Do you actually have any Christmas spirit?

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Le Baron
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Do you actually have any Christmas spirit?

Postby Le Baron » Fri Dec 23, 2022 4:36 pm

I don't. I haven't had it for about 5 years and several other periods within the last 20 years. For a good deal of the population it seems to be a somewhat meaningless 'festival' where increasingly they are going through the motions and driven by outside (commercial) forces rather than inner and socially shared desires.
Obviously it will be a differing experience for different people. If you've just moved into a house, just got married, landed a new dream job, just returned home after a period away..etc. Then there might feel like more to celebrate, though these should be worth celebrating anyway. It can be quite fun and interesting doing the celebration in another language in another country. I've done this on a few occasions as a 'new' experience.

I can only look at it from my own perspective. Time was I would think little about it until around the last days leading up to it, then it did have some aura around it on the actual days. Now I don't even feel that. It's nice to see people and maybe be invited to eat or have a drink with people, but there's little sense of 'Christmas' really. And the truth is that here in NL it's a false festival because a large number of people aren't religious anyway (and the festival hasn't always been heavily religious throughout history anyway). Even the notion of it as the pre-Christian 'midwinter' celebration has little meaning now in societies with less social cohesion.

I don't mind all the rollicking and drunken capers, even if I don't partake of them. In fact I think there ought to be much more social disobedience or public 'misrule'. All these organised festivals no doubt act as a useful outlet to drain away this pent-up energy, which could probably be used for things like bringing down parliament or something.

Don't let me rain on your parade though. Do you have or feel Christmas spirit?
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Re: Do you actually have any Christmas spirit?

Postby badger » Fri Dec 23, 2022 4:47 pm

someone at work gave me a bottle of dangerous-looking Balkan fruit liquor :shock: but otherwise, not so much.
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Re: Do you actually have any Christmas spirit?

Postby Le Baron » Fri Dec 23, 2022 4:51 pm

badger wrote:someone at work gave me a bottle of dangerous-looking Balkan fruit liquor :shock: but otherwise, not so much.

I could get into that sort of Christmas spirit.
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Re: Do you actually have any Christmas spirit?

Postby Iversen » Fri Dec 23, 2022 5:57 pm

I acknowledge that there are some pretty objects with connections to the thing called Christmas (like the things we hang unto poor innocent conifers), and small kids may still want to be buried under mountains of presents, but personally I could do without it. As for the presents: why should I postpone buying things I need in hope of getting them several months later in a version I didn't expect (or get something totally different which I don't need at all)? Why has everything to close down for several days when we just could spread our off-work days evenly across the calendar (which actually also applies to weekends)? Why must I look at childish Xmas figures and hear ugly Xmas charols for two months before the non-event actually happens? And why is it the 24. or 25. of December by the way, depending on your country ? The old Norsemen allegedly celebrated winter solstice - at least that's something real and not the result of a miscalculation somewhere along the way. Goodbye Christmas ...

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Re: Do you actually have any Christmas spirit?

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Fri Dec 23, 2022 6:15 pm

The need to travel long distances for Christmas, though not so much nowadays, drained the spirit of Christmas for me.
Nowadays, many of the people I once celebrated the holiday with, grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, have all passed away, so Christmas now is only a source of sad memories.
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Re: Do you actually have any Christmas spirit?

Postby Carmody » Fri Dec 23, 2022 8:42 pm

OK, this is a rough draft of what I am thinking on and I am going to send it as is because if I do too many iterations of it I probably won't send it.

I am struggling with this idea of 'Have a Merry Merry Christmas.' It is as if it is not enough to just have a sense of well-being, but rather you have to be Happy, Happy; in many instances deliriously Happy. There is this disjointed frantic and even desperate need in people's eyes to be Very, Very Happy. Is it possible to live through Christmas without being so desperate for happiness and the need for being surrounded by lots and lots of other people?

It doesn't take rocket science to know that if you go for a heightened sense of frantic Happy you will eventually just have to come down to earth with everyone else. And that thud of coming down to earth can be a hefty thud.

