Spooky Holidays 2011/12

[JHyde]

This is the third time I've run this thread on the forum, hope we get lots of responses here this time too!

What do you do if you celebrate Christmas or Hannukah? Is New Years Eve a big deal for you or do you stay in with some champers and loved ones? Do you do gifts or give money to charity? Especially interested in stories from those who celebrate traditions not included already, and from those who don't do holidays at all.

Tell us all!

[Nitrus]

Cannot wait to go home for Christmas, it's my favourite time of year.

This year New Year's Eve will be strange for me, considering last year I had such a bad night that I haven't had a drop of alcohol since, I think I'd prefer a small gathering of friends to see in 2012.

[JHyde]

Wow, a whole year without drinking! I am not a big drinker at all and regularly go months without any, but that makes me especially aware of how unusual it is. Hope this NYE is better.

I agree about the small thing for NYE. When it's happened, the best ones have been when a friend had us all over to theirs and we just had a BBQ. Also, and I am almost ashamed to admit this, I have really enjoyed the couple I worked at the best job I ever had. It was a leagues club and we all worked a long shift and then went out afterwards. Everybody was cheery and tipped well - they were great.

I like the lead up to Christmas. If you take the time to sit and watch everyone shop in craziness around you, it is actually possible to see people do the right thing by each other, in the spirit, as it were.

I make a mix CD for Christmas for my friends because I like being able to give everybody something. I make a special cover and post them out, it usually goes down really well. I also know people who do the same with cookies or fudge.

There's also a lot of singing for me in services I attend with some people and in a place that means a great deal to me.

[A Cousin]

I'm a repeat offender in the holiday thread, but I'll jump in anyway!

First tradition - house decorating.

I spent a good portion of last weekend decorating the house. Our street does a really nice and reasonably tasteful little "Festival of Lights." There is a little good-natured ribbing that goes on for whoever gets theirs up first every year. I told myself that I wouldn't turn it on until next weekend, but caved in pretty quickly on that one.

Second tradition - Holiday specials.

The holiday TV specials kicked off last night with the airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas and a *new* Prep &v Landing, so the kids are tired at school for a couple days a week. I'm kind of a sucker for these programmes...

Third tradition - shopping.

*sigh!* I hate shopping. This is not a good time of year for people like me. (Bah-freakin'-humbug!) However, if I wait until the last moment, it only makes it worse, so I am trying to do as much as I can on-line this year.

Fourth Tradition - donating.

Since we like to take a pantheistic view of the winter holidays, we try to impart a positive and altruistic meaning to our children through donating what we can. So far this year, we have donated a lot of food to food banks. (Mostly left over food we purchased when "Hurricane" Irene was heading our way.) We also donated old towels to the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

[JHyde]

I think if at all possible it's a good thing to make at least one charitable donation at this time. And if you can't donate there are always places where you can volunteer some time.

I was bemoaning to my sister just last weekend that I wish they showed Charlie Brown Christmas here in Australia. All my American friends and quite a few American TV shows I love all talk about it as being a big tradition and almost inescapable in the States.

In terms of Chrissie films, please count me as a confirmed hater of Love Actually. It really does seem to split people into two distinct camps. Give me Bad Santa any day.

[Nitrus]

I enjoy Love Actually. It's wonderfully heart-warming in a very British way. Lol.

[Silktie]

This year I'll be spending Christmas with the folks, who live on a smallholding outside of the city. But we decided we don't feel like cooking this time and booked a lunch at a restaurant. All the women in the family are quite happy about that, while the men are grumbling that home cooking is always better. Well, yeah, except they never do any of the cooking.

We limit the amount one is allowed to spend on gifts to a ridiculously small amount, and donate the rest of the money we would otherwise have spent on expensive gifts to a charity of our choice. My local church also does a Christmas lunch for a nearby poor community that I contribute to every year.

I've been trying to think what Christmas movie I like, but can't really come up with anything, lol. I'm in the 'love it' camp of Love Actually though. The only thing that is required watching for me over Christmas is the Kings College Cambridge Christmas service broadcast.

[JHyde]

I always love your traditions Silktie, especially the presents rule.

If I had to pick a Christmas film I would probably pick Meet Me in St Louis, which just has wonderful memories for me seeing for the first time on Christmas Eve when I was about 8. We taped it and I watched it every second day for the rest of the summer.

It's a strange thing having Christmas in extreme heat or humid rain when so many images, carols and films of the season are based around snow and cold etc. It's something that comes home to me very strongly as I sing about cold in the sweltering heat of a upstairs gallery in the chapel where I spend Christmas Eve.

[A Cousin]

Great siggy, Silktie!

My siblings and I donate to charity for presents as well. It started with my brother donating through Heifer International and now we all have our own charities. It's a great alternative.

Hmmm...holiday movies...

I like just about any adaptation of A Christmas Carol. If any of them comes on the TV, I'll watch it. I think I really respond to the Christmas ghost story aspect of it in the same way that I really love Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands.

I am especially fond of Scrooged but I think that has as much to do with David Johansen as The Ghost of Christmas Past as anything else. He's hilarious! ("Go back to Joisey ya moron!")

Last year, we watched Robert Zemekis' animated version with Jim Carrey but it was too scary for the kids! I thought that it was one of the better adaptations of the book for that very reason, but we will just have to wait another couple of years to watch it again. Not a huge Jim Carrey fan anymore, but the rest of the cast is really incredible.

I also really like the Scrooge musical with Albert Finney. He was very young for the role (34 at the time), but is a great Scrooge. Its another one with an incredible cast. Alec Guinness is the best Jacob Marley ever.

[Tea Lady]

Love the signature too, Silktie

I'm being the Christmas "misog" again. We are not bothering with a tree this year. Just the cards to decorate the house. Basically, we are not at home for Christmas and not expecting anyone to "pop" in, so what's the point of getting the tree out? We have no kids and franky I don't have time to put it up.

Having our works Christmas party at a West End nightclub next week, called the Loop bar. Plays 80's music. I will struggle into my little black dress and take flat shoes to change into.

We are off to my parents for a change this year, as hubby has Christmas off, going up to Leicester. It will therefore be a gluten free Christmas dinner. I am taking a large bottle of Hendricks Gin with me and Trivial Pursuit. Looking forward to the Downton Abbey Christmas special, but nothing else on TV caught my eye.

Favourite Christmas movies are Wonderful Life and a little known Courteney Cox movie set in the US during WW2 called "I'll be home for Christmas."

Never seen "Meet me in St Louis." It's on my list though.