Don’t go to Japan. The country is only 2% Christian, but they go nuts over Christmas. Spent late December over there a few years ago, and thought beforehand that I would be getting away from the Christmas hype. NO, No, no
way. Christmas carols in english piped into restaurants; 1000 kids singing “Here comes Santa Claus” in Japanese; a 50 minute (!) fireworks display that opened with “Joy to the World”.
Out of curiosity, where did you stay in Japan? My experience was quite different.
Not unless you’re white, dark-complected, predisposed to diabetes, and about to turn 41.
Mmmmyeh, the deal with me is that I don’t quite despise shopping. It’s just kinda depressing somehow.
An excellent idea. Were anybody to do this in my name, it would make me feel good about that person, and encourage me to possibly do as they had done.
Let’s see…
White? Nah.
But dark-complected? Indisputably! “Lift every voice and sing,” and the whole bit.
Pre-disposed to diabetes? No pre-disposed about it. Already there, unfortunately.
And not 41, but I’ll turn 38 in just a few months, so, hey, that’s close!
Hmmm…never thought of it that way, though I do have to mentally prepare myself before I go shopping. For me, it’s mostly the hordes of people meandering all over the place (both in the streets and the malls), not looking where they’re going, and getting in my way. I swear, what with all of the aimless wandering, the teenagers, the uncontrolled kids, and the carriages, one day somebody’s going to hear me muttering “Get outta my WAY, GODDAMIT,” and try to kick my ass.
Add in my need to shop around ('cause I do try to get the best price that I can), which exposes me to even more of the meandering hordes, and yeah, I try to avoid the whole thing whenever possible.
So I did the week’s grocery shopping this morning. They’d stocked about, I dunno, maybe fifty different kinds of Christmas cookies. The whole chocolate and candy display was in disarray, with stuff piled up in the aisles and two clerks trying to figure out how the hell to get all the Christmas stuff in there. Christmas napkins. Christmas wrapping paper. Special Christmas Blend coffees and teas. Christmas nuts. Dates and figs in plastic wrap with a holly cluster design. Huge piles of Advent calendars. The friggin’ Coca-Cola bottles were sporting smiling Santa Clauses.
But a nice little smoked ham, that would serve as the centerpiece of a yummy autumn Sunday dinner? “Sorry, that’s considered a Christmas item. We don’t have that in stock yet.”
I’m not sure if this is a Holiday Season rant, a How Can Such A Great Grocery Store Suck So Much When It Tries To rant, or a Seventeen Years In This Bloody Country And I Still Don’t Grok rant. Maybe it’s a little of all three. Take your pick.
I used to love Christmas, but it has undeniably lost a lot of its magic over the years. Every time it rolls around, I start to hope that maybe this time I’ll feel it again…
Last year, I did actually feel a little twinkle of the old spirit, and I think it was because I did almost all of my shopping on the Internet. Keep out of the crowds and noise if you can.
Internet shopping. That sounds great! But…how will I stumble upon the perfect gift ('cause man-gifts are difficult in my family) if I don’t…you know…SHOP?
We both know you’re not going to stumble on the perfect gift no matter what you do, right? 
Go to Amazon.com and use their gift finder thingy. Or just come here and describe who you’re buying for and let the power of the SDMB work for you.
I do 90% of my shopping online, damned if I’m gonna fight the crowds in malls and stores. I stay away from stores from Thanksgiving until after New Years.
ONE OF US! ONE OF US!
Well, when you put it that way…
Someone could get pregnant.
Color me insanely jealous, though.
I agree with Jodi btw that you do have to work at enjoying it. I have my complaints but I generally love the holiday season.
Up here in the bitter cold Northern NY January and February are just about the dreariest, coldest, most boring months ever. So I feel like December is preperation - everything is nicely decorated, and looks so pretty.
Plus I do love putting up my tree.
I love Christmas if only for the fact that I can play my holiday music at full blast. It gets me into the warm and fuzzy holiday spirit while also horrifying friends and family.
The King and Queen of Spain have just been visiting Ceuta and Melilla, our enclaves on the northern coast of Africa. The Christmas decorations had to be taken down for security reasons; when Mom was telling me about it she was laughing so hard she could barely breathe. Freaking lights had been up since before All Saints’.
I’ve been wondering: since The Nephew loves to sing, the louder the better, and SiL considers English so important she almost chose his school for “which one teaches English best” with no regard for other subjects (you know, Spanish, History or Math)… will she be very very angry if I teach him the Twisted Sister versions of a few classic carols? halo
Fish Nya, I love those!
Have you seen Titanic?
Just sayin’