CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

Christmas is my favoritest holiday in the whole world! I want to put it in my pocket and carry it with me everywhere I go! I want to eat Christmas! Then it will stay with me ALWAYS!!

I love Christmas songs and Christmas smells and Christmas wreaths and Christmas lights and Christmas SONGS!

Just last month, on July 25, it occurred to me that Christmas was ONLY FIVE MONTHS AWAY FROM THAT DAY!!!

I literally got excited and sort of screamed. And a few days ago, I realized it was FOUR MONTHS AWAY!!!

NOW IT IS EVEN **LESS** THAN FOUR MONTHS AWAY!!!

If you are ever stressed out, just start singing "Jingle Bells." You will be INSTANTLY happy!!!!

Oh and the DVD release of Elf comes out in NOVEMBER!!!!

I am really pissed because Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel DO NOT have their Christmas shit out yet! Damn them! GET YOUR CHRISTMAS SHIT OUT!

I am planning how to do the lights on the house this year. I want it to be extra special. Maybe have the lights spell out "Kerry" on the roof!

CHRISTMAS!!! IT'S COMING!!!

[flamingyouth]

1. My gods, I've worked retail for 20 years

Christmas is a dirty word to me. :(

I've had enough of the "christmas spirit" to last me a lifetime and a half. And I have the sore feet to prove it! :D

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

3. The spirit of Christmas still wuvs you

it will always wuv you.

[flamingyouth]

5. Bah! Humbug!

:)

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

9. No matter what you say or do

lovely flaming youth, the spirit of Christmas loves you unconditionally and knows you will come back to the light and warmth of its love someday. It is patient. It will wait.

[flamingyouth]

11. Really?

Even crustly old me? :cry:

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

16. Yes

the spirit of Christmas will never give up on you. And every year, like clockwork, another Christmas will come and go, waiting for when you are ready again.

[dancing kali]

55. I like you!

Someone who shares my sentiments about that wretched holiday.:toast:

[Rick Myers]

4. We gotta stop meeting like this...

Seems like you and I are always in the same threads!!!

How is it going??? Hope all is well...

:loveya:

[flamingyouth]

7. Oh, you know, still bitter!

And you? ;)

[Rick Myers]

18. Still not in Minnesota full time

Dad's Alzheimer's is getting progressively worse and mom will NOT deal with it. I do what I can to keep him busy. Took him to a flea market yesterday, and it was a hoot!

Maybe you need to get away from Seattle for a while. Too many GREY days as I recall...

;)

[flamingyouth]

I'm taking a short trip next month

Sorry about your dad. We miss you in the basement! Take care of you and yours. :loveya:

[Rick Myers]

42. Thanks, flame!!!

I miss it there!!! But I don't envy how busy y'all must be between now and the election!!!

Take care of yourself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[flamingyouth]

44. Oh, it's been busy

But we're handling it! Thanks and take care! :D

[DemBones DemBones]

31. One December I was in a store and they had

this wonderful set-up of little mechanical mice that drum out Christmas carols. These talented little mice know thirty different carols and I still love my set of mice after about fifteen Christmases.

I could tell when he was ringing up my purchase that the clerk who had to listen to the display all day did NOT share my enthusiasm about the drumming mice, though. No doubt they were driving him nuts! They're quite wonderful in moderation, though.

:7

(I did work a Christmas Eve in a gift-wrapping booth in the mall once. It was a fund-raiser for Little Theatre and it was insane, or rather the customers were insane.)

[flamingyouth]

37. You can see how much people resent Christmas

Oh, if I had a dollar for every time I've heard, "I hate (my mother-in-law, sister, cousin, coworker, boss, etc.) but I'm buying this for them anyway. Please wrap it for me."

HO HO HO :(

[Rick Myers]

2. I was in Big Lots 3 weeks ago and they had some

XMAS stuff out already. And I have a feeling we're gonna get more than our share of snow this year! In Ohio and the midwest!

Ho! Ho!! Ho!!!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

6. another Christmas lover?

I was shoe-shopping the other day with my best friend and I put a shoe down suddenly and gasped and she said, "What?" and I said, "OHMYGODCHRISTMASISCOMING!" and she laughed and said, "I KNOW! CHRISTMAS!" Then we kind of grabbed hands and giggled. We were happy the rest of the afternoon.

[bigwillq]

15. "Then we kind of grabbed hands and giggled."

