With some 60+ votes in, I’m surprised at how little import is given to “taking the kids to see Santa.” It may have something to do with the death of the department store/shopping mall.
If I could do the poll over, I’d add options for:
[ul]
[li]Stockings[/li][li]Mistletoe[/li][li]Viewing other neighborhood lights[/li][li]Visiting family (as separate from feasting on the holiday)[/li][li]Traditional xmas food (tamales, mince pie, etc)[/li][li]Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.[/li][/ul]
Visiting family. It’s the time of year when I’m most likely to make the voyage back to the land of my family of origin (where siblings and cousins and uncles and aunts also still live) and hang out for a week or so.
On the Santa part, maybe most of us are already past that age. We did it a few times and the kids didn’t really love it anyway.
Stockings: was important when the kids were little, now no importance, just decorations. Mistletoe: never important Viewing other neighborhood lights I still enjoy this part, not as much as I did, but I would vote yes.
**Visiting family ** Big one for me. Traditional xmas food I guess the cookies, We didn’t really have “traditional” foods. I wouldn’t have voted for this one.
For your last one, What?
High priority are attending Advent and Christmas Eve service. Giving and receiving gifts are up there as well.
We’ll get around to putting the tree up (maybe this upcoming weekend), so while it’s a priority, it isn’t that high, per se. Eggnog is also on this level.
In addition to, or instead of, the last one, how about a simple “I don’t celebrate or care about Christmas.” This would do the job for atheists like me who have no emotional investment in the holidays, and for folks of other religions. I don’t care if other people celebrate, I don’t want to murder them for that, even though I’m always glad every year when the whole thing is over.
The only one that is truly important to me is eating rib roast on Christmas eve and having the remaining drippings and crackling available for snacking and sandwiches the following mornings.
There are a lot of food items surrounding that that are nice to have too.
I’m fine with decorating, but it’s not that important to me.
I like gift giving and receiving, but would like it kept to a minimum since there’s little I need or want, and I hate buying stuff for people that they don’t actually need.
Our first Christmas after we got married we did all the decorations, the baking, exchanging presents, etc. But it didn’t seem complete.
Did realize until later that it just wasn’t Christmas day unless we went to bed with the dishwashwer running. Even if my parents didn’t host Christmas, there were always a lot of dishes to be washed so she always ran the dishwasher in the evening of Christmas day, usually starting it rather late, around 10:00, as that would be either the first load, after being gone all day, or the second load, if we had hosted.
As my husband’s birthday is soon after the new year, there are no special cookies which are only for Christmas. I always make Nanaimo bars and fudge, but this might be before or after Christmas. It’s more of a late December / early January tradition.
Roderick, I certainly respect your feelings about what holidays you do or don’t celebrate. But if I’m gathering data about how people do celebrate a holiday, the views of those who don’t participate are of zero interest. They’re just clutter. It’d be like a poll that asked “what’s the best restaurant in NYC?” got a ton of responses from people who never dine out.
Then your thread title should have been “If you celebrate Christmas…” or “For those who celebrate Christmas…”
This board has a decent number of both Jews & atheists who don’t celebrate the holiday of (another) religion. To pose a question to the entire board & then say that some people’s responses “are of zero interest. They’re just clutter.” smacks of something that’s not particularly nice; especially, in this season when we’re supposed to show goodwill towards man.
I love Christmas as much as anyone. It’s just SO much work. DIL is heading the festivities committee this year. Thank god. I’m not really healthy enough for sustained activities right now.
I’ll do as she tells me. She knows my limitations.
I’ll have mid-daughter and bunch for a few days. The lil’wrekker comes in tomorrow for her break. Hamza (her BF) will be in and out. He’s been a source of consternation. He’s newly accepted into the family (they’re engaged). I’m having trouble buying gifts for him. Me and the lil’wrekker plan to shop for him, this weekend. And, I thought I was done shopping:smack:
Serious question (for everyone, not just Beckdawrek) Why do you think people enjoy (love?) these things? As an outsider (I grew up in a house that exchanged presents on Christmas but no tree, lights, or decorations). When my kids were younger, we went through the motions, but I fail to see the allure. As Beck notes, it’s a ton of work, none of it especially enjoyable. There are crowds, there is stress, there are family obligations. This year I told my adult kids they’re invited to stop by that day, and I’ll take them out for Chinese food. We will enjoy each other’s company, and not have to clean, cook, or stress.
I do the decorating. Only my daughter helps. I enjoy it. We don’t host Christmas or Christmas Eve, largely as my wife is Jewish. We typically do Thanksgiving & New Years instead.
The Christmas Tree kept getting harder and so this year I went to a small tree. Cut the decorating time in half, no longer a chore as it had slowly become. I actually do more and more outside decorating as time has passed but I don’t feel compelled to do it in one day. I do it as I want to.
Christmas morning and waking up to open the presents was a lot of fun when the kids were little. We also did 8 days of lighting the Chanukah Candles and giving small presents. My wife and now often my son doing the prayer.
I enjoy the season, I enjoyed seeing Christmas overseas when I was in the Navy. Its amazing how popular the lights got in Japan, Hong Kong & even Singapore if IRC. I actually enjoy a lot of Christmas music.
I think it helps we don’t have really far travel, less than an hour. We don’t cook. We also don’t do the religious services. For us it is just a winter solstice celebration in the end. A family get together. The week off for work. The heart of the college break for my kids now. The lights are pretty.
Then you’re doing it wrong. Many people do. But there are two elements here:
a) How much work do you feel every element is?
Before I moved across the Atlantic the whole family would gather at dad’s and do the decoration in a couple of hours. It was a family get together and enjoyable.
b) How much do you get out of each element?
As other’s have already said, that part is often down to tradition. I got a good feeling from putting up the decorations we’d used for many years (intermixed with recent gifts and replacements).
And it’s possible to come to love Christmas as an adult as well. It’s all down to personal preference.
So if someone feels the a/b ratio is too high they should cut out those elements. Swap them for whatever feels good for them, even if that is just skipping Christmas all together.
I certainly intend no disrespect, and apologize to those who are offended. I thought that in a thread that elicits responses to how something is done, the “…if you do it” part is implied. Lesson learned. Carry on.
The thread title is “What Christmas traditions are important to you?”. Do people really think their answer “None of it. I don’t celebrate Christmas” is a contribution?
Honestly, I don’t get it. Do you know how many times I’ve gone into a thread called “Which team so you hope will win this year’s <sports event>” and been disappointed that the poll didn’t include “None of them. I don’t follow this sport”? No times. I never click on threads about sports events that I don’t care about, and if I did, I wouldn’t expect that anyone cared about my answer.
This reminds me of the people online who comment on recipes to share that they are allergic to the ingredients. Why would anyone do that? Move on to a conversation/poll/recipe about things you are interested in/celebrate/can consume.