Comments on: Whose Idea Was This?

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 15:36:21 +0000

the most notable disaster in our family was the christmas tree that i knocked over when i was a kid, but for a reliable source of demolition, cats are hard to beat.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 05:03:51 +0000

Cats and Christmas trees can rarely share the same space without a disaster.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 04:04:42 +0000

i'm with michael on the music and decorations, but like anya, i've got a feline wrecking crew too. and our family does the karma thing for presents, which is way saner than all that shoppingshoppingshopping madness.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 22:38:16 +0000

Oh, I’ll be on a ladder the day after Thanksgiving stringing my Mother’s outdoor lights, and they be on through News Year’s Day, but enough is enough.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 22:26:39 +0000

Me, I take after my mother–I’m a huge Christmas fanatic. I absolutely disagree that Christmas is just for kids–though I’m in perfect agreement with all here that the merchants’ insanity is getting worse. (And let me point out that Charles Schulz was decrying it forty years ago in A Charlie Brown Christmas.) My Christmas decorations don’t go up, and unless my iPod is on random shuffle, I don’t play Christmas music until at least the day after Thanksgiving–though I’ll keep the decorations up, and enjoy the music, at least until the day after Little Christmas (the Epiphany).

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 20:49:21 +0000

I have two great nephews so Christmas is pretty much for them alone, and they aren’t old enough to complain. I generally look for good packaging, because the kids usually end up spending more time playing with the box than the toy that came in it.

The rest of the crew buy what they need, when they need it, so there’s not much point and they may actually need help another time of the year, so I don’t get carried away – a donation to a suitable cause in their name is what they’ll get, because their karma needs more help than they do.

By: Kevin Hayden

Kevin Hayden — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 20:23:04 +0000

I’m a consumer curmudgeon like you, Bryan. November should be for turkeys and stuffing and cranberries and pumpkin pie. Christmas is for kids and that shopping season should begin the weekend before Thanksgiving.

And screw Tiny Tim. 😉

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 20:04:41 +0000

You can’t buy a heavy coat down here because “it doesn’t get cold in Florida”. Well, we have a few weeks in the thirties and forties and you are out of luck if you don’t shop on-line or through catalogs to get clothes for those periods.

Anya, I’m outside everyday, but I don’t shop much. I’m not having to impress people, so I normally wear jeans and a work shirt for dealing with things outside.

I not a desirable demographic – if I don’t need it, I don’t buy it. Bookstores are the only places I visit with anything approaching regularity.

By: Anya

Anya — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:31:36 +0000

You must not get out much, Bryan. I noticed the first Christmas decorations for sale in the middle of September. Not entirely a bad thing, since I sometimes need a string of lights for my Halloween tree. I just didn’t more lights this year.

I’m not normally a kill-joy when it comes to Christmas, but I’ve stopped celebrating it, myself, and I’m not going to put up my usual Solstice Shrub this year because of the feline wrecking crew.

By: andante

andante — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 14:54:15 +0000

That “can’t buy winter clothes in the winter” thing is one of my favorite rants, since I inevitably lose a glove or toboggan or rip my long underwear by New Year’s.

Our winters are increasingly milder, which helps that problem a bit, but during hottest August it makes me ~~sweat~~ perspire just looking at all the heavy coats on the racks.