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A Short Christmas Poll

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Chat' started by Joe Strummer, Dec 10, 2014.

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  1. Joe Strummer

    Joe Strummer VIP Whale

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    #1
    Artificial tree or real ?
    #2
    Tinsel or no tinsel ?
    #3
    Gifts opened on Christmas Eve or Day ?
    *
    *
    *****************************
    Any rituals involved ?.......feel free to discuss !
    *
    *
    We go artificial cos our toddler likes hanging his pacifiers as ornaments....while we're not watching !
    Used to be real trees previously.
    We put tinsel on much later - after the tree has been up a while.
    Just to give it a different look near Christmas.
    My wife's family open gifts Eve.....and party ALL night !....dancing w/ music.
    My family ALWAYS morning....with watching Christmas movies on the Eve.
    This year my wife works Christmas Day - so we'll open Christmas Eve.
    I'll put together some seafood combo or grilled steaks, depends what my wife wants !:wave:
    *
    *
    The only ritual I have is........on Christmas Eve....
    I walk 5 mins to the local creek falls ( beautifully lit )
    and shout out all the lines from "It's A Wonderful Life." -
    in Jimmy Stewart's voice.
    Depending upon the weather....there can be a crowd, gathered......I get laughs !:thumbsup:
     
  2. sindustry

    sindustry VIP Whale

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    Real tree...always!
    No tinsel...never!
    As kids, gifts opened on both days, but officially on Christmas day;)
    As adults, Christmas Day!
     
  3. Ty

    Ty ?

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    Fake tree, it went up weekend prior to Thanksgiving.
    No tinsel but we did when I was a kid. We would put it on one strand at a time and took it off one strand at a time to reuse the following year.
    Gifts, Christmas Eve with my wife's familly, Christmas Day with my family. Our son opens his gifts from us Christmas morning.

    Edit to add: Rituals. CHristmas night I often take a short walk down our street and look at the decorations. I repeat this a few nights later and a lot of them have already been taken down or not turned on, bummer it's over.
     
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2014
  4. C0usineddie

    C0usineddie VIP Whale

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    When i was married the tree ritual was always the same.

    We would all go to the store and pick out a tree and it was fun.

    When we got home everyone would vanish and i had to do all the trimming and set up by myself. hated it.

    When it came time for the tree to come down, everyone would gather round and once they realized there was work to do, vanish so yet again, i had to take all the stuff off the tree, box it up, remove the tree.

    now, i dont do christmas decorations or really even celebrate the day. Life is much better this way. i give presents but do it on my terms and when i want. not the calendars,
     
  5. Hobofrank

    Hobofrank Prime Minister of Idiocracy

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    #1 Artificial (5 sled dogs?, LOL real tree would be toast)
    #2 Tinsel? see #1
    #3 Eve as always
     
  6. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    Trees by definition are real. So always a tree for us. Not that there is anything wrong with the other decorating option.
    No tinsel, not that there is anything wrong with that.
    Day, as always. There is everything wrong with the other. ;)
     
  7. DaiLun

    DaiLun R.C., L.C., and A.A.N.G.

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    1)No
    2)N/A
    3)Christmas Eve

    I am a single parent with an 88 year old Dad with mild dementia. I have custody of my son but let him spend time with my ex-wife because they have a larger family. His birthday is the 26th and I swore when he was born that I would never "combine presents". So I make sure that we have a separate party the day after Christmas.

    Most nights my Dad is asleep by 6:30PM I have the opportunity to work on the holidays, so I typically do and let some other family have a break.

    As my son gets older he has asked me why we don't have a tree. I told him that when he has Christmas with me we will have a tree, but otherwise, it's a waste.
     
  8. JosieCat

    JosieCat VIP Whale

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    When I was a kid:

    1. Artificial until I was older, then real. We even had one of those silver trees with the colored lamp.
    2. The chains of tinsel and then eventually switched to the individual strands.
    3. Always Christmas Eve. It's funny too, because Santa always came when I was in the bathtub - so I never actually got to meet him, as much as I would hurry to get out of the tub :). We would eat McDonalds for dinner as we were really too excited to eat.

    As adults with no kids (BF has a grown daughter), we are just pathetic.

    No tree.
    No tinsel.
    Gifts aren't even wrapped and we usually never make to to even Christmas Eve.

    This year we are spending Christmas Eve at Grand Casino Hinckley. I did tell the BF that the gifts will be wrapped and brought with to be opened on Christmas morning.
     
  9. Jerseyguy

    Jerseyguy MIA

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    A real tree definitely. We look forward to the ritual of buying erecting and decorating it. We like to call it the "annual fight".
    No tinsel
    Gift opening is either or,depending on when the kids come down here.
    Traditions include eggnog with rum and cigars in the garage.
    Worst part is undecorating and packing everything up for next year.

