The CHRISTMAS Thread

[Naïve Old Fart 12,479]

Well, it's about that time, isn't it?

I'm sitting here in my a/v room, thinking about how we all spend the holidays.

How do we intend to spend them?

What do we do, who do we do it with, where do we do it, and most importantly, why do we do it?

What are JWfaners' plans for the festive season?

[FBC Director 10,552]

[Jim 6,122]

Remember when we would all festive up our regular avatars with santa hats and stuff? Those were the days.

[FBC Director 10,552]

The 2020s hit and everyone became depressed.

[Naïve Old Fart 12,479]

5 minutes ago, FBC Director said:

The 2020s hit and everyone became depressed.

Oh, pish-posh and fiddle-dee-dee!

Christmas (*) is a time of gathering, of, celebrating, and of sharing.

 

* other religious festivals are available.

[Sweeping Strings 3,162]

51 minutes ago, Quintus said:

Remember when we would all festive up our regular avatars with santa hats and stuff? Those were the days.

 

I've changed mine for the season.

[bollemanneke 4,226]

Two family reunions, we've already bought all our Secret Santa presents, so now it's time for Christmas music!

[Xander Harris 8,875]

I got myself a bunch of dolls

[mrbellamy 7,820]

3 hours ago, Quintus said:

Remember when we would all festive up our regular avatars with santa hats and stuff? Those were the days.

 

Thanks for the reminder

[Bespin Copilot 10,285]

It’s going to be quiet holidays at home. In recent years we used to head far away for the holidays, like down south or to a casino, but our parents are getting older, so this year we decided to stay closer. On the evening of the 24th, it’ll probably just be me and my husband, and we’ll likely be in bed by 9 PM. hehe

On the 25th, there’s dinner at a cousin of my husband’s place... she always hosts everyone for Christmas. And on the 27th, we’re hosting my husband’s parents. I’ll also go see my mom during that time.

[Bellosh 4,465]

I love the lead up to Christmas.  I feel fortunate enough to have really good memories as a kid that this time of year is always special to me no matter how much other drama might be going on in my life.

[FBC Director 10,552]

It's lost its sparkle and excitement for me. Probably because everything is so mass produced and nothing is handcrafted nowadays. And that Christmasy pinewood smell is gone.

[Bellosh 4,465]

yankee candle can fix that

[Xander Harris 8,875]

[Naïve Old Fart 12,479]

Since I moved to where I'm now staying, Christmas has been the very definition of 'quiet'.

This year, the 24th will be my Christmas dinner, and the day itself will be spent on my own, reading, listening to a CD which I have bought for myself as a wee pressie, and possibly going for a walk, if it's not too bad.

The evening will be a showing of 'The Christmas Invasion', in honour of its 20th anniversary (!).

Food will consist of cold-cuts, and whatever is left over from Christmas Eve, probably made into bubble and squeak.

 

 

17 hours ago, Bellosh said:

I love the lead up to Christmas.  I feel fortunate enough to have really good memories as a kid that this time of year is always special to me no matter how much other drama might be going on in my life.

Agreed. There are many Christmases that resonate for me: 1977, 1981, 1990, 1991, 1995, 1996, 2005, and 2015 all bring back very happy memories, for one reason or another.

One year I would prefer to forget, is 1999. In mid-November, I caught a wee cold. Over the next six weeks, it developed into a chest infection, so much that, after work on the 27th of December, my friend drove me the half-mile to my local G.P. (I simply could not walk), who diagnosed pleurisy. Ouch! Four weeks and two lots of - different - antibiotics later, and I returned to work.

 

[Sweeping Strings 3,162]

16th - dinner catch-up with buddies. 

17th - https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/alternativeulstours/terror-talks-krampus-co-an-a-z-of-creepy-christmas-characters/e-yjpgay

Christmas Eve - lots of 'me-friendly' telly and booze (some of which, I suspect, may be of a mulled nature). 

Christmas Day - spent with Mum. Lunch out at a hotel, as we have done for quite a few years now. 

Boxing Day - back up at Mum's in the evening. 

Either 29th/30th - drinks catch-up with different buddies to the 16th. 

New Year's Eve - spent by myself, as it has been for quite a few years now. Might stay up until midnight, might not. We'll see.  



