ho ho oh.

[mhalachai]

A quick Thursday poll! It's that time of year. (When I say "Christmas", take it to mean your personal holiday at this time, be it Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanza, etc.)
Notes: 1) the bit about kids, that can mean either your kids or other people's kids. Some people (like me) don't have any kids around to buy for, which I think will change how the answering goes.
2) By "equal", I mean like parents or siblings or siblings' spouses.

[Poll #638836]

Comments

[eavling.livejournal.com]

Last Christmas we performed an experiment.

Hypothesis: A fake Christmas tree with all the trimmings will survive, wrapped in plasic-wrap in the garage for ten months.
Procedure: Bend tips of fake branches around ornament hangers. Cautiously unplug tree lights. Carfully wrap fake Chrismas tree with ReynoldsWrap. Wait for next Chritmas season. Carefully position fake tree to best effect in front of window. Carefully unwrap fake tree.
Observations: Christmas tree is no worse for wear. Christmas tree is not even dusty. No antique glass ornaments were broken at the end of this experiment.
Conclusion: Wrapping a fake Chritmas tree and storing it in the garage is a GOOD THING! It saves a lot of time and space.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

That is amazing. A, that you thought of it, and B, that it worked.

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

Our tree's only 20 inches high, so we can just stuff it in a Hefty bag and stick it on the shelf in our bedroom closet. :-)

RE: the religious aspect of the holiday: I reflect on its being Yule and Saturnalia, all the more so since FOX News in the US has decided to declare war on people who say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas".

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

You sound like me. Once I learned that FAUX news was crying about the sky falling the Christian minority being beaten down by the Corporation, I've perversly been wishing everyone a happy holidays.

That's right. I want you to have BOTH a Merry Christmas AND a Happy New Year! Take that and smoke it, Bill O'Reily!

[eavling.livejournal.com]

I find it only polite to say Happy Holidays to strangers in lieu of Merry Christmas. One never knows what holiday said stranger is practicing. All of the holidays that I know of that are progressing at this time of year are 'happy' ones, at least. Besides, my family has entirely too many friends, not all of whom celebrate Christmas, and our holiday card list seems to extend for miles. What are we going to do? Send a Christmas card to our friends who are Jewish or Islamic?

I'm still not too sure what the controversy is, about all that; maybe I'm missing the point. I tend miss a lot around this time of year, except what filters down to me through the grapevine. The news I happened to hear today was terribly depressing: Airplane crash, Tree Burns in Brookhaven schoolyard, Toys'R'Us packed with shoppers...terribly depressing. Now how am I going to get those last minute gifts for my cousins?

[mary-re.livejournal.com]

For the past few years, I've really been stressing to my family how much I don't care about the 'presents' aspect of Christmas, because everyone always gets worried about picking just the right gifts for people, and then about scheduling who will be where when, and it gets to be not fun.

My favorite thing ever about Christmas is getting the whole family together. *anticipates*

Because god knows I can't anticipate snow or anything...the predicted high temp. for Christmas day is in the 70s. *g*

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about the presents thing. My extended family is far away, so I only need to buy for my parents and brother, and that's hard too. But I still like doing it, in a way, and nothing I say will convince my parents to not buy me gifts.

I'm looking forward to the food, though. My mother the chef (a real live chef) isn't going crazy over it, but Christmas day at their house is always very yummy.

[rosedugloria.livejournal.com]

Interesting poll but your second-to-last question "I believe Christmas is..." has no positive answer choice. Personally, I like Christmas and yes, it's a bit over-commercialized and can be stressful, but my family spent a couple of years when we did nothing for Christmas but exchange gifts and eat the token dinner and it felt completely blah. Now, we decorate and listen to carols and it's more enjoyable! So I think personally, Christmas is a lovely way of ending the year.

Merry Christmas! ^_^

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was the negative question. I wanted to balance it out with the following positive one. But I shoulda had a "none of the above" box... oh well :)

And Merry Christmas to you as well!