r.i.p. Christmas cards?

John. Here are a few things for you. I generally find Christmas the most boring and dull day/time of the year. I feel as though I have to just hang around the house and can't really just slope off to my shed. Turkey is boring it's just a roast with a big chicken. Lee Webster described the present thing better than I ever could. Crackers are crap and just make a mess. Christmas pudding, gross. Brandy Butter no thanks Vodka Margarine would probably taste better. Wifey puts money in the cards to the Nieces and Nephews who are in there 20s with jobs and half of them never say thank you. Crap on the telly. Crap like Slade on the radio. Shops starting Christmas in September. Supermarket queues. Round robin letters, who cares (only the person who wrote it). And how many people are actually religious or go to church anyway nowdays. Go on somebody say Bah humbug to me again.

For years now christmas has just been a normal average day for me. The worst thing about the run-up to it is doing the cards. It just seems to be a waste of time. I am fairly sure some of the more distant relations only send them to confirm they're still alive. Sad and lonely? I love it.

dave8

Buffer -

"Bah Humbug!" There you are: quoted it again for you. Chas. D. has a lot to answer for!

The foods are literally a matter of taste of course, but you don't need watch the telly.

Nor do you need listen to Radio One (though these days Slade is probably Radio Two): try Three or Four. The former does celebrate the religious aspect of this mix of old Christian and pagan turn-of-year festivals, with such broadcasts as the Nine Lessons & Carols, and the EBU's European tour of live, mainly church, music.

I do agree though about the supermarket's nonsense, the Christmas stuff interrupted briefly by the horrible pseudo-Hallowe'en rubbish imported from the United States of Disney. It is usually possible to avoid the busiest times though.

I have long had round-robins from two couples. One is just a bland "look-what-we-and-our-[now grown-up]- children-have done" designed to make the recipient feel inadequate. When I learnt MS 'Access' I was tempted to create as an exercise, a database designed to create such letters as Reports from drop-down menus!

The other couple though is quite different. Similar family history but much less self-conscious and with lots of humour. Not only that, but the letter's A4 sheet is folded to form an A6-size "card", illustrated with a church identified by its name and town, drawn by the husband. He is a retired architectural-historian, so hand-drawing buildings was part of his professional skill. So although the same card to all, it is one made with a lot of personal thought and care.

Oh - and my grand-nephews and nieces do thank me - but these are young children! We adults don't exchange presents beyond immediate-sibling level (four of us).

.

My Christmas Day In the First Year of the Plague was the first I'd ever spent alone! Very pleasant too. An hour or so in the workshop, then chatting in the sunshine to my neighbour over the garden wall. A leisurely nominal Christmas Dinner with chicken (our family always had chicken not turkey, and anyway it's goose in English rather than US tradition) and a µ-wave Christmas Pud. Lazy afternoon with a bottle of beer, and the calm, non-patronising friendliness of BBC Radio Three. (No TV? I have no TV!)

.

Dave -

Cards to verify existence? Oh dear!

Most of mine are not family ones despite ours being quite extended by now, but to and from friends; and total around thirty. I can hand-deliver two batches, in my two caving-clubs. One is based 300 miles away in Yorkshire, but its Annual Dinner in November is a convenient opportunity for card-exchanging.

I never feel them a waste of time but I have reduced humorous cards relevant in some way to the intended recipient. Not sense of humour failure, but they are more expensive than "ordinary" cards. I am an RNLI "Supporter" though use some of that charity's cards, especially those illustrated with Giles cartoons!

Tricky one is a card to one of my nephews. He's probably secular, from our largely non-religious family with Anglican background, but he's married a Muslim. What to wish them?

'''''''

'Ere, 'ang on! Christmas/Yuletide/Hogmanay? 'Tis still the middle of Summer - still mid-Rally Season!

Christmas is what you make it.

I too, absolutely hate the commercialisation, and I just wish the shops would actually close for at least Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. In my second career, we had to work on Christmas day to fly people abroad, which depressed me - not only because I had to get up at 0500 to go to work on Christmas Day, of all days; but that the customers actually wanted to drive to the airport and travel on Christmas Day ! What a waste of the one special day of the year, when there is a perfectly valid reason to stay at home and relax. They could travel before or after.

I am not religious at all, but I have been around churches for many years through bell-ringing, and seeing people dressed smartly attending a church at Christmas is special and has a fantastic atmosphere.

In my first career, I was part of the team broadcasting carols live from Kings College Cambridge, and I defy anyone not to be moved by the atmosphere of a good choir singing traditional Christmas carols.

But nobody has to watch television ! We generally listen to Radio 3 or a CD of classic Christmas carols. Or you can watch films of your choice on DVD, with the dual advantage of seeing your favourite film(s), and no adverts.

You can eat whatever you want ! - doesn't have to be turkey - we have goose or guinea fowl. The point of it is; it is a day for a really special meal which is both formal and relaxed, with good food and good wine, port, champagne. Treat yourselves !

One of my most memorable Christmases, we went to a lovely local pub with a few friends, after which we walked home together through the absolutely silent and empty snow filled streets. Utterly magical.

Christmas is what you make it. Perhaps I have a good imagination and a romantic outlook, but sending cards, seeing your children believe in Father Christmas, and the whole thing should be special and memorable. You don't have to be religious - you can enjoy it on a spiritual or romantic level.

.

Edited By John Doe 2 on 18/07/2023 11:28:21

So did you have Christmase dinner at the pub on Christmas day?

No, just a very pleasant couple of hours before Christmas lunch/dinner at home.

So a bit like a passenger going abroad then I suppose you could have gone the day before or after but didn't.

"... and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!"

Mentioning the "C" word in July!

There should be law against it ....

It's interesting the reaction one gets when talking about flying on Christmas day. Many people seem to view doing so as a basic human right ! Whereas, for example, the building industry shuts down for about three weeks over the Christmas period.

Flying on Christmas day means that thousands of airport workers have to get up early and go to work - baggage handlers, security staff, fuelers, ramp workers, handling agents, check-in desk operators, terminal staff, firemen, cleaners, runway inspectors, bird scarers, air traffic controllers, aircrews, car park staff, maintenance staff........the list goes on.

One of our cabin managers told us of her 9 year old son bursting into tears when he saw her in her uniform in the early hours, because he realised that yet again, Mummy would not be at home on Christmas day........

The traditional English pub doesn't have to open on Christmas day, and had that pub been closed, we would have gone elsewhere, or indeed have stayed cosy at home by the fire.

.

Edited By John Doe 2 on 19/07/2023 10:40:41

My Christmas dinner is usually sausage, egg and chips, and has been for at least 40 years.

Roy

Delicious !

I had a four hour long Christmas once, flying between Los Angeles and Aukland. Not much to say except I did not think much of United Airways staff.

At 19 I had Christmas in hospital recovering from a nasty complex appendix removal. As many will remember they were pretty brutal places with large wards. The ward I was in had about 40 beds and as you got better you were moved further away from the nurses' office. The dead were wheeled out every morning. Just before Christmas, and after various choirs had sung to us, a lot of patients disappeared just leaving about ten of us for the day.

Some recent Christmases I have been alone which is great since I don't have to be polite to nasty family members.

JA