[Yudster]

I meant everyone I normally spend hours and a fortune buying presents for........aaaarrrgh!!!!!!! I'd better start now.............

[kendra k]

this christmas will be my first away from home. i think my parents are a little miffed about it, not the going to chicago to be with the boyfriend but the going to england afterwards to watch footie. it means less worrying bout presents and cooking. wahey!

[Gaspode_The_Wonder_Dog]

I would be worrying about cooking if I were you.

[kendra k]

ha! why? can't i just get veg curry day and night? aloo ghobi and aloo saag. yum!

[Yudster]

I like cooking, I actually look forward to cooking Christmas dinner. It's dead easy, I don't know why people get in such a panic about it.

[Andy B]

I really do hate xmas and everything that goes with it...yes that includes the presents as well.

I don't care if it's bah humbug, I hate it and never have decorations or anything...I do like seeing all my family and a big dinner that somone else has cooked and has to clean up but I enjoy those things at other times of the year anyway, xmas just happens to be an excuse for another one.

Well that's brought everyone down nicely hasn't it. Sorry if I did, my views are my own and your entitled to yours etc. etc. blah blah blah...

[kendra k]

i like cooking for me and my boyfriend in my own kitchen. i hate dealing with other people though. see, i'm vegan and am willing to cook lots of my own food. (note that gaspode!) i hate it when people make a huge deal about it at holiday meals. oh no! they can't use butter, they have to bend over backwords for me! no they don't! i offered to make everything and look forward to it.

this year, at the bf's family, i'll probably not get much opportunity to help much because his mom is super nice and loves taking care of people. it's also the first time one of her kid's s.o. is coming home for the holidays. however, if i can help i will. i like that.

[Andy B]

s.o.? what the heck does that mean?

Oh wait I get it. Significant Other....

At least I think I'm right.

[kendra k]

ding ding ding! prize goes to andy b!

[Gaspode_The_Wonder_Dog]

I hate phrases like that. so horrible.

[MK Chris]

I really do hate xmas and everything that goes with it...yes that includes the presents as well.

I don't care if it's bah humbug, I hate it and never have decorations or anything...I do like seeing all my family and a big dinner that somone else has cooked and has to clean up but I enjoy those things at other times of the year anyway, xmas just happens to be an excuse for another one.

Well that's brought everyone down nicely hasn't it. Sorry if I did, my views are my own and your entitled to yours etc. etc. blah blah blah...

I'm the opposite, I love Christmas except for seeing all my family.

[Yudster]

Oh, poor old Andy B, yes, it is Bah Humbug of you - but you are allowed. I used to be like that too, but these days there is a level on which the whole thing has real significance. And luckily I don't mind the crass bits too much, all the plastic and glitz - it all has its place.

[Andy B]

ding ding ding! prize goes to andy b!

Ooo! I win a prize...gimme gimme gimme.

I've always figured that you love Xmas as a kid, then grow out of it, then have kids of your own and subject them to it as well...I don't want kids so I'll stay a misery guts for ages I guess.

I do the whole cards thing, but mostly because I feel crappy if my work colleagues give me a card and I don' give them one and for some of my friends it's the most of my handwriting they'll see all year.

I'm the opposite, I love Christmas except for seeing all my family.

My family are quite cool though, my nan gets me drunk on wine and sherry and my uncle teachers me his latest insurance scam of how to claim multiple times for a £500 gold bracelt that he bought for £20 off of some guy he met in the pub.

My family are so diverse it's a wonder I'm as stable as I am.

[Yudster]

I think you quite enjoy it all really Andy B. You're not fooling me......! For me, the only real problem with it is that it does tend to get strung out a bit. Like I said, for us, it mostly revolves around church (although I'm not saying we don't get into the other stuff too, because we certainly do). So thats why we tend to get going with it a bit later than a lot of people, and I have to say, by the day after Boxing Day (Boxing Day in our house being more officially know as my daughter's birthday) I'm really ready to pack it all up and get on with New Year. Which I actually hate as much as many people hate Christmas, I don't really know why.

[Boboff]

W have decided this year that instead of the usual 12 people in 12 different shopping centres desperately trying to buy a present that is meaningful and appreciated, that we won't bother ( except for the children obviously ) and use the money we all "saved" to pay for ourselves to stay in a seaside hotel for a couple of nights between Christmas and New Year, do Kareoke and Pantomime etc. Having trouble booking the rooms at the moment, but it's a thought !

