Poll: So, this Christmas nonsense is starting.

[370999]

I really like Christmas.

I only see it being Christmas season on the first of December though. And stuff like trees and decerations only go up on the fifteenth at the earliest.

 

[Fenra]

This time of your you just gotta give in and let the joy and spirit consume you.

And remember:
Oh the memories, I love you for posting that video! First saw it back when I was 8!

As for me, well I love the season, there are things that irk me for sure about it, the big stores starting to stock Christmas things in September for a start, mostly the commercial stuff to be honest.

And yet for all I dislike the pro's outweigh it and I'm always left with a smile on my face. The atmosphere the closer the date gets, time with the family, crappy Christmas TV that is just such a staple of the time of year that it gets away with being terrible, same with the music (not to mention an excuse to listen to "fairy tale of new york" is always a good thing!), putting up the decorations albeit we tend to do it no earlier than the 15th of December, mostly because it involves visiting relatives and getting the decorations out of storage so finding a time we can all meet is difficult some years and the way that I, as I always do a few times before its all over, take a walk down the street at night, see all the lights up, all the signs wishing me well, seeing the whole nation sparkle under a mixture of gaudy and at the same time beautiful decorations and lights, warms my heart.

But the thing I love the most is the way that even if its not that noticeable, somehow something seems to get into even the blackest of hearts and for the briefest time in this fleeting part of the year the world seems that much nicer, the world seems kinder.

Drivers are nicer and more forgiving, the average person you pass on the street is more likely to give you a smile than keep their heads down as you pass, commuters being nicer to one another, finding yourself stopping and looking at someones display of lights only to have them come out and talk to you about it, offer you a drink, having a drink in a pub with some friends of some warm cider or mulled wine and pub owner will offer you some free mince pies, or other patrons will join you and you'll all recount your favorite Christmas stories with complete strangers as if they are your best friends, the simple wishes of "Merry Christmas" with co-workers and acquaintances. and many more things too, so many little things that only happen this time of year.

And as you lay your head down to sleep on Christmas eve you find yourself smiling as for this all to brief time of year the nation has joined hands and is smiling as one and you think to yourself, "bless this time of year, the world is a wonderful place sometimes"

 

[The Funslinger]

just the other day i was wondering, after giving my niece a small toy it appeared she rather liked; "i wonder at what point humans sadly actually stop making that "sqeeee" with pure joy noise?...".

Well, I'm seventeen and still tear the paper off my presents with all the gusto of the Nintendo 64 kid.

I am not ashamed of this.

Also, getting inebriated with the family is a joy. I remember a couple of years ago, my dad woke up on Boxing Day with the stem of a wineglass sticking out of him. That was funny.

 

[SwimmingRock]

Horrible, miserable time. most of my friends go to different cities or countries to visit their families. I'm not at all close to my family and skipped out on Christmas family dinner the last 4 years. Intend to do so again this year. It always ends with my father drunkenly yelling at me anyway while my mother tells me I should've been a doctor or a lawyer and what a miserable failure I am. No thanks. Depressed enough already.

Aside from that, I also don't see any positives. Don't get presents, don't give presents and it gets really lonely. Hot cocoa and catching up on tv shows/movies or rewatching good ones is all that gets me through. Even then, I usually start the year with some residual misery.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Excluding work (we have been putting up Xmas product TWO MONTHS before Christmas due to company orders and the storage room has more xmas product since our store is small but we still get alot!) I have a love/ hate relation toward Christmas (mostly love).
Yeah I like Christmas for the festive, present and the euro market and etc however I do dread the family get together (mainly my bro coming back). I would love for once if they would not mention about my job and future at all when he's over!!!

 

[Kitsune Hunter]

Love Christmas, even though I'm 18, I still love it, i get a month off from uni (although I still have to bloody revise for exams) and all the family gets together. I also love it when they play 80s Christmas songs on the radio, along with the very song that defines Christmas for me

 

[Blow_Pop]

I despise almost all holidays. The only holiday I celebrate is Halloween. I especially hate christmas. Particularly the fact that the stores have been putting up christmas bullshit and playing christmas music since about september out here. I'm about ready to hang myself already.

