Christmas Thread

Fjon · Post by **Fjon** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 5:57 pm

Nowadays it seems the only thing happening in the OT forum is in the Word-Play game. Let's try and change that!

What are your thoughts/ memories/ opinions on Christmas?

Christmas for me is one of the most maddening, but also one of the nicest times of the year.

I like:

Christmas decorations - both outside street decorations, and indoor ones.

Sense of community - for one month or so in the year you have something in common with everyone. Family differences are (usually) put aside - you get to see that aunt or uncle your parents haven't spoken to for ages.

Christmas TV - I like watching films on TV (esp children's films). Christmas Day would not be the same without It's a Wonderful Life

Christmas Parties - everyone in Ireland has at least 10 parties around Christmas (well, nearly). Whether it's your work party, the party with your friends, your girlfriend, your family. I love the food (Turky & Ham usually), the drink (beer or wine for me), and the company

I dislike

Christmas shopping - I'm a guy, so wait until the last minute to buy my presents. This means that I have to go into the city on the busiest time of the year. There are uge crowds to deal with, no parking, queues everywhere. Horrible

Drink driving - unfortunately the number of accidents go up during Dec and Jan in Ireland, so matter how many extra policemen they put on the raod. There will be a good few dozen killed this year.

Christmas Day on Saturday - this means I only get one day off work (27th). It's usually two or three.

So anyone want to throw in their two cent's worth?

DrGreenTom · Post by **DrGreenTom** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 7:16 pm

i don't put Christmas decoration. I simply don't care.
Actually i believe to my feeling - i only celebrate the new year.

yet i buy presents for friends. sometimes. i'm a guy too

aplfi · Post by **aplfi** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 7:57 pm

It looked like Irish people are some kind of Christmas-crazy people. Every shop and warehouse was already full of Christmas decorations and happy christmas greetings. Those greetings was even to be found in ATM screens.

That was little bit too much for me. I myself think that food and holiday from work are the only good things in Christmas

Fjon · Post by **Fjon** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 9:07 pm

Yes, I guess people here take it a lot more seriously than other EU conutries. The UK is the same, as is Australia, NZ and the US. The amount of money people spend here during Dec is amazing !
How did you enjoy your trip to Ireland by the way?

Annie_in_exile · Post by **Annie_in_exile** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 10:15 pm

Here in Brussels some of the bus lines have been running season's greetings in their coaches since October. I mean that instead of telling where the bus is going, like "12 Airport Express", the text now reads the number and "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" in French and Dutch. Which is nice, of course, unless you're a tourist and a bit uncertain where you should be heading.

--

BTW, I remember clearly when and how I stopped believing in Santa Claus. I learned to read and write quite early, and I had just turned 6 when I wrote a letter to Santa. My mother helped me put it in an envelope, I drew the stamp on it myself, and we left the letter outside, just waiting that Santa's little helpers would pick it up and give it to him.

The letter disappeared, indeed, and I started to wait for Christmas, and for the presents of course.

Then a couple of days later I somehow found the letter in our living room. It had been opened, I guess one of my parents had read it and just didn't hide it well enough afterwards. I remember seeing it and my whole childhood was crumbling down. It's incredible how I just understood that very moment that the whole Santa thing is an illusion. I didn't mention this to my parents, just played along for a few years.

bhoeyb · Post by **bhoeyb** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 11:24 pm

Annie_in_exile wrote:It's incredible how I just understood that very moment that the whole Santa thing is an illusion. I didn't mention this to my parents, just played along for a few years.

It's so sad

...

I don't like all that Christmas-New Year-partying. That's why I'll be abroad with a friend that week (Germany or France) hunting for some dots

or watching birds.

Post by **HNL** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 12:13 am

fjon wrote:What are your thoughts/ memories/ opinions on Christmas?

Well, I like the original meaning of Christmas, that's all. I don't care at all about the commercial way of celebrating Christmas. People like to buy more and more, you have to eat, you have to... etc. It's impossible in December to listen to a radiostation without all those crazy christmas songs.

Not my way of life... But eh, if you like: go ahead and spend your money, try to get more than your neighbours and don't care about others

.

Tahiti · Post by **Tahiti** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 12:47 am

shopping...food...shopping...

airis · Post by **airis** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 2:11 am

In my home town (Rovaniemi) it is difficult to avoid Christmas. In the nearby arctic circle village you can hear the Christmas music and meet Santa Claus every day, even in summer. So I don´t recommend it for people who hate Christmas and gift shops.

btw Now in December they send live picture of Santa meeting those visitors.
http://celtic.live.sonera.com:8080/meta ... claus1.asx
Streaming picture outside on the arctic circle.
http://celtic.live.sonera.com:8080/meta ... claus2.asx

fjon wrote:Yes, I guess people here take it a lot more seriously than other EU conutries. The UK is the same, as is Australia, NZ and the US. The amount of money people spend here during Dec is amazing !

