I do for a start. A galloping pox upon chr*stm*s and all it’s false cheeriness!

Nope. I like spending time with my family and at Christmas time I get lots of opportunity to do that + with a nephew and niece aged 7 & 5 it’s a laugh 🙂

false cheeriness

not noticed that, maybe it’s just you?

Nope – never hated it.

Although I would give much to have another Christmas like the ones we used to have when all the family was around and I had no responsibilities (read ‘I could go out and party for the whole of December and most of January’).

i like it.
i like to see my kids, grandaughter and family and friends happy.
this make me happy too. 8)

Nope… Love it.

friends, Family, Food and Booze! whats not to like?

The presents aren’t important, but are very nice. Present 1upmanship can be bad though for the little’ns

love it. Already getting excited about it. Spend time with my family, including my 18 month old son.
Eat, drink and be merry. and two weeks off work.
Carols, christmas films, Walks in the snow in Northumberland.

With no kids and being 30 I’d prefer to be on a beach somewhere but I wouldn’t say hate it. I’d just prefer to have it for the last 2 weeks of December rather than half of october, november and december. Wouldn’t give comet santa time to deliver all those electricals then though would it.

I don’t hate it although I’m often accused of hating it – I just don’t want it to start in August (which it does according to my wife).

I also work in retail so we do 75% of our yearly business in November/December so my work load goes through the roof.

Prior to that I used to work in a restuarant where Christmas parties would start in November and as you worked there you’d get to clean up after them every night for about 6 weeks!

These are not things that make you love this time of year!

Don’t hate Christmas, but this one is likely to be pretty crap.

After alternating between my parents and the in-laws for the past 8 years, this is the first after splitting up with the missus. Don’t feel like visiting my folks so going to see a mate, at least I’ll get out on the bike a fair bit…

Cheers, Rich

Xmas is for the kids, so let’s indulge them.

Hogmanay, that’s for us. Let’s overindulge 🙂

I am with the OP (see other thread) ghastly festival of consumerist overindulgence

MIL cheerfully told me and the wife that we’re hosting xmas this year “you know, like we discussed”……..trouble is no one discussed it with us

Managed to body swerve that as my parents are coming over on boxing day and its too much for my wife to cooking xmas dinners two days in a row.(yes i help, but the cooking is her domain, i just burn/undercook everything in the same way she’s no good at DIY or hoovering)

I don’t mind xmas, i don’t care about the shops playing xmas music in July, i do care that people turn into selfish self obsessed gits (last xmas was particularly bad as in-laws turned into complete plums)

I reckon Christmas is more of an anticlimax when it appears. I like the build-up, the autumn with cosy nights in, the chrimbo shopping, the wrapping, the buying of posh chocs for our own advent calendar, putting up the tree, mulled wine etc.

Then the day itself, apart from posh nosh, usually ends up as an anticlimax. I reckon it is because I tend to buy everything I want for myself so it is really difficult to get presents for me. My fault.

Strange thing though is when christmas day and boxing day is over I want to take everything down ready for the next year. Christmas is done, over and it is time to look forward to the next year with biking plans and the like!

Love it another excuse to spend money and over indulge on fine food and drink.

I dont hate Xmas, but I do hate the fact that it starts way too early.

Plus there are a few people that I really miss around this time of the year, which is upsetting.

But overall, time off work, eating, drinking and meeting up with friends old and new….cant be bad…. 🙂

I wouldn’t say I hate it but I could do without it for sure.
It’s nothing more than an anti-climax of consumer driven greed nowadays, it’s very embarrassing to watch and be involved in.

Lose the presents and just make it about family, that’s alright.

Don’t ‘hate’ it but can’t see the point.

Bag o’ **** 😕

No… scrub that i hate it.

I am with the OP (see other thread) ghastly festival of consumerist overindulgence

For some yes, but it does not have to be. Think of it as a vehicle to enhance your natural persona – if you are a victim of consumerism and sucker for marketing you’ll have an unnecessarily costly one; if you are all about people you’ll have a sociable one; if you are grumpy sod you’ll turn into a well known Dickensian character 😉

What’s not to like about christmas,food,booze,no work so plenty of time for riding.
HAPPY DAYS if you ask me 😀

ghastly festival of consumerist overindulgence

Only if you choose it to be like that.

I certainly don’t buy in to all that in a big way. Just like you opt out of it altogether, you can just as easily opt out of the overly consumerist side of it and just see it as an opportunity to spend time with family, take some time out and enjoy yourself. It’s not all or nothing.

