I am so proud of myself. I bought my first 2 gifts on line from Future Shop this morning. Usually I leave things until the minute and I find myself in some shopping mall running around like a mad woman with high stress levels. Has anyone else started with any shopping?

Started? Are you kidding?

Me and the rest of the guys usually gear up for a run through one mall on December 24 around 4:00 p.m.

That's when the REAL bargains are available you know!

Cheers

:D

SINC, one year I remember being at the mall on Dec. 24 and looking at my watch and it was 4:00 pm. I ended buying my dad some cheap after shave with a bunch of razors he likes to use. I'm sure people thought I was nuts. I was running from one end of the mall to the other sweating buckets trying to buy for everyone last minute. Never again! :D

Does thinking about it count?
To be honest, I am not a big fan of the infernal holiday.

I'm not really into the commercialization of a christian holiday and, not being the religious sort, I tend to crawl under a rock and avoid it altogether.

There is something awesome about going outside in all my winter woolies, snow quietly falling to the ground, absolute silence - even for being in the country - and working my dogs. Have a few pops waiting in a nearby snowbank for when I'm resting the sheep and my dogs. That is the ideal christmas in my book.

Cheers
Bo

Does making a list of things that I *want* for Christmas count? LOL!! graemlins/lmao.gif

Does buying myself a set of iM3 Altec portable ipod speakers on sale in advance so my husband can wrap them up for me for Christmas count? LOL!!

...I guess it counts for him and not me, eh :(

I'm ... uh... actually done.. *hides*

I love Christmas. I will admit it, its true. Mind you, the gifts I get for people are thoughtful ones, ones I know they'll need or appreciate. Half of my gifts this year I made myself.

Except for my bro's iPod, I won that one :D

LCML

I try to pick stuff up whenever I see an item I think suits a particular person. It can sometimes be difficult holding out until Dec. 25th - good exercise in will power. My last minute shopping has more to do with turkey, cakes, chocolate, cheese, crackers, pudding... that's the theory - always a few last minute gifts though - usually books! I just love spending a day in Pages and Indigo leafing through everything. It's a religious experience.

I feel the commercial exploitation of Christmas is no different or worse than the crass commercial exploitation of everything else by our society. It is a shame that the Christian message of "Peace and Good Will on Earth" has to compete with all this noise - but there is good evidence that existing heathen celebrations were usurped by Christianity - rather than the opposite. So gift giving and merry celebration appear to be most congruent with the oldest traditions?

I'm not really into the commercialization of a christian holiday...

Vacuvox has it right, the Christians co-opted (http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/holidays/christmas/real2.html) a much older celebration of the Solstice in the 4th century (along with Easter, which was the pagan festival of Oestra (eggs and bunnies have a lot more to do with fertility than the torture of social activists)). Now, our new dominant religion (consumerism) is co-opting Christianity, which seems like poetic justice to me.

However, I always get a kick out of the Christians who pontificate about how we all ought to remember the 'true meaning of Christmas' this time of year, and get back to 'traditional' ways of celebrating. I rather doubt that they're intentionally promoting drunken orgies, but that would suit me better than the mindless consumerism we've got.

I really do love the Winter Solstice...the lights, the trees, the mulled wine, and, mostly, spending time with friends and family. So I wish you all a happy Solstice!

Cheers

double-post (sorry)

I finished my shopping about an hour ago. C'est fini.

I am easy to shop for, since what I do is provide anyone who might want to give me a gift with a list of this year's charities that need help far more than I need gifts. This year, The NL School Lunch Association, The Salvation Army, UNICEF's Sudan Appeal, and the MS Society are on my list. Should someone want to give me a gift but not contribute to any of my selected, they may choose their own charity. This way, everyone is happy. Paix.

I'm not really into the commercialization of a christian holiday and, not being the religious sort, I tend to crawl under a rock and avoid it altogether.

There is something awesome about going outside in all my winter woolies, snow quietly falling to the ground, absolute silence - even for being in the country - and working my dogs. Have a few pops waiting in a nearby snowbank for when I'm resting the sheep and my dogs. That is the ideal christmas in my book.

I'd like to think Christ would be the type of guy who would rather skip his own party and hang out with you and that nice scenario you painted. ;)

I'll shut up now. ;)

Anyways, this year I'm skipping the whole shopping thing altogether. Hopefully enjoying some wonderful winter weather in the Ottawa area again.

Although, *ahem* I won't say no to anyone sending me a iTunes Gift Certificate or anything. :confused:

I'm almost done & I only went to the mall a couple of times - most of it was online. The thing with me is everyone comes to me for everyone else's ideas. I guess that's sort of a compliment but it's stressful too.

Funny though, today I got my credit card bill & I thought I had bought most of my presents on it but I had bought stuff for myself. redface.gif

Mostly I am so looking forward to Xmas vacation! I can't wait! I'm taking 2 weeks off! Yay! Yay! graemlins/nuts.gif

I have a few ideas of what I might do....does that count?
A couple I am going to make myself...I guess I had better get started.

I love the lights and decorations...my tree has been up for almost two weeks. I can relate to bopeep in that a silent snowy landscape is beautiful and peaceful - I have spent some christmas' up north at the lake and there is nothing like it.
Such a tranquil awesome feeling.

My partner (and I agree) state that people should treat each other all year long as happily as they treat each other at this time of year.

I'm sort of with Pamela: I just put the finishing touches to my Amazon wish list.

I have an excuse. My wife is leaving on the 26th to visit her Dad, in Chile. It's the first time we will have been apart at an important time of year for us. So I'll need lots of stuff to read.

Of course, I'll never get to the books because I'm looking after the monsters. Oh well.

bopeep has made me a bit wistful for my parent's farm. oh well again.

