I love Christmas

[Eternalknight]

I'm not a huge fan of the crowds, the rushing around, the fact I work in retail and have to work Christmas night this year...

I am a fan of the season though, meeting up with family, catching up with those who you don't see often enough. I also like being around kids on Christmas, though there are none in the family right now young enough. One reason why I am looking forward to starting my own family!

 

[devilbat]

I love most aspects of Christmas. I love the looks on the faces of the kids. I love giving gifts to the ones I love. I love spending time with (most of) my relatives. I love the goodwill toward man attitude.

I hate the shopping. I hate the traffic, and I'm not fond of the church services that my in-laws shove down my throat.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I love Christmas too, everyone just seems to be in a better mood.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

I am not a big fan of Christmas, but I think that it is more the season/work/stress than the actual day. No matter how grumpy I am during the month of December, the looks on the faces of a wife and three daughters as they open gifts/listen to Christmas music/watch the parade/etc. are priceless.

So, I guess that I am split - on one hand, my job has killed Christmas for me (only because I have allowed it to, which I should change) - on the other hand, Christmas day is still special (until the awakened too early, hyper children come down off their "highs" and begin fighting).

 

[Bartmanhomer]

Jingle Bells! Batman smells! Robin lay an egg! Batmanmobile have lost it's wheel and the Joker got away, HEY!

 

[Crothian]

Jingle Bells! Batman smells! Robin lay an egg! Batmanmobile have lost it's wheel and the Joker got away, HEY!

Riddler spewd penguins food in two faces cup; when catwoman soiled her litter alfred cleaned it up!!

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I am of mixed minds on christmas. I have the fun childhood memories and I like giving people presents. I spent 4 out of 5 years in and post college with no family or SO around, getting chinese food and seeing a movie with my jewish aquaintences, so its taken me quite a while to get into a mode of looking forward to it again. I've also had an hourly job for most of the last decade, meaning that xmas and new years are a forced unpaid day of, rather than a holiday in the possitive sense. :\

I went to christmas eve mass with my inlaws last year and it was kinda nice in a "wow, my high school xmas program really WAS a church service" sort of flashback way.

All the holiday parties and busyness tends to reduce attendance at my Winter Sostice party, and people think I'm celebrating the winter solstice as an atheist xmas replacement instead of the real and well worth celebrating event it is. :\

getting together with extended family is nice.

everyone puts up pretty lights! and often things are set on fire! A very strong point in the season's favor.

At some point people are going to expect me to take pictures of my son screaming in terror on a stranger's lap in a busy mall.

By next year if not this year, my inlaws will discover that I'm not planning on lying to the meatball about santa claus and conflict will ensue.

The meatball gets boatloads of loot saving me much money in baby clothes.

so, a mixed bag to be sure.

 

[diaglo]

I love it when people take the time to show their appreciation for others in the spirit of the season, whether it be time spent with loved ones, a thoughtful gift from a friend, or a kind word or smile from a complete stranger.

i do this all year long in my Lord's name.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.

but it is still special to me when i see others doing likewise in response to his birth.

 

[Torm]

I used to really dread Christmas. Most holidays, really. Pretty much every holiday or birthday (mine or theirs) seemed to be an excuse for my parents to have a "one of us is leaving" sort of fight. And Christmas was the worst, because the expectations were always so high, and the reality so low.

But every since I turned 25, the holidays have been something to look forward to again, and I really enjoy Christmas. I have my own family, including a wife who doesn't intentionally start fights with me just to make me miserable (or add increasing doses of arsenic to my food like dear old mom was doing to dad, but that's another story ) and has been patient with me through the years on holidays when I have gotten depressed for no apparent reason (conditioning), and kids who generally appreciate whatever they get, even on years when we've been poor and it hasn't been much. AND, I lived to see 25 - something that when I was growing up I never really expected to do, so things have been different since then. Really threw off all my plans. And some of the aforementioned conditioning.

My only disappointment this year is that two close friends of the family who live in Milwaukee that normally come to visit can't this year. But, I've got a new job and can actually afford to give gifts without relatives giving me money to do so, so I'm still feeling pretty good about things.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

i do this all year long in my Lord's name.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.

but it is still special to me when i see others doing likewise in response to his birth.

I don't know if this is considered religious, but I'm betting any corrections to your assumptions would be. :\