That's such a nice line.

OK, I am happy for you that Christmas is coming.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

17. You know what?

I know some people might have read that and thought I was half-kidding.

I wasn't. That really happened. Thanks for being happy for me!

[bigwillq]

36. I believe it happened

The visual I got in my mind was pretty cool.

I could just picture two friends walking in the store and getting all excited about Christmas.

It was a good imagine. I liked how you described the event.

Hey, I'm a writer (believe it or not, sometimes my grammar sucks when I write in chat rooms) so it worked for me.

[Rick Myers]

21. I'm a secret Christmas fan

Have been since my teens. Something about it is SOOOO cool. Not just the shopping, lights, songs... I like the idea that for a few hours, just about everything stops..... and the world is quiet for a while...

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

29. Ohhhh

let me tell you Secret Lover of Christmas:

When I was little, I would sneak out to the front room and just sit on the couch and look at the twinkling colored lights on our tree in the otherwise completely dark room. Everything just GLOWED with those lights!

And the promise of the wrapped gifts, like beautiful secrets under the tree!

I would sit, curled up and I never felt so safe or warm. The world was completely

still

And even now, every year, I have to sit in front of my tree, just watching the lights, the glow. For hours.

Nothing deep or profound. Just the glow, the beauty of those colored lights.

[Terran]

45. Oh wow, me too!

Moonbeam_Starlight, I'm the same way--I just love to sit and take in my house once it's ready for Christmas. When it's at that point, I don't even care much about opening the presents, I just love seeing them under the tree with the lights and color and texture and smells. There's nothing like it.

I love Christmas trees--I have this private conceit that they symbolize the universe, because they're full of winking lights, and shapes like stars and planets and moons, fantastic god-like creatures and mythical figures (well, at least my trees always have those things, lol!).

Funny this thread should appear tonight, because while at work this evening I was struck with a thought: Christmas is coming! and instead of leaving it all until December, I could start shopping now and get a bit done every month, and totally avoid all the stressful stuff and fully enjoy it (duh, what an idea, eh?). So I'm so happy somebody else is thinking about it!

Dirk

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

47. OMG we are totally soul mates dirk!

You sound JUST LIKE ME!

And I love how you see Christmas trees! I am going to look at my tree this year and think of that, too!

[Terran]

62. LOL, well, I like the way you think

I went through a period many years ago when I I didn't have any money, and I felt soured on Christmas after prior years of being able to spend lavishly on it. But I've reached a place where I don't care about so much about the gift giving--everyone I know has what they need, so now, in my current state of not having much money, I bake cookies as presents and give what I can spare to charities. I don't let anything spoil it for me!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

10. That's the only thing I am missing: snow

could you send some down here? Pretty please?

[bigwillq]

8. Christmas Carols make me vomit

Other than that Christmas is O.K.

It's my mom's birthday so we kind of do more for her now that us kids are all grown up.


Sometimes, her b-day sometimes gets forgotten by certain people b/c they're all wrapped up in Christmas and stuff.

I hate snow.

[scarlet_owl]

12. I love Christmas too!

I love decorating the tree and making cookies. I don't like Christmas shopping. This is going to be the best Christmas ever because it's our first Christmas in our new house! WoooHooo Christmas!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

24. OH

someone else!!!!!! Go shopping with ME, you'll LOVE it! We'll go look at decorations and real wreaths and greenery and then we'll go get the ingredients to make about 5000 decorated cookies and we'll laugh our asses off the whole time, then collapse with hot cocoa in front of a good Christmas movie and fall asleep with smiles on our faces!

[scarlet_owl]

26. Yay! As long as we don't have to go to the mall.

I especially like the cocoa part :) .

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

30. FIE ON MALLS!!!

NEVER EVER EVEREVER go to a mall beyond early NOVEMBER silly person!

No. No malls. Only cute little markets or shops out of the way of the maddening crowds.

[PartyPooper]

13. I expect to see a lot of Christmas stuff on my next visit to Costco.

Before you know it...it will be January and Kerry will be inaugurated. Then they will be trotting out the Valentines' Day stuff...then it's St. Patrick's Day...Easter...Mother's Day...Father's Day...Fourth of July...Halloween...Thanksgiving...and, Christmas all over again.

Don't you just love regularity? :D

:toast:

:beer:

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

22. Those other holidays are mostly shite

or Shiza (how do you spell it?) as my German Mr. Moonbeam would say.

Christmas is the great-granddaddy, ruling KING of all the holidays.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

14. Christmas is five months away and

the Christmas shopping bonanza is only 5 weeks away. How much earlier will they push it up this year?
As a non Christian, I do enjoy the holidays too. I love getting in the kitchen and cooking and the parties with my pals.
But honey, it ain't even cold outside yet!
;-)
On edit: meant five months in the subj. line. Such an idiot!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

19. See in Texas

some of us start thinking Christmas early to make ourselves feel cooler because, as hardy as we are after years of baking, we just can't take the heat any longer.

Christmas rocks!!!

We do a secular Christmas too, even though we are Christian. Shhhhhh, dont' tell anyone!!!!

[BlackVelvetElvis]

28. I'm a southerner too.

I feel your pain regarding the heat.
Maybe I should change my mindset.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

39. Oh you should

I feel kinda chilly just thinking about Christmas!

Hot cocoa anyone?

[DemBones DemBones]

20. I love Christmas but I don't want Christmas in the stores until

after Halloween, so I'm not at all sure about having Christmas in my pocket all year long. ;-) But I know someone who has a Christmas room in her house, a room that's Christmas all year round, and I guess she enjoys it. I prefer all the decorations being packed away because then getting them out is an event. (I also think finding out a baby's sex before it's born ruins the surprise element.) ;-)

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

38. Ok

I don't enjoy the Christmas stuff being out in STORES too soon, either. I only like looking at it in catalogs.

A Christmas room, my God, I need that!

[Rowdyboy]

23. And I thought you were my friend....I actually trusted you...

Bahhhh...humbug...There'll be time enough for that after December 20th...

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

25. Rowdy, rowdy

what happened? Why the humbug? Come with me, I'll show you.....the way most people do Christmas is crap. The way society does Christmas is CRAP.

The way *I* do Christmas is magical! Come with me, rowdy....

[BlackVelvetElvis]

33. Can I come too?

Show me some magic, Moonbeam!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

40. Yes Elvis!

Read some of the other stuff in this thread from me.....the secret to Christmas was revealed to me several years ago and here's how:

My Little Moonbeam was about four years old. I was running around, losing my mind, trying to do a million things to make Christmas great and wondered why I didn't enjoy Christmas anymore. Then I looked at my daughter. Felt jealous. All she had to do was WAIT for it! All she had to do was enjoy the anticipation, the decorations, the gifts, she didn't have to DO any of it! THAT'S why kids love it so much! No work involved!

So, I decided to cut out the stuff that really didn't add to our enjoyment of it. Streamline Christmas, if you will. Do as little as I had to and enjoy what I did have to do. So I did that. It's been so great, ever since.

And having someone who really truly enjoys it in my life helps a lot (best friend and daughter--Mr. Moonbeam was never that into it, but apparently I am contagious and now he loves it!).

It's magic if you sit back and enjoy it....

[BlackVelvetElvis]

43. You rock.

That's a super thing to do. I remember what it was like as a child...exactly as you mentioned.

[Rowdyboy]

46. My mom was a total Christmas freak...she adored it....

The family Christmases I remember are wonderful but, sadly, mine are gone forever. My family pretty much destroyed by deaths, divorces, and distance. Its no fun anymore...Sorry.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

48. Aw rowdy

that makes me want to hug you and give you a big mug of hot cocoa and some of my yummy cookies!

I am so sorry.

You know what? I have no family, anymore, either. Only Mr. Moonbeam and Little Moonbeam. I have four parents and not a single one is normal or sober or in touch with us. All my wonderful grandparents are passed away. And we were pretty sad and lonely so over the years we created a little family out of friends.

If you lived here, you would totally be invited over to our Christmas Eve pajama party. We do it every year. You come over in the silliest damn pajamas you can find. NO STREET CLOTHES ALLOWED!

The kids are set up in the playroom with teenage babysitters and their own Christmas decorations and movies and snacks!

The adults have the rest of the house! We sit on each other's laps and say what we want for Christmas, eat too much caviar, enjoy the fire, dance, sing very very loudly. And one unfortunate year, several of us ended up dry-humping each other to the Doobie Brothers, but we won't speak of that. I hope Santa wasn't looking.

