General Chat

i sure can Ann, i did think about that when i put it up and adding in the opening post about other members not from the UK, but i think your right its a brill idea to change it, thank you hun, x
i love reading how other people do things, especially something as special to me as christmas is, xxx

thank you marjery, i think the ida of a hot christmas is daunting as for me i always wish for snow lol, x

Hope you didn't think i was interfering Stray but it is too good a thread to be missed by others who could add.
Would be interesting to know if Jersey is any different from the rest of UK, South Africa, France, The Canaries, Cyprus and is Scotland even any different? And any others who are members, please join in.

Stray alas we do neither. We exchange the odd xmas card with friends but don't do the present buying nor do we bother with Decs. Until moving out here we both used to work over xmas and decorating the pub was enough for us, since here OH has worked it and for me I can't be bothered with decs that the mutts would only savage lol.
This year OH is off so I will be doing a duck dinner for us, then we might do the strange thing of sitting down watching tele ! more likely take mutts for a long walk and call in on friends along the way. (for a wee dram or 3 !)

no Ann i thought it was a brilliant suggestion, hopefully we will get some more experiences from around the globe now :)

aw uzzi my cat clibs my tree every year and i alwake to find decs missing haha x

Tony, I'm going to forward your lyrics to my young nieces, in case they want to perform for their class. ;)

Stray -- I acquired a 6-week-old kitten on Friday, from one of the feral litters on our block -- I found it lost and starving and howling at the top of its lungs on my back porch. (Bad news ... we are very sure someone has been poisoning our ferals, and we know who but can't prove it.) My neighbour is going to catch me one of its siblings ... or aunts, we're not sure ... from her back yard later this week. Stunningly beautiful pure grey long-haired, and the other is the same with pale orange patches.

I'm looking forward no end to Christmas trees and kittens. We have a smallish artificial tree that sits on an end table in front of the window, and No.1 decorates to the hilt. Not to my taste, but it's his baby. It doesn't matter where you put things, though, nothing in this world is safe from kittens.

On the Christmas decor theme, we go simple: a string of red lights around the inside of our front porch roof, and my mum's window decorations from the 1960s in the front windows on the second and third floors of our house: a wreath in the Palladian window at the top, and a star on the middle floor, with red, white and green lights. At my office house next door, a string of green lights around the porch roof, and a Santa and a sleigh (LCD lights on mesh, not antiques this time) in the twin front windows upstairs. Our house in particular, a storey taller than the rest on the block, with the lit wreath in the top window, looks much more elegant than it actually is. ;)

My little sister, the Martha Stewart of the family, goes for the tasteful Victorian look: white lights with real evergreen boughs and red ribbons on the railings of the front porch and inside the house.

Doing the outdoor Christmas lights was one of my dad's favourite things, and No.1 is much the same about his Christmas decorating. I like keeping up the tradition.

Cheer up Berona, Its only a Joke/Funny. Mind you I don,t mind you winning the ashes.or possibly Rugby.However after reading that they charge the Equivelent of £6.50.for a pint of beer.That is really taking the Pee. So I thought a little light retaleation would be in order. **M**.pmsl.:o))))>.

Hi Stray,

I work for a company and am based in London/Amsterdam. This xmas I will be spending xmas in Amsterdam - just like last year. I've found the Dutch people to be very hospitable and as a single guy, always receive lots of invites to xmas lunch. Guess they must feel sorry for me :) Last year I enjoyed a meal with a colleague and his family. We had roast turkey and veg, but no xmas pudd lol. This year I'm taking them out for a meal in a restaurant - started saving up last xmas :)

aw piers thats very nice of you, and them, i love sharing our day, im used to it all the waifs n strays mam has took in over the years hah,


janey, i love dressing my tree, silver n lilac, but this year im thinking of changing it, depending on money,
i dont have outside lights yet, but im thinking of buying some in the sales in january for next year haha, cat/kittens and chrtmas is always fun, i love watching stray on chrstmas day jumping in and out of all the wrappign paper littleman piles in the middle of the room lol, x

Your mum sounds like one of my aunts who emigrated to Canada years ago. We went to spend xmas with her when I was small..... It was chaos lol. Open house to everyone. Xmas can be a lonely time for those without family - so it's nice when people are able to share. If I don't speak to you again Stray - wish you and all your family a happy and healthy xmas :)

I usually spend Christmas out of town with family - parents (now mum) and sibs who all live in different places. But back around 1980, I stayed in town one year because I was birth coaching a friend who was due at New Year and had to stick around.

