I hate Christmas. I know, I'm a Scrooge. I think it's a holiday of forced consumerism. I hate that. I hate feeling obligated to do anything. Especially for people I don't have feelings for.
I've tried to stop being bitter about it. Mostly because the Cute Boyfriend really likes Christmas. So, we have a couple of new traditions. On Christmas Eve, we go out with all our friends who don't have family nearby. We go to a Tiki Bar and drink ourselves silly and eat sushi and have a grand ol' time. Then, we go back to my house (within walking/stumbling distance) and watch Monty Python's Life of Brian. Christmas Day, the Cute Boyfriend and I go to the beach with the dogs - we take lots of pictures to send home to family in cooler places.
Spirtually, I've taken to participating in a non-denominational women's circle for solstice. It's great to welcome all sorts of fun traditions that I never knew about.
It sounds like you have great Christmas traditions GJ. I agree that you shouldn't feel obligated to do anything for anyone.
Gayle-Dirty Santa is where you buy a nice gift or white elephant (something you find around the house.) We usually draw numbers. Number 1 picks out a gift and opens it. Number 2 can then take Number 1's item or pick a new gift. Number 3 can take 1 or 2's gift or open a new on and so on. We usually limit it to a gift can be taken 3 times before it is out of play. It is a lot of fun and many times the game can be fierce.
Gayle, I think there are a few different variations of Dirty Santa. The way our family does it is everyone brings a gift. Each person draws a number. Whoever gets number 1 selects the first gift. Once they open it we move to person number two. They can either select a gift from under the tree or take the gift from person number 1, and so on until everyone has either opened a gift or traded for one. We usually keep it pretty clean because of all the kids in the family but I've been to parties where gag gifts were used and sometimes they get a little raunchy. There is always that one coveted gift and then the one that nobody wants to end up with. We have a lot of fun with it every year.
I was just talking about Christmas with my co-workers this morning! I love Christmas. I love buying people gifts. I love to give gifts even more-so than receiving them-- its true! We've always had the neatest traditions, and we've always had kids around so its always a fun time. We have always celebrated Christmas on Christmas-eve. We do the Chinese Gift exchange (or dirty santa) and a Polyanna gift exchange (A nice gift, name exchange). We buy for the kids and our parents. I can honestly say, that we have a really nice family gathering and I so look forward to it every single year, even more now that I have a child. When my grandma was alive we had Polish traditions, we'd have potato soup (which we've carried on to now,) Salmon, perogies, bulbalky and we did the blessed wafer passing which was really neat. We'd all be standing around the table and we'd each have a wafer called Optlaki(kind of like a communion wafer--if your Catholic, you'll know exactly what I am talking about) and starting with the oldest memeber of the family, the person would take the wafer around in descending age order wish them a happy holiday or whatever they wanted to say ans then the next oldest would follow suit until you reached the youngest. I was 3 to last and we had over 20 people there! I will never forget that. Then, we'd all eat, have desert and go into the family room, around the tree and open gifts. We'd stay until about 10:00pm then we'd go home and get ready for Midnight mass.
Now we just do the ham and turkey thing, we still do the potato soup in honor of Grandma and we still celebrate on Christmas-eve do the present thing and go to midnight mass.
SOrry-- I got away from the point didn't I.. I just love Christmas.
Gretchen - That sounds very sweet. I understand others peoples love of the holiday, I think I'm just upset when I see what other people have turned it into.
My non-denominational women's circle - Well, it's not really a prayer circle or a discussion group. We usually gather and chat and talk and eat, then we go into another room or sometimes outside and we have some vaguely pagan rituals and some vaguely judiac rituals. We make the circle sacred by calling the corners and talking about how this is a safe and sacred space. We then cleanse ourselves in silence, we pass around a symbolic bowl of water to wash our hands (christian and pagan) and sage (for the cleansing smoke - native american). Then we usually introduce ourselves by our female lineage (I am Jessica, daughter of Noel, granddaughter of Ilene and Barbara and sister of Amanda) and we draw an angel card out of a velvet sack (angel cards are like these little angel cartoons with a word like beauty or strength or peace) and we tell the group what the word might mean to us right now. Then, we have a ritual about the holiday - this last holiday was halloween or Samhain. So, we did a ritual to celebrate our ancestors and we talked about deceased ones or ill family. But it's also considered the pagan new year so we wrote a bit about bad habits or bad things we wanted to get rid of in our life and burnt them to a crisp. Then we lit a candle for all the new things we wanted in the new year. Then, we close the circle. I participated in women's circles in Ohio so I don't think it's a california thing. I hung out with a lot of pagans in ohio though.
