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Anyone pretending that it isn't going to happen?
Does it mean extra riding time cos you aren't slogging around dull shopping centres?
Or ... better still ... do you enjoy the empty trails on "that" day?
Share your stories!
did last year (hid in france) and the year before.
Unfortunately for some inexplicable reason this year the in-laws are demanding they see their grandson at some point. 🙁
Bah humbug.
I really, really, hate christmas.
thing i love about xmas is the level to which it p1sses some people off
The winter solstice is the more important day for me and I will be with a very special person, but the C day is basically a chance for to be with my folks and have a stonkingly good nosh up : ) I think I'll be riding with Trekster but probably not on the 25th.
Not really - it's going to be a bloody difficult time of year for me 🙁
Last year we were going through the hardest bit of life possible at the time, the anniversary is only a couple of days before Christmas so I am guessing it won't be full of light and joy.
Christmas is great - as long as certain twonks realize that December 15th is time enough for any suggestion of the festive period
once your kids get past about10 years old Xmas is dreadful
I really, really, hate christmas.
I feel for your kid(s)!
I have a daughter and can't really give it a miss. If it I was childless then it would be a very minimal affair. Ride, over to the folks, pub with the old man, dinner and a sleep.
Did Christmas dinner for 13 last year! I love it, come on down if you fancy it! Fun all the way and we may have a Wii to play with this year 😆
1) travelling hours to be crammed with people I don't like somewhere I don't like out of a sense of guilt
2) receiving "gifts"
3) all day in doors
4) excessive eating
Can't wait until it's over [sorry]
yeah i never get these christmas nay sayers, cheer the **** up time of work, you get to eat, drink nice stuff. the best xmas topic on here are the ones who go on about "only spending a tenner" middle class people on working class wages. 😈
Some miserable buggers on here.
I bloody love it.
(But do have respect for people for who it might not be so good).
[i](But do have respect for people for who it might not be so good).[/i]
I think the last good one for me was quite a long time ago, measured in decades 🙁
there are two C words.
one i would get told of for using
the other i lost a mate to in july.
yeah, i though this was going to be about not using the first of those C words
oh and i've got 3 nights booked in whistler for xmas, first year without having to do the family thing. woohoo!!!!!!!!
I do make a point of noting the solstice. Other than that Christmas is as minimal as possible - I have often worked on Christmas day and I have not had a Christmas lunch in 30 odd years. I will see my family at some point - but not on Christmas day
If not working it will be a late nice breakfast, all day out cycling or walking, Normal dinner at night. No lunch at all.
Token pressies only with the money that would have gone on pressies and lunch going to charity instead.
Done well this year, off Xmas and Boxing day. I hate christmas Bah Humbug!
Once you get past being a child it's just a pain in the backside. Trying to think of the right present to get people. Thinking of things you'd like people to buy you. (invariably they never get it quite right)
Wonder how many xmas presents end up as landfill several years later having spent a long time languishing at the back of some cupboard before enough time has passed for you to feel ok about binning something you never wanted or used?
The only good things are catching up with family and friends and an excuse to eat and drink well. Mmmm Roast Turkey with all the trimmings is fantastic.
skiing
Last year we stopped the presents thing. We'll to the same this year.
It's so much less stressful. No Christmas shopping (no crowds). No having to put on a fake smile as you unwrap yet another piece of tat to fill your wheelie bin. Just a good chance to see friends and family and have a good time.
Maybe a quick ride around Haldon or something to round it off nicely!
I find Xmas in the sun a bit hard really - still doesn;t add up for me after 12 years here !
Xmas day always includes (in no order) - mountain bike ride in the sun, swim in the sea, nice beef fillet on BBQ, crayfish, nice Pinot Noir, good beer, mates, games on the deck, escape to victory on the DVD player, NO Xmas carols whatsoever 🙂
Fnish work 18th Dec for 5 weeks - bleedin love xmas. Go back for 2 weeks then have a 1200km MTB race 😯
Xmas is for the kids, so I don't get wound up about it.
