The "I hate Christmas" thread, deluxe edition

There's the Christmas spirit I've been missing.

Well, getting into the spirit, as it were:

http://www.cthulhulives.org/solstice/mp3s/horriblesample.mp3

Maysie wrote:

I suggest you have at least 3 drinks before clicking.

It didn't help.

Note re the cookie press: No, you effing can't get the same effect with a cookie cutter. Totally different!!! Cookie presses, properly used, give a 3D design and - especially in the case of shortbread - a lighter, more tender texture. Cookie presses rule, especially at Xmas.

bagkitty you're in the wrong thread for that sort of business.

I posted that video because only someone who really hates Christmas would create such a thing. I plan to send them many cookies in thanks.

*waves and makes smoochy noises at bagkitty*

Sorry, Unionist, I should have said to add some unauthorized medicinal supplements.

or maybe I was right the second time.

This is just for you, bagkitten.

Look at that face. It's about to demolish the whole lot of them. Prrrrrrrr.

Thanks Timebandit. I was thinking of the Scottish ones called "petticoat tails", if I recall.

https://www.walkersshortbread.com/uk/shortbread/cartons/traditional/shor... They put Mary Queen of Scots in the 12th Century, though. (!!!!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortbread Perhaps they misquoted the centuries in this wiki article? Too bad the latter doesn't mention the Breton types, though.

Then there are SAVOURY shortbreads. Posh Nigella actually has the simplest, and thus best, recipe I've seen. http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/parmesan-shortbreads

Maysie wrote:

This is just for you, bagkitten.

Look at that face. It's about to demolish the whole lot of them. Prrrrrrrr.

But Maysie, what home altar is complete without Bastet?

oldgoat wrote:

hey bagkitty, check your inbox

I did, and responded... two part response actually. You may want to try and talk Maysie into joining in... she enjoys poking a stick through the bars of a cage too!

For target practice, maybe?

By the way, you have to kill a cow to make this:

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/george_orwells_recipe_for_christmas_p...

Mark the calendar, this is the day bagkitty bows to Maysie's genius and awesome ability to post just the right graphic!

Five hours of Darth Vader's burning corpse to replace your yule log:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/15/10223468/5-hours-of-darth-vaders-burn...

Gift plan gone awry... Had something picked out for Thing 2, informed spouse, who communicated with his family using Norse Code, which means they went out and got her the thing he hinted at them not getting. Because that's how Norse Code works. Cue headline: Viking Meets Celtic Wrath. *snarly face*

We are having a "5 à 7" at my housing co-op this afternoon. I was glad to be able to do my share of the shopping for it on my bicycle - so much easier.

It is utterly shocking how much food prices have increased - even trying to scramble for the best prices, fruits and vegetables are terribly expensive.

I'd like to do away with Christmas observances entirely, but I find it's impossible to do at this stage of the game with children and family, extended relatives,  etc, without stirring up a fair bit of controversy and coming across as..well, whatever.  Aside from the enjoyment of family, people coming home, etc, year after year the charade of Christmas becomes more meaningless to me, to the extent that with an eye on the materialist aspect, I lament about people both young and old for whom Christmas continues to have quite a lot of meaning.  Maybe that's the Christmas miracle in itself, to derive even more meaninglessness from a total lack.  As it no doubt occurs to many others, to me it's like, if it's the extra bit of kindness or compassion that does it for a person, then why does it take a completely absurd non-event like Christmas to get wrapped up in it?  I'd rather worship the yule log as being symbolic of the sweet heat giving thermostat that I'll be frequently adjusting in the coming months.  Or maybe the invention of the quilt, or wool socks.  Something more tangible than some creep sliding down my chimney after we're asleep, or worse again, the birth of a sacrificial child.

bagkitty wrote:

Mark the calendar, this is the day bagkitty bows to Maysie's genius and awesome ability to post just the right graphic!

Slulmberjack wrote:

Maybe that's the Christmas miracle in itself, to derive even more meaninglessness from a total lack.  

Sometimes I feel like only Slumberjack gets the true meaning of the "I Hate Christmas" threads.

On the other hand, Grinchiness and Scroogeiness is just as much a part of the season as loving it.

Perhaps the true horror of Christmas is that there is no escaping it once it has burned itself into your mind.

An evil friend posted this on Facebook and the instant I saw it I thought of Slumberjack and this thread.

It perfectly encapsulates the spirit of Capitalist Frenzy Day that I so loathe. In this case the reveal, the enjoyment and the emotional arc are all vastly accelerated.

Actually, the right invented the “War on Christmas”: The real history behind today’s phoniest persecution

Say "happy holidays" and Bill O'Reilly will howl. Christians, though, fought to suppress the holiday for centuries

Indeed, one of these wars has already taken place on American soil, and is older than the United States itself. Unlike today’s so-called War on Christmas — which the AFA claims has been ongoing for nearly the past decade — this war lasted for nearly 200 years, and was waged by Christians in the name of Christianity.

In the early 17th century, a cadre of austerity-cloaked Christians who called themselves Puritans made their way to the so-called New World. The icy, grim ground they met upon arrival corresponded well with their vision of an authentic Christianity: one shorn of its Elizabethan frills and scrubbed of its insidious pagan stains. It was from this “pure” soil and purified Christianity that these individuals believed a model society would, and must, be born.

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/22/actually_the_right_invented_the_war_on_c...

I knew that general story (especially in Britain) but it has some specifics on the Puritans in New England that I didn't know. Always bears repeating. Funny how a New England Christmas has become emblematic of the holiday in North America, along with the German-inspired décor of the Victorian version.

"O Tannenbaum" in the original version never mentions lil Jeebus, it is an ode to the tree, and harks back to the animistic beliefs of Germanic peoples.

http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Notes_On_Carol...

Here is another literal translation, but actually Tannenbaum should have been translated literally, as "Fir" or "Fir tree" instead of Christmas Tree. "Christmastime" is the only reference to the Christian holiday. It is also a song about "values", but not specifically "Christian" ones.

http://german.about.com/library/blotannenb.htm

Anyone else catch the Ideas program last week on Haendel's Messiah?

One of the interesting things pointed out was that it (the liturgy, anyway) was a propaganda piece for the Jesus as literal son of god, saviour of the world, prophesied by the ancients camp. It was a reaction the very popular deist (actually proto-atheist) movement which saw the scriptures in a much more allegorical way, and didn't believe in miracles or a god which interfered in human affairs at all.

Well, no, because atheism isn't a religion. And your list would be more credible without the women-hating Christofascists at lifesite. Remember the terrorist attack on Planned Parenthood, just before the other at San Bernardino. The death toll was lower at the first because they had taken very serious security measures. A nurse friend in Vancouver was very involved in protection to abortion providers. He had horror stories to tell.

I'm not very fond of a certain kind of militant atheist either, though I am an atheist and have been for most of my life.

The reasons I hate Christmas have very little to do with the Christian faith; more a question of crass Spendaholicism and as you say, the distress and pain the season causes for so many people, whether they are lacking money, friendship or both.

I have a friend from a very poor country in central Africa. While he had a professional job, it was not very well paid at all (public sector). Only the ruling clique and some private businesses make serious money in those countries. When he moved to Europe to do his post-doc (living in France, Belgium and Switzerland) he said he had never seen so much human misery - of course people had better living conditions and more access to education and healthcare - but so many people were in despair, whether people from the global South or "native" Europeans.