No unorthodox traditions here. I do miss going to the beach on Xmas day though.
Not sure why people are trying to convince TJ to enjoy Xmas their way. I too hate the way Xmas has become commercialised but do enjoy the family get togethers.
Let TJ do Xmas his way and you do it yours. Leave us bah humbugs alone 🙂
Agreed Uggski - I refer you to my earlier answer : Just because someone is different, it doesn’t mean they are wrong.
I have to say that I was very much like TJ until quite late in the game Mrs anagallis and I had a kid ..it kind of make sense then. He loves having his aunty and two grannies over for a few days. Me, not so much, but I try for him. He is 13 now so it's not "magic" like it once was but he still likes it so I keep trying...
I utterly loathe christmas. The worst of capitalism putting huge stress on families mainly women, increase in domestic abuse and so on as a result of excess alcohol etc. People are made to feel like failures unless the spend vast sums on tat and a midwinter feast that has lost all meaning
That's not Christmas, that's commercialism.
What we'll be doing is getting the family together to eat and drink to excess, and have fun. That's all it needs to be. As with most things in life make it your own, don't follow what the others are doing.
Been very anti Christmas for years, gave in and went around to my OHs family last year, I’ve managed to avoid it for years.
It was unorthodox in that there was zero arguments, it was relaxed, and no getting excessively drunk. Really enjoyed it.
to eat and drink to excess,
Exactly - you make my point. why eat and drink to excess?
I do acknowledge I live in a black and white world but by partaking in any of it then I condone it. I hate the huge meals full of meat with everyone trying to force more food on you. I loathe the idea you have to drink all day, I cannot abide the waste of resources. I hate the plastic tat that ends up in landfil. Its my stand against the world
Last time ( mid 80s) I spent a family Christmas I ended up puking all night having been pushed ( not just by family but by neighbours we went to) to eat far too much far too rich food. I already disliked it but that was the last time
the money I would have spent on christmas goes to charities who feed folk or towards christmas for the homeless and poor.
damn good job I never had any kids 😉
This just says to me that you have no idea how most folk spend Christmas. I would say that you've fallen for some heavy marketing but I know that advertising doesn't work for you.
scotroutes - almost everyone on here is saying they have a special meal and extra booze plus gifts. I also saw first hand the stress it used to put my colleagues under. I have seen the results of too much booze while working in A&E
Yours does sound fine to me I will say.
Ransos where do you get your salmon and how do you smoke it.? Only done mackerel myself
Local fishmonger fillets a whole salmon. I dry cure it for a few hours with a mix of two thirds salt and one third dark brown sugar. Wash very well, changing the water a few times. Leave to dry uncovered in the fridge overnight.
I have a fisherman's smoker which is essentially a biscuit tin over a meths burner. I use a mix of oak and beech, smoke it for 30 minutes or so. Remove the pin bones with tweezers, and you're done.
tj - I have a "special meal" on Ne'er day too, a steak pie 🙂 Then there's Burns Evening (usually involves some alcohol), even sometimes on birthdays and the like. I believe that various religions and cultures have equivalent celebrations?
Not possible any more - but for a good few years mine was having an italian meal of some kind with friends at the local(ish) greyhound rescue after having cleaned/walked the hounds and sorted them out with a proper christmas dinner!
Based on most Christmas discussions and very fortunately and somewhat tongue in cheek
Not getting smashed by breakfast time
Eating an overall approximately normal amount of food
Not falling out with anyone over lunch/dinner or having to deal with randomly objectionable relatives that only appear at Xmas.
why eat and drink to excess?
Because it's fun. And by "drink to excess" I don't mean drink all day and get hammered.
I loathe the idea you have to drink all day,
Who's been telling you that? It's not a universal thing. I do what I want to do, which in my case is eat a lot, have a good time and drink no alcohol. You seem to be feeling a lot of pressure on this issue that I don't recognise.
Extra booze doesn't have to mean violence. My wife might have three whiskeys which will make her very squiffy as one a fortnight is the usual.
If people are getting hammered and beating their partners, that's not because of Christmas.
Its not that I am feeling pressure at all. It that I have seen this pressure in others and have seen the results of it.
Its also the conspicuous consumption and waste I see
Not sure why people are trying to convince TJ to enjoy Xmas their way.
