2019 Christmas Thread

A new Dropkick Murphys song for me!

 

We were a directory inquiries service so not many people called wanting a taxi or a pizza delivered on Xmas Night. There were always a few drunks though.

 

Oh interesting ... I worked for a major bank, and we're one of the few places that has to be open 24/7, since customers depend on us to do whatever else they're trying to do.

Our credit cad group (I was in deposits) has always been 24/365. When I was first a fraud analyst, we always had holidays off and just routed our calls to credit card service supervisors. But now they're open all the time to help customers, even on Christmas Day.

I'm on salary now so there's no point in me working if I don't have to, but I'm not critical anyway since I don't interact with customers.

 

Bah humbug, I am not getting into the Christmas spirit. The Christmas tree is up. The house is decorated. I've already watched The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Elf. But meh.

Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot.
But Zkribbler who lived just North of Whoville did not!

​

 

It's not even November! Fake tree?

 

Christmas in the Philipines lasts like 4 months.

 

Who needs a Christmas thread when we have the HALLMARK channel that shows Christmas movies 12 months a year.

 

Oh yeah. There's a small patch of highlands in Luzon which gets cold enough to grow pine trees but nowhere near enough for everyone.
On the other hand, Filipinos' fake Christmas trees are stunningly realistic.

 

I prefer Lifetime.

Mr KB has ... not been pleased with my Christmas exuberance. He said no more Christmas music until after Halloween, that I need to play holiday-appropriate music.

So I'm playing the soundtrack from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" XD

 

Honestly I don't like hearing or seeing Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving. That might be an artifact of my childhood, when I would get incredibly excited (to the point of sleeplessness) about Christmas and being reminded of it constantly for two months would be absolutely unbearable. I would try to just not think about it at all until after mid-December.

 

Thanks for using an "Irish" band to remind me to be nice to my Irish in-laws.
A slightly more artistic Boston-Iish" video with a similar warning, i.e don't sink the boat.
Also, don't mix your grooves at snack time, e.g. pfefferkuchen OR roll mops on one plate.

 

We don't really do much for Christmas and it's a family day.

Parents in law cook to much food and we eat leftovers for a few days.

Often end up with 6 or 7 deserts for 12 people so it's half a cheese cake or half a bowl of whatever each. Often a mix of ye olde baked English type deserts or new stuff.

Cooked breakfast as well where the ladies like to have wine. Breakfast is cooked on BBQ. Hashbrowns, sausages, eggs, bacon etc

Christmas gifts are mostly just for the kids, adults do secret Santa.

No one's really Christian and we opt out of the commercial side of things.

 

Ah, Christmas memories.
My favourite Christmas was in 1995 when my wife was working as the state-appointed lawyer in the Children's Court.
About 6pm on Christmas Eve, as we were putting food out on the table before family arrived, she got a phone call from a former "client". He said he needed a lawyer
quickly because he was just caught stealing presents by the occupants of the house and the police were on their way.

She sighed, hung up, and resigned a few days later. There are easier ways to earn a living.

 

Don't tell us you've never had a chocolate Santa!

Strawberry-flavored hard candy with chocolate filling usually appears around Christmas here. Many years ago there was a literal pail of hard candy that was available at Christmas. My 6-year-old self was definitely into Christmas candy and Christmas oranges!

Shortbread cookies were traditional Christmas treats in my family (on my mother's side). On my dad's side, we usually indulged in chocolate. Christmas is the only time of year when I allow myself After Eight.

Depending on the recipe and the skill of the baker, fruitcake can be edible and actually pretty good.

Candy canes come in many flavors now.


As for Christmas music... there's a lot of nice stuff out there, but if you want something different, just write your own:


Doctor Bones McCoy

Doctor Bones McCoy looked out
On the feast of Stephen
Where the food lay 'round about,
Deep and crisp and even.
Blushing, the lieutenant said,
"Sir, I'm off my diet
Here's a pack of onion rings...
Have one, won't you try it?