New years Eve is Boboffs birthday, which was excellent when I was out with friends, as I got bought drinks all night, was rubbish when I was a kid as my Parents used to make me collect glasses in their Pub, and now is rubbish, mainly because where ever and when ever I am with people, the phrase they greet me with on the dawn of the new year is


"it's not your birthday anymore"

So annoying !

[princesslia]

You know these emergency service contracts which guarantee you an engineer within an hour if you pay so much a month? Don't bother. I phoned them at 12.30 today - they said they could come at 4.00, when I wouldn't have been here, so I arranged for them to come between 5.30 - 6.00. They just phoned to say they can't come until tomorrow. I'm now miserable, cold and angry. Avoid Colchester if you want to keep all your vital parts intact, I'm in maiming mood.

yep, been there done it and worn the t/shirt. How come you ring in an emergency on the Monday, and they say "can send someone round on Wednesday..whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.
Buy a hot water bottle, buy the fluffy cover and stick it down you knickers..............................mmmmmmm nice one.

[princesslia]

I really do hate xmas and everything that goes with it...yes that includes the presents as well.

I don't care if it's bah humbug, I hate it and never have decorations or anything...I do like seeing all my family and a big dinner that somone else has cooked and has to clean up but I enjoy those things at other times of the year anyway, xmas just happens to be an excuse for another one.

Well that's brought everyone down nicely hasn't it. Sorry if I did, my views are my own and your entitled to yours etc. etc. blah blah blah...

I'm the opposite, I love Christmas except for seeing all my family.

Oh dear, I looooooooooooooooooooooooove Christmas, especially getting my grandchildren to help me decorate the tree, simple things, simple pleasures. looooooooove New Year as well.......I'm Scottish, I've hired a Piper in the past to stand in my front garden and play in the New Year.
I have nice neighbours.x Luckily. But.... they are English, most of them dont celebrate New Year............ so .. bagpipes tell everyone It is New Year.

[Yudster]

That's probably why I hate New Year then! Bagpipes sounds like something dying a horrible painful death. The sound of bagpipes is the most horrible thing I have ever heard, I'd rather listen to fingernails scraping down a blackboard.......nyaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!! The only time I have ever smiled at the sound was when Ross tried to play Celebrate by Kool and the Gang for Monica and Chandler's wedding, and Pheobe sang the lyric.....that was funny.

Please don't take offence though princesslia, I'm not suggesting for a minute that bagpipes are bad, I just have a constitutional inability to listen to them! Like you said, it's the English in me.....

[princesslia]

That's probably why I hate New Year then! Bagpipes sounds like something dying a horrible painful death. The sound of bagpipes is the most horrible thing I have ever heard, I'd rather listen to fingernails scraping down a blackboard.......nyaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!! The only time I have ever smiled at the sound was when Ross tried to play Celebrate by Kool and the Gang for Monica and Chandler's wedding, and Pheobe sang the lyric.....that was funny.

Please don't take offence though princesslia, I'm not suggesting for a minute that bagpipes are bad, I just have a constitutional inability to listen to them! Like you said, it's the English in me.....

no offence taken, It's a Scot's thing.... bit like I dislike the Morris Dancers in England....

[MK Chris]

Morris dancers are sh*te, as are bagpipes. I've never really seen the significance of new year, it's just another excuse to get pissed. Not that that's a bad thing.

[Yudster]

I don't like Morris Dancers either, bunch of pansies. Drinking's overrated too. There, now I sound almost as Bah Humbug as you, Topher!

[princesslia]

I don't like Morris Dancers either, bunch of pansies. Drinking's overrated too. There, now I sound almost as Bah Humbug as you, Topher!

Bunch of pansies... loving it... Well as regard to drinking at New Year, I celebrate, with family and friends, drinking is part of it, but social drinking.
and having a nice time celebrating the New Year is fun, and falling about well drunk, is not fun, and nobody at my New Year parties falls about drunk. Us Scot's grannies dont stand for that nonsense...

[Gaspode_The_Wonder_Dog]

Morris dancers are sh*te, as are bagpipes. I've never really seen the significance of new year, it's just another excuse to get pissed. Not that that's a bad thing.

I need something to do at new year.

[kendra k]

me too. anybody have any ideas? i'll be in sheffield new years day.

[Sidders]

Go to Meadowhall, although not much will be open on NYD.