devilrules666 said:
You have us! We should build a aukn house and all move in together! Anime all the time!
Fridays - 7pm each week: This is reserved for Type-Moon animes. No negotiations!
We'll work the rest out another time.
Well, I've said my piece on modern Christmas traditions and issues with them. But I'll say that I wasn't always so skeptical about the season. (This is where I go all philosophical in rambling, I'll change colour to when it goes back to something else)
As a (now) break-away "part-time Christian", I enjoyed Christmas coming, and we would go to church and (even though going seemed more like a chore) I'd join in the singing of hymns, go home to open presents and play with them, watch TV with everyone, eat and relax. But it was all about the fun of the day and being with family, giving some thought to the real message of the season - the birth of Jesus.
After the conversion to agnostic views in college, I stopped calling it Christmas and called it Xmas. Without the religious side to it, I was still looking forward to the time with family and the exchanging of gifts with near-and-dears. Then things started looking more and more commercial every year - I view it as a capitalistic trap surrounded by dutiful traditions of time-consuming endeavors and lifeless expenditures. Especially when things seem a lot more expensive now then they were before, focusing on technology. This becomes reminded with certain people's attitudes towards the festivities around me.
Some part of me wishes that I still had a sense of faith, so it would give me a redeeming reason to carry on with it without self-scrutiny. I don't think age is a reason to forget such a nice experience that it can be. Age usually is associated with it because you start to become more responsible for sorting out the day's events when you're older - Buying/cooking the food, decorating and putting up the tree whilst replacing lights or tinsel, writing your own cards instead of parents sending wishes to far-away family (plus the size of the list of contacts), buying stamps or posting/delivering cards, etc.
It's a festival for one day, yet some people spend half a year preparing and getting stuff slowly. I still think 2 months is too much time to waste on it, but it just takes that long to get everything and sort it out.
But with all these things toned down and just letting things go more freely/smoothly, it could be a very fun day still. Why eat Turkey? Because the USA do it for Thanksgiving? Hell, they do that AND then again on Xmas, so that must be a budget blow-out. Just small compromises and a brighter outlook on it would make the spirit of the season come to life again.
For what's happening, it's traditional stuff - Wake up, say hello to friends, head over to dad's/partner's place, give and open gifts, eat/drink, chat/watch movie, return home and relax.
I plan on meeting my Uni friends at the end of January, and there's talk about us going on a group trip to Amsterdam. I'll be looking forward to that, since I've not been off this island for 5 years at least. But that's it for that. I just continue to save up for the new car before my next MOT is up.
So yes, enjoy the festivities everyone! Hope you all have a great time!