    - - - Updated - - -

    .

    e.
    .
     
  10. bardolator

    bardolator Lifelong Low Roller

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    Fresh cut with my own saw.

    We use gold foil streamers, which give the same effect. They are are easy to apply, reusable for many years, and easy to remove and store.

    We inherited a mixed tradition from two families and continue to follow it. My wife and I open gifts on Christmas, as her family always did. Christmas Eve has always been the day to share with relatives on my side of the family.
     
  11. GottaLuvCruising

    GottaLuvCruising High-Roller

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    Artificial tree
    No tinsel
    Gifts on Christmas

    We always cut our own real tree when we raised our kids in Maine. But clearing the back of our camp lot in Maine this fall, those suckers burn up so fast, even when they've just been cut. Don't know if I could ever do a real tree again after burning that brush (but most certainly not one that traveled 1500 miles after being cut.)
     
  12. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    First of all, nostresshere, just shut up. The kids on my lawn don't bother me anymore. :poke:

    Worked for over 40 years in businesses that never shut down. For most of those years I worked second shift which meant coming home near midnight. Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years were holidays in the sense we got paid extra, but if the day fell on your work day, you worked.

    We haven't decorated or put up a tree in about 30 years. Now that we are retired, why bother? OK, there is my Humbug moment.

    Happy holidays to all on VMB! :thumbsup:
     
  13. jpw711

    jpw711 Is that your cat?

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    Neither - cats in the house.

    Christmas Afternoon for the presents
     
    No reason to go home yet.
  14. leo21

    leo21 VIP Whale

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    Artifical and table top.
    Never tinsel.
    Gifts on Christmas.


    Traditions: The best part of Christmas as kids was the Christmas stockings so now we exchange Santa bags with the same types of things "Santa" would put in our stockings with each other.
     
  15. Auggie

    Auggie Dovahkiin

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    #1: Artificial. Just a whole lot more convenient.
    #2: No Tinsel. We have cats.
    #3: Christmas Day. We open them at around 1AM Christmas morning.

    Ritual-wise, I will go pick up wife at work and we come home, have a nice dinner and then watch a couple of movies.
     
  16. Sonya

    Sonya Queen of VMB

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    I loved fresh trees, but we converted to fake a few years ago. Less mess, less hassle.

    No tinsel. Not since I was a kid.

    Christmas MORNING. I don't understand doing it on the night before. Does Santa come to your house early or something? :)

    We've had a really interesting holiday so far. Really low key, due to my health problems. I'm trying to turn the volume up on the things I like and turn it down on the things I don't like. So this year, NO MALL!!! It's a Wonderful Life is going to be watched. We're also watching The Greatest Story Ever Told and Life of Brian as a double feature.

    My only request to Dan this year was to go online and find me some good neighborhood decorations and take me on a drive. We used to do that in California all the time and we never do it here in Washington.

    Also, Dan bought himself a bike. He told me that was my present to him, so I guess I'm off the hook for shopping. I'll still do some little gifts and stocking stuffers, but I'm kind of glad to not have to come up with something for him this year. He's been buying too many toys. I thought about getting him a Go Pro for his new bike, but then I saw the price of the bike and said, "Nope. You're done." :haha:
     
  17. dfalk

    dfalk VIP Whale

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    1. None
    2. None
    3. None

    We quit doing gifts years ago, such a waste of money. All I need for xmas is a good dinner, some card games, and getting drunk with the family.
     
  18. WHITEJACKET73

    WHITEJACKET73 VIP Whale

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    #1
    Real tree-ALWAYS. Growing up in Michigan, we would always go up to my Grandfather's cabin up north and cut the top off of a large spruce tree.
    #2
    Lots of tinsel...drives my kids nuts. My cat drags it all over the house, but I couldn't do without it.
    #3
    Always open gifts on Christmas morning before having a big breakfast.

    Rituals:
    The kids get a large fresh orange in their Christmas stockings. I used to get one in my stocking when I was a kid; one of the few times we had fresh oranges

    Santa always leaves candy canes on the tree.

    When my kids were younger I always played a cassette tape of Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" on Christmas Eve. The narrator was Orson Wells and Lionel Barrymore played the role of Scrooge. They loved it. I still have the tape.
     
  19. gambler

    gambler VIP Whale

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    I want to spend Christmas at your house. Sounds wonderful :)
     
  20. MUFC

    MUFC Low-Roller

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    1. Real tree!

    2. No tinsel.

    3. Presents on Christmas Day! Opening them on Christmas Eve is cheating.

    Earlier this year I managed to buy my first house so last weekend I made the trip to a nearby forest and purchased my first real tree! I got a Nordman Fir which has excellent needle retention. We always had real trees when I was younger, you can't beat the smell of a real Christmas Tree it just smells like Christmas!
     
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