Anyone else had enough of Christmas already?

[andrewc]

I've seen Christmas lights in one neighbors window   

My mother & sister go mad over Christmas, Dads indifferent and I hate it.

Especially since it's my birthday.......

[perpetual dan]

Christmas is good fun, but more fun kept small with little misses Dan and Mrs Dan. Involving too many other people turns the build up into a lot of stress. I try and avoid worrying too much about it before December, but we do have puddings made already. I was quietly cross at the local co-op for having mince pies out before Halloween.

However, I regard the solstice as being just as important in its own way - burning the clocks down here is good fun. I've also got a Halloween invite for next year already  

[campagman]

Remember that by the time Christmas comes the days will be getting longer and summer is only just around the corner.

[agagisgroovy]

Yes.
Somehow most of my friends are all atheists, pagans or Muslims anyway. 

[Cyclops]

Why do some people insist on covering their houses in fairy lights, flashing santas and assorted other rubbish?

I rode past a house last weekend where a bloke was up a ladder putting up what appeared to be the last of his decorations as every other square inch of brickwork was already covered. The electricity company must love him, in fact he's probably got a hot line to the local power station to warn them when he's going to switch on.

I think he thought I was smiling in admiration rather than trying to stifle fits of laughter

[goatpebble]

Christmas day is really rather special. If you get up early, there exists the possibility of a blissful ride, with empty roads.

For the last four years I have enjoyed a perfect Christmas morning, with a crisp and sunny ride, everything silent. All of nature seems to have realised that something is different, and without the cars, you are cycling in a very different world.

I have the perverse idea that other people's Christmas excess should be encouraged, so maybe everyone will be at home, with hangovers and swollen bellies, that outside the small creatures that normally get crushed by cars can take over.

I have a battle every year. For more than a decade I have told all my friends and family not to buy me presents, and that they should not expect a wasteful exchange of unwanted gifts, i.e I have made it clear that my love for them does not require 'stuff'.

We all spend most of the time ashamed of how we have too much! To solicit for more is shameful. An appropriate gift, when right, needed, or timely, is an opportunity to express real affection and understanding. The Christmas thing is something else.

[Gandalf]

The dreaded lights came out last night and with it the oft repeated but grisly tableau of checking all the bulbs and locating missing tranformers.  On the plus side I wasn't made to watch 'Lampoons Christmas Vacation' for the millionth time.  Oh the hilarity.

I seems like only yesterday I was press ganged into laboriously putting them all away.  Time goes so scarily quickly as you get older.

The horrid cactus on our little sideboard/dresser thingy just inside the front door has been supplanted with a full-on rustic Nativity scene made with real wood and moss, lovely. 

Did the washing up last night and innocently reached for a teacloth to dry up......I'm developing a genuine phobia of Holly now, I wonder if there's a name for it, Ilexophobia perhaps?  Every time I go to open a drawer or cupboard now I inwardly flinch, bracing myself for a tinny rendition of 'We're walking in the air' or 'Jingle bells'.

I'm a bit of a fraud though really because deep down underneath my Meldrewesque persona I'm quite looking forward to it.

Now the kid's have grown up it isnt quite the same, but my grandson is two and a half now, so this year should be really nice....Still can't abide the loooong buildup though! 

[annie]

I don't do Christmas cards, haven't done for years.  I make one for my Granny but that is it really.  The extra money saved goes along to a charity of my choice.

I don't need any presents and would much rather give them than receive them.

JC isn't keen on surprises so he knows what he is getting from us.  If we get him something he hasn't asked for he is not impressed and as he says 'why should I be pleased, I didn't want it nor need it' I understand but many others don't.

[citoyen]

I'm developing a genuine phobia of Holly now, I wonder if there's a name for it, Ilexophobia perhaps?

Ahem. Ilex Aquifolium is Latin. Phobia is Greek. The word you're looking for would be something like lyprinophobia.

d.

[clarion]

Pchah!  Television.

[Gandalf]

I'm developing a genuine phobia of Holly now, I wonder if there's a name for it, Ilexophobia perhaps?

Ahem. Ilex Aquifolium is Latin. Phobia is Greek. The word you're looking for would be something like lyprinophobia.

d.

I am indebted to m'learned friend 

[rae]

The horrid cactus on our little sideboard/dresser thingy just inside the front door has been supplanted with a full-on rustic Nativity scene made with real wood and moss, lovely.   