Now Hogmanay, that's worth celebrating .... 🙂
I love the whole thing, time off with friends and family, always have family round on Christmas Day, kids are now 10 and 12 and as far as we can tell still believe in it all, can't wait for it, really hoping we can get some wintery weather for the day too, even if that is just a good frost to wake up to. As always I respect everyone's right to have an opinion, I just may not agree with yours, that's one of the things that makes life interesting.
Heart goes out to those above that have anniversaries around that time of year that need reflecting upon rather than celebrating.
Bring it on!!! I love Christmas me.
last year i discovered that christmas is infinitely less stressful if you get your shopping done in November, not xmas eve as i've traditionally done
i'm doing some online now!
Looks like I'm working, so whilst my 3 year old and 6 year old are hyped up I'll only see them on Xmas day for about 2 hours in total. So those with kids that "f'ing hate it" least you'll be at home with your kids. Still comes with the job but much harder this time now the kids are fully into the magic.
Two small kids, staying with the parents in London, should be OK.
Last year me and J opted out because we'd had a crappy year (due to one of the other C words) so we spent christmas in a B&B in North Wales, opting out. It was fabulous - the landlady was brilliant and we spent christmas day up a hill, boxing day riding in the forest and had pizza for lunch on christmas day - and we decided then that was how we would spend all future christmases.
We failed at the first hurdle because he's on call over christmas this year so we can't go far. D'oh.
I think I will make curries for christmas lunch and hope he doesn't get called and make the most of a break from work. 🙂
(We will visit family at some point over the break to hand out pressies and cuddles.)
The best Christmas I've ever had was a couple of years ago. It was just me and Mrs PP and we got up late, had a full English, then went for a loooong walk over the Surrey Hills, which were deserted. We sat on a log in the forest throwing sticks down the hil for her mum's dog, drinking scalding hot coffee out of a flask and munching Cadburys Heros. We went home and had a veggie dinner (Lovely it was, nice and light)
We had been invited next door for a drink and we went round, but they were all just sat vegging out and stuffing food and we felt a bit out of place, we stopped for a bit then went home and stuck a good DVD on to avoid the crap TV and cracked a nice bottle of wine.
Peace and quiet all day. Luvverly. 😀
I really, really, really have to bite my lip on the day. The wife has to go and get the mother in law and brother in law and bring them over to ours. Brother in Law has never 'hosted' the day and neither has my brother. That's wind up point number one.
Food is a help yourself affair from the serving dishes on the table, so why oh why oh ****ing why do people take more than they can eat and throw the rest away. Are you TOO ****ING STUPID to be able to just take what you can stuff in your bone idle body. Wind up number 2
Mother in law always winges about how she must have a drink with daughter and so I should drive. Well, listen here. I do all the ****ing driving the rest of the year. My relatives can get over to ours by themselves. I see no reason why I should piss about taking an hour out of my day to drive you about. Mrs Feet agrees with this too. Wind up number 3
Have you got [insert really bizarre drink that nobody has here]? the Brother In Law says when asked if he wants a drink. Now this happens every year and we actually make a pioint of asking the week before, but every ****ing year it's the same. Well listen here mister. If you want drink bitter lemon and advocat or something weird like that either tell us or ****ing bring it with you you bone idle ****wit!
Bugger. i can feel my rage rising already. I do like the day for the kids though, its just that the so called adults could actually MTFU and think about things.
It's great, do all the shopping online so don't have to play sardines in shopping malls. Then spend Christmas with family including 5yr old nephew and 3 yr old niece, great fun playing with them and all their new toys 🙂
It'll be odd this year as my daughter will be away from home at Christmas for the first time. And my sons not at all interested.
The best bit for me is the time off as I only get five days off the rest of the year. Looking forward to not driving for a week, long walks and a very very social ride.
No Christmas dinner if it's just us, well not Turkey anyway.
The present thing is a pain, I mean people just buy what they want all year, it seems so shallow now.