I'm glad you explained more about it Jessica - I'm so interested in the Pagan rituals and observances...being agnostic, it might be something I decide to participate in at some point... Thanks for sharing!!!
I love Christmas so MUCH more now that we have small children. I used to find it pretty depressing....and still, I get pretty stressed out about the gifts we have to buy, etc. But, we've pared things down in the past few years and that helps. My brother has 3 kids so we all only buy for the kids (whew!) and now DH's brother and his wife are having their first baby next March - so we will present the same dealio to them (just buying for the kids). I HATE buying for adults - I really do - except for my DH and Mom and best friends - I don't know what to get, I'm just at a loss. Plus, it's always been so hard to buy for my brother, his wife and DH's brother and wife b/c they all have WAY more money than us (I'm a SAHM!! We are poor! ) and what do they need that we could buy them?! They always spend way more money on us than we can afford to spend on them and I just end up feeling bad! Plus, I hate feeling like I have to get *good* gifts for everyone b/c that's NOT what Christmas should be about. We want it to be about our kids and family and the traditions!
It kind of sucks b/c DH works in law enforcement and inevitably ends up working every year on the holidays - this year is no exception. But, we try to make the best of it and our family has started some really cool traditions that are so fun and we add more every year.
Anyway - even though most of my post is complaining about Christmas I really do love it - but it's b/c of the kids.
I stopped celebrating Christmas years ago, as soon as I left home. I'm not a Christian, so the whole thing has no spiritual meaning for me, and I don't buy into the rampant consumerism so many other people do. I find the whole thing quite distasteful, TBH. I do give extra to my favourite charities around all the popular holidays, and treat myself to Buck's Fizz for breakfast on the day, but that's as far as it goes.
My hubby, OTOH, celebrates Christmas in a very traditional way. I.e., making personal sacrifices to mark Advent, and starting his celebrations on Christmas Day, not 2 months before as the stores would have it.
When we married, I made the conscious decision to support him in his traditions, without compromising my own beliefs, so we have a tree, and go out for dinner on Christmas Day. He buys small gifts for the kids in the family, and I wrap them. What is it with men and wrapping presents?
My dad later on, when we were all older and there were grandkids, got really into wrapping presents. Fancy bows, ribbons, the whole shebang. My bf doesn't see the purpose of it
Marge,
For a moment, both those thought merged together and I thought you might have put yourself in a giant shopping bag with tissue sticking out for your hubby.
I'm definitely not Christian, but I just love Christmas because it brings the spirit of giving into everyone's life. As a society we are definitely lacking that, so I appreciate the sentiments that go along with the holiday.
Marge - you have to get lingerie! I am slightly lucky, my bf thinks lingerie just means black bra and matching underwear.. which saves me some money... heh. I just cannot do g-strings.. give me some low rise seamless brief's! No butt floss for this girl! heh.
Amy, you crack me up. I'll probably get some sort of nightie. You know, I have a Land's End night gown (at least the short one), and I wear that with socks to bed. Sometimes it's a t-shirt. My mind doesn't travel into the land of lingerie too much, heh heh. By the time I'm any where near even thinking of thongs, no one will even remember what they are!
) and what do they need that we could buy them?! 
They always spend way more money on us than we can afford to spend on them and I just end up feeling bad! Plus, I hate feeling like I have to get *good* gifts for everyone b/c that's NOT what Christmas should be about. We want it to be about our kids and family and the traditions!
but that's as far as it goes.
