[rant]Why I hate Christmas[rant]

Another reason to hate ChristmasTIME (@Sac Arrow might want to edit the thread title) - static electrical discharge every time I reach for a doorknob. My latest was probably strong enough to hot-start an IO550.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
This year, I'm fighting back: I have created a playlist on my phone called "Christmas music that doesn't suck." It's partially thanks to a friend who is very musically oriented and used to work in the music industry, he's posting the name of a Christmas song every day and having people (including himself) reply with the best version they know, and there's been some really good ones... Even if the songs are the same, a different artist often makes it much better. Sleigh Ride? Harry Connick, Jr. The Christmas Song (aka "chestnuts roasting on an open fire")? Diana Krall (she's got several other really good ones too). See also Michael Buble and Pentatonix.
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I don't know why I never figured this out until now. I HATE the Christmas music they play on the radio, in the stores, etc. The hymns and carols we sing before midnight Mass, on the other hand, bring me to tears. We live in an age when literally ALL music is available in your pocket, why am I listening to crap?
 
ateamer said:
I like putting up some lights outdoors and a few decorations inside, and traditional Christmas movies - Die Hard, A Christmas Story, Elf, Bad Santa, Die Hard 2, and Christmas cookies. I can’t stand Christmas music, and it really gores my ox that I pay XM for specific channels and they go and change one of my favorites (Prime Country) to bland Christmas dreck for a whole month. Bad enough to have to hear a bunch of has-beens playing DJ and mumble through their dentures about some concert in 1973 - I pay to not hear them talk.

But I digest. Christmas is pretty fun, as long as there’s no Christmas music. Except Bob Rivers. He’s brilliant, plus he’s a pilot. (Redundant, I know.)
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Bette Midler's Christmas album.
Manhatten Transfer - same
Carpenters - same but not the heavy duty religious numbers
Diana Reeves and Diana Krall - all day, any day, I don't care about the topic
Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas
Buble's got a fine voice, but being a musician I notice there are songs where he has no clue about breath control and phrasing. Very jarring.

I really hate It's a Wonderful Life mainly because over the years, so many tv shows have done variations on it. Besides, I just hate it in general. I'll watch any other Jimmy Stewart movie.
Charlie Brown Christmas - the local jazz station has been playing lots of Vince Guraldi, not just the Charlie Brown material. Great stuff.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
This year, I'm fighting back: I have created a playlist on my phone called "Christmas music that doesn't suck."
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There is a Spotify version of this playlist that we use but YT is de rigueur on POA. You can skip the first track, especially if you don't speak Swedish.


Combine it with the the cozy fireplace video from "The Last of Us 2" to really warm the cockles of your heart(1).

(1) If your cockles get too warm, rub them in dry ice.

Nauga,
who gets your goat
 
“A Midnight Clear” (1992) is a pretty good movie, but hard to find. A young Gary Sinise is in it, one of his first movies. It’s a Battle of the Bulge Christmas Eve truce story between American and German soldiers.

Sam Phillips sings “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear” on the soundtrack, during the credits.

I haven’t heard a version like the one she sings.


 
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To me Christmastime is what you make of it. Perhaps read "A Christmas Carol" or maybe watch one of the movies for a reset?
 
I fight... 'forceful uncontrolled regurgitation' whenever another Hallmark "movie" is played. Was trapped at an auto dealership waiting area for 2 hours today, why why why did they insist on that channel.
 
I have to say as an adult the whole gift giving and receiving thing kinda sucks. Our extended family does a secret santa thing with a $50 limit... as a grown adult with his own money I pretty much have already bought anything I really wanted that costs under $50 and I think most of us do the same. None of us really know what to get each other so basically we just make a wish list or pass word via a significant other to "get this thing" then we get that at the christmas meetup. Yay.
It's fun to get stuff for the kids though and they certainly enjoy it. I also enjoy a lot of the christmas food. I make chex mix every year, used to add siracha to it but last year I did an experemental batch with japanese bbq sauce and it was so popular I've switched to that. Also turkey is actulaly awesome if you either deep fry it or brine and smoke it rather than the traditional method of sticking it in the oven until the plastic thingy pops out.
 