Then my neighbor comes out in this CRAZY red negligee (nothing is showing, it's totally campy and has a red boa) and does her rendition of Santa Baby which cracks us all up.

Oh Rowdy. I'm so sorry....

[PittPoliSci]

27. Are you Satan?

Cause if you aren't, I'm convinced otherwise.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

32. No

I just love Christmas more than I can say.

[LanternWaste]

34. Ahhh...

"It's a Wonderful Life" and the Albert Finney musical, "Scrooge"
(The Mary Bailey character was my very first adolescent crush...)

Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas"

Watching you breath frost up when you go outside.

The almost physical sense of expection in the faces of the young as The Day draws closer and closer.

The pungent smell of burning leaves.

Gads! I just realized... this will be my first Christmas outside of the United States and in a city where it will probably be no colder than 75 degrees :(

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

41. Oh!

Someone else! Kindred spirit!

The frosty breath! I love it!

Don't worry, Christmas in Mexico will be lovely, just different. And THAT will make it even more lovely.

I bet it will be a very sweet memory for you someday....."the Christmas I spent in Mexico..."

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

35. I'm sad

when Christmas is ruined for people. It can be so lovely.

Here are some tips for making it something you can really enjoy again!

No malls. Don't go near malls, unless you truly love them at Christmas. And in that case, I think you need to be committed. I don't go near a mall past HALLOWEEN!! It will kill my holidays buzz if I do, so I stay farrrrr away.

No big stores, either. No Wal-MArt (I don't go there anyway), no Target, no Garden Ridge, no none of that crap. Retail shopping vacation for two months, required. I either do my shopping early or do it online or both. And we keep the gift-giving simple and minimum.

Decide what YOU really love to do at Christmas. Cut out all the other shit.

Keep it non-commercial, unless you like that stuff. You won't find a Winnie the Pooh dressed up as Santa hanging on OUR tree. Just keep it simple.

Find someone who truly enjoys Christmas, who really gets a kick out of it. Do stuff with THEM! Plan out fun things to do together, like making a huge mess in your kitchen while singing fun Christmas songs (Santa Baby, etc.), drinking mugs of hot cocoa or heavily spiked eggnog while watching your favorite Christmas movies.

Be LAZY!!! What's all this running yourself ragged crap? Stop it! Lay around and if anyone asks what you are doing, say "I'm enjoying Christmas the Moonbeam way! Now stop killing my buzz and go get me more marshmallows to eat!"

another idea: just go away somewhere!!!

[pagerbear]

49. I love Christmas

...but I miss that child-like joy. Having a job and a commute and worrying about getting things done before I leave for Christmas to see my family and making sure all the gifts are ordered in time to be delivered.........

I never, ever have a tree in my hovel and rarely listen to Christmas music at home. I never have a Christmas party. But I do love singing Christmas music, and I'm glad I sing in a church choir.

Christmas sounds beautiful chez Moonbeam.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

57. I just KNEW pagerbear

would love Christmas! (Why am I talking about you in the third person? Because you're so adorable!)

Pager, I would give you a Moonbeam Christmas if I could. Get a little tree for your hovel! Put little twinkly lights on it and sit in front of it at night with only the twinkly lights on and just stare at it! It will make you happy!

[Shananigans]

50. I LOVE CHRISTMAS, TOO!

Not just the lights and the cookies, but EVERYTHING. Shopping in packed malls, Christmas fliers, buying something for everyone, sending out cards to those you haven't seen in forever, family get togethers. I love it ALL!

There is nothing like putting christmas lights up all around a room and then shutting the lights off and just laying there staring at the magic of it all. It's a feeling like no other!

Also, there's the retail feeling. I LOVE IT! Everyone else hates it and thinks I'm nuts, but I LOVE to go shopping when it is insanely Christmasly busy. Everyone is in such a good mood. I really miss working retail during the Holiday season.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS and all the scrooges in the world can't change my mind!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

56. Awwwwww

you had me until the "everyone is in such a good mood" part. Where do you live? I've been in malls at Christmas. I could throw several sticks and still not hit anyone in a good mood. Even the kids are crying!

But so happy to see another Christmas lover! If you lived here or I lived there, we could engage in our perverse love of Christmas together! Just don't make me go to a mall, ok? It kills it for me!

[Shananigans]

64. I live in Minnesota.

And yes...there are SOME grouches at Christmas, but I feel most everyone is out to celebrate the holiday spirit. It's a GREAT time of the yeat. Go CHRISTMAS!