That must be one reason why those Christmas trips to Lapland are so popular in UK and Ireland. I have checked some sites and seen that a day trip to Lapland from Ireland can cost about 650€/ adult and over 500€/child for a 6-8 hours visit. Well nowadays a lot of people stay a few days. About 100000 visitors from British Isles come to Lapland this December so Christmas is good for local economy.

I will be spending Christmas in Sweden this year. I will stay a week south of Stockholm. Still I haven´t bought a single gift, but today I finally got an idea what to buy. This year there are no Christmas decorations in my flat since I am not at home anyway.

Viperazzi · Post by **Viperazzi** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 4:28 am

fjon wrote:The UK is the same, as is Australia, NZ and the US.

http://www.furrfu.org/photography/burwe ... 031214.jpg ...

What I didn't like about Christmas in the US was that everyone said "Happy Holidays!" or "Season's greetings" because people don't want to hurt anybody whose religion is different. Also the abbreviation X-mas is something I hate a lot. I wish only children used it.

But this Christmas will be very special for me. I'll get to spend about two weeks with my family. My older brother invited me to come to their place together with also my other brother's family before Christmas. It'll be nice, brothers spending some time together. Although they're 10 and 12 years older than me and have children, I enjoy their company a lot since there's just something about brotherhood that never changes.

I hope I will remember to do my Christmas shopping soon enough. I usually don't want to go there at all and then suddenly realize that there are only a few days to go. Of course, I could do all the shopping in November, but this is just something which I probably will never learn. I hate having to zigzag thru the crowds in a packed department store listening to the awful Christmas jingles and angel choirs. Some of the stores in Helsinki have advertised being "Christmas music free zone", I like that a lot!

Fjon · Post by **Fjon** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 10:03 am

I was driving through one of he more affluent areas of Dublin yesterday, and noticed similar Christmas decorations outside most of the houses. But because these people have money they really go over the top. There was one house which had a lovely old oak tree in their front garden, around 25m high. They had covered the WHOLE tree in white lights.
I'll have to take some pictured of some of those decorations, so you can see how seriously everyone takes it.
I lived in Australia for a year as well, and it was similar to the US in that each person tried to out-do their neighbour in terms of decorations.

One difference I did not think of earlier is the different EU countries' celebration of New Year. Here New Year is no big deal at all, in fact most people would probably go to sleep before 12. I have witnessed it in Germany and Italy and it is a totally different story - people really celebrate it there!

aplfi · Post by **aplfi** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 5:09 pm

fjon wrote:How did you enjoy your trip to Ireland by the way?

I just loved those small towns which bus went through on the way from Dublin to Doolin. Shame that I didn't have time to visit all those lovely places. Didn't like Dublin very much. It's too large city for me. Too many people. And I hated that traffic in city centres. It was just awful but outside cities you have amazing thing with all those roundabouts. You don't have very many traffic accidents on the roads?

And nature is quite different from Finland. But very very beautiful. All those stone fences crossing the fields. And the Cliffs of Moher were just amazing.

What I also noticed is that Ireland is quite expensive country. Maybe even more expensive than Finland

By the way what are all those Garda officers doing in every junction. Just watching traffic?

And of course I loved Guinness

Fjon · Post by **Fjon** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 5:57 pm

You're not the only one that doesn't like Dublin - a lot of people who live don't like it either. It's very convenient though because it has everything you want. And the country is only a few hours away.

I think we have more roundabouts than most countries, except probably the UK. I don't think they lead to many accidents - they actually prevent them. All the Garda around at the moment are just there because of the increase in traffic and the increase in drink driving around Christmas. Half way through January they won't be there any more.

Ireland is indeed expensive! I think it's the most expensive country in the EU

, with the UK and Finland close 2nd and 3rd.

Clare is a lovely county - the Burren, Cliffs of Moher and the Aran Islands. I have some fond memories of staying a night in Doolin, and visiting a very lively pub there.

Glad to see you enjoyed it! I'll be visiting your home town in Feb so can tell you what I think then!

aplfi · Post by **aplfi** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 6:16 pm

fjon wrote:I think we have more roundabouts than most countries, except probably the UK. I don't think they lead to many accidents - they actually prevent them.

That's what I meant.

We should have more of them in Finland.

fjon wrote:I have some fond memories of staying a night in Doolin, and visiting a very lively pub there.

Was it this one

fjon wrote:Glad to see you enjoyed it! I'll be visiting your home town in Feb so can tell you what I think then!

I did enjoy

Welcome to Finland

Hope you'll have a hit then

milanocapitale · Post by **milanocapitale** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 11:39 pm

I adore Xmas, I am like a baby!

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