Can’t forget another classic Christmas movie: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, from Mystery Science Theater 3000. Every time, it has me laughing to tears.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I don't know, where do I start.


7. It's dark all the time

I get up and go to work in the dark. I drive home in the dark. I like the dark for sleeping. I don't like the dark for driving, riding my bicycle, going for walks, working on my suntan, or swimming at the beach. Especially when it is cold.
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I can't believe in 2 pages nobody picked up on this one yet. Christmas is sort of the celebration of the winter solstice...but what it really is, as part of that, is the celebration that FINALLY the days are starting to get longer. The world isn't going to end, it'll be light more soon.

Or, there's the second real meaning of Christmas, the Eric Cartman theory - "It's about ham".

I kinda like the movie with the BB gun, and It's a Wonderful Life. And the Peanuts Christmas soundtrack. And any animated movie narrated by Burl Ives.
 
We’re watching “We’re No Angels.” Can’t get more Christmasy than Bogart in a movie about escaped crooks and murderers on Devil’s Island.
 
Half Fast said:
We’re watching “We’re No Angels.” Can’t get more Christmasy than Bogart in a movie about escaped crooks and murderers on Devil’s Island.
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Until you get to the 'dead dad stuck in the chimney in a Santa suit' story in "Gremlins."

Nauga,
and smoked hams
 
My wife’s family has a weird Thanksgiving tradition, they watch the first two Godfather movies. Strange.
 
cowman said:
I have to say as an adult the whole gift giving and receiving thing kinda sucks. Our extended family does a secret santa thing with a $50 limit... as a grown adult with his own money I pretty much have already bought anything I really wanted that costs under $50 and I think most of us do the same. None of us really know what to get each other so basically we just make a wish list or pass word via a significant other to "get this thing" then we get that at the christmas meetup. Yay.
It's fun to get stuff for the kids though and they certainly enjoy it. I also enjoy a lot of the christmas food. I make chex mix every year, used to add siracha to it but last year I did an experemental batch with japanese bbq sauce and it was so popular I've switched to that. Also turkey is actulaly awesome if you either deep fry it or brine and smoke it rather than the traditional method of sticking it in the oven until the plastic thingy pops out.
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Same thing here. And half of the people's wish lists are just gift cards. So the entire tradition has simply devolved into a musical chairs of Amazon gift cards being passed around between family members.

But I guess helping the world's largest company increase its next quarterly earnings report is what Jesus wanted so who am I to argue with him? :dunno:
 
Sac Arrow said:
I don't know, where do I start.

1. Gift giving

I'm not a cheap bastige. But I really hate buying obligatory gifts that are not really very useful or desired. I am very particular on my 'stuff.' The Other Person is very particular on her 'stuff.' Thank you for the bike jerseys but I really wanted... (bad example. I really do like those jerseys.) I spend hours trying to decide on something that is needed, and nothing is, and each year that goes by, less is needed, so it all becomes super fluous. I WOULD BE PERFECTLY HAPPY with a gift card or money. But in this household that is irrelevant. That means nothing. It all comes out of the same till. Maybe for outside of family members that is a good choice but for example, my own folks and I have agreed to just trade cards. I'm super happy with that. I'd be happy to eliminate the cards.
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We're lucky/blessed enough to be in the same boat - if we need/want something (reasonably), we just get it. It got to the point that we were all just getting gifts for each other so we all had something to open. Even the attempted "draw a name" thing turned into "here's my list of stuff that I want, choose something from there". Bleh. We decided a couple of years ago to forego the gift giving between the adults in the family and we all get names from a local Salvation Army Angel tree and load them up. Of course Nana and Papa still have to get something for the grandkids and I guess as good Uncles and Aunts, we have to get stuff for the nieces and nephews, but those are a little more fun to shop for at least, and there is some variability in what you can surprise someone with.


flyingcheesehead said:
This is because the same 2% of Christmas music gets played over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

This is where "Whamageddon" came from. (Yes, I already lost this year.)

