@Arcon.

I can't always tell if you're being sarcastic. I am taking this time to be one of your
sincere moments. All I can say is one man's meat is another man's poison.

Arch, r u trying to say that ur not really looking forward to the 50th repeat of Only Fools & Horses Xmas secial, Eastenders, the 20yrs of the Making of Band Aid, and the Great Escape? (hmmm actually that's q good, worth staying semi-sober for)

hey look, the OFFICE christmas special. huh? who's not looking forward to THAT?
what else is on?

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Ive yet to see the christmas edition of Radio Times

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this is like a ritual for me...every year, first week of december, pick up the christmas edition which is as thick as a yellow pages and scan the films section to see what I'm gonna watch...its kinda pointless really as I never seem to get time to watch any of the movies that I want to, but who cares, its a christmas thing.

Can't wait for the double "office" special too....most of christmas tv is crap sentimental drivvle...but for some reason I love it at this time of year.

You just can't beat limping from the dining room table, full to the brim with white meat and sparkling wine, still sporting whats left of the crappy cracker party hat and trying to work out how that "magnetic fish" thing works....flopping in front of the tv with a large whisky and falling asleep to "the great escape", "escape to victory", "miracle on 34th street" or a miscellaneous bond movie.

...well thats how it used to be anyway....nowadays I spend christmas with my niece and nephew, which means around about whisky-and-tv-time I become "man mountain", the human climbing frame.....or "man who can put any toy together without the aid of batteries and a screwdriver". Still fun though

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate x-mas. I like to see all the lights and decorated houses and all that stuff. I even plan to decorate my desktop @work.

It's just the idea that people have that you should get together and be nice to eachother only at those two days, or for how long you celebrate.
I'm probably getting together around that time, but it wont be especially for x-mas. Even if I don't see anyone of my friends around that time it wont matter to me because I know I can see them anytime I like.

Maybe I'm just lucky that my friends live close to me. If they didn't I would probably see them around the holydays because it's one of the few times a year we all have a few days off.

I'm probably to cinical to understand the true meaning of x-mas, but to me it's just another day. Just in the same way I regard family as ordinairy people. If everything is allright you like them, but why like them just for the reason that they are family?
If I like one of my relatives I concider him/her as a friend rather than family.

For the record, I'm not religious.

christmas decorations, bah! humbug..

NIckless. i have a feeling you take alot of important things for granted. are you incapable of feeling joy? i know its a medical condition. but i mean are you unable to see the whole good feeling time of year that is christmas (christmas DOESNT have an X in it, its like the worst form of dsylexia ive ever seen mate). If you decided to, for a few weeks of the year, be nice to everyone, that would make those you were nice to feel better. If EVERYONE did the same thing, how much nicer the world would be for that week or so. I think maybe you need to stop seeing things like normal. Maybe you dont celebrate christmas. I dont think you should. If you feel so strongly about it and think that being extra nice to people for a few days a year is such a "fake" and that people only do it because they are obligated to, not because its actually a decent thing to do, i dunno, maybe your just...wrong...emotionally, or something.


"it has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime, what better place than here, what better time than now"

I'm afraid that I do see where Nick is coming from on this one, Arch, although i don't necessarily agree with his p.o.v. I'm unable to say I don't feel much the same.

I make a huge effort every Christmas even though i detest all my sponging relatives, I never feel much Christmas cheer and this warm family glow ur supposed to get, well I've never experienced it. I really wish I could but other than the odd decent present I might get (unlikely with my useless lot) I honestly don't feel any different than the rest of the year.

Every dam' year i get a corking tree, decorate it really well cos the wife's rubbish at that, put up all her stupid decorations and lights, spend a fortune on her and the kids, cook a sumptuous Chrissy dinner (u wouldn't eat anything my Mrs made) and provide free festive fare for all the hangers-on who come round just to eat me grub and swig my Bushmills/Stol/Amaretto etc. Everyone else has a great time except me but I put in more effort than everyone else, I'm told it's better to give than receive, well it f***in' isn't!

Sorry but I get no pleasure out of my Christmas presents consisting of a pasta shaper, a spice rack and a vibrating musical reindeer that poos chocolate

One year after i got divorced I spent Christmas on my own and it felt no different to me except the shops were shut. That's how "special" it is. I still make the effort every year though, god knows why.

Xmas isn`t what it once was !
the ones i feel sorry for are the ones working for big retailers who only have xmas day off , many start at 8am on boxing day having been made to work till 10 or 11 on xmas eve . Why cant these big guys get back to the days of the JANUARY sales and let thier staff and families have a Xmas of sorts they will still sell off thier tatt ,just a few days later

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a vibrating musical reindeer that poos chocolate

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mate that sounds awesome! if ya don't want it, you know my address

I have 14yrs of cr*p presents to unload, all of a similar quality of dreadfulness

I bet you've got a singing trout too...haven't ya?!...go on admit it! ...and a donkey that throws cigarettes out of its arse....

oh maybe thats just me then

alright! I admit! I have a singing big bouth bass! Waaaaaaaa......

Hey grom, you've got copycats!

I have? what was the missing image?!