It is for that reason that during this season I minimize the social contacts where Frantic Happy is required and just inwardly, to myself alone, treat it like any other day. I go through many of the motions on the outside and all but the required roller coaster of Happy, Happy is really not healthy for me.

However that being said, I do wish everyone out there well on their on particular seasonal roller coaster ride. And I will be here waiting for you when you come down from your Christmas high. Life has enough of its own highs and lows without me manufacturing more.

And if I could expand on Happy for a moment, I truly believe Americans in particular feel that their life has to be Happy, truly Happy, or they have failed somehow. Life has ups and downs and one does one's best to weather the storms and celebrate the sunshine. But this American need to be Happy, frantically Happy is so sad, because I think people miss out on life and its possibilities. I am quite sure other countries with older cultures have this worked out. Maybe not.

enjoy the journey........
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Re: Do you actually have any Christmas spirit?

Postby lichtrausch » Fri Dec 23, 2022 9:13 pm

I enjoy Christmas. Eggnog, Christmas songs, Christmas lights and trees. Last week I went to a Christmas market (check it out, Boston people) and had mulled wine. I wouldn't want to endure these weeks of scant sunlight and warmth without the infusion of Christmas cheer. Gift giving is a headache though.
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Re: Do you actually have any Christmas spirit?

Postby Xenops » Fri Dec 23, 2022 11:13 pm

MorkTheFiddle wrote:Nowadays, many of the people I once celebrated the holiday with, grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, have all passed away, so Christmas now is only a source of sad memories.


Similarly, I chose to lose contact with my difficult or toxic family members, so I don't celebrate with family any more.

I do enjoy Christmas lights (especially when reflected off snow), the songs, the trees. :D I usually go to a Christmas Eve service, either at a big church complete with band and choir, or to the (much) smaller Japanese church, and the latter feels better than family.

A tradition that has been forming in the last few years for me: spending Christmas doing creative writing. :D It was a time off from school, and usually a time off work, so it allows me a space to sit at a computer and write.
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Re: Do you actually have any Christmas spirit?

Postby Sae » Sat Dec 24, 2022 12:08 am

I've always enjoyed Christmas because we make something of it and have always made it more about spending time with family. Heck we don't even put the TV on and haven't since I was a little kid, after we had Christmas around my uncle's one year and we lost power for the day it was one of our best Christmas's. We all came up with ways to make it fun without a TV or consoles. We're not a religious family, so we don't do anything religious, but we get presents, make a big meal and spend time together doing stuff that involves the family and generally it's only between family we actually get along with, so no awkwardness or putting on fake smiles or biting tongues.

However, I hate Christmas music, though there's maybe some tunes I don't mind, but they're so overplayed and it's always the same thing over and over that anything you don't mind ends up being grating. But I put that aside to not be a miser. We just put on music we like for Christmas. There are other elements I don't like, it's supposed to be a time of good spirit and kindness, but it does sometimes feel people can be ruder and less courteous than normal and thus feel sorry for people who work in any kind of customer service this time of year, something I don't miss.

And this year I finally got around to owning a Christmas jumper after needing one for work and I just got the most dumb and hideous one I could find, it is brightly coloured and features a TRex in a Christmas hat firing lightning from its mouth and lighting a Christmas tree on fire.

But, this year we're not really sure how we're going to do it. Sadly circumstances are different. And last year's was ruined by the fact me and my dad caught COVID, so we self isolated, but made the most of it, like sticking Netflix on, watching Karate videos on YouTube reading and such. We had a restaurant booked, but they were nice enough to box up our meals and deliver them so we didn't miss out and they didn't skimp out on portions either, there was loads, so it wasn't a complete loss.
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Re: Do you actually have any Christmas spirit?

Postby lingua » Sat Dec 24, 2022 2:55 am

I enjoyed Christmas as a child and younger adult but once I reached middle aged I lost interest. The parties are fun but otherwise I don't participate. So no ... I no longer have any Christmas spirit. These days my attitude is that it's for children.
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