What do you like best about Christmas

[norepubsin08]

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. The decorations and lights

[norepubsin08]

2. I forgot about that

re-check the poll!

[Liberal_in_LA]

28. I love that people give to the community by decorating their homes.

[elocs]

34. Might it not be possible that people give to the community AND decorate their homes?

Just wondering how the two are mutually exclusive. In my city the JCs put up a huge display of hundreds of thousands of lights in a city park that everyone delights in viewing and while doing this they collect thousands of pounds of donated food as well as cash donations that go to local food pantries.

[Liberal_in_LA]

39. great idea

[Phred42]

3. When it's over!

[Greyhound]

6. Seconded. I hate the whole freaking thing. For two months nothing is done, nothing happens,

but you still have to go into work, if you have a job, or wait until the new year for any hiring.

[Champion Jack]

8. it can't be over fast enough

[Merlot]

25. That's my vote too!

[peace13]

32. I hear that! n/t

[shanti]

42. amen to that!

i hate the holidays:( so much stress from the expectations of so many people. can't wait until 2009 and it's over!

[stray cat]

4. Time with family - absolutely

[malaise]

24. Ditto

family and friends

[panader0]

5. When it's over.........

[onehandle]

7. All public aspects of Christmas are attacks on Atheists and should be Banned!

Kidding.

I like the lights and decorations. We put up our tree last night.

[ellie]

9. I love the extra time

off. This year I get a total of 12 days off paid! I am so lucky!

[blondeatlast]

10. The inevitable "I don't want to have a bleeping happy holiday" parties on DU the day after T-Day.

Other than that, just about all of it.

[TahitiNut]

11. Other: December 26th

[norepubsin08]

14. I have always liked December 26th

Besides the relief of getting everything (I've worked in the Church most of my life) and the rest up from the fun and celebration of the past few days...24 years ago our first child: Josef was born!! What an Advent that year was!!!!

[Poiuyt]

16. Dec. 26 is my birthday

My birthday presents were always reject Christmas presents or "Here, this is your combination Christmas and birthday present."

[norepubsin08]

40. we used always

give our son the toy for Christmas and the batteries for his birthday. Just kidding, but it was always a low key affair so what we did was have his big birthday on his half-birthday June 26th.

[blondeatlast]

18. Boxing day! I love it too, a shame that the US doesn't observe it. nt

[rucky]

21. Worst retail day, ever.

Worse than Black Friday.

[cosmik debris]

12. The Global War On Christmas!

[ozone_man]

13. The tree.

The smell of balsam fir and the decorations and lights of course. The comes the music, and then the family.

[tekisui]

15. It's only once a year.

[JVS]

17. Scotch, fireplace, food, sofa, and football on TV

I love seeing my family too

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

19. Nothing

It is a dark, gloomy time of year that is totally depressing. To have to fake "cheer" to those who celebrate holidays only adds to the misery. Can't wait for it to be over.

[RedCappedBandit]

22. yea..

it stopped being fun when i "grew up"
worst decision of my life :p

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

26. Since my childhood was rotten

starting with sexual abuse, going on to abandonment and on to emotional and psychological abuse and then isolation, at least I was glad I grew up. Doesn't mean I like Christmas, though. Just going to the grocery store and having to listen to those stupid Christmas songs yesterday was enough to make me gag.

[rucky]

20. I'm in it for the food. n/t

[DevonRex]

29. Are you a 20-something by chance? :)

See my post below. If it weren't for the food, I don't know how I'd get my kids over here except to get their presents.

So, I say thank goodness for the FOOD!!!!

[rucky]

31. 30's. Just arrested development

:)

My wife works in retail, so we can't travel over the holidays to visit my family. Which means we spend the Holidays with her family, in town, who we see all the time anyways.

[Coyote_Bandit]

23. January 2nd

when it's all over and life starts to return to something we call normal - whatever the hell that is.

[DevonRex]

27. THE FOOD! That's how you entice your 20-yr-old kids to come

over to enjoy all the decorations and the goodies and the family time. Without the food, that probably wouldn't happen until Christmas day, when they get their presents.

You do it in stages:

1. You have a tree decorating party, with egg nog and cookies and stuff.

2. You have fudge-making day, when you make batches of fudge from your grandmother's recipe. And after it cools, you cut it and place it in decorative tins for your kids to take home with them. Of course, that takes all day long, so they stay all day long because they LOVE that fudge.

3. Then you have a Christmas Eve dinner with a standing rib roast and cherry cobbler for dessert. And of course you go to a Christmas Eve service afterwards. It'd be just rude for the kids to eat and not go to the service, right?

4. Then you have Christmas day, when they get their presents, but you have a fabulous dinner later in the day, so they stay all day long.

See how that works? :evilgrin:

[saltpoint]

30. It reminds me of Joni Mitchell's "River" and

Gordon Lightfoot's "Song for a Winter's Night."

[sam sarrha]

33. ......WHEN IT'S OVER.!!!!!!!!!

[elocs]

35. I love Christmas and the holiday is what you make of it.

Nobody is forced to do anything they do not want to do.

What I miss the most about Christmas is when the kids were very little and their delight in opening their presents. Now that they are grown I use Christmas in teaching them the importance of giving to others who are in need and this attitude carries through to the rest of the year too.

[roody]

36. I like that Xmas is relatively quiet as far as stores and

traffic. I like that it gets over with and people stop pushing their agenda on you until next year. Example: Mindless chat opener, "Are you ready for Christmas?" Only said to women of course, who bear most of the work involved in the "celebration."

[JNelson6563]

37. The big brunch.

this is my second Christmas as a divorcee but I've continued the big brunch tradition. Tho' the kids are older now (17 & 20) they do Christmas eve at Dad's and Christmas day with me. I love to have brunch with all our favorite stuff and just hang out with them. Very lazy and relaxed. We open our presents (which will be very few in number this year) and lay around. Last year my son got a Wii so we all had tennis elbow by the end of the day.

Julie--heathen who enjoys the pagan aspects of a Christian holiday

[Hidden Stillness]

38. I Like the Inner Meaning of the Holiday Itself

You did not really have religious selections available, so I guess "music," "lights and decorations," and "the Winter landscape" might come closest. I started to like Christmas again, after I spent a long period of many years, getting all the standard, conservative, fake "Christian" attitudes out of my head, and tried to find what the real message was, and what was really being asked of us by God. Now, I try to feel the holiness of the season in my own mind, I read and think about things, and remember those I loved who have gone. I guess the real answer is, I try to feel the presence of the spiritual world, as I go around, and remember what it all really meant; I like the atmosphere.

[Blue_In_AK]

41. I like Christmas for the family get-togethers...

...and the prime rib. :) I hardly eat any red meat these days, but that Christmas prime rib sure tastes good.

[Maru Kitteh]

43. Having more time with my husband. That wasn't an option because he's not a realative

thank you very much! LOL, we're not THAT kind of family!

So I guess I'll just pick "having the extra time off."

[norepubsin08]

44. yes he is a relative

a relative by marriage!

[Vinca]

45. What I like best is when it's over. nt

[DonEBrook]

46. I like that my meat market gets legs of lamb in - only time of year.

So I stock up and ignore the rest of it. :D

[Liberal_in_LA]

50. those poor legless lambs. ;-)

[old mark]

47. Couldn't vote - I love it all - except traveling.

I actually feel bad for all you guys who hate it.

Maybe you'll have a good New Year's Eve?
(I like that, too - I love all holidays, even my wife's Jewish holidays and I don't even know what most of them are for. What the hell is wrong with eating a little too much and having a day off?)

mark

[JustAnotherGen]

48. When it's over

eom

[asteroid2003QQ47]

49. Nothing! n/t

[timtom]

51. New Year's day.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

52. The music--I'm in a cathedral choir, and we do all sorts of great music

for advent and Christmas.

[norepubsin08]

53. I have sung church music all my life

I was in a boy choir that traveled out of Rome...sang in over 100 countries by the time I was 15. I have directed choirs and ensembles all my life. I am now the director of liturgy at my home church. What cathedral do you sing for?