I invited a bunch of my clients for dinner, students and others from all over the world who were on their own. And the pregnant friend.

Just as I was about to take the turkey out of the oven, she announced she was in labour. I told her to call a taxi (neither of us had cars) and I'd meet her after I fed the multitude!

I then appointed someone to take over for me, and got to the hospital, and waited, and slept in a chair in the waiting room, and was awakened early next morning to be told it was false labour and they were sending her home ...

i remember a few yrs ago a friend off mine did some travielin & was in oz at xmas time.she said it was strange haven a "xmas" barbie on the beach & the weather was hot instead off cold/snowin lol

Nice to see you Piers. Have missed you posting.
Julia in Derbyshire

STRAY i heard a rumor

youve got your Christmas decorations up already

Please tell me its just a rumor

great thread this ! I`ve really enjoyed reading it all !
The Oz "Jingle Bells" is so funny, I loved it !
and Janeys house sound so nice I can picture it in a really traditional Christmassy setting...Snow ?? that would complete the picture !
Tina x

"blushes" yes me and littleman have just spent the last few hours, decorating the front room hahaha, i culdnt help it, i just love christmas and had to do me decs, cant do me tree till they go on sale lol, x

aw thank you peirs and you too, xxx

iv edited it for you joan.

xxx

its begining to look a lot like christmas
everyone is stressed skint and full of snot! lol x

Oh yes, Tina, snow. Lots and lots of snow. Although maybe once a decade we do get a green Christmas, sometimes mild, sometimes just cold and dry. Snowfall varies quite a bit year to year, but we almost always have a full cover by Christmas.

The first snowfall is our cue to switch on the outdoor lights. If it's early we may not have them on from then up to Christmas, but the snow just cries out for them, to make that snug and peaceful "coming home" feeling when it's dark by 4 pm.

We do, however, keep our outdoor lights going for a while after Christmas, just because they offset the cold and snow some, and we also keep the indoor decorations up a while. My mum usually visits in January, and it's nice to enjoy the warm glow together when it's bitter cold outside, no matter what month it is!

Just to add to Uzzi - posting

The Christmas holiday season here in Granada region is a magical affair. - Although it doesn't get going until seemingly the last minute, as it the norm for Spain !

The true mark of the beginning of Christmas in Spain is the Spanish national lottery draw held December 22nd.

'El Gordo' or the - fat one,- is so called because it is the largest national lottery in the world with the total prize fund running into billions and it also has the best odds of winning.

The draw takes place throughout the whole
morning and the whole nation tunes in to watch the very elaborate drawing of the numbers by children who ·"sing out " the numbers drawn

Every village buys blocks of numbers - and add 3 euros to the price of the ticket - for charity or church

It is on every radio and TV channel - and is played in every shop and business - even in my lawyers office last year.

The lottery draw is the moment when Christmas comes to
Spain,

Once the lottery draw has been made, the festivities really begin, Uni s and Schools close for the holidays and lights and decorations suddenly appear overnight.

The traditional Christmas decoration is the 'Belén' or nativity scene. Just like other countries across the world, where a Christmas tr take centre stage in town and village squares, here each town and village has its own Belén,

Some of these scenes are breathtakingly beautiful and elaborate and can be visited in town halls and churches across the land.

Even personal ones can take over whole rooms in the house and just with the Christmas tree -- it is a special family time spent putting it together and adding all the
little touches. working - water wells - streams - neighing donkeys - lights crowing cockerels - every house will a Belén, of some size -

As well as the traditional religious characters and
popular local scenes, one special character is paramount to the Belén,

He is known as 'el Cagón' and to be polite, he is a
figure in a squat position doing a poo! ( quite familiar to me as my old neighbor - to my land - quite often fertilised his land this way - as no doubt our Ag Lab Ancestors did)

His presence symbolises the fertilisation of the land for the coming year but of course provides much amusement for the children.

Although an important and historical figure in the Belén, he has been banned - I understand - from public nativity scenes in many towns by local governments so as not to cause offence . . .

Christmas celebrations in Spain are fantastic - but
walking thru towns and villages in the middle of December, you would hardly notice that Christmas is round the corner, there are very few Christmasy adverts on TV and it seems ages before any lights and/or
decorations go up.

However once the fever takes over, you are spoiled
by the generosity of Christmas spirit bestowed on you by the locals, you get free gifts in the shops and free tipples every where, even in the town hall, lights and decorations appear as if by magic, there is music to be
heard and people seem to suddenly take to the streets and squares just to wish you well and enjoy the atmosphere which goes on right until 6th
January.


Irene In Spain