Christmas Loot

[andrewducker]

diotina was just disbelieving of the fact that my family opens their presents on Christmas Eve. I had to point her at the Wikipedia entry, which shows that people open their presents on all sorts of days. My family's tradition stems from my Austrian grandmother (now sadly passed away).

[Poll #894673]

This Christmas, I got:
100 Suns (a collection of Atomic Bomb Test photography)
The Complete Indigo Prime (a strip from 2000, now finally collected)
DMZ (can't remember why I wanted this TPB, but it looks kinda cool)
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (a graphic novel memoir of coming out that got good reviews)
Kingdom of Heaven - Director's Cut (because when I saw it at the cinema it had clearly been hacked to bits)
The I.T. Crowd (because 5 people phoned me up when it came out, including two exes, and told me they'd made a TV show with me in it).
Buddhism Without Beliefs (which segue's nicely into the atheism debate I'm still having)
Prometheus Rising (which was on my wish list to remind me to pick up a 5th copy, the first four having all been lent to people and not returned)
Brain Strain - the lateral thinking game (Oooh, games and thinking at the same time!)
Zelda - Twilight Princess for the Wii.

I'm almost supposed to be getting a Wii, but it failed to arrive on time, so it'll be following me back to Edinburgh by post...

Lots of rolling around in geeky fat loot for me!

Comments

[wychwood]

I read the first issue of DMZ in that free-download-of-Vertigo-first-issues recently; it certainly looked interesting (also bleak and somewhat depressing, but still...). You'll have to let us know if it's good.

[cx650.livejournal.com]

I expect most of the people who read your journal are aware of this, but for those who aren't, here goes. Exchanging/opening of presents on the 25th is a relatively recent thing. Boxing Day (proper name St Stephen's Day) was the day for gifts as recently as Dickensian times, perhaps even later. The name Boxing Day was derived from the contemporary term of Christmas Boxes, meaning presents. Christmas Day itself was reserved for religious celebration.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

And celebrating from the evening before is normal for all Jewish holidays and I believe for middle europeans and Greek Orthodox - my exes Austrian-Jewish family also opened pressies on Xmas Eve.

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

Christmas doesn't really suck, but it's not something I do.

[darkoshi]

You should've done checkboxes instead of radio buttons. Since part of my family is American, and part German, we have different traditions for each, although I've experienced the gift-exchange on Xmas eve much more often.

My foster sister often comes visit us with her family on Xmas eve, and we exchange gifts with them, but they exchange their own gifts with each other on Xmas morning.

You could've provided options for other traditions too... some cultures, like in Spain, exchange gifts on days other than xmas eve/day.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Were I to be with my Dad, we would exchange presents late on Christmas Eve, after a traditional Polish meal. (Well, aside from the fact that in that part of France, Christmas Eve is the important day anyhow and "Boxing Day" is just a normal day)

However, I'm not with him, but out of a respect for family tradition as opposed to festive spirit, I'm making a somewhat adapted version of said meal for myself tonight. Presents can wait though - I'm not really keen on that side of things.

[andrewducker]

If you don't spend a fortune on capitalist tat then the terrorists win!!!!!

I shall hand you 100 Suns when you next crash over. I seem to recall that it was you that first mentioned it to me.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I saw it in a store - looks t3h pretty.

I heard that if you don't wear a Santa hat on Christmas Day, Bin Laden shoots a kitten. That's just what I heard.

[ipslore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a checkbox poll / 'other' option would have been nice. Our family has out-of-town relatives over on Christmas Eve Day, and we exchange presents with them. Then we open more presents on Christmas Day proper, the ones we got for each other. It's a nice way to do things.

[ekatarina.livejournal.com]

When I was little my brother and I could get up and open our stockings as early as we liked as long as we didn't wake mom and dad up. Then breakfast was started. All adults had to be armed with coffee and my brother and I had to have our pad of paper and pencil ready to make notes since thank you notes must be written with care.

Then bro and I would "play Santa" and hand gifts out. The goal was to make sure everyone had a turn and that no one was "left out" in the proceedings.

Any guests would have *something* under the tree, even if they had arrived at the last minute. And my father always picked out thoughful cards for everyone which were placed on the tree. When we were little they had money. As adults they don't.

The last three years my roomie and I have opened our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve before we went off to whereever we were going for the big day. (I usually sleep over at Dad's place the night before.)

Also, Christmas Eve dinner is pizza - for ease of prep, i.e. none - and movies are war movies - because the only films we can all agree on are "The Great Escape" and "Bridge on the River Kwai".

Best wishes to all.


Ekatarina

[andrewducker]

It's amazing how wierd other people's traditions seem, even when they're not that dissimilar to our own. I never did thank-you cards, because all the people giving me cards were right there...

