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Your Crimbo Traditions


Gus Mears

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Bumped this (as I was about to set up the exact same thread because I have no memory).

Got a new thing I'm really looking forward to that I hope will turn into a long term tradition. As my other half is Sicilian and this will be the first time she's not been with her family for Christmas, we've decided to do ITALIAN DAY at some point between Christmas and New Year. Basically, going to invite some folk round and have a homemade lasagne, Sicilian sausage platter, antipasti and the like. I'm lucky that she also loves to cook, so excited for this after several days of turkey, bacon and chocolate. 

Joe Dolce and the Godfather theme song in the background. It's going to be great.

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At the risk of sounding like a total spoilsport, I actually have no Christmas traditions. We don't have any kids or anything, so we don't bother with a tree or any of that kind of stuff. We go out for a few drinks and a nice meal on Christmas eve, but in all honesty we don't really celebrate Christmas.

Is it just me who does that? While everyone else is making merry and carving up the turkey and all that?

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1 hour ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Awesome idea for Italian day, and one that I might try on Boxing day - mince up all the Xmas leftovers and use them as filling for homemade ravioli.

I can only imagine it will be amazing. 

That's a bloody good idea that I am shamelessly going to steal.

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32 minutes ago, David said:

At the risk of sounding like a total spoilsport, I actually have no Christmas traditions. We don't have any kids or anything, so we don't bother with a tree or any of that kind of stuff. We go out for a few drinks and a nice meal on Christmas eve, but in all honesty we don't really celebrate Christmas.

Is it just me who does that? While everyone else is making merry and carving up the turkey and all that?

 

I don't really see Christmas as a period just for children. Me and the missus have lived together for 6 years and we've always celebrated a traditional Christmas; Tree and decs up on December 1st, festive tunes blasting from every car speaker, pilgrimages to visit family and Christmas films & specials aplenty. I can imagine it will only get more Christmassy when we have kids.

Don't you or your partner have any Christmas traditions or memories from growing that you could incorporate into your more adult life? Or was it no big deal back then, too? No harm meant to be done here, just genuinely curious.

 

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2 minutes ago, Accident Prone said:

Don't you or your partner have any Christmas traditions or memories from growing that you could incorporate into your more adult life? Or was it no big deal back then, too? No harm meant to be done here, just genuinely curious.

Not at all, it's an interesting subject.

I don't know, I just don't think we really bother about it to be fair. We both had great childhood Christmas traditions and suchlike, but it doesn't really fit with what we do these days. Maybe being overseas at this time of year makes it different? Also, we have been travelling for quite a while now, so we don't really buy anything that we don't need, as we carry it with us wherever we go.

Personally, I just don't have any real enthusiasm for it. We'll have a nice meal, watch some movies, have some wine, all that jazz, but not much else really.

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I think If I led a similar jet-setting lifestyle, I too would keep the Christmas traditions to a minimum, especially in warmer climates. But as I'm chained to my concrete home in the West Midlands, spicing up the festive season amidst the bad weather and miserable neighborhood is a much needed break from the norm. At least for a month.

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I was sort of the same for a couple of years - I live alone, and in years when I wasn't able to spend Christmas with my parents (for a long time I'd work right up until Christmas Eve, and sometimes be back at work Boxing Day or the day after, so there just wasn't the scope for me to get a flight to the UK in time, and they'd often fly over and visit other family), I never made a fuss of it.

If I was in a relationship I'd spend the day at her place, though I quite liked having Christmas Day as a day entirely to myself. I'd maybe pop into my local for a free Christmas pint and to show my face, walk the dogs for a couple of hours - if I have one Christmas tradition, that's probably it - and maybe spend the evening with a group of friends who also weren't doing much for Christmas, or didn't have family here. 

When I was working in a zoo, a lot of staff still worked Christmas Day - it was the one day of the year they were closed to the public, but obviously jobs still need doing - and Lee Durrell, the director of the zoo, lived on-site, so she'd open up her flat for a few hours for staff to pop up and have some homemade eggnog and Christmas lunch, so one year I popped up to see people there, that was nice.

 

These days, my parents have retired and moved back to Yorkshire, and because I work in Education now, I get enough time off over Christmas to go up and spend a week up there with them. My brothers and their kids come over, and it's made Christmas much more of an event again, because it's been the first time in around 20 years that we've all been in the same place for Christmas Day, and the kids being involved makes it a lot more festive and encourages you to get into the spirit of things more. 

My Mum had a go at me last year for not putting any decorations up in the flat, but I live alone, and I'm not even there on Christmas Day, so what's the point? Apart from one string of lights on a USB charger that I got for Christmas last year, I don't even own any decorations, and sod going out and buying any for no one's benefit. 

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27 minutes ago, Accident Prone said:

I think If I led a similar jet-setting lifestyle, I too would keep the Christmas traditions to a minimum, especially in warmer climates. But as I'm chained to my concrete home in the West Midlands, spicing up the festive season amidst the bad weather and miserable neighborhood is a much needed break from the norm. At least for a month.

i don't know if I'd term it "jet-setting," but I do get around a bit due to my line of work, and it simply isn't worth the hassle a lot of the time. I'm lucky enough to be in the position of being able to afford stuff when I want it, and we tend to eat out three or four times a week, so there isn't much we could really do that would set the day apart from the rest of the year.

If I had kids it would be totally different no doubt, or if I stayed at home, but I don't. Aside from watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on Christmas night, and watching Scrooged on Christmas eve there isn't much by way of tradition.

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We have something at work we call The Twelve Days Of Goutmas. There's only 16 of us in our office and in the run up to Christmas we take it in turns to buy lunch for the rest of the team. It started out friendly enough a few years ago and the guy buying for day one brought in a big selection box of biscuits and some crisps. Day 2 escalated to somebody bringing in four large pizzas from Costco and it mutated from there. My entry that year was some pulled pork I did in the slow cooker. There's plenty of one-upmanship and friendly competition but it's a good laugh. 
Last years ran every day in the three weeks building up to Christmas and featured kebabs, pizzas, pies, Jamaican food and 3 or 4 KFCs amongst other things. This years started today and we've decided to group up and run it two days a week between now and the Christmas break, to minimise the risk of heart disease or putting on a stone. I've not been feeling that Christmassy up until now but there was such a buzz around this starting everyone is in the spirit now.

My lot were first today and went with fish and chips, an option of peas or curry, a buttered breadcake (don't start) on the side and a can of pop of your choice. No Shandy Bass so I opted Irn Bru. Absolute silence for 20 minutes or so whilst everybody tucks in. Bliss.

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