Oldgit - only 5 days off the rest of the year? You are in the EC are you not? Minimum 24 days leave this year 28 next IIRC. Legally binding
Always end up driving 4 hrs south for xmas, then back & 5 hrs north for new year, then back, & falling out 'cos we're both stressed at having little R+R time. The way it falls this year, we'll still do the driving but for only a couple of days at each parents, whether it's on 'the' days or not, & get some down-time at home with friends / bikes! (avoiding the town centre like the plague!)
Jewish.
I unashamedly spend every 'C' day indulging in an excess of rum based cocktails and Indian food. 🙂
Really looking forward to it. the kids are beside themselves with excitement already. But yes, I will be enjoying the quiet trails on Christmas Day too. Nice blast first thing in the morning, home for the breakfast barbecue
I really look forward to it. We rarely get to see either side of the family during the year (we like both lots and get on with them all really well), so it's nice to catch up, have some nice food and a few drinks. We can still always fit a morning or evening ride in every day so the extra indulgence is guilt free.
TJ
The down side of being self employed. Yes I have taken more time in the past. However the last two years I've been taken to the cleaners by what I call 'proffessional shisters' going into liquidation/administration/bankrupt etc etc and leaving me to foot the bill.
But that's working in a trade allied to the building industry for you.
Christmas is all about family and i love that it still feels special even at 31, moreso this year because my wife is pregnant and due in Feb.
Lets not forget it is also jesus birthday! (Just kidding on that part)
To quote Cliff Richard "A time for giving a time for receiving" not quite sure what he was on about with Mistletoe and Wine but it may explain why he aint married!
My Brother and I haven't done 'C' since 2000 - we always go boarding. Personally I haven't done it for about 20 years
Few years back, Xmas in Les Arcs, Le Santa turns up pulled by reindeer on a sleigh. My daughter still believed in him at the time, although she knew the ones in shops were not real. But the look on her face was amazing - as in wow, it really really is him! Very moving for me to be honest.
Bit of snow, away with good mates and their families, no silly all day cooking extravaganza but a party anyhow. Top way to spend chrimbo.
I have very little family and I'm it's youngest member at nearly 30 with no kids on the horizon, so I never feel the need to bother with it.
When you strip away the big dinner and family gathering (otherwise known as gluttony and quiet frustration - both of which are possible at any point during the year should anyone be that bothered) it's hard to see Christmas as anything other than an opportunity to sell lots of tat to lots of frenzied sheep.
My attitude towards it isn't helped by the fact that I used to work in advertising, and looking from that side of things Christmas was the most ungodly, unkind, soul destroying, money grabbing time of the year.
I dont' sit there being miserable, but I certainly don't find any enjoyment in the season beyond the time off work. I hope to be riding Wharncliffe Woods or the Peak on Christmas day. That's more like it.
Just curious - who is giving the "C" word a miss this year?
Take a wild guess... 
I really enjoyed last Christmas - I spent Christmas Eve with OH's family and then drove down from theirs Christmas morning (wonderfully quiet roads) and spent rest of day with own family. Two quite different experiences but both with lovely sets of people.
This year I can't do that and I think I'm gonna be rather sad about it 🙁
Not sure what we're doing for the solstice yet - it's all a bit weather dependent and i'm sick of nob-ends digging multiple fire pits at all the local sites.
As for Christ Mass? Well, it's just me, the missus and our little girl with huge amounts of rich and tasty food - all in-lwas and out-laws have been banned. My boys are coming over on Boxing Day and we get to do it all over again. Happy times 🙂
2 weeks off work
Go to a Carol service Christmas Eve
Wake up to presents on Christmas morning
Have all the family round for dinner
Drink lots
Play bored games
Then go aawy for a few days with friends to spend NYE somewhere fun
I love Christmas time
reading this thread has made me realise that I quite like Christmas! I've had some awful ones, but in recent years it's been really chilled, just a chance to catch up with the family, eat good food and generally unwind. But we have quite a small family, so it makes it easier.
As for the 'c' word, I've been trying all year, but it just keeps coming up in conversation!