My outlaws have one of those.   I always rearrange it so that the donkey is giving Mary one from behind, while Joseph is pleasuring the sheep. 

[andyoxon]

I bet no one else has managed to keep their poinsettia all year.   Our’s although nothing like it’s former glory, in the last couple of months has put on some new red leaves, and won a reprieve until at least the new year.

[alan]

Xmas has just appeared here in the form of 2 mince pies.One each.
Here endeth any pretence at weight control untill 2009

[annie]

I bet no one else has managed to keep their poinsettia all year.   Our’s although nothing like it’s former glory, in the last couple of months has put on some new red leaves, and won a reprieve until at least the new year.

Mine is still going strong.  I just left it on the fireplace 2 years ago.  Now moved it into the utility room where it will reside until it dies.

[toekneep]

Xmas has just appeared here in the form of 2 mince pies.One each.
Here endeth any pretence at weight control untill 2009

What the heck, you might as well have another mince pie then. And what about a vanilla slice to follow? 

[alan]

Xmas has just appeared here in the form of 2 mince pies.One each.
Here endeth any pretence at weight control untill 2009

What the heck, you might as well have another mince pie then. And what about a vanilla slice to follow? 

You,my friend, are at the very top of the Xmas card list

[clarion]

Is Christmas coming up?  Can't say I'd noticed

Mind you, it's always time for a vanilla slice, if, and only if, you want one

[Julian]

I rather like Christmas, possibly because my family never started it in November.  December is Advent, so we had advent calendars when we were small (absolutely no chocolate calendars, film-themed calendars or Simpsons calendars though).  The tree went up on Christmas Eve, then it would be midnight Mass at church, and a day with presents, huge dinner and family on Christmas day.  Any decorations went straight down after the twelve days were up.  The only pre-Christmas stuff was either at school, where you can't avoid it, or various carol services in the last week before Christmas.

This year Charlotte & I are riding over to my parents for Christmas lunch and then riding back again... possibly the long way to work off lunch!

I do notice that people's hatred of Christmas tends to be directly proportional to how long they have to suffer the decorations for.  

And don't forget there's always the Boxing Day Ride to remind you how nice town can be when the 'festive period' means nobody's driving!

[Really Ancien]

The horrid cactus on our little sideboard/dresser thingy just inside the front door has been supplanted with a full-on rustic Nativity scene made with real wood and moss, lovely.   

I got one of those from Lidl and some doll's house furniture so I could make the stable look like a setting in a branch of IKEA, it was a gift to some East German friends, he a former Lutheran Pastor and she an architect.

Damon.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Mind you, it's always time for a vanilla slice, if, and only if, you want one

I can't imagine ever not wanting a vanilla slice.

Talking of advent calendars, my brother and I used to have to share one, taking it in turns to open the doors. The little sod would open mine too and then shut them again in the hope I wouldn't notice. There were no things inside them in those days, the most exciting thing was that behind the 24 door, the little baby Jesus would have a glittery halo.

[Gandalf]

Mind you, it's always time for a vanilla slice, if, and only if, you want one

I can't imagine ever not wanting a vanilla slice.

Talking of advent calendars, my brother and I used to have to share one, taking it in turns to open the doors. The little sod would open mine too and then shut them again in the hope I wouldn't notice. There were no things inside them in those days, the most exciting thing was that behind the 24 door, the little baby Jesus would have a glittery halo.

I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn that even our dogs have one each.

[spesh]

Xmas has just appeared here in the form of 2 mince pies.One each.
Here endeth any pretence at weight control untill 2009

What the heck, you might as well have another mince pie then. And what about a vanilla slice to follow? 

*adopts cod-French accent*

Anyone for a waffer theen mint?

Go on... they're only waffer.. theen... 

[Mrs Pingu]

Decoration???
Are we hard hearted penguins. We don't put any decorations up at all, I figure by the time we've got every flat surface covered in Xmas cards that's more than enough decorations. (And I take them down the minute I get home from Mum's as well). 

[Jon P]

I was cycling past a house in a village last week and it already had the full Xmas lights set up - the sort that fan up to the eaves and insinuate themselves round the chimney, with Santa pitonning up the gable end and supporting cast of reindeer staked out in the front garden.

If I'd seen the householder I doubt I could have prevented myself from shouting, "Oi, mate, you've got the wrong month.  It's NOVEMBER!"