The Holiday Thread (page 3)

chickpea

here on the south shore of the big lake
xmas trees are used to mark the official
ice highway out to the island after the
ferry and windsled stop running!!

miseryloveselders

that's a beautiful picture. as a city boy, its all the more fascinating to me.

nugget

My approach is to do as much as I can myself. I bake and cook and enjoy the long preparations around Christmas puddings and gingerbread and the way the house smells of spice and booze.

I make the christmas stockings and fill them with small useful things. I set the rule that whatever I buy must be useful or beautiful. satsuma at the bottom, small bathfoam or perfume, chocolate money, pixie dust nail varnish or make up for girls and small toy for boys. not expensive but I remember how magical it can be.

I also told the children that Christmas isn't the time for expensive gifts it is about family time. I am looking to get them a book each, sweets, accessories for toys they have already but nothing terribly expensive. For them it is more important that they participate and share the experience. It is important to learn that this is not a time to think about getting but a time to think about others. We are doing Xmas child presents to send to deprived children. I don't want the children to become grabby and selfish but to appreciate the pleasure in small things.

what is sad is that I am the only person in my family who can remember celebrating a holiday and remembering how excited I was. I want them all to feel that excitement that makes you shiver all over, the anticipation of something wonderful.

Broken Promises

They show that same stupid movie with that kid getting his tongue stuck on the pole every year

LOL!!

Christmas in Australia means sunshine, bbqs, beaches, swimming and salads.

darthfader

My wife was born in so she's part of Blondie's group1. Im from group 2.1 (my own number) ... I celbrated holidays as a child up to age 6, then my parents "got cult". I was later able to stay with my grandmother who was not a witness and I was able to celebrate the holidays as a highschooler. I then for some reason ( probably lonliness ) decided to go back to the meetings in my early 20's. Got babtized, met my wife and shortly thereafter started fading... Haven't been to a Memorial in over 10 years.

We have taken the approach that we celebrate the change of seasons. For the winter solstace, we have a small tree and get a few gifts for each other, but they are mostly little things. We are pretty low key as there are a number of witnesses in the area that know us and some of our family is still in...

VampireDCLXV

You Aussies have everything ass-backwards anyway...

LOL

V665 V665

ziddina

Aaaargh....

I HATE "brown" Christmases....!!!!

I could NEVER handle Christmas in Australia!!!

In fact, it's snowing here, right now.... So cool, so deliciously dark, with the clouds like a warm woolen blanket over the sky.... So snug in our little house.

I'm looking out at our 25-foot-high Blue Spruce tree in the back yard, dusted with glittering white.

Looks like Christmas already... (Not my tree, but that's approximately what it looks like... I don't have a digital camera, just a 35mm, so I can't just snap a pix and post it...)

Zid

Desert Rat

I have been out for about 17 years now. It took about 2 years before we did any kind of holiday celebrating. Then we our first Grandson was born, we had to do Christmas for him!! (even though he was a baby) :) We put the tree in the den -where we could close the door and hide it I suppose. But now we go all out! The day after Thanksgiving we start decorating.

This year will be very special for us. We had two Grandkids that we 'knew of', but didn't 'know'. I won't go into details, but back in May, we were contacted by another state and asked if we were interested in taking custody of them. We jumped through hoops, and made the trip to pick them up in June. They have been here since! Lots of adjustments to be made by all, but its going great so far! This will be our first Christmas together, and the first to have all our Grandkids here at once! I can't wait for every one to meet!

Markfromcali

Basically I don't really care about the traditions. If people around me are into it I'll kind of do holidays, but I think sometimes it takes away from the people if you're totally focused on doing the holiday with all the details involved.

Anyway if it's about the spirit of the holiday we do celebrate throughout the year. Take Festivus for example. Even on an online forum, it is common to see the Airing of Grievances, where one might talk about the ways their online community/family has disappointed them. Then of course there's the Feats of Strength, where it's not over until the progenitor of the topic of discussion is "pinned," so to speak.

The Holiday Thread

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