Christmas!
 

Well, it's the first of december, the official start of xmas. Decorations are going up, the christmas cards are being wrote. Housewives are scanning the shops for the perfect turkey. The husbands scanning the supermarkets for some good beer and whisky. Students are planning their visits back home from uni for some free board and food. And little children are busy writing their letter to Santa Claus, tidying their rooms and being on their best behaviour so Santa brings them what they want.

So on the subject of Christmas I was wondering what the latest fad is for christmas present? Will enough Xbox 360s be shipped and make an impact on the gaming world not seen before. Will the new 'Lucy' doll, complete with peeing function, top the little girl's list. Let's here your views, and share with everyone what you have asked St. Nicholas for Xmas?

Merry Xmas everyone and a happy new year! :xmas:

Re: Christmas!
 

I wish I had an advent calendar so I could have had some chocolate :(

Re: Christmas!
 

A very merry Christmas.

And a happy New Year.

Let's hope it's a good one.

Without any fear.

Re: Christmas!
 

why oh why do you celebrate christmas for a full month? 2 days is bad enough.

Re: Christmas!
 

You're so cool.

Re: Christmas!
 

This year I'm asking santa for my very own Dante Hicks. I haven't been even vaguely good this year but I stole some kid's pen and paper to write the letter so maybe he'll get confused and give it to me anyways :up:

Re: Christmas!
 

he's just sad because he's been blatantly hinting that he wants a blue and yellow scooter for ages without success

Re: Christmas!
 

Actually, the "Official" start of Christmas (or at least the Christmas bit of the year) is Advent Sunday (or, more strictly, The First Sunday of Advent), which was the 27th of November.

Re: Christmas!
 

I'm asking santa to stop the world ****ing shitting on me :(

Re: Christmas!
 

I hope you didn't use that sort of language when you were sat on his knee in the shopping precinct.

Re: Christmas!
 

Of course not,


everyone knows santa only speaks esperanto :rolleyes:

Re: Christmas!
 

Wouldn't santa speak German or Swedish or some such?

Re: Christmas!
 

Are you suggesting santa is a dirty hun ?

Re: Christmas!
 

Well, he does look a bit like Grand Admiral Tirpitz.

Re: Christmas!
 

I like Christmas. It's not quite here yet, though.

Re: Christmas!
 

i'm starting to hate christmas.

Re: Christmas!
 

There's no 'official' start to Christmas since christianity is irrelevant/dead and its now a secular holiday.

Re: Christmas!
 

No, Christmas is a Christian holiday.
















Now bring me some figgy pudding.









(I won't go until I've got some...)

Re: Christmas!
 

Hence ""Official"" rather than "Official".

Re: Christmas!
 

Re: Christmas!
 

Well I suppose it depends on how """Official""" differs from ""Official""

Re: Christmas!
 

I thought that Christmas was stolen by Christians and had Pagan origins (like just about everything else, heh).

and NB3, you can have a hug if it gets any worse. I'm sure mist will give you a hug too if you want one :P

Re: Christmas!
 

"How The Christians Stole Christmas" would make a good movie.

Re: Christmas!
 

I can see a slight flaw though ;/

Re: Christmas!
 

Not enough pie?

Re: Christmas!
 

Where's the sex and violence?

Re: Christmas!
 

Christmas itself is a Christian holiday. The Christians just hijacked a pagan holiday and celebrated something different.

Re: Christmas!
 

mmmm Christmas dinner:up: can't wait

Re: Christmas!
 

And now capitalism has hijacked it and made it something different.

Re: Christmas!
 

I am going to buy a gamecube for my siblings (8 and 14 years old) so I can play the new Zelda when it comes.

I want lots of green blobs for Christmas (not really though).

Looking forward to Christmas dinners and having sparetime to do stuff together with family and friends. The Capitalist Christmas don't bother me so much, I buy some presents and ignore it other than that.

New Years, and its back to the bottle and after that the the school.

Re: Christmas!
 

Yes, but it's still Christmas, and is still to celebrate the birth of Christ. The original pagan festival was nothing to do with Christ, so when they Christians took it over, they changed the whole reason for the festival. Capitalism may be exploiting the festival, but the reason for having it is still Christian.

Re: Christmas!
 