[dapperscavenger.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, Adam and I were just dscussing the fact that since this is our first christmas together, alone, in our own house as a family unit, we will be creating our own set of christmas 'traditions' - which I suspect will be an amalgamation of our previous experences with a few other odds and sods thrown in. Whatever we decide to do will become special to us and when we have kids they will grow up with those memories of christmas.

For example, neither of us like turkey, so its going to be duck or goose. (Apparently swan used to be popular but its tricky to get hold of). Also, I insist on absolute cleanliness at christmas so the house has been scrubbed to to bottom and Adam has even gone so far as to paint the living room last week.

And we have stockings. And the stockings MUST have cementines in. In fact, we're going to have fruit with natural yoghurt for beakfast so I wonder if that will become a tradition. Who knows?

[azalemeth.livejournal.com]

Here, we exchange gifts on christmas eve, but don't actually open them until about 9am in the morning...

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

We usually open one present apiece on Christmas Eve and then the rest in the morning.

[thadrin.livejournal.com]

Had we been at my inlaws then it would have been Christmas eve. In Sweden they celebrate the day before stuff, not the actual day. God knows why (probably church related actually).

Still, I'm trying to keep it as british as possible. The idea of Christmas eve presents just rubs wrong with me. Having two christmas lunches on the other hand is great. We did Swedish yesterday, today there will be turkey.

[moniqueleigh]

What we do depends on when the family can get together.

Growing up, we opened all gifts Xmas morning -- as soon as we could con the parents out of bed. Then it was over to the various grandparents' houses for meals/gift exchanges. Yep, three gift exchanges (& laaaarge Southern US meals) in one day. *falls over ded*

Now, Galoot & I usually wait 'til the after-holiday sales to buy stuff for each other. We go ahead & get stuff for the various family members (thankfully, most have moved to the "only buy gifts for small-fry" model). Each branch of the family will do a gathering with meal/exchange as works out to be convenient for the most people.

This year, we're going to Mum's for lunch on Xmas Day (oof, gotta get some sleep so I can get up in just a few hours for that). My brother & family are supposed to be getting in at some point Tuesday (I think), so we'll probably get together again sometime during the week. Plus, Dad's family is planning a gathering Friday. Mum's family don't do the gathering much these days since Granny's got Alzheimer's & the family's scattered all over the country anyway.

Congrats on your haul, though! Sounds like fun. :)

[pisica.livejournal.com]

My 'Christmas day in the morning' response is reserved for Xmases spent with the Drum family. When it's just me and the boy it's a lot more flexible - earlier this week, I opened my three Persephone books on three subsequent days, to emulate Hanukah, which is what I normally celebrate. :)

Oh, looks as though we're on for the 6th.

Also, what was the title of that book you lent to John?

[andrewducker]

You and your strange for'n beliefs. 'Taint natural, I say.

The book is The Carpet Makers:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Carpet-Makers-Andreas-Eschbach/dp/0765314908/sr=8-1/qid=1167042789/ref=sr_1_1/202-6674321-8478237?ie=UTF8&s=books

[avatar.livejournal.com]

Where's the "whenever" option?

[opusfluke.livejournal.com]

Indigo Prime? Collated? COVET! All I need to do is save my pennies and go out and buy it, the D.R. And Quinch anthology, the Zenith collection and sacrifice villagers until they conclude and collate Danzig's Inferno. And Zippy Couriers. And maybe P.J. Maybe. And...

[andrewducker]

For some reason it doesn't include the Future Shock that got everything going in the first place. Everything else is there though. If only there was a Tyrrany Rex collection to go with it!

And Zenith still isn't being reprinted, due to some kind of copyright issue...

[paddie-gal.livejournal.com]

Well, similar to Adam and Becca, Rich (t1000) and I have made up our own rules.... Christmas Eve dinner is Domino's Pizza (Mam used to do chips and egg, but Rich doesn't like fried eggs...) we swap one gift on Christmas Eve, usually after dinner, then we watch at least 2 Christmas movies (this year it was Die Hard and Scrooged - that'll give you the tone). Then this morning, we had boiled eggs and soldiers around 11am, and full turkey and baked ham (parsnips/carrots/sweet potato/savoy cabbage/sausages in bacon/yorkshire puddings/home-made sausagemeat stuffing) at 3pm....then we sleep. it's all good.

Last Christmas Eve, we had 2 carollers at the door during the pizza - I realised that we had no cash (cos we didn't need any for the few days at home) so I offered them some pizza and Cokes - they were so chuffed!! I was hoping they would come back this year, start a whole new tradition, but they didn't.

[dapperscavenger.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I *love* homemade chips and fried egg. Adam hates eggs though, so I haven't had it in years. *cries* Must find roadside cafe!

[paddie-gal.livejournal.com]

There's nothing better than a perfect fried egg....if Rich is away, I have at least one a day, with crispy bacon and toast. it's all the good.

So if Adam doesn't like eggs at all, do you ever get to have poached or boiled with soldiers?? that's so wrong.