my afternoon putting up and then gets bitched at when they aren't placed right......
Wally, I'm with you. I love it big time. I do agree that stores, etc...are starting way too early. To me, there should be a law that says Christmas stuff is only allowed from Thanksgiving until Dec. 25th. I hate that they put stuff out in September. Beyond that, I'm a Christmas nut.
It's become tradition for my wife and I to go shopping on Black Friday. For us, it's kind of a day out, away from the kids. We just take our time and don't get stressed by any crowds, we just do our own thing. I'm expecting to start working on the layout of our outside Christmas decorations this weekend. I won't put them outside until Thanksgiving, but I want to map it out, so it's easy to set up. Every year I try to add to the display....next year, I'll probably need an electrician to come and add some wiring and circuits specifically for the display. We also decorate the inside our our house to the hilt too. This will also be the 8th straight year that I dress up as Santa and go to the local daycare/preschool where my kids go/have gone. I love doing it. Though dressing up is hard. I'm 5'9" and 170lbs. Need a lot of padding...
Oh yeah, the wife and I are going to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra next weekend. It's an awesome show.
Christmas is SO overcommercialized. I detest the 'spend spend spend' hype of the season. Those Lexus 'December to Remember' TV ads nearly pushed me over the edge, along with all the jewelry store ads. The message comes down to: if you don't blow every dime you have then run your credit cards out to the limit then you don't love your (insert relative/friend here). Add to this that I am not religious and the last time I saw my dad alive was on Christmas Day and it should come as no surprise that I am not a big Christmas fan. If it wasn't for my daughter, I would probably not decorate etc.
But there are parts of it I like; I like putting up a tree with my daughter, we will wind up reminiscing about the background of certain ornaments, that's a lot of fun. I like seeing my family, it's pretty rare for us all to be under one roof, although this year will be the first without my grandmother and that is going to be weird. Like Wally, several years ago we agreed to do presents for the kids only and that took a lot of stress off of everyone. I might have raised the bar this year; I got my kid some anime stuff she really wanted for her birthday and that might be sorta hard to top.
Black Friday?! Gah! That's the day I lock myself and my beloved car in the house and don't even go out! Ack!
Gearheadotaku wrote: I call for a GRM late December party. Activities shall include: Video game races or slot cars, much bacon for munching, paintball target practice on a figure of Santa, and a snowy parking lot autocross. Who's with me?
I'm in! I'll bring the peanut-butter-and-bacon sandwiches!
neon4891 wrote:Gearheadotaku wrote: I call for a GRM late December party. Activities shall include: Video game races or slot cars, much bacon for munching, paintball target practice on a figure of Santa, and a snowy parking lot autocross. Who's with me?For the SnowX, how many seconds do you get for hitting parts of the nativity?
You get 2 seconds added to your score for each person/animal hit. However if you drag it all the way to the finish you get 4 subtracted
I love Christmas season. Pretty much every night of December, I watch animated Christmas specials with my daughters. We put up decorations together. We generally just have a great time as a family. Nobody in my little family seems all that concerned about the presents or what is going on at the mall.
Gearheadotaku wrote: the only thing I like about it is getting a day off from work. Oh wait, Xmas (and New Years) are on the weekend this year. No extra day off for me. Bah berklyin' Humbug. I call for a GRM late December party. Activities shall include: Video game races or slot cars, much bacon for munching, paintball target practice on a figure of Santa, and a snowy parking lot autocross. Who's with me?
IN!
neon4891 wrote:Gearheadotaku wrote: I call for a GRM late December party. Activities shall include: Video game races or slot cars, much bacon for munching, paintball target practice on a figure of Santa, and a snowy parking lot autocross. Who's with me?For the SnowX, how many seconds do you get for hitting parts of the nativity?
I'd say -2 for taking out baby jeebus but leaving the manger standing.
I used to be a grinch until about the 2nd week of Dec. Now that I have a kid, that has changed. The two holidays Thanksgiving and Christmas have sorta blended into each other which I don't mind.. it's all for the kids now ,imo.
I have mixed feelings...I find myself lately pretty much hating very ad for every item that is sold today in general. Companies are trying DEPERATELY to make me feel STUPID for not selling my kidneys for their new widget thats actually already obsolete because they already have version 2.1S in development....either that or its an add to make my package moar biggar. Wrap the already crappy advertising foisted upon me by our corporate overlords in holly and fake snow made from petroleum based plastic, and I really want to punch my own eyes out.
Toss in a healthy dose of "hey, your blood pressure is about to go up to 'HEMORAGE' because youre forced into an enclosed space with 6 people you love and 36 people you havent seen for 364 days and dont really care about, but you have to make small talk and explain about your job which they dont care about in the first place...for 6 hours" - and I start looking for a bridge tall enough to get the job done.
Now, that said, there are the parts I do care about - I am a religious person, so the event holds some meaning for me. I also do enjoy seeing SOME of the people I get to be with - My sis will fly home from out of state, Some other family will be there that I dont get to see as often as I would like, GREAT FOOD, and my father in law is guaranteed to buy me a power tool (score!). I will get to see my niece and nephew, which is always a highlight for me, and its also one of my Wifes most favorite times of the year, so it makes me happy to see her all excited. I really do also enjoy giving people gifts that I think they will like - no Gift cards from me. And Grandma is aging, so every event with her anymore holds meaning for me.