"Bring me pie and bring me cake,
Bring me hard rock candy!
Bring me a creamy choc'late shake --
Anything that's handy.
Popcorn, pretzels I do crave
Lots and lots of munchies.
And my sanity you'll save
With a bag of Space Crunchies!"

"Lieutenant, you are out of line,
Go and eat your dinner!
Plomeek soup will do you fine,
You will be much thinner!"
"Doctor, won't you take with me
A walk to the transporter
Where this ship it soon will be
One CMO shorter!"

(tune: "Good King Wenceslaus")

I wrote these lyrics 30 years ago, and it's included in the R.D.S.T.S. Filk Book, along with other filksongs. Some are to the tune of various Christmas songs and some are to the tune of other well-known melodies.

BTW, don't ask me how McCoy escaped being beamed out into space by Lieutenant Stephen. I suspect Spock must have rescued him.

 

Dammit Jim !!

 

Best Christmas song:

 

On the First Turn of Civmas, Sid Meier gave to me ...
A settler to found a city.

On the Second Turn of Civmas, Sid Meier gave to me ...
Two free techs,
And a settler to found a city.

On the Third Turn of Civmas, Sid Meier gave to me ...
Three goody huts,
Two free techs,
And a settler to found a city.

On the Fourth Turn of Civmas, Sid Meier gave to me ...
Four hills with mines,
Three goody huts,
Two free techs,
And a settler to found a city.

On the Fifth Turn of Civmas, Sid Meier gave to me ...
FIVE WORLD WONDERS,
Four hills with mines,
Three goody huts,
Two free techs,
And a settler to found a city.

On the Sixth Turn of Civmas, Sid Meier gave to me ...
Six scouts a'scouting,
FIVE WORLD WONDERS,
Four hills with mines,
Three goody huts,
Two free techs,
And a settler to found a city.

On the Seventh Turn of Civmas, Sid Meier gave to me ...
Seven builders building,
Six scouts a'scouting,
FIVE WORLD WONDERS,
Four hills with mines,
Three goody huts,
Two free techs,
And a settler to found a city.

On the Eighth Turn of Civmas, Sid Meier gave to me ...
Eight knights attacking,
Seven builders building,
Six scouts a'scouting,
FIVE WORLD WONDERS,
Four hills with mines,
Three goody huts,
Two free techs,
And a settler to found a city.

On the Ninth Turn of Civmas, Sid Meier gave to me ...
Nine cannons sieging,
Eight knights attacking,
Seven builders building,
Six scouts a'scouting,
FIVE WORLD WONDERS,
Four hills with mines,
Three goody huts,
Two free techs,
And a settler to found a city.

On the Tenth Turn of Civmas, Sid Meier gave to me ...
Ten frigates sailing,
Nine cannons sieging,
Eight knights attacking,
Seven builders building,
Six scouts a'scouting,
FIVE WORLD WONDERS,
Four hills with mines,
Three goody huts,
Two free techs,
And a settler to found a city.

On the Eleventh Turn of Civmas, Sid Meier gave to me ...
Eleven Tanks a'blitzing,
Ten frigates sailing,
Nine cannons sieging,
Eight knights attacking,
Seven builders building,
Six scouts a'scouting,
FIVE WORLD WONDERS,
Four hills with mines,
Three goody huts,
Two free techs,
And a settler to found a city.

On the Twelfth Turn of Civmas, Sid Meier gave to me ...
Twelve nukes a'launching,
Eleven Tanks a'blitzing,
Ten frigates sailing,
Nine cannons sieging,
Eight knights attacking,
Seven builders building,
Six scouts a'scouting,
FIVE WORLD WONDERS,
Four hills with mines,
Three goody huts,
Two free techs,

And a settler to found a city!

 

That's such a fantastic movie. I got to see a showing at the Hollywood Bowl a few years back where the actors came out on stage and sang all the tunes live for us while the movie played on screen. It was amazing.

 

I'm not going to switch to my christmas avatar until Thanksgiving.