All very quite this year for me working right through and on the day will just be me and the GF. Long walks on the beach, quiet lunch and a good DVD with a bottle of something. Then I get my son for Boxing Day so that shall be awsome as me and him can play with all teh toys and have fun out doors 😀
Bittersweet for me - no dad this year (died a few days into the new year) but we have our twins.
So I will be celebrating, but remembering dad.
I spent a recent christmas trying to keep someone 'alive' so they didn't die on Christmas day.
A lot of you moaning ****ers need to wake up and be thankful for what you've got.
what C word?
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i'm determined to get banned 😈
A lot of you moaning ****ers need to wake up and be thankful for what you've got.
Not moaning at all. Just really looking forward to Christmas this year, because I'm doing nothing 🙂 Funnily enough, I like my family so am happy to see them throughout the year. This might be assisted by the fact that I only have 1 relative living in Europe 😉
Seriously though, I just can't be arsed this year. Family have been asked to sponsor me on a charity ride if they want to. My brother's been doing charity presents for the last few years so I'm following the trend. No special food or drink, I'm just going for a long ride somewhere.
best thing to do at Christmas time....
go to a muslim country. Unfortunately for me my holiday in Morocco returns a week early so I have to put up with the over hyped tacky commercial crap for the first time in a few years. Grrrr.
Kev
bah humbug.
when im King, christmas will be christmas eve, christmas day, and boxing day.
mention of the C word out of those 3 days will be a crime.
im bored of it already, and its bloody november.
Miserable sods, most of you.
I enjoy Xmas ...My kids still enjoy it, they're 9 and 12, we try to limit their pressies and stuff, and we've always just exchanged small gifts amongst the adults, so it's not really a consumer-fest. Partners sister and Mum live opposite us (sounds awful, but is in fact great) so dinner's a shared thing, will probably be chicken this year, I'll make the pudding, Mum in law makes cake, kids make all the decorations, and the jelly (dunno why, family tradition now). Some friends are pretty religious so we'll probably end up at church at midnight helping all the oldies and singing our hearts out, the kids love being up late anyway...We'll remember some folk who aren't here anymore, and generally have a lush time. Oh, and I'll get miles of riding in...
I'm with coffeeking. Cheer up ffs!!!!
Eat too much, get drunk, get grief for eating too much and getting drunk. Get too drunk to care, fall asleep happy. Great motivation to set New Year riding resolutions the following day. (Never drinking again ! will ride in ALL weathers etc) Christmas is coming like it or not.......
Yey it's mithras's birthday, oh no hang on the christians borrowed everthing from mithras, named him jesus and turned him from a roman sun god into a weak insipid boring little f*ck.
Instead of sacrificing a bull I have a nice steak and chips 😀
I thought this was going to be a Children in Need thread!!
I like xmas we have a mellow family sadly this year with two less in it than last year, one sudden, one less so, will be a good a time to catch up with all the close family over the period but not all at once it's in nice size time chunks 🙂 No one likes a family overdose.
Added excitment this year we should have our campervan, so heading down kipping en-route and some more camping over the festive period.
Got some good eating, social friends/family and biking planned so for us I think it will be excellent and I am looking forward to it.
I'm with coffeeking. Cheer up ffs!!!!
Im working X-mas day and don't have any kids - so its just another day for me and the missus - so not much cheer really.
Prob go out for a night ride later in the day - might put some decorations on my bike to mark the day.
We'll be off to a cute as anything Christingle service in a nearby village on Christmas eve with some friends then a chinese takeaway after at ours. Then on Christmas morning we'll be doing the unwrapping with our 4 and 6 year olds first thing followed by eggs Benedict for breakfast. Then off to the beach for a bit of french cricket with the 4 year old's new cricket bat. Then to my mum and dads (15 minutes away) for a slap up trad Christmas dinner, but back home for tea and get the kids early to bed, then orienteering on Boxing Day at a local score event with mobile checkpoints including a Christmas fairy and father Christmas.
What's not to like?