Because he pretty blanket labelled anyone who enjoys any aspect of Christmas as a wife beating consumeristic chauvinistic drunken gluttens?**
It's the onetime of year I knock all that on the head and I find it offensive.
**I don't actually think that Jeremy.
MIOlgrips - domestic violence and abuse and alcohol related crimes all peak at christmas
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/domestic-abuse-christmas-stresses-b1956631.html
Plenty of other links available
MIOlgrips – domestic violence and abuse and alcohol related crimes all peak at christmas
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/domestic-abuse-christmas-stresses-b1956631.html
Plenty of other links available<br /><br />
well that makes solving domestic abuse easy then; just ban Christmas and domestic abuse will end over night. 😉
MIOlgrips – domestic violence and abuse and alcohol related crimes all peak at christmas
I'm not religious, but laying that on the birth of Christ seems a tad unfair.
No family traditions here, no family to have traditions with, now. My brother and S-i-L go to friends because S-i-L isn’t in the best of health, previously I’d go down to theirs for Christmas, or Salisbury for Christmas Day to have dinner with Joey’s mum and daughters, but her mum is going to New York to spend Christmas with her daughter, Joey’s sister, and her daughters will be with their dad. I have other relatives, but none I’m very close to, so I’ll be on my own at home with the telly and a microwave meal, or i might work up the enthusiasm to cook something. There will be drink on hand at least, but otherwise on my own. 🤷🏼
MIOlgrips – domestic violence and abuse and alcohol related crimes all peak at christmas
Bloody hell, TJ knock on the head mate, I get that you want to spend it cutting slices of cold porridge and eat it standing in the rain with a sour look on your face - like any true Scotsman; you're absolutely entitled to spend the break how you want, but you're not entitled to tell everyone else that they're enabling domestic violence FFS
Which is not what I have done at all. Why you feel it necessary to invent things you claim I have said I do not know but here we are. What I have done is explain my reasons why I loathe christmas a part of which is the stresses it puts on people.
Nice racist stereotyping as well.
I like to make a big pile of all the threads that start out interesting and become single issue back and forths within two pages. We use the generated heat to warm up grandad so he's got enough energy for one more rich sausage and brandy slammer.
you’re not entitled to tell everyone else that they’re enabling domestic violence FFS
Jesus Christ (see what I did there 😜) people really do struggle to understand English in the written form don't they. It's not hard to understand what TJ is saying and you are entitled to disagree but if your comprehension skills are that shit maybe just shut up.
count zero - you have a PM
Which is not what I have done at all. Why you feel it necessary to invent things you claim I have said I do not know but here we are. What I have done is explain my reasons why I loathe christmas a part of which is the stresses it puts on people.
No, you haven't, I agree. But could you look back over the thread and reflect on whether it's necessary to bang the rest of us over the head quite so much? I'm sure you agree that it's possible to have a celebration, over indulge a bit, enjoy ourselves, without falling into violence and destitution. In fact it's what most people do.
@sirromj
A mate and I did go and do one of the classic V Diffs on Tryfan one year. I think it was Boxing Day, though, not 25th Dec. And we didn’t take any ironing kit.
TJ genuine question for you actually ... Two. I'm not trying to pick a fight, you are perfectly okay in my book to do as you please and I and I would say most people here hate the bits of Christmas you hate but I can see some very lovely parts of it aswell. Surely you can see that the job you had you are seeing the very very very small sample size which os a perfectly valid reason to not partake yourself.
1. Do you drink? Because surely if you have seen the damage Christmas does you've seen the damage alcohol does all year round and you completely abstain?
2. You must also hate rugby because people drink to excess watching that?
None of that has any relevance to the point I was making. Shame I thought you had got it.
I have upset enough folk so I am not going to continue. If you really want to discuss further then PM me
We get up late, I make coffee and then we open presents. They all bugger off to mass and leave me to prep the veg, goose and stuff.
I might have a cheeky beer before lunch whilst I'm getting the BBQ going.
There are BBQ bits (black pudding in puff pastry etc), to keep us all going (MIL & SIL show up) until the main event then after I do a wash the rest of the organisation get done by the ladies.
The unorthodox bit is that I and the kids play minecraft. We have a Xmas world we keep adding stuff to, it's always a giggle to see how their building style has evolved year on year (especially as the world hasn't got all the latest updates so they have to get inventive). It's an ace family evening.