Wait, what is this based on? Has someone surveyed UK households and found that the majority celebrate Christmas because of the Christian aspects or something?

Re: Christmas!
 

Christmas is a Christian festival, it celebrates the birth of Christ.

The fact that a load of non-Christians have jumped on the bandwagon and a having parties at the same time of year because the Christians are having a good time is neither here nor there.

And you're not going to win with that 'most people who celebrate Christmas aren't Christian so it's not a Christian festival', because of the number of Christians in the US of A. Christmas ain't just happening in this country.

Re: Christmas!
 

yawn

Re: Christmas!
 

tell us about Zwarte Piet :)

I'd like to hear more of the other odd euro-customs too, eg. Norway's Julebukk as I'm wondering how different your Christmasses are to the "proper" British one. :)

Re: Christmas!
 

Saint Nicholas the festive gift-giver
Saint Nicholas Day is a festivity for children in much of Europe related to surviving legends of the saint, and particularly his reputation as a bringer of gifts. The American and British Santa Claus derives from this festivity, the name 'Santa Claus' being a degeneration of the Dutch word Sinterklaas.

this is him btw.

Some elements of this part of the Saint Nicholas tradition could be traced back to the Germanic god Wodan (Odin). The appearance is similar to some portrayals of this god.
In the Saint Nicholas tradition in the Netherlands he rides a horse over the rooftops, and this may be derived from Odin's riding through the sky. Also his assistants, the Zwarte Pieten ('Black Peters') may be a remnant of the raven that accompanied Wodan. It may also be a reference to African slaves.

a 'zwarte piet'.

Celebration in the Netherlands
The Dutch St. Nicholas at his arrival in the town of Sneek in november 2005 In the Netherlands, Saint Nicholas' eve is the present-giving occasion in the Netherlands (after birthdays). In recent years, Christmas (along with Santa Claus) has been pushed by shopkeepers as another present-giving festival, with some success, although, especially for young children, Saint Nicholas' eve is still much more important than Christmas.


oh and i just ate a bag of 'pepernoten' and bought my presents. \0/
i'm in the mood! :salute:

Re: Christmas!
 

Well theres no obvious criteria for "the meaning of festival X being Y" other than the practices of the people who celebrate X. And to most people, the Christian aspects of Christmas are either secondary, or irrelevant. Christmas mainly means santa, and snow, and presents, and reindeers, and snowmen, and "oh yeah, something about Jesus too". Its a secular holiday with the capitalistic aspects grossly outweighing the religious ones. And this is an excellent thing.

America is full of loons so they dont count. If Christmas is about Jesus then evolution is about God.

Re: Christmas!
 

The presents, Santa, reindeer, mince pies, trees, glitter, and aprties are all about how we celebrate Christmas. What we are celebrating is the alleged birth of Jesus.

Re: Christmas!
 

No we arent.

Re: Christmas!
 

I am cellebrating family reunions, presents and surprises, movie repeats x10 every xmas & beloved mistletoe :cool: :up:

Re: Christmas!
 

*You're* not celebrating anything, you're just observing a bunch of traditions started by people who were celebrating the birth of Jesus. Anyone who is actually celebrating anything is celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Re: Christmas!
 

I'm celebrating having a few days off work.

Re: Christmas!
 

i'm getting some awesome gifts for people.

one person is getting a clockwork robbie the robot, for example.

Re: Christmas!
 

I'm celebrating yet another chance to get insanely drunk.

Re: Christmas!
 

same as every other day then :(

Re: Christmas!
 

Roses are reddish,
Violets are blueish,
If it weren't for Christmas
We'd all be Jewish.

Re: Christmas!
 

Bah humbug.

Re: Christmas!
 

Christmas is a christian festival, however the majority of people in Britain dont celebrate it for that reason. Rather they have a week off work, get drunk, spend time with family and dread seeing each other again for another year. In fact never once while ive celebrated xmas, has my family said "oh good its jesus bday" and Im sure if you ask many they dont celebrate his bday. Wasnt jesus jewish anyway?

Re: Christmas!
 

Christmas is fun, I have no idea what expensive piece of junk I will be demanding from my parents this year though, maybe an MP3 player? :p

Re: Christmas!
 

Don't ask for anything from Creative.