 

[ThePenitentMan1 1,454]

On 06/12/2025 at 7:30 AM, mrbellamy said:

 

Thanks for the reminder

 

Well, now I just had to join in on the festivities!  This is actually pretty fun!  

 

ARCHIVAL EDIT: Profile Pic:

[Bespin Copilot 10,285]

2 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said:

16th - dinner catch-up with buddies. 

17th - https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/alternativeulstours/terror-talks-krampus-co-an-a-z-of-creepy-christmas-characters/e-yjpgay

Christmas Eve - lots of 'me-friendly' telly and booze (some of which, I suspect, may be of a mulled nature). 

Christmas Day - spent with Mum. Lunch out at a hotel, as we have done for quite a few years now. 

Boxing Day - back up at Mum's in the evening. 

Either 29th/30th - drinks catch-up with different buddies to the 16th. 

New Year's Eve - spent by myself, as it has been for quite a few years now. Might stay up until midnight, might not. We'll see.  

Ah we have to submit our plans, day by day?

22 - Drink too much
23 - Drink too much
24 - Drink too much
25 - Eat and Drink too much
26 - I'm dead
27 - Resurrection Day
28 - Drink too much
29 - Drink too much
30 - Drink too much
31 - Drink too much
1 - I'll never drink again I promise
2 - Drink too much

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 11,581]

I'm already out of beer

[Bespin Copilot 10,285]

Just now, #SnowyVernalSpringsEternal said:

I'm already out of beer

You mean the piss you’re brewing?

 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 11,581]

No, i had a few West Frisian brewed tripples. 9%

 

On the verge of citrusy, with strong hop notes.

[Jay 44,698]

Santa hat avatar?  I gotchu

[Andy 6,863]

This made me laugh.  Some AI slop. 
 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DR8GwvVjdeq/?igsh=dDE3ZDdxaTB4d2c3
 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AaqeBMPSm/?mibextid=wwXIfr

[Sweeping Strings 3,162]

2 hours ago, Bespin Copilot said:

Ah we have to submit our plans, day by day?

22 - Drink too much
23 - Drink too much
24 - Drink too much
25 - Eat and Drink too much
26 - I'm dead
27 - Resurrection Day
28 - Drink too much
29 - Drink too much
30 - Drink too much
31 - Drink too much
1 - I'll never drink again I promise
2 - Drink too much

 

Isn't 'Resurrection Day' more of an Easter thing, Bes? 😄

[Bespin Copilot 10,285]

1 hour ago, Sweeping Strings said:

 

Isn't 'Resurrection Day' more of an Easter thing, Bes? 😄

It's the rehearsal!

[Naïve Old Fart 12,479]

On 06/12/2025 at 12:13 PM, Xander Harris said:

I got myself a bunch of dolls

Do you know how wrong that post is?

 

 

@Bespin Copilot, check out the YouTube video of 'Five Levels of Drinking', by Larry Miller. It's hilarious.

 

I'm with you (not literally, you understand), @Sweeping Strings. New Year's mean bog-all, to me. I go to sleep on the 31st, and I wake up on the 1st. What's the what?

[Sweeping Strings 3,162]

Yeah ... I mean if I was invited to someone's house for it, I might well go. But in the city centre, places with no entry fee are suddenly charging one (and those that always have one are charging double), everywhere's packed, trying to get home afterwards is usually hell on Earth ... nah, screw that. 

To take last year as an example, the 'catch-up' night out had been on the 30th so on the 31st I watched some TV, had a few Jamesons and ginger ales and was in bed before Jools Holland had struck his first actually-recorded-in-August note on the piano.   

[Naïve Old Fart 12,479]

Yeah, I was always suspicious about Holland's 'New Year' Hootenanny 

[Sweeping Strings 3,162]

Aye. Let's face it, how likely is it that everyone there has agreed to spend their NYE like that ? 

Later ... used to be Friday night funtimes, but in recent years it's been shunted to Sunday nights. The Beeb are possibly tiring of Holland. 

[Bilbo 4,212]

Spending Christmas with the family. 

Heading to Munich in early January though!

 

[Naïve Old Fart 12,479]

1 hour ago, Sweeping Strings said:

The Beeb are possibly tiring of Holland. 

He hosts a Saturday lunchtime programme on Radio 3, called - wait for it - 'Earlier...'.

[Sweeping Strings 3,162]

At his age, seems about right 😆 . 

[Andy 6,863]

On 6/12/2025 at 12:00 PM, Bellosh said:

I love the lead up to Christmas.  I feel fortunate enough to have really good memories as a kid that this time of year is always special to me no matter how much other drama might be going on in my life.

 

This describes me. I'm pretty sentimental about Christmas, though not a religious person at all.  I have parents who were completely on board with ALL holidays.  A very Charles Schultz kinda thing. Mom always collected really vintage looking Christmas stuff. So I'm a bit of a fanatic myself. I have something like 12 trees of various sizes and themes. Tons of shelf decorations that I cherish. And of course an enormous library of Christmas music that I can curate.

 

This year my kid is home from college working but living with us, so it'll be really nice. My Dad (89) is home from recovering from a stroke and fall, and we had Thanksgiving, so hopefully we will have a lovely Christmas as well. I'm really fortunate to have both parents, and to have had the childhood that I did, so we make it pretty special for our kid also.

[Richard P 5,060]

Christmas long lost its sparkle for me as an adult, although my Mum's (particularly) effort at making it a special time for us as kids was nothing short of heroic.

 

So now we just have my Uncle and my brother over (former lives in Wales, the latter in San Francisco) and spend a handful of days doing 'stuff'. The 27th is 'family day out', after which they go home, and I proceed to virtually ignore NYE.

 

This year I have some sessions planned to tidy finances a bit (I will eventually move out), and I also need to put some serious time into editing my USA summer video footage to show my fellow travellers - I don't often have the energy after a long day's work.

[Xander Harris 8,875]

12 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Do you know how wrong that post is?

 

[Naïve Old Fart 12,479]

@Andy, I envy you.

You are very, very fortunate to have both of your parents with you.

My mother has been dead for almost thirteen years (and I miss her more and more, with each passing year), and my father has not spoken a single word to me for nearly forty years.

[bollemanneke 4,226]

Ireland does it again! I have discovered a radio station, nay, a gem!

Classical Christmas FM | Listen Live

Now I won't have to put with Classic FM's unbearable presenters anymore!

[Naïve Old Fart 12,479]

Well, my Christopher Praetorius MASS FOR CHRISTMAS MORNING arrived, today (ffi, please see the 'Classical Music Recommendations' thread).

My only dilemma is whether I listen to it asap, or to wait until the 25th.

Decisions, decisions 

[Xander Harris 8,875]

I tossed on the Christmas music station on the radio the other day and it was basically irritating. It’s the same old cloying shit and particularly awful Boomer songs like that John Lennon Vietnam song. I hate this.

[Naïve Old Fart 12,479]

'Happy Christmas (War Is Over)' is a piece of shit.

[Jim 6,122]

All these years, and I've only just noticed that in the Last Christmas music video you can see Mount Caradhras in the background.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 11,581]

On 12/12/2025 at 8:36 AM, Naïve Old Fart said:

'Happy Christmas (War Is Over)' is a piece of shit.

 

Not a fan of Lennon?

[Jim 6,122]

It's a good one but I just try to stick to Darlene Love.

[Naïve Old Fart 12,479]

50 minutes ago, #SnowyVernalSpringsEternal said:

Not a fan of Lennon?

I am a fan of Lennon, both in, and outwith The Beatles.

WALLS AND BRIDGES is my favourite Lennon album, and 'Instant Karma!' is my all-time favourite Lennon song.

I just feel that, whenever I listen to 'Happy Christmas (War Is Over)', I'm somehow being lectured.

It's not that I don't like Christmas songs, or even political songs. I like 'I Believe In Father Christmas', and I love 'Stop The Cavalry', but I don't like Lennon's offering.

[Sweeping Strings 3,162]

Have never been sure if those peacenik songs he recorded meant he'd changed his mind about his support for the IRA, or if he was just a hypocrite. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 11,581]

 

4 minutes ago, Sweeping Strings said:

or if he was just a hypocrite. 

 

You mean he experienced cognitive dissonance?

[Sweeping Strings 3,162]

Back before we called it that. Maybe the universe balanced things out by making him unable to see what a screeching harpie Yoko was.

[Xander Harris 8,875]

She really did break up that band. It must be so embarrassing for the Japanese that she’s arguably the most famous living Japanese person.

[Andy 6,863]

This was pretty good.

 

 

[Bespin Copilot 10,285]

Mind if I put on some music?