So I do enjoy it a lot...well most of it...ok some of it. I need a drink
I love Christmas, but hate the overcommercialization. I'm very thankful that my wife and I don't have cable, so we can limit the "buy! buy! Buy!" commercials, etc. I think that I get close to burned out even as it is.
I can't stand Christmas songs... until the day after Thanksgiving. But, more and more, I can't listen to the radio, because most of them aggressively remove any reference to anything remotely religious. It's getting to the point where they're even avoiding secular songs that mention Christmas by name.
What really gets my goat is that retailers have raped the holiday of its meaning, and, frankly, without its original meaning, it is insipid and boorish. It's celebrating the birth of Jesus (whether the day is accurate or not), and the giving of gifts on Christmas only makes sense in light of that.
Maybe that's why I love the Charlie Brown Christmas. It's one of the few accepted Christmas specials in popular society that actually gets it right.
This transition to "Happy Holidays" and "Seasons Greetings" might be a blessing in disguise, as much as I truly hate those greetings. At least that way, it might actually allow people to first associate "Merry Christmas" with a celebration of the birth of Jesus rather than generic "let's buy each other gifts and sacrifice our hard earned money to the idol worship of conspicuous consumption"
Late to the parade, but I've grown to hate it to. When you walk into Costco & Sams on July 5th and they have put Christmas decorations up in the spot the 4th of July stuff was - that's too early.
At other stores it was let's remove the Halloween candy and go straight to Christmas-that is the ones that hadn't gone to Christmas mid September.
By Christmas time I'm sick of it and the songs.
Don't start Christmas till the day after Thanksgiving.
I hate putting up Christmas decorations because you have to take them down. That's the part I hate.
I realize it's way to spice up a rather boring winter, but I'd rather be bored.
I'm pretty much burned out on Christmas, too. But I'm a bit older than most of you. Been there, done that. I like getting together with my kids and Grands, don't see enough of them. The strangest Christmas memory was 1986. I was working in Baltimore. Could not get off early, as I was the Boss. Wanted to see my kids in SoFla, so, after work on Christmas eve, I made the banzai run in my 280ZX down I-95 from Baltimore to Miami- 17 hours straight. Gee, what's on the radio? About seven different Christmas carols, done in every imaginable way. 17 hours of that. Argghh.
cwh wrote: I'm pretty much burned out on Christmas, too. But I'm a bit older than most of you. Been there, done that. I like getting together with my kids and Grands, don't see enough of them. The strangest Christmas memory was 1986. I was working in Baltimore. Could not get off early, as I was the Boss. Wanted to see my kids in SoFla, so, after work on Christmas eve, I made the banzai run in my 280ZX down I-95 from Baltimore to Miami- 17 hours straight. Gee, what's on the radio? About seven different Christmas carols, done in every imaginable way. 17 hours of that. Argghh.
arent you a pilot? whats all this driving business
I LOVE Christmas! Best time of the year, bar none. If I could have an autocross the same day, it would be the best day in the history of man.
It helps that I am pretty close with my dads side of the family (who we spend Christmas with) and when we do spend it with my moms family (6 hours away) I get to see cousins I haven't seen in months/years, and everybody is on the same page. Besides, now that almost all my cousins are drinking age, we're never in search of something to do.
This Christmas should be fun, we will have 25-40 people under the same roof. 4 generations.
As for the commercialization, I don't see it. I see pretty lights and stay away from malls. Get my shopping done in other places (hobby shops, hockey shops, toy stores, internet). I have a set list of Christmas music on my iTunes, most of it is "unconventional" Christmas music. I also have a rule that none of it comes out until I put the hardtop on the Miata (it used to be Thanksgiving, but now I have this qualifier for it!)
I do like Xmas lights. But then I like lights in general, so that's just me. I could do without the plastic santas and blow up frosty's and things like that, but a house done proper with all manner of Xmas lights really works for me. Sorta brings me back to when I didn't hate the season. Now I just look forward to being done with it so I can dream about snow being gone.
Oh, I forgot about a couple of things!
I always start to feel like this come Christmas season. When my little brother was about 7 years old, he said something that was so profound my Dad actually wrote it on a note card to keep it: "During Christmas, I feel so clean inside". Really reminds me of what it is all about, and why we do have the hoopla.
And then the trains. Come up again during Christmas, I can't wait. I feel like a little kid again. This time I have Kahlua with it though.
I do not like it. I give people that I love and respect gifts through the year. The little X-mas shopping I do is at the gun shop and autoparts store. I also give many used books as gifts.
It is fun to get together with some of my cousins and have some childish fun. If there is enough snow we will break out some toboggans and saucers to tow behind the farm tractor.
I actually enjoy chrimstas - we don't do the big family thing anymore - for breakfastg its just my parents, sister and her family (husband and 3 boys).. For dinner we goto my mother's best friends house and ussally end up in thier garage working on projects (have a full machine shop).. Gifts are a little stressful - but I am 1 week from being the father of twins, about a month away from christmas..my gift toeveryone this year is dirty diapers.. we broke!
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