[Baja Margie]

51. I love Christmas, too.

We decided not to go down to Mulege in November, I want to be here for the election amd have enough time to do Christmas. Maybe we'll make a little sidetrip up to Laguna Hanson and get some pinecones to decorate with. Last year, I put white lights on the tree, tons of pinecones and magenta bulbs. I get real Christmased-out, not so much about presents, just the Holiday. Baking pies and bread , cookies ,fudge, KOLACHES, decorating.

It starts early down here, processions on El Dia De Guadalupe and continues until the Epiphany. Families build huge bonfires Christmas Eve, gather around, sing songs and have fiestas. It's great, noone can really afford much of anything extravagant, but they all have the "spirit".

Kids at a Guadalupe Procession, the little boys are dressed as Juan Diego:



Mulege will wait until April -

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

58. Wow

that is SO cool!!! I'm in Texas, so the Mexican Navidad traditions are part of ours, too!

[AnnitaR]

52. Thank you for this thread!

You have made my night! After reading all the other depressing/distressing stuff out there I needed this! This thread has been a hoot to read!

My mom loves Christmas like you do. She always makes Christmas so wonderful for us! I have so many wonderful memories of Christmas growing up. I will always be grateful for her passing her love of Christmas onto me! I just got a new apt and I am so excited because I get to have my own Christmas tree this year and we are having Christmas Eve at my house!

FYI my fav Christmas Album of all time? Charley Pride "Christmas in My Hometown"! We play it every year!

I still want to got to NYC for Christmas one year. Is it as wonderful as everyone says it is?

(edited to add that this reply was my 700th post! Yikes! Since it was about Christmas does that mean that I warned off the demons of the 700 Club???)

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

59. Sweetie

I would give my left ovary to go to NYC at Christmas! In fact, we were going to go just for a weekend this year for my daughter's tenth birthday (early Dec.) and see the tree at Rockefeller Center and go ice skating there and take a horse carriage ride in Central Park and it would start to snow JUST as we started off in the carriage (I just know it!), but alas, we are probably going to owe the IRS a couple grand and I am about to start grad school, so it will have to happen another year......

But DECORATING for Christmas! One of my most favorite things about it!

Thanks for your thank you! Glad it made your night! I got excited about Christmas all over again just reading your post!

[RFKHumphreyObama]

53. In Australia we have Christmas in July

It's a tradition caused by the fact that Australia never experiences a "winter Christmas" because Christmas is always during summer. So some people choose to celebrate with an additional Christmas celebration during the winter month of July. I've attended quite a few Christmas in July parties here -people sing Christmas Carols, Santa comes to Christmas parties and people eat things such as Christmas pudding and do a lot of the other things that are done at Christmas. It is a lot of fun

And then we have the real Christmas in December

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

60. YOU HAVE CHRISTMAS TWICE????

You TOTALLY SUCK.

Seriously. You suck. I am soooooo green with envy right now. Arg. I want to celebrate it twice!!!!!

[Dogmudgeon]

65. It's Swithins Day!

July 28th is the feast of Saint Swithins. The traditional celebration is said to be much like Christmas. I thin Bob Newhart even did a joke about it in his sitcom where he was a psychiatrist.

--bkl

[UdoKier]

54. I love Christmas too, but unlike yourself...

I can't stand to see or hear any vestige of it before thanksgiving. I avert my eyes when I see the displays in stores in September. I won't let my kids read Christmas books except during that month or so around the holiday.

I love it, but I feel that promoting it for too long waters down the feeling. The overcommercialization is annoying too...

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

61. We don't even decorate until after December 5th!!!

Because Little Moonbeam's birthday is in very early December and mine is in late November and I always felt like my birthday was overshadowed by a turkey (my mother's words about the year I was born: "I MADE my first turkey on Thursday, then I HAD my first turkey on Saturday!" Ohhh so funny mom!), so I promised her when she was born we'd never start Christmas until AFTER her birthday.

So I hear ya. *I* just get excited about it and start thinking about it. If you get out the decorations too early and start doing "Christmas stuff" too early, by Jan. 1 you are about to puke. I don't mind looking at catalogs, but I stop shopping retail right before Halloween.

[mrboba1]

63. Christmas this year will be verry good - because

Kerry will be President-Elect!!!

:bounce: