DID YOU SEE IT?
And I thought I was the master of 'Bah Humbug'.
We've just had one of the best Christmasses for a long time, despite some real downs during the year with family deaths etc. We went to my wife's sister for Christmas Day, returning home in the evening to collapse after eating far too much. Boxing Day her sister and husband, niece and husband plus nephew and new girlfriend came to us. Our first time of really meeting the new girlfriend who is lovely although understandably a little nervous to start with. Silly games soon broke the ice, but I've decided I should consider selling all our conservatory furniture because most people sat on the floor. Benefit of underfloor heating I guess.
Yes, Christmas is horribly over commercialised, but nobody is forced to spend.
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Whatever is the point in going on about christmas not being what it was and then saying that you don't celebrate Christmas?
A case of 'Do as I say, not as I do'.
Our Christmas was lovely ... a happy time spent with loved ones, small gifts exchanged, not expensive but chosen with love ... good food cooked with care was shared and phone calls made and received from friends and family at home and abroad. Some of our family and friends are religious and some are not, but the spirit of Christmas was alive and well in our homes and we feel rejuvenated and refreshed because of it.
As with so much of life , the more we put in the more we get out.
Wishing everyone a healthy and peaceful 2018
Last edited: 27 December 2017 09:33:35
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Christmas is what you make it.
If you don't make it happen your way you're at the mercy of all the media rubbish and lonliness
In the sticks near Peterborough
Christmas is what you make it, ours was a proper family orientated one. My Christmas lunch came to me, two other daughters fed the rest of the family and then everyone together for the family party which I did hear went on until well into Boxing day. They were always told by my late wife Joan "Christmas is about family and the occasion not presents which are part of the whole not the be all and end all".
Coming from an extended large family of Coal miners, the Durham lot, and Steelworkers the Yorkshire lot and us having the largest place we got them, all people who worked hard but knew how to let their hair down on the very few and very short days off work. It always included Church during Christmas as that is what it was about.
The media may well have made the season in to a circus for their own means of selling papers radio and TV although you do not need to watch, when we are together all the media including phones are off unless as a group we wish to see something like the Queens Speech (that will probably bring scorn from some) but it is our way, a tradition that we all like.
My wife Joan and I carried on with our family traditions passing them on to Children Grandchildren and now Great Grandchildren. Even though we are now split living in America Canada and France they all carry on the same traditions and apart from the time difference you would recognise the tradition they were brought up with. We all had a Merry Christmas and with the youngest remembered what it was about as they took part in the traditional school Nativity play's. Forget what others do and "Do it your way" they should write a song about it.
Frank.
Last edited: 27 December 2017 09:59:02
It was never going to be a brilliant Christmas for me and mine as it is the first since I lost my husband.
i still tried to make some effort. Maybe spent a bit more on the boys than usual as they too have has a sh*t year and deserve a little extra. What I would have spent on Paul’s present I donated to the hospice that took such care of us all.
for the first time in years I didn’t go to midnight mass as I haven’t forgiven God for taking my husband yet but i still cooked a full if somewhat smaller lunch, watched It’s a wonderful world on tv, rang friends and family to wish them a merry Christmas and went to the pub for a pre Christmas drink.
Our Christmas has been lovely and is still being lovEly, my daughter, son in law, two grandsons, son daughter in law, step daughter, step grandson all here together, wonderful, most of them still here, as dove says, what’s the point in going on about old days.
My mum used to say ‘ don’t talk to me about the good old days, because they weren’t ‘
shame on Mike Allen's two daughters and grand children, leaving him on his own at Christmas, I spent every Christmas looking after my parents, i would never have had them left on their own. And my daughter will look after us when the time comes.
Neither do I or my family and we are all still celebrating. Don’t put a downers on Christmas just because you ve been left on your own. Lots of people are alone that don’t have any family at all.
But he doesn't celebrate Christmas ... maybe he brought them up not to celebrate it either ... or maybe they offered to pick him up so he could join in with their festivities, but he turned their offer down because, as he said "... Thankfully I don't celebrate the festive season. ..."
Don't think he celebrates birthdays either, although he's told us his is on the 28th
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
No point in moaning then is there??
I had to leave my entire family early this Christmas so that I could go back to work serving the older community so that they are not alone.
UNLESS THEY CHOOSE TO BE.
There are so many organisations out there who open their doors to ensure people have the option of being in the company of others.
I'm now hundreds of miles from my loved ones, even the dog has stayed with them, alone in my own home so that others won't be.
Having spent the past week helping an old gent buy his Christmas meal, a lady wrap enough presents to sink a ship, sorted a housebound couple out so their heating was fixed before the holidays, I can say, hand on heart, that I am now going to block Mike because his little ramblings written purely because all he wants to do is sit and cause trouble.
Our time on this earth is too precious to come on here and think "Oh Christ is it alcoholism or a bladder infection that affects his mind."
To the rest of you.... I wish you luck, light, and peace x
It must be very unhappy to wish to provoke others and stir up controversy for its own sake - though no-one enjoys a debate more than I do. I don't know Mike at all and I am sorry he has had a miserable time on his own. I do know he has been in poor health and perhaps cannot reach his family; it's a pity they didn't come to him. Even a grumpy old relative if that's what he is deserves a Christmas lunch. But I don't agree that Christmas has changed very much, even though it is more commercial. I'm in my 60's and my Christmas is almost exactly the same as when I was a child, but with added central heating and much better food! Perhaps this year Mike can rebuild his relationship with his family or friends and have a better time next Christmas. I hope so.