Christmassy Friday Five

[vilakins]

From thefridayfive , a good excuse for me to make a post:

1. Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas – which one do you use?
Mostly "Merry Christmas" because most people here celebrate it. "Happy Holidays" isn't really used by people (companies do though) but it actually applies here since most people take their summer holidays now. (Not me though; I prefer it when schools are back and the weather's more settled.)

2. Do you own an ugly Christmas sweater?
It's summer, so no one here does that. Why does anyone though? Just asking - is it a sort of joke, like wearing the ugliest thing you can find?

3. Do you celebrate the Winter Solstice?
Unfortunately our winter drags on with nothing to enliven it. (Except for this town with steampunk weekend, so that's something, though it's not at the solstice.)

4. Now that you are ‘in the know,’ what would you leave out for St. Nick on the 24th?
I was always in the know, never having believed in Santa / been told that particular lie. St Nicholas however was a real person and if he happened to pass while throwing dowries in the windows of poor girls, I'd offer a bite to eat and a cup of tea.

5. Tired of the snow and icky weather yet? For those fortunate people in the other hemisphere, are you tired of the humidity and hot weather?
I'm sick of rain like everyone else in this country. Summer's been very late this year, what with cold and rain for two months. The sun is shining today though - YAY -and I'm hoping it will for more than one day this time.

Comments

[gwendraith]

1. Merry Christmas, I really loathe the term Happy Holidays, USA political correctness gone mad (imo).

2. No ugly Christmas sweater for me.

3.No, I don't celebrate either solstice. It gets darker then it gets lighter again.

4. You don't believe in Santa? *Gasp*.

5. Love, love, love the snow and frost. I like hot weather but not with humidity. We had a fabulously hot summer with no humidity this year.
I don't mind most weather except dreary. I hate dark nothingness days.

Merry Christmas! Ho Ho Ho.

[vilakins]

1. I wouldn't like it either if I lived in Europe, but it's oddly appropriate here. Not that many use it; it's usually Merry Christmas.

4. Did you once believe as a child? How did you feel when you found out the truth?

5. Ah yes, those dark nothingness days - that was Auckland but we have lovely winters here: sunny, cold, and crisp. Spring has been appalling, but that was over the whole country.

[gwendraith]

4. What do you mean? Santa has always existed :P

I think for most kids they figure it out for themselves the longer they are at school and also as logic starts to kick in, it's not a big deal that they dwell on. I certainly don't remember when I transitioned from believing to not believing, my kids believed and their kids do. The joy is in the magic for the little ones while they do believe.

[vilakins]

We were still madly excited about presents and tried to catch our father putting them out, but never succeeded. The magic was in the anticipation, fun, and the feeling that seemed to permeate the whole small town we lived in.

[gwendraith]

I think you are right about the anticipation. My sceptical younger son used to rig up all kinds of contraptions to catch out whoever delivered the presents. Of course he always fell asleep and the contraptions could be navigated and presents and 'magic' glitter left for him to find. I think it was all part of the fun for him. Heaven knows, being an adult isn't always a bed of roses so those childhood memories are precious :)

[capri0mni]

1) I use "Happy Holidays!" because about half of the people in my community don't celebrate Christmas, and I myself, am not Christian anymore. But I try to let "Merry Christmas" roll off my back like "Very Happy Thursday!" (The name of a god got attached to it, but people don't expect you to be referring to the God Thor when you say it).

2) The term "ugly" has gotten baked into the term. But I think of them as "Goofy Christmas Sweaters." And yes, they are definitely a thing: this year, my aide got invited to an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" Christmas Party (She got a sweatshirt printed with kittens in Santa hats, and LED lights). They let people dress up in "party clothes" without being expensive like a suit, or cocktail dress... And they turn people into walking memes.

3) Yes. My mother taught me the link between (northern Hemisphere) Solstice and Christmas when I was about six or seven years old. Regardless of what you do or don't believe about God, the Earth is turning around the Sun, and that axial tilt has shaped all the life around us since the planet came to being.

4) I wrote here about how I fell back into belief in Santa, when I was in college.

5) Winter doesn't arrive here until February, usually, but this year, it's freakishly warm. ...We escaped the devastation of Hurricane Florence by the skin of our teeth, this summer.