 

[Snotnarok]

You kidding? They were playing holiday music when november started around here. The "Cheer" never stops, it's always there, lingering and hiding just when you think everything is okay then BAM out the closet it comes with horrifying songs, gaudy dresswear! And just as we got hit by a hurricane no less!! Evil sadistic trying to eat up your money and torture you with having to listen to awful music with friends and family while exchanging last minute gift purchases! The holiday cheer it's coming, COMING to toooown~.

 

[Right Hook]

I could feel it starting up about two weeks back, which is way too early in my opinion, I stand firm on December 1st being the official beginning of the season. I really don't mind Christmas, at least not the decorations and the good spirits it is supposed to bring, I think all that is great. However the actual time of year is a bit depressing to me, I hate how cold it gets and the season always reminds me of that childlike joy that I'll never really be able to recapture, I loved the holiday as a kid but now it doesn't mean a whole lot or elicit any intense emotion. It's nice being around friends and family the few times it happens during the season and I do enjoy getting gifts, even though it means I have to give some too. The fact that there is time off and the semester ends are pretty much the best parts. I guess I am somewhat of a Grinch, I've been called one at least.

 

[FrozenCones]

Christmas!?! Already?!?

REPORTING IN!

 

[mattttherman3]

I call it gift day, because that is all it is to me.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

I live in the bush, rarely leave my property except for when I'm walking around and never turn on the TV.

I'll know Christmas has come when the Steam sale starts.

 

[VeryOddGamer]

Dull, dull, so goddamn dull. The same dull songs and the same dull food.

But hey, days off and free stuff, yay.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

I dislike large social gatherings, hell I dislike small social gatherings and I don't like being around all of my family at once.
I'm dead broke from buying gifts for the children of my large, never heard of birth control, family.
I'm receiving many gifts myself but my family tease me by "keeping them a secret" even though I hate surprises and anticipation for me works exactly the same as anxiety.
Part of my family revels in the commercial nature of Christmas, another part sees the commercial nature as a sad part of a great religious day (though they accept it without much fuss).
Being hit on by my barely-hit-puberty cousin gets annoying quickly.
I hate eggnog with a passion.

I love the smell of Christmas trees, the warm multicolored lights which adorn the tree, decorating the tree and picking out a tree.
Sadly a couple upper middle class, white, suburban family members have decided to be "eco-friendly" by using a fake, plastic, predecorated tree.
It has since spread to my poor, inner-city-ghetto-transplanted-unwillingly-to-white-suburbia family and we now use a plastic tree as well. Though we still decorate ours.
For some reason we also now use white lights instead of the colored ones.

The presents I receive, the look on my little cousins' faces when they open the presents I got them, and the break from school are the only things that make the Holiday times tolerable.

So I like it, but mostly dislike it, by a large margin.

A shame because I used to love it when I was younger and dirt poor. The gatherings were smaller and more personal, the gifts more meaningful, the real trees and safety of the warm light and relaxing smell, and finally the walking two to five houses down or across and sharing gifts (usually cheap toys and a game or two) among friends and enjoying the snow forts and such.

Now my original friends are gone except for one. He is living a two hour drive from me and we are both busy with college. My other friends live in nearby towns (40 minute - 1 1/2 hour drive) orin a nearby neighborhood (20 - 120 minute walks no traffic).

We don't see each other much normally, around holidays even less so. I'm only 19 and I already miss my youth horribly.

 

[Strazdas]

Good god the black friday has started in here too. now this will be a month of annoyance.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I love Crimbo. My inner Larfleeze is sated, I get to sate someone else's inner Larfleeze, the family gets together for an orgy of food and booze, we throw massive Wii Sports parties and go over everything that's happened in the year...

What's not to like?

The only Christmas that sucks is a Christmas spent alone. Gifts are so far down on the scale of importance they don't even factor into my definition of a fun Yuletide season. The kick I get comes from seeing my folks and visiting my friends, or for the excuses I can find for going on gaming binges that can last days and days.

It's all that really matters to me.

 

[Arakasi]

I get to hide in my room for days on end, not talking to anyone except via keyboard until that one night where I get to eat nice food, get gifts and give gifts.
Even with the people it is worth it.

 

[Carnage95]

The Christmas season is great because I get a month break from school which I can relax and get my sanity back.

Of course, not forgetting the presents on the official day itself nor the time available to hangout with my close/best friends.