Christmas


susieSA
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  • 1 year later...
  • 7 months later...
  • 1 month later...

I go to a late night service at church on Christmas Eve, or if I chose to, I could go to church on Christmas Day in the morning if I felt like it. When we were growing up, we got to get our stockings first, but had to wait for our parents to be up before we opened gifts. After breakfast, we went to our grandparents' house for dinner and to open more gifts.

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  • 1 year later...

I noticed something interesting this last week..

If I go outside and look for "Signs of the Christmas Season" the only place I see them are in stores/malls/shopping centers..

Now hold on to that thought..How many days would one celebrate Christmas? The actually day is only one day, just like *MOST* other holidays.

I understand that New Years is close to Christmas..but that is only one night. St Pattys day, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Easter...etc..Those holidays are all one night.

Now the Christmas Season starts on the first available day that most people have no work.

Does anyone know why they call it "Black Friday"? Black is the color for profits. If a company is in the Red, they may be brought into the Black in that single Friday. (How true that is these days is another story)

Go into almost any store and you will hear the same Christmas songs tugging on your sentimental feelings of the holiday seasons that have always played, see the same decorations that are always up, and witness the same customer service issues.

It dawned on me that the season is almost entirely marked by consumerism. All of these people hold onto these traditions because they are traditions and not a single one of them stops to ask "What am I doing? What am I spending money on toys, electric shavers, and bath slippers? Is this really what it's about?" and then the same people who are cursing and yelling at the customer service clerk have the audacity to claim it's in the name of some Holiday Spirit and they promote good will of all men.

I used to be one of those people and I think working in retail during the holiday season a few years ago opened my eyes. The same people who wish you happy holidays would just as soon stomp on your head to reach out and grab the last item on sale. Party A spends money for Party B, Party B spends money for Party A. Party A and Party B now have gifts they probably could have picked out for themselves based on their own preferences.

The gift giving is unnecessary. I'm an adult who likes to practice self control and controlling my weaknesses/impulses. If I need something, I will buy it. It I WANT something, I probably don't need it :-)

For me, the holiday is about eating with the family, telling stories, decorating the tree, putting lights outside for a change, eating gingerbread, watching the classic Christmas movies, and enjoying a day where everyone doesn't have to work haha. We treat Christmas like Valentines day, We leave religious beliefs and consumerism out of it, we just celebrate The Love.

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I really miss the beautiful Christmases we had in the Philippines growing up :[ Even though there was never any snowfall, the Christmas spirit was always so great. And because the Holidays start earlier over there, like in September haha, Christmas lasts for a looong time. But that's what I miss so much.

But home is where you make it and I love our Christmases here in Utah! It's pretty cool to have snow every year and the opportunity to put up a real Christmas tree! Most of my family lives overseas but a handful of us now reside here in the US. My sister and I always try to return home to our parents' house for the Holiday season to celebrate together. Dad always makes a fabulous Christmas dinner (Brit style) and mum always overdoes herself with the gift giving. Our only tradition-tradition that we seem to do every year without fail is watch Wallace and Gromit!

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I really miss the beautiful Christmases we had in the Philippines growing up :[ Even though there was never any snowfall, the Christmas spirit was always so great. And because the Holidays start earlier over there, like in September haha, Christmas lasts for a looong time. But that's what I miss so much.

But home is where you make it and I love our Christmases here in Utah! It's pretty cool to have snow every year and the opportunity to put up a real Christmas tree! Most of my family lives overseas but a handful of us now reside here in the US. My sister and I always try to return home to our parents' house for the Holiday season to celebrate together. Dad always makes a fabulous Christmas dinner (Brit style) and mum always overdoes herself with the gift giving. Our only tradition-tradition that we seem to do every year without fail is watch Wallace and Gromit!

I love Wallace and Gromit!!! What a great tradition!

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  • 3 months later...

I dont think I have replied here before!

Here in Norway we start with going out to the forest to pick out a tree to cut down in mid december, my uncle has a forest so we usually find one there. A couple of weeks before we take it in. We never ever put up and decorate the christmas tree before the 23rd of december, and its usually involving a lot of arguing over the lights that always is in a tangle. Here we celebrate on the evening of the 24th, so we always come together since we are a small family and are around 12-15 persons. On christmas eve we always always eat the same thing: rack of lamb ribs (doesnt sound good, but can promise its yummy!) with potatoes and a mash of root vegetables. Thats one tradition we keep here, for dessert we have rice pudding, in which we put an almond in, and whoever get the almond gets a marzipan pig. And since my family is sneaky, no one ever says I got the almond first, we are usually on the second portion before someone admits to get it.

After that we open presents, and at midnight mum likes to watch the pope and we end christmaseve around 1 am ish.

And thats the short version of how I do it!

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  • 6 years later...
On 10/26/2008 at 11:06 AM, susieSA said:

Yea yea yea....

I know it is barely November...

But considering that Christmas stuff is already in the shops I got wondering about how different people in different parts of the world celebrate Christmas...

And what family traditions we all have to celebrate Christmas...

Although this is an old thread, it is new to me. Being new here, I have a lot of catching up to do. Christmas seems to lift up the non-believing people in a peculiar way. The coming Santa Claus marching in the minds of the young is spectacular. Watching the general public in shopping malls is interesting. Jingle Jangle, boxes, and toys. I guess for the consumer saturated population it is what it is for them in the world.

Christmas for me is a time to reflect on the Christmas message, the coming of the Saviour. A time to fellowship with family, friends, and neighbors. I am interested to learn if LDS heritage recognizes "Old Christmas" on January 6th ? Old Calendar.

 

Styln

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