This year, I'm fighting back: I have created a playlist on my phone called "Christmas music that doesn't suck." It's partially thanks to a friend who is very musically oriented and used to work in the music industry, he's posting the name of a Christmas song every day and having people (including himself) reply with the best version they know, and there's been some really good ones... Even if the songs are the same, a different artist often makes it much better. Sleigh Ride? Harry Connick, Jr. The Christmas Song (aka "chestnuts roasting on an open fire")? Diana Krall (she's got several other really good ones too). See also Michael Buble and Pentatonix.

I also have a good chunk of The Nutcracker on the playlist, and some other less-played instrumental stuff.
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I keep searching through the Spotify playlists for a solid Christmas playlist, but so far, they have all let me down. I need to just bite the bullet and start building my own of the 'other' 98% of Christmas songs. For instance - did you know that The Offspring have some Christmas covers!? That never makes it onto the radio.
 
cowman said:
I make chex mix every year, used to add siracha to it but last year I did an experemental batch with japanese bbq sauce and it was so popular I've switched to that. Also turkey is actulaly awesome if you either deep fry it or brine and smoke it rather than the traditional method of sticking it in the oven until the plastic thingy pops out.
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^^^ Official RRR (Rough River Request)


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Sac Arrow said:
I don't know, where do I start.

1. Gift giving

I'm not a cheap bastige. But I really hate buying obligatory gifts that are not really very useful or desired. I am very particular on my 'stuff.' The Other Person is very particular on her 'stuff.' Thank you for the bike jerseys but I really wanted... (bad example. I really do like those jerseys.) I spend hours trying to decide on something that is needed, and nothing is, and each year that goes by, less is needed, so it all becomes super fluous. I WOULD BE PERFECTLY HAPPY with a gift card or money. But in this household that is irrelevant. That means nothing. It all comes out of the same till. Maybe for outside of family members that is a good choice but for example, my own folks and I have agreed to just trade cards. I'm super happy with that. I'd be happy to eliminate the cards.

2. It's cold

I hate the cold. Sorry, but I do. I have had hypothermia in the past and I'm sorry, I can't put on enough stuff to make the pain go away when it's cold. I should move to California or something. Oh, right, I already live here. Maybe Florida. Um... no.

3. Commercialization

When I was a kid I loved the flashy lights and all of these things. As I grew older, I gradually started to lose my patience with all of this Hallmark stuff and the movies are especially vile. Not vile exactly but just stupid toned down mild melodrama. I'd rather watch a Lava Lamp for hours. Go out and buy stuff. That is the message of the season.

4. It's about religion, but not really

I'm not that religious. At least not in a Christian sense. I believe in God. I do not believe any single faith is a singular exclusive pathway to God. I do not want to get in to a religious debate. That is not the purpose of this thread. I respect all faiths. The point I am making is that Christmas, particularly, is not a Christian holiday. Santa, the yule log, the tree, are all the Catholic churches concessions to the Pagans to get them to come over. Jesus wasn't born in a snow drift. Maybe the shifting sands looked a lot like snow.

5. I hate Christmas music

I like music, don't get me wrong. But Christmas music, to me, embodies all things 1 through 4 and then 5 too, recumbently. I hate chestnuts roasting over an open fire. I hate chestnuts roasting in my oven, because when I tried it they all exploded and it looked as if there were a hundred exploded squirrel brains inside. When I hear 'Let it snow" I think of Bruce Willis tackling bad guys in an iconic action movie. When I hear Frank Sinatra I think of mob bosses gunning innocent people down with Chicago typewriters.

6. Expectations

I don't like hanging out at other people's houses. Five minutes is cool. Five hours is not. I hate company parties. I don't need a company party as an excuse to drink. Or eat. I am very happy about ten months out of the year. Then starting about Thanksgiving things go downhill and I want to fast forward to March.