Its a C day indeed, the very day my company of 11 years have decreed, going forward, I will be redundant. Immaculate timing boys, combined with the absolute minimum redundancy pay allowed. Thats £380 per year service. And they expect me to work right up to this date too. C**ts.
However, there are those that face greater challenges that me, so, keeping things in perspective, I am only really hacked off, it could be a lot different.
Don't usually do Crassmass, preferring a bike holiday somewhere warm, but not this year. May well have xmas lunch at IKEA for a quid!
Oooh, I thought you meant c**t!
I'm sorry for those who have lost loved ones and will be reminded, horribly, amongst all the fakery and over-indulgence.
I do the Solstice thing, so Christmas (which I don't think is even Jesus Christ's birthday anyway) has no significance for me.
I will go for a ride as usual and I'm trying to find a charity who could use an extra pair of hands on C Day - preferably an animal charity reasonably local to where I am at the time (Enfield).
I ****in love Christmas. Going to be in Delhi for it this year though which will be a little strange.
Someone used the phrase 'quiet frustration' which sums up a day at my inlaws pretty well 🙂
Nothing majorly bad, just having to laze around a smoke filled, boiling hot house eating soggy vegetables, dry meat and trifle from some packet and pretending to enjoy it.
Crap telly on a bit too loud all the time.
Hopefully it's wet so I ain't missing a nice day for a walk/ride.
Skiing with the kids and missus - whoo hoo 😀
Can't wait!!
Yeah me, were not having Chicken that day, its Turkey for us.
besides the crap presents that i don't need, and those that i buy, i think it'll be a good one this year. My ex shoehorned me into christmas mass, carol singing, very boring family days out (her side, not mine) and such trivial stuff. This year, it's with my folks and friends going to the best pub in yorkshire and drinking and eating and being merry! So tat should be good.
i'd love it if people didnt buy lots of awful presents, but put some money towards plane tickets or bike stuff or somet. I'd happily do that instead of trawling round meadowhall on xmas eve, after work......
Well, what a good response and how interesting to read such differing views on quite an emotive subject.
Last year, due to different circumstances, I decided to "opt out" of everything relating to the "C" word. This year I will do the same again - a solo bike ride in an area that I enjoy, accompanied by a little picnic including a flask of hot proper coffee. The ride may even include footpaths and tracks where I'm not allowed 🙄
Progressively disengaged from the whole festive period.
Last year, what with circumstances, I did the hermit thing. Didn't even send one card...
This year will be the same.
So for you, the "C" word is "Cheeky".
Have fun.
It looks like I will have to be with the in-laws on the farm. But they're OK and we will get out for a walk to feed the sheep before nightfall.
Ah, but the hermit thing is through choice. I didn't send one card or give one pressie. It's liberating to feel disengaged from such cr*p 🙂
I was willingly sporting a santa hat in public last Sunday. Funny what parenthood does to you. Had to welcome santa to town with 2 year old.
Anyone who knows what a miserable bas***d i am wont believe this though.
When you strip away the big dinner and family gathering (otherwise known as gluttony and quiet frustration - both of which are possible at any point during the year should anyone be that bothered) it's hard to see Christmas as anything other than an opportunity to sell lots of tat to lots of frenzied sheep.
+1 Left to my own devices I'd just take the opportunity to get out and do something in the hills and forget the rest.
So ... people ... any changes of heart/mind/circumstances?
A little update would be interesting ... and wind up those who accuse some of us of being miserable!
C for me is the 90 min in the morning of the 25th seeing my kids, then its back to abnormal. except this year lacking a mtn bike for the usual c-day ride. might have to go for a run instead. not a problem.
xmas-free zone here, though I did feel quite xmassy walking through the snow to my mum's house yesterday afternoon :o) And I tried to buy some blue tinsel to wind round my bike but either it has fallen out of fashion, or all been snapped up 🙁
Well I for one cant wait
I have 2 small children that are really excited about it.
and I am going to eat and drink my arse off !!
and lots of time off to go riding (starting with afan monday)
Wooohooo 😆