| Christmas is coming! |
| Sandieh | Christmas is spoiled these days by stores displaying Xmas items far to early, my local supermarket started with Mince pies, Xmas puddings, and Xmas cards, in September! this week we have a full isle of Xmas goodies, trees, tinsel, chocolate selections, in fact just about everything, by time Christmas eve arrives a lot of people are fed up with it, and here in Perth Australia it can get so hot on Christmas day that no-one feels like eating, so all those lovely chocolates bought in November end up squashed in the fridge anyway.
Is it the same in Lancashire? |
| Caroline | I think you can buy the seasonal foodstuffs all year round now, Sandieh. Tain't the same!With your reduced appetites you won't put on loads of weight like the rest of us round Christmas......' round' being the operative word!
I was going to open a topic, but this seems a good place...what do people remember getting for Christmas, 'yonks' ago?? My Mum remembers an exercise book and a pencil, and a tangerine, times being hard . |
| LDunlop76 | It's exactly the same here, Sandie. Cards and crackers on sale in September, chocolates, gifts, blah, blah from the beginning of October! I try to ignore it till nearer the time, but I will be making my Christmas cake tomorrow - it needs several weeks to mature, being "fed" with brandy at regular intervals! |
| LDunlop76 | ps - my kids still get a shiny penny and a tangerine at the bottom of their stockings - a reminder that in my grandfather's day that would have been ALL they got! |
| noel | I drove past a house on Broadfield Drive last night that had an illuminated Father Christmas in the window. I feel desperately sorry for the young parents who can't really afford to go deeper into debt with their credit cards. It's time Christmas was banned.!!! |
| Lady Griffin | I got my first Christmas card the day I arrived back here-October19th -On Boxing Day it's all over and chocolate Santas get changed into Easter Bunnies.
I got the traditional orange in the sock and a few nuts plus once a bag of marbles. One year I got a wooden scooter that my grandfather had made -that was magic.
LG |
| Sandieh | I agree Noel, I to feel sorry for the young parents having to go in to debt at Christmas, I see them over here, supermarket trolleys piled high and then paying on credit cards.
I also got tangerines and nuts in the bottom of my stocking(pillow case)I remember one year my Dad had a win on the football pools and I got the biggest silver cross dolls pram, I would have been about 5 years old and could only just manage to push it, to my dismay it was stored in a corner of the living room and my elder married sister when she visited would put her baby in it to have a sleep, the best gift I ever received was a lovely doll in a blue soft furry outfit, there was a toy shop on Hough lane and I`d had my eye on this doll for ages, when the time came for the Methodist chapel Nativity I was asked to sing "Once in Royal David City" I was very shy and was`nt going to do it, until my Mother took me to the toy shop one night before nativity practice and said if I sang she would ask Father Christmas to bring me the lovely doll, that would have been the best present I ever found in my stocking. "Happy Days"
[img]http://www.yuleloveit.com/clipart/carolers/thumbnails/clip_carolers001.jpg[/img]
|
| anacortesdamp | For many years after we came to the USA, it was tradition that Christmas displays didn't appear in the stores until the day after Thaksgiving (last Thursday in November). In the late 80's, Christmas stuff started showing up after Halloween. Now it seems to show not long after Labor Day (first weekend in September!). Tacky, Tacky, Tacky!
Frank Damp |
| noel | Of course the real meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We all forget that. I wonder how many of the populace actually attend church throughout the year and actually believe in Christ. Not many I bet. Christianity is failing in this country and the row about homosexual clergy is only making matters worse. |
| Martin | December/January is also a special time for other beliefs in this country. The calendar here seems to be dominated by Christianity though.
Now that we are getting closer to december, the christmas light wars are starting. i used to drive from Glastonbury across to work in Taunton every day, the journey took me through a small village that would spring to life every December with lights covering some of the houses.
Who has the most lights out there this year? |
| LDunlop76 | There have always been mid-winter festivals to celebrate the passing of the solstice and the returning of the longer days. The early Christians realised the pagan folks were not going to abandon their mid-winter feasting and so placed the date of Jesus's birth at this time so that a Christian festival took the place of Yule. (There was a fascinating programme on TV a year or two back which examined the scientific evidence for Jesus and tallied the events reported in the Bible around Jesus's birth with known historical facts - that produced a date of birth for Jesus of April...... 3 or was it 4? BC)
But as Martin so rightly says, most religions have some sort of festival in Dec/January - the need to celebrate at that time of year seems in-built! |
| Caroline | We panic because the sun's gone away!
