Preparing for Christmas

TastyReuben said:
I suppose for those who celebrate Christmas, they do what works for them, but that would raise my eyebrow a little.

My wife’s family, they exchange lists of what they want, and then everyone buys off the lists. When we had our first Christmas together (keep in mind, I come from a family that doesn’t celebrate Christmas), I was surprised by that, because it seemed like cheating to me.

After that, I told MrsT to not give me a list and to not expect one from me (though I did provide one to her parents because you’ve got to respect the elders), that gift-giving, you need to know the recipient and pick something out for them.

That’s why, when we were all exchanging gifts over the years (we no longer do…too many people to buy for these days), I became something of a family legend, and when we’d moved to drawing names of people to buy for, everyone wanted me to pick their name, because they knew it would be a good gift, tailored to them, and a surprise.

This year, though, I really came up short for MrsT. It’s been a year of distractions, to say the least.
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If you never celebrated Christmas as a kid, then you probably never wrote a letter to Santa, or sat on a mall Santa's knee. We wrote to Santa as young children, and that's how my parent's knew what we wanted. As older children, we just went straight to Santa, AKA mom and dad, with our wishlist.

I don't see having a gift wish list as cheating, especially with adults. Once I went off to college, and never lived with my parents again, they had no way of knowing what to get me unless I told them some things I wanted.

Then there was buying for my dad. He never wanted anything he couldn't just go an buy for himself. Asking him what he wanted for Christmas or his birthday was pointless. You wouldn't get an answer. If he wanted something, he went out and bought it. My strategy for the last 30-plus years has been to buy him something fun. When my dad retired, I had to teach him how to play, because all he knew was how to work. That played into my gift-giving strategy perfectly. I would get something that he would never buy for himself, because it was not something "practical." My goal was to get him something he didn't know he wanted, that he would end up happily using or playing with.

CD
 
My teardrop camping group used to do a gathering at Lake Ray Roberts every mid-December for Christmas. We would eat, drink, eat, drink, launch water balloons at the Boy Scouts in a campground nearby that always seemed to be there when we were, then go back to the campfire to eat and drink some more.

We would also play a gift game that goes by a bunch of names, but our group chose "Dirty Santa."

Basically, every person would buy a fun gift under 20 bucks, and wrap it. You put all the gifts in the middle of a circle, and everyone would draw a number from a hat. One at a time, each person would pick out a gift, and open it. The next person could either open a gift, or "steal" a gift that was already opened. If your gift was "stolen," you would pick another, or steal somebody else's gift. Once a gift was "stollen" twice, it was "frozen," and could not be stolen again.

It was a great game, and led to a lot of laughter.

CD
 
caseydog said:
We would also play a gift game that goes by a bunch of names, but our group chose "Dirty Santa."
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I’ve worked three places where the organizer of the office Christmas to-do set up that game as a fun exchange (usually called White Elephant), and all three times, it ended in seriously hurt feelings and damaged coworker relationships.

The last time was here, where I work now, probably 2007, and I warned the woman putting it together, “This ain’t gonna end well…” and she did it anyway, and it pretty much killed any holiday office party after that, though a couple of years after that, our new corporate overlords disallowed any in-office holiday activities anyway, so it really didn’t matter.
 
TastyReuben said:
I’ve worked three places where the organizer of the office Christmas to-do set up that game as a fun exchange (usually called White Elephant), and all three times, it ended in seriously hurt feelings and damaged coworker relationships.

The last time was here, where I work now, probably 2007, and I warned the woman putting it together, “This ain’t gonna end well…” and she did it anyway, and it pretty much killed any holiday office party after that, though a couple of years after that, our new corporate overlords disallowed any in-office holiday activities anyway, so it really didn’t matter.
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That's odd. It was always a hoot at our gatherings. I'd say it was the participants, not the game, that ruined the day. Some people just take life too seriously.

CD
 
caseydog said:
That's odd. It was always a hoot at our gatherings. I'd say it was the participants, not the game, that ruined the day. Some people just take life too seriously.

CD
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The two main issues were the choices in gifts and the stealing.

For the gifts, some people would contribute things like a modestly-priced bottle of wine, or holiday chocolates, but others would add in gag gifts - one guy actually wrapped up a burned-out light bulb.

The people who gave proper gifts felt the ones who gave gag gifts were being, well, shitheads, and the people who gave gag gifts felt like the other ones didn’t know how to have fun.

Issues with stealing sprang from that (“I’ll be damned if I’m giving you a bottle of wine for a box of paper clips - come and take it if you’re tough enough, jerk!”) and at the last one here, someone also protested that coupling the idea of stealing with Christmas sent the wrong message (remember, we reside in the top band of the Bible Belt), so that was that.
 
Yesterday, Mrs. NDN (Next Door Neighbor) sent me a text with a photo:
IMG_2876.JPG

This was a gift from the neighbor on her other side; no one likes them much.
Mrs. NDN asked if we'd like some chocolates, "SURE!"
DOOR DASH!
She gave us all of these!
And here's how I figure it: Bill & Kelly are both self employed and I'm guessing that a bunch of there clients give them hoards of candy at Christmas. I think Kelly re-packages a bunch of them and re-gifts them, mostly to get them out of her house.
That's what Mrs. NDN did by giving us the lot!
"I just can't have that in my house! Mr. NDN will eat it all and he's not suppose to!"
Well, none of us really should be eating this much candy, but ... :D Mahalo!!!
 
Forgot to add this bit of Christmas that MrsT brought back from her Disney cruise:
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That’s a Disney advent calendar on a Disney Christmas blanket, and for some odd reason, a Disney Christmas hamper (as in laundry hamper) rounds out the set.

I love me my Christmas, but it’s an eyesore.
 
TastyReuben said:
Forgot to add this bit of Christmas that MrsT brought back from her Disney cruise:
View attachment 108302
That’s a Disney advent calendar on a Disney Christmas blanket, and for some odd reason, a Disney Christmas hamper (as in laundry hamper) rounds out the set.

I love me my Christmas, but it’s an eyesore.
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It needs a health warning.
It could jangle the eyes out of someone’s sockets.
 
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