only one I really care to do every year is watching The Hogfather. best christmas movie 10/10 no notes.

Day off to get high and not believe in Jesus.

Also Christmas tree and lights. Though the LED ones have ruined it for me, I can see the half wave rectified 60hz and it gives me a headache. That pisses me off so much because I was once super excited about LED Christmas lights consuming a fraction of the energy, but every company seems to think they can get away with literally just replacing incandescent bulbs with LEDs without the proper circuitry to drive them which would have cost, what? A dollar more? Hell a full bridge rectifier probably costs literally a penny when bought in bulk and though it’s still not a “proper” LED driver, it would have doubled the frequency and most people wouldn’t see it anymore.

Does anyone know any Christmas lights with a proper power supply that drives them at low voltage DC? I imagine it would be a lot safer too wrapped around a flammable plastic tree.

I listen to Bach’s “Weihnachtsoratorium”/Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) every year. I play it specifically on December 24th when my kids, my wife and I do the decorations. I don’t even like the Christmas Oratorio that much. But at least my wife knows why I excuse myself at times.

When I was little, on the evening of Dec 24th, we used do decorate the Christmas tree and my parents were adamant on playing the Christmas Oratorio at full volume when we did so. None of us are/were religious in any way, quite the contrary, but both of them were huge classical music fans. Especially my father used to be a massive Bach fanboy.

As a child who grew up learning to sing and to play several instruments, I hated this thing of theirs with a passion. I couldn’t stand this music genre. It was so far removed from what I liked and what life entailed for me; it was the sound of getting me the fuck away from home. I couldn’t deny it was a part of me, but it was a part that I despised.

Then, when I was in my early 20s, my Dad came down with aggressive cancer. After his last Christmas, we tried one last therapy which the doctors admitted was kind of experimental because the medication hadn’t been tried on patients with cancer of that type or that far advanced.

We don’t know what exactly happened. But this dear man, who had collected several dozen CDs of his favorite versions of Bach’s pieces, who had been searching and saving for rare editions just to get all the “right” recordings, he suddenly… didn’t understand his favorite music. And if you know baroque music - it takes some understanding to fully appreciate it.

He just didn’t get it anymore. Something in his brain got rewired during those last few months. “They’re playing it wrong!” he shouted angrily. It didn’t matter that this was the same CD he had listened to for ten years. My sister tried singing folk songs with him - which he used to enjoy - and while he himself sang pitch-perfect, he was perfectly sure that “nothing was right”. Have you ever seen a bed-ridden person go beserk? He winced when he turned, but he was infuriated. Eventually, we all gave up. There was no saving his love for music, it just… up and left him. One of the things which used to define him as a person was simply gone. All joy for any of it, evaporated, poof, without a trace. Cancer finally broke him, broke us. We buried him a few weeks later.

This one, minuscule, thing that he had saved to enjoy when he was old… he couldn’t. A part of what my father was, in the matter of a few days, just vanished. There was little left for and left of him. I can’t blame him for leaving before saying goodbye.

But I will never forgive the god I had never believed in for taking that last bit of joy away from a dying man.

Verily: “Jauchzet, frohlocket! Auf, preiset die Tage! Rühmet, was heute der Höchste getan!”

I’m old fashioned I get myself an eight ball on Christmas Eve and one tall hooker dressed like Mrs. Claus and one short one dressed like an elf.

Celebrating on the 24th. It’s not even a long historical tradition in my own family or local culture, we adopted it after my grandparents celebrated a few Christmases with a Central European immigrant family in the neighborhood who start celebrating at midday 24th December and realized it enabled those of us who were married/etc to celebrate the next day with our other families. It’s much more relaxing like that, I’ve heard my friends complain after trying to fit in a breakfast, lunch and dinner at three different Christmas parties in one day to avoid offending anyone.

We’ve got young kids and go all in with decorations. Another tradition, weirdly, is eggs Benedict and bucks fizz for breakfast. No idea why, but I’m down.

Well, I have kids so getting them gifts, and a nice dinner with them and their mom (she and I are still friends and good co-parents, just not good spouses to each other.)

Listening to the Snoopy vs. the Red Baron tape by The Royal Guardsmen while decorating the tree.

We decorate our house. My wife really does an incredible job of it and each year she changes it up and it always blows my mind what she does.

I always get my kid a gift my wife will hate. She’s still genuinely annoyed about the fart gun I got last year.

That and getting drunk.

Forgetting to get groceries in time for when shops are closed for several days in a row.

Posting all over social media about the pagan origins of modern Xmas and wishing I knew enough people that were cool to have a proper Saturnalia feast. Because that’s what cool people do.

Also a funny Photoshop holiday card.

Not really big tradition, but gifting is on the eve 24th. And its from baby Jesus or / and from the Angels and no santa included.

We do the fun parts taken from Yule (trees/greenery/lights) and Saturnalia (feasting). I think at this point it’s more a celebration of managing to make it through another year than anything else.

I refuse to engage with other people’s holiday shit until I have visual confirmation of Hans Grueber falling from the Nakatomi Plaza building.

That one started when I was like 10 and usually happens within a week of thanksgiving. I try to avoid other Xmas stuff whenever I can. It’s a rough holiday (season) for me, kinda always has been even as a kid, and I don’t have anyone to spend it with anyway.