7. It's dark all the time

I get up and go to work in the dark. I drive home in the dark. I like the dark for sleeping. I don't like the dark for driving, riding my bicycle, going for walks, working on my suntan, or swimming at the beach. Especially when it is cold.

8. The ladies are all overdressed

That's right. Fur coats. Leather coats. Scarves. Hats. No halter tops. No vented leggings. I'm a warm weather animal, not a cold weather animal. But I am an animal. I have animal needs. Animal desires. I like my kitty treats promptly every day at 4.00 pm.

9. 5-0 is on a mission

That's right. If you drive don't drink, if you drink don't drive. Tis the season to peak a huge industry fed by draconian fines that employs manufacturers of vehicular interlocks societal re educational programs, and scores of affiliated 'services.' That's a whole new topic in itself. Back when I learned to drive the cops would stop me and tell me to get my drunk a## home. Nowadays, capital murder would be a downgraded charge.

10. Christmas spinoffs

For f*ks sake. Why do we need Kwanzaa? Why do we need Festivus? Why do we need the plethora of alternate holidays some people feel the need to celebrate in a Christmas fashion but they can't because they feel alienated by Christians? Or it it something else that is going on?
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First, I believe the proper usage is, "I hatred Christmas". While it may indeed be true that you hatred Christmas, I don't believe for one second you actually hatred Festivus. This post is a fine example of an airing of grievances, and I'm betting that you have an aluminum pole somewhere in your garage or hangar.

Sounds to me that there will be a wrestling match in the Sac Arrow house come December 23.
 
Jim K said:
I don't know why I never figured this out until now. I HATE the Christmas music they play on the radio, in the stores, etc. The hymns and carols we sing before midnight Mass, on the other hand, bring me to tears. We live in an age when literally ALL music is available in your pocket, why am I listening to crap?
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If I never hear Feliz Navidad again it will be too soon.
Let'sgoflying! said:
I fight... 'forceful uncontrolled regurgitation' whenever another Hallmark "movie" is played. Was trapped at an auto dealership waiting area for 2 hours today, why why why did they insist on that channel.
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They keep production costs down by making the exact same movie over and over again with new characters in a new location. I expect they're starting to use AI to come up with "new" scripts now to reduce costs further.

They regurgitate the plot, we regurgitate our lunch. And around and around we go...

That channel is such a waste of bandwidth.
 
nauga said:
There is a Spotify version of this playlist that we use but YT is de rigueur on POA. You can skip the first track, especially if you don't speak Swedish.


Nauga,
who gets your goat
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Oh, Internet... You never cease to amaze or amuse me. :rofl:
 
cowman said:
I also enjoy a lot of the christmas food. I make chex mix every year, used to add siracha to it but last year I did an experemental batch with japanese bbq sauce and it was so popular I've switched to that. Also turkey is actulaly awesome if you either deep fry it or brine and smoke it rather than the traditional method of sticking it in the oven until the plastic thingy pops out.
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My wife's family introduced me to what I call "Christmas crack". It's a mixture of Chex, pretzels, Kix cereal, maybe some peanuts, yadda yadda yadda all dumped into a big bowl and covered with melted almond bark. I don't know why - it's so simple - but I nearly make myself sick on that stuff every time it's available. My wife has the 'makings of it now, just waiting to post-NYC trip next week to put it all together.
 
@Sac Arrow

Sounds like you just need to get an adult beverage, turn off all the lights, settle in, play this, and chill until spring equinox.

 

When your mother asked you to wash the dishes
Well you said, "No no no!"
And you would not pick up your socks
So you might find a stocking full of coal
HO-HO-HOOOOOOOOOO!
Oh, you know that Santa's watching you and he keeps a great big list
And when I tell him the things you do, he really will be mad
He'll sit you on his knee and then he'll whisper in your ear
And you ain't gettin' diddly squat 'cause you really messed up…




And it’s unfortunate, because SA is one of my fave posters. Sad, really
 
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