All Things Yule/Christmas

But what about Thanksgiving?
Well... Canada already had theirs' (if I remember correctly) and... other than family & home cooked meals... it's a silly holiday in our era.
Personally I can't wait to go home, spend a few days with my mom & dad, and enjoy mom's home cooked meal.

Anyways, it seems stores are pushing Christmas on society earlier and earlier each year. I remember when stores didn't start putting up decorations & selling Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving... this year Halloween was still half a month away and Wal-Mart was already selling Christmas stuff! :o

Ah well, it's a fun season... not as awesome as Halloween but definitely enjoyable.
Personally I honestly enjoy giving gifts more than receiving (so much so that I'll spend more of my paycheck on friends & loved ones before myself year round) though it is fun to receive gifts.
For me, I think I enjoy unwrapping them more than finding out what's inside (unless it's something I've really REALLY wanted/needed).

This year, however, I have the only thing I've ever wanted the past nine years... and that's someone special to spend it with. I could have cared less if I received anything this past almost decade as long as I had someone to spend the holiday with... and now I do... and it's one of the most incredible feelings in the world being able to share holidays & life experiences with.

So what is everyone else doing this year?
Any big plans?
Making a Christmas gift list for friends & family.... or yourself?
Anyone not do Christmas?
Or celebrate Yule?
Excited or loathing?

Welcome to the "All Thinks Yule/Christmas" thread.

Christmas is so commercialized now days its really a shame.. the want for things and the people breaking their bank to get $$$gifts. I rather give then receive and I love watching people open gifts that actual thought was put into when choosing that gift. I am more happier spending time in the kitchen baking and cooking and reveling in the smells of the season. I will spend the most of December baking and making ornaments to give to family members. Then on Christmas day the family comes over for bunch and then instead of a free for all we usually open each gift up and show it to everyone and enjoy the actual day...then I nap simple as that.

I love watching the reactions of my family when I give them presents.
Last year was a good year because I was able to afford to give more to them.
I had given my dad Old Spice deodorant and after shave set. As well as an adidas body spray set. Plus $100 in a card.
My mom was perfume, a charm that said '#1 mom, a box with nick knacks and $50 in a card.
My brothers both got boxes that I filled with toiletries. It seems lame but they love it.
So I goth them shaving cream, razors, deodorants, body sprays......
But I also got them things they would enjoy.
My oldest brother was the coffin boxes. And my other brother got a gift certificate at his fav clothing store (he only wears Diesel clothes)
I made everyone cry
I make the least amount of money and was able to give them so much.
So I have plans to do the same this year.
Their box of toiletries. Each of them got a nice JD gift set.
A gift certificate again for the one brother and Nightmare on Elm St. DVD box set for the other.
I'm actually almost done shopping. Hopefully by next payday I will have 90% of my shopping done.
Get it out of the way sooner so I can get my tattoos

Did you notice???? I wrote goth hahahaha

MoonRaven wrote:

Did you notice???? I wrote goth hahahaha

You sure did.
I think you should leave it.These little slips that we make with a keyboard,they say something about who we really are

One of my favourite things about this holiday, besides being able to make people happy with little gifts of affection (I do take the time to find what I think they'd like best... and generally have good accuracy... or, at least, they believe in "the thought that counts"), is Egg Nog.
What genius thought it'd be a great idea to make this a seasonal item in store... no idea... but it really grinds my gears I have to wait a year just to buy it.

Don't suppose anyone knows a good (and easy?) recipe for homemade egg nog?

And is it JD that you're supposed to add to spice it up? I know there's JD brand non-alcoholic egg nog sold in stores... which is quite yummy... the regular, vanilla spice, or the cherry-whatever that I've yet to find this year.

Decorating the nativity set and the tree, eating hallacas and grapes, baseball games and holiday specials on TV and the joy of giving and recieving in a pure non-sexual way, what a great time!

This year, I think, I am going to Margarita Island (What is for the US people Hawai, is Margarita Island for Venezuelans) to the beach, but I hope to return in New Year's Eve to spend time with my other family. (Good thing about my maternal grandparents is that they didn't bothered to took off the christmas lights, so decorating is easier)

Well I'm kinda more excited for my bday. It is on the 12th of december. But I like christmas. I really like to watch people open gifts, but I do have to admit it is like winning the lottery if I get things I really like and my aunt always gives me $50 so that makes me happy.

We always have christmas eve dinner. Then a polish breakfast and opening gifts from youngest to oldest. Then christmas dinner. I love it. This year I won't be pregnant and I won't have people reminding me how I got pregnant and I will be 19 so I get to partake in the champaigne toasting again... Yay (I loves me some alcohol.)

No Christmas decorating for me this year.
I love the vibe of my house when it's decorated.
But because my grandmother died, my mom doesn't want the house to look cheery.
So it will only be a little tree in our living room that we usually put in the dining room.

