Oppressed by all that is Christmas

**DracoM** · 22-12-20, 15:06

**Nick Armstrong** · 22-12-20, 15:12

Stuff it, eh, 8tho?

**jayne lee wilson** · 22-12-20, 15:17

Christmas! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is famed to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! Adieu To Christmas!

(With Apologies to Mr. Keats)

**french frank** · 22-12-20, 15:24

I'm actually finding it less stressful than usual. Well understood excuse not to do anything like thinking what on earth to give people, going and buying it, wondering will they like it or have you made a silly mistake. It will be a very small gathering with my bubble - just four of us - for a quiet lunch on Christmas Day. The only downside is thinking of all the people who for various reasons aren't coping - mentally, financially, emotionally - with their own circumstances.

**oddoneout** · 22-12-20, 15:39

Sorry to hear that 8thO. Living alone as I do, having a now very small and distanced family circle, and not having needed to 'do' a domestic Christmas for many years, I can escape much of the downside of the supposedly festive season. What I have missed this year is the music related activities and the (limited) social occasions associated with choir, work and volunteering. The Zoom Xmas party for the latter was entertaining but not really a substitute for gathering with others and having a real panto and free festive meal.
However, like ff I keep in mind that for so many folk things are not just different but plain awful, and am grateful for what I do have.

**Serial_Apologist** · 22-12-20, 16:33

Originally posted by oddoneout View Post

Sorry to hear that 8thO. Living alone as I do, having a now very small and distanced family circle, and not having needed to 'do' a domestic Christmas for many years, I can escape much of the downside of the supposedly festive season. What I have missed this year is the music related activities and the (limited) social occasions associated with choir, work and volunteering. The Zoom Xmas party for the latter was entertaining but not really a substitute for gathering with others and having a real panto and free festive meal.
However, like ff I keep in mind that for so many folk things are not just different but plain awful, and am grateful for what I do have.

Yes I'm likewise in a similar one-bod household, but not communally musically engaged in any way, apart from the occasional garden jam sesh with others living in the block. I always post cards to relations and friends, distanced and nearer to hand, to remind them that I am still alive - this being the main point of Xmas for me.

**cloughie** · 22-12-20, 16:38

Christmas may not be quite the same as ever
But there’ll be those this year that box it clever
And let their minds go all of a fug,
As they drink separately or together in the Bar Humbug!

in the Bar Humbug

**eighthobstruction** · 22-12-20, 16:40

....I am at mo' watching (I've nearly finished s6) on All4....West Wing....and given the morals, ehtics , cloying sentimentality and the America need to show how clever they are (sic) and make the best out of their 250 yr History [yawn,yawn], the snobbery of the intelligent over the less so....that + the rapid fire delvery of dialogue (that is not evident in real life) which is almost impossible to comprehend even with subtitles....I am a little battered. However it is the adverts that cannot be fastforwarded that get to me a make me despair....perfumes, GAMBLING, people who cannot be bothered to butter 2 sides of a roll and put some filling in ;but must buy them made....you know the stuff apps, new phones/internet contracts/CGI ridden computer games: i don't see them as inconsequencial things i see them as BIG drivers of of of of Aaaagh....Yes I too am alone 25/26 but will spend time getting ready for 6 folk to come 27th(2 toddlers) at which time I will drive onward and become Grandad Tim perveyor of stupid voices and faces, chaser of poooobaaaaaah....Ferney is in the same boat locked-down in West Yorkshire and sends his regards to you all....

**Serial_Apologist** · 22-12-20, 16:46

Originally posted by eighthobstruction View Post

....I am at mo' watching (I've nearly finished s6) on All4....West Wing....and given the morals, ehtics , cloying sentimentality and the America need to show how clever they are (sic) and make the best out of their 250 yr History [yawn,yawn], the snobbery of the intelligent over the less so....that + the rapid fire delvery of dialogue (that is not evident in real life) which is almost impossible to comprehend even with subtitles....I am a little battered. However it is the adverts that cannot be fastforwarded that get to me a make me despair....perfumes, GAMBLING, people who cannot be bothered to butter 2 sides of a roll and put some filling in ;but must buy them made....you know the stuff apps, new phones/internet contracts/CGI ridden computer games: i don't see them as inconsequencial things i see them as BIG drivers of of of of Aaaagh....Yes I too am alone 25/26 but will spend time getting ready for 6 folk to come 27th(2 toddlers) at which time I will drive onward and become Grandad Tim perveyor of stupid voices and faces, chaser of poooobaaaaaah....Ferney is in the same boat locked-down in West Yorkshire and sends his regards to you all....

Welcome, belatedly, to the 21st century! (Don't worry - just talking to myself).

**eighthobstruction** · 22-12-20, 16:50

Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post

Welcome, belatedly, to the 21st century! (Don't worry - just talking to myself).

....blaa blaa....bless ya Guvner....lol lol

**Leinster Lass** · 22-12-20, 17:49

Originally posted by eighthobstruction View Post

OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS OPPRESSED BY ALL THAT IS CHRISTMAS....well just about

From what I've read and heard, Christmas has effectively been cancelled in many places. If it hasn't, it will probably pass us by as usual - our only decorations are the 20 or so cards we've received. Birthdays and anniversaries are more important and genuine reasons for celebration. You may find that your feelings about the 'Festive Season' are much more widely shared than you might think!

**kernelbogey** · 22-12-20, 19:58

Hence instead...

Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post

I think about the Earth's revolution around the Sun quite often. This will be the seventy-fifth time I pass this point in space (along with everyone else, of course) and I have begun to think about how many more circuits I shall make.

... thinking about, instead, a measure of time that precedes 'Christmas', and the 'pagan' celebrations whch preceded it at this time of the year: a revolution that will continue when all the flummery is no more.

**richardfinegold** · 22-12-20, 20:14

As a non Christian, this time of year has always made me melancholy, especially when it’s coupled with Midwest American weather. And the rampant commercialism is disgusting. The time off from work is nice, though and especially this year.

**muzzer** · 22-12-20, 20:44

Yes, agree, mostly. But important to mark it even in semi-defiance. I attempt this each year by having roast potatoes with everything for a week, keeping plenty of fizz chilled, and watching Bond films. This year more than most this brutal routine is giving me a sense of continuity and, of course, making me feel quite replete.

Oppressed by all that is Christmas

Oppressed by all that is Christmas

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment