CHRISTMAS!!!

Well, it's coming up and I feel very Christmas'y today, put my cheesey music on as soon as I got home!

This is for you all to give an account of how Christmas'y you are! I have bought almost all my presents, need one for my bro and one for my boyfriend now...
I've given out one present already because I won't see them til the new year.
I haven't had a christmas meal yet, nor heard any carol singers but a local band played outside where I work (Sainsbury's) was very nice sitting on my checkout listening.
I decorated the 6th form area with those cut out snowflakes things. Have no decorations up at home.
I haven't yet been to any church services but always go to Christingle and Christmas day service and sometimes Midnight Mass but mainly for family tradition.

So tell me.... decorations, presents, shopping, food, snowmen, barbeques (for those is Aus) and other things you relate with Christmas!!!!

And I apologise for all the Bah Humbug's this may attract.

BAR HUMBUG!!! Nah only kidding!

I love cristmas but I've just bought my house and am the most skint I've ever been in my entire life so I can only afford to give out home made cards this year. EVeryone understand's but it make me feel sad that everyone is buying me lots of stuff and I can't get them anything.
Still stupid hats and the excuse to drink various forms of vodka does help raise a little smile.
I also don't wanna go to my folks for christmas dinner so this year I'll be in a local soup kitchen giving out much needed refreshment to those who actually need it most. To me, that's what christmas is all about, i try to avoid the religious mumbo jumbo and concentrate on the giving bit.

We spent the morning helping 9 year old kids make christmas cards and they said it was the most fun they have had all year.
They got to stamp and emboss and cut and glue
Yay. It was fun

that sounds like what my weekend will be like!! But I will probably make more mess!!

My daughter threw a tantrum on the1st of dec and so the tree was out and decorated cos...I PRomised!!!...apparently,but i have no memory of this promise....still,i am getting into it,i saw the school choir perform and it brought a tear to my eye and a warm fuzzinness to my heart...awwwww.....

Christmas tingles

This is my 5th year performing at a Dickens Christmas Interactive Improv event. Every year for 4-5 weekends I put on a ridiculous looking costume, portray some out there character which could have served to inspire a Victorian literature figure (the past 4 years I played "the little matchgirl") or an Americana Folk Fictional Character (This year I am Crackerjack Cate, Frontierswoman extraordinaire). We have been out in rain storms, ice storms and snow storms. It is freezing cold and I love it. Tour buses of people come through to see us, and to shop in the quaint village on the lake. We sing, alot and really ham it up. Some of my best Christmas memories and most touching moments have come from doing this show. People really are touched by what we do, and when we sing a song and someone cries or when we get going and make people laugh all the ick of the weather or badness we have encountered slips away and it is sooo worth it. I am not having an easy year with it this year, and before last weekend I wouldn't have been including this year in the diatribe but Saturday was such a great day for me, it finally felt worth doing this year.


The holidays have this way of either making people mean or making people soften up.
It has taken me longer than usual to get into the spirit this year but I think I am finally soft. My son has been pushing for things, and we really tried to get into it early but today I actually hung the outdoors lights and garland on our balcony. That's a sure sign that I am warming up to the season!

Oh and for comfort sake..we make many of our gifts too. And those that I receive which are handmade are some of my most cherished. I wouldn't worry about it too much!

Happy Christmas, Hannuka [sp???],Yule, Midsummer , Kwanza, Ramadan, Saturnalia {this one is fun!} and any other I forgot, to all!

Pele

I've yet to start sorting out presents for people. For the last few years, I've ended up still looking at 4pm on Christmas Eve, despite the oaths the year before that I'd never do it again. This year, I'm giving up, I'm just planning to do that (then it may not happen, hahaha). I have to say that I don't feel particularly christmassy, though.

Yep! I'm another tiring old "Bah Humbug"!

I try not to do Christmas at all, though it's my mam's birthday on Christmas day so it's kinda hard to avoid.

I'm not religious, and I really dislike the commercialisation of it all so why bother? I'd rather give someone a surprise gift on a random Tuesday in September than the compulsory or obligatory Christmas gifts.

Last year my family were away and all of my friends were doing their own family thing. I'd been invited to various Christmas dinners but I decided to volunteer at a shelter for the homeless instead. I must admit it was probably the best Christmas I've had since I discovered there was no Santa Claus.

Unfortunately I can't do the same this year as I'll be off boarding in the Alps instead