Hate it. From the pagan festival of the sun to the Christian festival marking the birth of Jesus and now the socially and economically necessary event where we all spend lots of money boosting the economy with the circle of payments boost that dumping massive lump of cash in to it requires. Fake festive cheer, god awful adverts on the TV, people bringing large dead evergreens in to their houses and small messages rolling along the bottom of the screen when the Great Escape is on giving people a phone number to call if their going to top themselves.

I can’t abide it, I don’t mind a couple of days off work don’t get me wrong but the artificial merriment that we are meant to enjoy sickens me to the very pit of my stomach. Essentially Christmas is a time of year for kids and as I am no longer one and have none of my own to parasitically enjoy it through, like some sort of anti Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, I would very very happy if the whole thing were just called off and a large one off income tax payment was charged to readdress the economic ramifications.

Also Christmas pudding is foul, mince pies ming, crackers are pointless and if I want turkey and roast potatoes I’ll make them whenever I want thanks all the same. Cromwell had it right.

Turkeys?

Enjoy the time off, don’t enjoy the family politics (or most of the family, tbh).

Wondering if I can get away with spending this Christmas riding or with friends.

Xmas is for the kids

I thought it was for that Jebus?… 😉

I think kids love it, and its great to watch them enjoy it and nice to see all the family together if they can but I do find it depressing to see kids rip everything open and look for the next, rarely savouring things. Kids just get too much and I think its damaging ultimately.

We got our first Christmas card on September 29th 😡

Not a card, tree or pressie sets foot in our house. Fine for others to celebrate it. But we dont have any kids so there seems little point. It’s not as if we don’t have enough food/drink/gifts through the year anyway.

Dont hate it. Hate is a strong word. I enjoy the time off work. I dont really enjoy the rest of it. Lucky I dont have to cook or buy many gifts. (Small family with no youngsters ).

Daughter is three this year so I’m looking forward to Xmas for the first time since I was about 12.

Might even dress her up as an elf.

None of my family is going to be in the country, none of Mrs TJs immediate family is left alive. I hate the trad Christmas dinner, I hate the overindulgence we are all encouraged to get involved with.

I hate the concept of “the best Christmas ever” which puts people under such pressure, I hate the way that domestic violence and suicide rises.

To me its indicative of all that is wrong with our society. The grasping materialism and the unrealistic pressures people are put under.

Like others have said Xmas is for the kids. I like the time off work though and to eat, drink and be merry!

Oh TJ what a joyful fellow you are! Hope I never meet you in a pub…I’d probably slash my wrists in the toilet!

Realman – get yourself on holiday with Mountain Biking Spain for Xmas and New Year!

Well I for one love it, even though I’ll be working most of it (just Christmas eve off, and working till 3 on Christmas day). The kids (6 and 7) are already getting excited, and I’m pretty certain that even though money’s tighter than usual this year, we’ll enjoy it all the same. Lighten up folks, there’s bigger things to get a hair across your arse about. 🙄

i’m not a fan of christmas as a celebration….
but, i like the fact that i get to see family that i haven’t seen in a while, but the only reason that we get together at christmas is because it is the only time of year when everybody is free at the same time.

i’m not christian or in any way religious. for that reason i do not celebrate easter or ramadan.

i’m not keen on the idea of buying presents for people that already have everything they need.

i do not like the way christmas stuff arrives in the shops in september and how supermarkets, shops and any other organisation tries to cash in on it.

i got into a silly discussion with a german guy on the train a few weeks back. he was saying that christmas is the greatest, nay, best, celebration in the world because even the chinese join in. i think i may have offended the staunch catholic bavarian by sharing my views with him….

Its now become a capitalist festival to get us the consumer to spend money we dont have on utter crap, over indulgence on food, while homeless people are going hungry,wher peopkle get in debt to keep up with the cameroooons, where the tv is absolute crap, and where quite afew people seem to think its a good time to fight or end their life, putting a huge demand on the NHS.

NOW JUST REMIND ME OF THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS, where a carpenter was born in a stable, and visited by 3 strange men, with presents.

Nowadays they would be branded as perverts.

I quite like it. But I’ll be skiing all day 8)

The office shuts. Enforced time off work. Just a pity it’s mid-winter and not mid-summer.

Love it, spending time with the kids and the better half, off work, bike rides with the lads, plenty of beer!
Might even go away for new years.

Whats not to like?

Can’t wait!