My children, too, had a tangerine in their pillowcases, as I did. One of the best presents I had was a 'Bayko Building Set'-I saved up and got the accessories from the shop on Hough Lane . |
| Spitfire | `The calendar here seems to be dominated by Christianity though.` Quoted by Martin. I do not feel that I am racist in any way, yet I find no need at all to apolgise for the fact that as a Christian country our calendar is dominated by Christianity. I truly hope that I havn`t misinterperated your comments Martin. If I have, then I`m sorry. If I have`nt, then we must agree to disagree.
|
| Martin | It was just an observation Jim, not a criticism. A long time ago in this country, people were killed if they were found out to be christian. Then they were killed if they were found out to be any other belief. These days religion doesn't seem too important to the majority of citizens. Most people celebrate christmas in the traditional way, by getting out their credit cards and then they spend the rest of the year trying to pay some of it off. |
| noel | I've seen all kinds of new toys for kids out in the shop for Christmas. What I haven't seen is any reference, visual or verbal, to the reason we celebrate at Christmas.
I suspect if a crib appeared in a shop window the kids would think it's the latest toy.
I don't give 2 hoots about religion but I do think it's disgusting how materialistic the celebration has become. My wife calls me Scrooge maybe I am . |
| Spitfire | Noel, I realize that this posting isn`t relevent to what you said, other than to say it triggered this comment about cribs. Did anyone see yesterday`s TV item about the exibition of cribs from Poland? They were so fantasic that I (and the better half) are off to see them at the Lowery Centre in Salford. Words cannot describe how beautiful they were. |
| Spitfire | Noel, I don`t think that your wife is entirely correct in calling you `Scrooge` on the basis of your beliefs. I think that I can see where you are comming from. (or I hope I do). There are certain days in the calendar that deserve recognition and there are many that certainly do not. Christmas and Easter are fine, so is mothering Sunday (having long had it`s roots buried in the Church). What I can`t take on board are the retail driven days, such as `Fathers day`, `Grandparents day` etc. etc. What`s next? `First Cousins day`? I tell my grandchildren to please ignore, `Grandparents Day`. |
| Martin | I can see your point Jim. what I have noticed in recent years, is the introduction of special days such as No smoking day, Bicycle to work day, stand on one leg day... what's all that about? |
| LDunlop76 | Almost everyone wants to buy their loved ones gifts at Christmas. People used to buy within their means. What seems to be a recent phenomenon is going into debt to fund Christmas. It's a cultural change. My grandparents were horrified by the idea of buying goods on credit - in their day only families who couldn't budget bought "on tick". Now it's socially acceptable to max out one's credit cards and hope to get it paid off one day. Personally I like to pay off my card in full each month, but I can see how easy it is to just pay off the minimum when you're short and then never be able to reduce the debt.
On the other hand, it must be so hard to see your children getting "lesser" presents than all their mates. If everyone else in the class has a Playstation2, the less well off kid will get skitted - we all now how cruel kids can be. So parents buy from catalogues and pay it off at so much a week - by which time not only has the interest escalated the price enormously, but it's almost the next Christmas and the cycle starts up all over again.
As for special days, I agree there doesn't seem to be a lot of point, other than to focus attention on an issue for a day. The other week the butcher had a poster up - "National Suasage Week" - I ask you!! But it may interest you to know that more people quit smoking on No Smoking Day than any other day of the year. |
| noel | I must be the odd one Linda, I hate being "expected" to buy things on a specific date, and after all it is nationally regarded as Jesus' birthday not "special day for buying things.
I would just as soon buy my wife/sons something spoecial on say 21st October or any day other than 25th December. Having said that I wouldn't half cop it of my wife if I did that. |
| LDunlop76 | quote:
Originally posted by noel
Having said that I wouldn't half cop it of my wife if I did that.
Not 'alf, Noel! [:0] LOL! I'd go with the flow if you want a quiet life. Anyway., I know you're a generous soul and would buy your missus pressies on "non-special" days, but some poor spouses would get no gifts to show how much they were loved and appreciated if it were not for Christmas jogging hubbies' memories! My husband has forgotten our anniversary and even his own birthday, but even he can't forget Christmas when it's rammed down his throat in every shop from September onwards![;)] |