This year, I'm staying put, but I am sending congratulations and birthday wishes up to my home town. My younger cousin is due in early December, and my brother celebrates his birthday a week before Christmas. Next year however, I hopefully will be traveling up to attend his 21st. So, no big plans this year. Hopefully I will have a job again by then, and I'll be staying at home with my boyfriend.

I've been on and off about Christmas for quite a few years... it's far too commercialized, and I've never really celebrated it anyway, even more so when it was forced upon me in school. If I was to ask for anything, it'd be both a table to put all my plants on with some more glass lamps, and a couple of Neocolor II crayons. I'm still trying to figure out what to get my boyfriend... he's difficult to buy for.

I'd really like to get some eucalyptus and string it up all nice, rather than get a tree. Make the balcony green and spend the days out there.

I live too far away from my family.

MoonRaven wrote:

No Christmas decorating for me this year.
I love the vibe of my house when it's decorated.
But because my grandmother died, my mom doesn't want the house to look cheery.
So it will only be a little tree in our living room that we usually put in the dining room.

Yeah, we are in duel as well, so not too cheerfully neither

I'm a bad apple. I don't like the holidays that come in November/December. I'm not really 'holiday spirit' gal. Haven't done anything for those days for the last 5 years, or so.

Besides the egg nog, I don't get excited for this kind of stuff.

They started selling Christmas stuff even before Halloween. I'm thinking about pulling out the tree from storage tomorrow just because I'm bored. Whenever I put it up, I will be gothing it up.

^^To be honest I don't even know how to goth up a christmas tree.

black ribbon ...some silver tinsel ...maybe some skeleton garland (you can find that for 75% off now )

And use Halloween decorations. I have a purple bat garland that I have hanging between my kitchen and den that I will wrap around the tree.

This site

has some great stuff but most of them you can find in another color and revamp yourself.

Ginger_Snaps wrote:

And use Halloween decorations. I have a purple bat garland that I have hanging between my kitchen and den that I will wrap around the tree.

Nice ..I always wanted to do a more dark Christmas but I have a son and he likes the more christmasy feel to the tree that I do every year .

I never thought of that. I can't do it now because I am living with my mom. I plan to do it when I get my own place. Ever since I saw that kitchen in GB I decided that is what I wanted my house to look like. I figure all of you could help me with ideas when the time comes.

This Tree is only 11 dollars and they have a kind of a good selection of halloween things .

My mother is insisting that my brothers and I only buy gifts for the children, not the adults. This is a huge relief for me, as trying to figure out what to get my sisters-in-law has become a huge brain teaser. One is very materialistic and only likes brand name stuff (she's a bit of a ghetto rat) and the other one tends to be careless with the things I get her.

I already got a Dora the Explorer doll for my niece. She loves Dora. I absolutely loathe Dora.

Trying to figure out what to get everyone else.

I understand completely. I never know what to get anyone. My mom has tons of jewelry and never wears most of it, but I buy things like that for her anyway unless I can find something else that is nice. For both of my brothers they like video games (mind you they are 10 and 8 years older then me) So I just try to find them something interesting they will like. My uncle russ is trying to become a priest so I either get him something religious or a gag gift.

With my sis in law I try to get her perfumes and such, same with my other aunts because I really don't know what they want. Then when it comes to my other uncle I always get him books because he likes to read. This year I also have to get stuff for my three best friends and that will be hard.

My friend carl is away at school at OSU and I'm not sure what he would like. My friend steffanie likes to smoke so I'm probably going to buy her cigarettes. Then there is alyssa. Omg is she hard to buy for. We have been best friends since we were born but I never know what to get her. She is spoiled so she gets everything she wants. She has a ton of make-up, clothes, jewelry, and so on and so forth. So she always takes me the longest. Thing is she never seems to be really happy with what I get her and I feel bad.

^^I hear ya, girlie. It's very hard to shop for people when they have everything.

I only buy presents for my parents, 2 brothers, my boyfriend, his mom, my best friend and her 2 little daughters (one of them is my goddaughter)
And I bake cupcakes and decorate them with little candy canes, and gummy snowman and santa's...and wrap them up nice with cellophane paper and ribbons....and that's what I give my co-workers.
Times are tough people hahah
I can't buy for everyone i know. I'd be broke.

I make fudge and cookies for the my extended family. I only get my family actual gifts.This year might be different with the changes in the economy and me not wanting to charge anything excess on my cards for gifts for my family I might go the gift certificate route. (I know they are so impersonal) But I am thinking of actual cards to places that they like to go (my brother a book store , my mom bath and body ect.......) I actually do not want nothing for Christmas I have been like this for years now .I just love the season and like to enjoy it.