It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas Until...

Until we watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on TV.

I've got all of the Snoopy vs. The Red Baron songs by the Royal Guardsmen on my computer. Including the Christmas one.
I was just listening to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh-J4GSPgAM

My hubby said it isn't Christmas until he hears Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer by Gene Autry.

It's the big family gift-opening get-together for me.

The rest of the Christmas-y build-up of music and tinsel and the steamroller of commercialism is usually just an annoyance, but I do like that morning of paper-ripping and smiles and good company.

As for music, the Bandaid song "Do They Know It's Christmas" is special for me.

My uncle gives me unsettling glances.

until I double up on prozac.


Or,


when SK saves our collective sanity and moves threads like this into the holiday forum...

I've rewatched the first Die Hard movie again.

... I hear Burl Ives singing.

...until the fights for usless junk begins on Black Friday Eve.

The coca-cola advert comes on the telebox!

Highlight of my year!

. . . I get reminded on the radio that the Huron Carol is North America's oldest christmas carol and that it was written by a missionary in the first half of the 17th century in Ontario.

When the tree goes up.

When the commercial for holiday Hershey's Kisses comes on, the one where they form the shape of a tree, and each one is a bell, and they play "We Wish You A Merry Christmas."

<whew>

...until I stop stressing over finances from gift giving.

So, really, its been several years since I've felt like Christmas at Christmas.

KellyAssauer said:

until I double up on prozac.

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stormie said:

When the commercial for holiday Hershey's Kisses comes on, the one where they form the shape of a tree, and each one is a bell, and they play "We Wish You A Merry Christmas."

<whew>

Click to expand...

Well, yeah. Now that you mention it, this.



But also... can I whine, pleeeeeease?

My just-turned 7-year-old, Luke, is going to his dad's for Christmas. Dad lives in Pennsylvania, I live in Florida, and so my pre-Christmas prep this year consists of pre-washing the winter clothes I bought for Luke and packing them up into a suitcase.

(And these clothes are SO freakin' cute!!! Little button up sweaters and courderoy pants and jackets and mittens... and the jammies with snowmen on them!!! .... Waaaaah!!! )

Happily, I'll have my 22 y.o. and my 15 y.o. with me for Christmas.

But.... but... my baby!!!

Okay, I'm done. Thanks for letting me whine.

It still doesn't feel like Christmas yet, so I don't know! It just now started getting cold enough for hot cocoa, so maybe that's it. If I drink some Russian Tea in this weather, it'll all probably come flooding back

My siblings don't want to trade gifts with anyone this year, not even tiny little random things that make them happy, like those chocolate oranges they each love. They say they can buy their own. Fine, and their choice and all. But one never realizes how much one enjoys wrapping a chocolate orange with a glass of egg nog until it becomes completely irrelevant.

I swear I'm going to wrap a few toys and drive around on Christmas Eve to hand them to random kids. I'll probably get arrested, lol!

bsb, another option would be finding a store that does a Christmas present drive thing. As in, you go in with wrapped presents, indicate on a card what age range they're suitable for, and the store delivers them to poor kids.

Not sure if any of the stores in your area do that, but a few down my way do. That option at least won't get you arrested.

backslashbaby said:

It still doesn't feel like Christmas yet, so I don't know! It just now started getting cold enough for hot cocoa, so maybe that's it. If I drink some Russian Tea in this weather, it'll all probably come flooding back

My siblings don't want to trade gifts with anyone this year, not even tiny little random things that make them happy, like those chocolate oranges they each love. They say they can buy their own. Fine, and their choice and all. But one never realizes how much one enjoys wrapping a chocolate orange with a glass of egg nog until it becomes completely irrelevant.

I swear I'm going to wrap a few toys and drive around on Christmas Eve to hand them to random kids. I'll probably get arrested, lol!

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You could adopt some kids from Angel Tree or some such. No wrapping unfortunately, but giving to someone who appreciates it.

Your post is exactly why I didn't suggest that my aunts and uncles didn't need to exchange gifts with me anymore. In my twenties I felt bad that I couldn't give in kind, but I realized that if my parents didn't exchange gifts with my aunts and uncles, they'd only exchange with me and that's not much of a christmas. So I just made them ornaments and stuff. I realized they knew I couldn't recipricate, they just liked the exchange.

KellyAssauer said:

...when SK saves our collective sanity and moves threads like this into the holiday forum...

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You're welcome.

I'm doing Toys for Tots.

Also I have a few $10-$15 gifts in my car's backseat (all of them are "girl" toys, I confess, because I have no girls but I LIKE GIRL TOYS!!! ), for when I run across the "toy bins" that seem to be popping up more and more often. There's one at Starbucks, there's one at Publix....

****

But dang, it's hot as hell outside. I've lived in Florida all my life, I should be used to this, but I'm still grumbling. Can we please have a teeny tiny cold front to make it feel a little bit more like an actual Christmas?

Silver King said:

You're welcome.

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*gasps a 'thank you' inbetween guffaws*

Until I hear Bruce Springsteen's Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. By the time Christmas arrives, I'm usually sick to death of it, but the season doesn't really start for me until that first playing.

Oh, I do the charity stuff! Clark Howard has a great one, too, I'm doing this year. But I like to have folks share gifts at the gatherings. I like to bring them and have us all enjoy the pretty wrapping and little touches of thoughtfulness I'd love to spend time with the kids who get the charity gifts, but that is never done, for good reason, probably

Soooo many folks have gone to 'just gifts for the kids' (which they open at their own houses, on Xmas morning). And they don't feel like bothering with any decor or real party or anything. Meh, I can eat turkey or go get a cup of coffee with people all the damned time Eat a chestnut or something with me once a year; is that too much to ask? Unwrap a chocolate orange, my God