I don't do Christmas shopping until the final week. I'm getting busier and busier now and soon I will disappear from ehMac for some time as I am completely overtaken in Christmas sales mode.

Then in the final week I will take a portion of my ill-gotten gains and purchase rich food and drink and gifts for my family and friends.

My favourite thing about Christmas, besides stuffing my face and drinking expensive scotch, is sitting down all warm and snuggly on Christmas eve and watching the 1950's film version of "A Christmas Carol" starring Alistair Sim. Hands down the best film version of that little book by a long shot, and one of my favourite movies ever. Sim does an absolutely phenomenal job of showing Scrooge as a deluded and bitter, but very human character and his enlightenment and transformation on Christmas morning always gets me weepy. The lessons of that story are what Christmas is all about, to me.

You know GA, last year around this time, I tried to launch a thread called "Christmas Traditions" and asked if members would care to share items much like the one you just posted here. It failed miserably and I never did understand why.

Maybe you should cut and past this item and start a thread to see if you have better luck than I did.

My Christmas is very similar to yours with the good scotch and "A Christmas Carol", but in the last 10 years or so has one other component was added by our youngest son.

We now always play the movie: "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" every Christmas Eve. I nearly peed myself the first time I ever watched it, and I still enjoy it every year.

So let your hair down, get the flick, and have a couple of those good scotches to enhance the laughter watching the movie.

Go on, give it a try!

Cheers

smile.gif

Gifts are best when LEAST expected - 24/7/365. :D

••••

If I was to do my MBA or Masters in Anthropology it would be on the topic -
"The driving force behind western technology is the mass phenomenon of gift giving at holiday periods."

Mass gifting drives consumerism in a manner that would never exist if one was buying for one's own consumption or use. :cool:

Gifts are best when LEAST expected - 24/7/365.
Now that is so very true, and the gift itself doesn't have to be extravagant, just relevent and personal. Of course, extravagant can help too. :D

I once parked a brand new car in the garage for my wife to discover. It was the first new car she had owned and she loved it dearly. It replaced a 14 year old WMD. The look on her face was wonderful.

Recently I surprised my teenager with an iPod Mini, on no special occasion. She was immediately suspicious!

Best of all, years ago my Dad was yearning to see some old friends, but he just could not afford a ticket to the UK and was going through some tough times. I worked for an airline, so I weaseled 2 tickets for $25 each. I visited Dad on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning we were in London. He still talks about it. It was a huge deal to him, but a bigger one for me because it was my first job and the first real opportunity to do something big for a cool Dad.

On Sunday I was doing our company budgets. I had worn down a bunch of pencils. I went for a walk and when I came back the pencils were sharpened and tied with a little red bow - a present from my 6 year old daughter. What a cool kid!

when I came back the pencils were sharpened and tied with a little red bow - a present from my 6 year old daughter. Now THAT is a real gift!

Cheers

smile.gif

the pencils were sharpened and tied with a little red bowAnd I'll bet the shavings weren't dumped in your coffee either!

Ehmax: Christ [or any other similar icon] is welcome to come hang out with me. A friend of mine, a devout christiamn and shepherd, has an amusing anecdote - i think that's the right word - about god refering to us as sheep. If youhave tried to accomplish anything with the wretches you would find this quite amusing. There is no other animal, that when shown the right way to go will go the opposite way. She has more examples but I won't bore you all. Suffice to say, even for a non-believer I find it amusing.

I guess if we could all just stop our lives for a moment and just revel in our surroundings rather than worrying about who we have to buy what for, and where we have to be, and who is cooking for whom and why did you have to invite aunt Rita don't you know she's a....

Drives me right round the bend.

Cheers
Bo

My favorite movie to watch on Christmas Eve is "A Christmas Story." The story about the little boy who wants a Red Rider BB Gun and all the adults keep telling him he'll shoot his eye out. The dogs eat the turkey on Christmas Day and the family goes to a chinese restaurant. It's hilarious! smile.gif

I've never understood that movie Beachlover. My ex boyfriend and his family had the same tradition of watching it and they loved it. Having to sit with them and watch it was like torture for me. I really hated it. I hate to say that too...but boy...I hated it! lol.

My favourite movie has always been "Holiday Inn" with Bing et al. And my new favourite contemporary Christmas movie is a tie between Elf and The Grinch that Stole Christmas (Will Ferrell and Jim Carey versions).

And about all the fuss at Christmas time (bopeep you mentioned inviting Aunt blah blah blah and all the fuss involved)...I'm an only child and it has only ever been me and my mom and dad together. All of the rest of their (big) families are either in Spain or Scotland or Toronto so it has only ever been the three of us. I've never had to deal with the hassle of "all the relatives" and the chaos that exists. This gave me a really close relationship with my parents and wonderful, peaceful holidays. I feel lucky. This is why as an adult now, I plan to only have on child. I really enjoyed the relationship I have with my parents as an only child and every holiday (especially Christmas! and my birthday is winter solstice too) was the best. Now it's the three of us and my husband. He doesn't have any immediate family (the rest of the family is in California) so I didn't inheret any chaos that way either. lol.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!

beachlover, that movie is based on the book "In God we Trust" written by Jean Shepherd. I met him years ago in Greenwich Village in NYC. He was a brillian satirist, who died far too young.

Gifts are best when LEAST expected - 24/7/365. So very true.

I was once surprised at a company function with 150 people in attendance with a 25 year service gold ring.

I completely lost it that evening.

Perhaps because we did not have a 25 year service ring, and I had been there 31 years.

I had lobbied for many years to recognize employees with a tangible gift of appreciation.

What I did not know is that I had finally won, and had been singled out for recognition that night before three other very deserving candidates.

A memorable moment in my career.

Cheers

smile.gif