T`IS A RANT

[BAGGY]

Don't start me off !  I have a December birthday so I refuse to have anything to do with Christmas til at least 10 days after my birthday.  I really hate 'on your December birthday' cards, they don't sell March cards do they?  My family has to buy cards in the middle of the year or the selection is crap.  Also the 'one huge tin of sweets isn't enough' that the supermarkets promote.  I remember that a tin of sweets was a real treat and lasted for ages.  Now whole isles are full of choc and booze.  Why have one variety of stuffing when you can have three, why turkey when you can have pork, beef, goose, gammon and duck too ?  I could go on but you get my drift .....  People in other countries are dying of starvation and the UK eat 20 squillion calories in a single sitting.  Bah humbug ...... rant over.  Phew.

[BAGGY]

[Derek]

DTF has put his Christmas tree up.... WOW!

I was just going to post to say that I was getting to be more like him but I can't now.

Our Christmas tree will probably go up next weekend too but I have a pretty good idea it will be down and packed away  on the 29th December.
The family are all coming on the 28th otherwise it would have disappeared by then. (is this where I say Bah Humbug Derek?)

I work in peoples homes and have noticed that less of them are putting up trees or trimmings so early...in fact I have only seen two trees up in the houses I have been to so far

Derek

[rosebud]

I seem to have opened a large can of worms here.
Let me say first i really do enjoy Christmas, its the bloody commercialism that i detest. It seems a lot of you agree with me........................

Our 3 children did believe in Santa, and why not just exciting harmless fun........
Cards i like them but they do overwhelm by the time the big day arrives i have 19 and i havent put them up yet i shall at the weekend  ;D................
We do not put many decorations up now because everyone has grown up and we don`t need to make it look like santas grotto ;D ;D ;D, but it does always look nice and Christmassey...................

Woulden`t  it be lovely next year if it all started in Dec, it always did when i was a girl that is what made it all so exciting, its as Plocket says all the little ones do not understand and keep asking when is Father Christmas coming..
Another whinge over, and do all have a super Christmas. ;D ;D

[Heldi]

If you don't like all the commercialism, ignore it. Make Christmas your own. No one is dragging you all by the neck down to the Christmas display and forcing you to pick something up, dragging you to the counter getting your purse out and making you pay for something. Gawd people, stop moaning and get some Christmas spirit. You don't have to buy into any of what the shops try to sell you. It's wrong that they put it out so early but if you want it stopped...complain to the store managers,don't buy it,refuse to be drawn in,don't go for the knock down prices,stay away from the worst offenders and tell them why. Stop letting them wind you up.

Make your own cards. Mine have Jessie James on this year...my number 2 cockeral. It's a laugh and it makes my family peeps smile and that is all I want.

I'm not religious but I reckon peace and goodwill is something we could all be a part of.

Keep your smiles for me!

My decorations went up this week. I decorate upstairs, downstairs and wherever my children want to put something.  I enjoy it and it is in direct response to having to wait until Christmad Eve for a tree when I was a child. I hated that. I like the lights, I like the sparkles and I like the smiles on my friends faces when they come in.

My son is 8 and he still believes in Santa. I've told him that Santa will exist in his heart as long as he wants him to. He is still in mine because I remember being a child. What a lovely dream Santa is. If we throw away Santa we may aswell throw away all the faeries and goblins. The wizards,princesses,frog princes,elves and witches. Throw away your childhood books,your Narnia,your Bagginses,your Scrooge,your Harry Potter.  Throw your imagination away too.

Is this a rant? I don't know ,I only want you folks to calm yourselves and give yourselves a break.

Mind you, those barstewards putting Easter eggs out could do with a ruddy good thump !

[Wicker]

Heldi  Couldn't  have put it more eloquently (nor forcefully   ::) ) but that's how I feel too.  I float above/around the "Christmas in October" thing with my blinkers well and truly on and only start when I am ready to enjoy it (about now).  Deccies/tree up middle of next week and down and packed away before Hogmanay.

Whole family for Christmas Day Dinner, g'kids eating what they want and wearing silly hats - all the usual things. Thoughts and memories shared of absent friends and family, Mr W's birthday on the 29th then a quiet (nowadays) New Year - what a great week.........

[Lorna2]

No decorations up in my house...well there is just little old me here now. Why do I love Christmas? The main reason is that  I see all my kids (four of them) nearly every week sometimes twice three times but at Christmas it is lovely when we are all together IE. this year Christmas Eve at Alysons, Boxing Day at Lorna's. When Charlie was alive we always had the whole family for Boxing Day tea but now the kids have taken over the arrangements. Me? I just look at them and count my blessings. Have a lovely Christmas folk. :)

[Yellow Petals]

Hard to ignore it when it's being rammed down your throat though.  Any previously unoccupied space taken up by Christmas goodies, shops playing Christmas songs in the middle of November etc.  Complaining to stores would not do any good because at the end of the day they want ringing cash registers, end of. 

I do think it's a dreadful shame that a lot of Christmas traditions are being washed down the swanny for money, money, money but that's how this country is going now - it's not just a Christmas thing.

I, on the other hand, am forunate enough to just take things in my stride and not focus on Christmas until it's time to, which for me was about a week ago  ;D  Now I'm completely in the spirit and loving it!  Getting our tree tomorrow - none of that artificial nonsense - a lovely big real fresh one.