November 15th

[Ras72]

Yesterday, I walked into the largest shopping mall - for the town I'm in - and Christmas decorations were on every wall.
Did I mention I'm in a +90% majority Buddhist country? Makes me chuckle.

[j44ke]

I've found Christmas markets in Europe disappointing. When the roast corn and cheap socks dealers appear, you know the Christmas Cabal is running the show. Others are still real community events and the best evidently have city/country regulations that keep traditional arts and crafts and food from getting overrun by fried Twinkies and "Tout est à un euro".

[bigbill]

Is this a reaction to all the "10% OFF!!" sales going on right now? You know what 10% off is called? Regular pricing!!

Please list names of best Chinese restaurant open on 12/25 in your neighborhood here:

Mine used to be Jing Fong. It wasn't the best but it was huge. And on 12/25 in NYC it was full. The place closed and now they have reopened in a (much) smaller place and eating dim sum in a restaurant smaller than a football field just doesn't feel the same.

Nom Wah is okay too.

We don't have good Chinese food, but we have an excellent Thai place that will be open. The owner is an interesting guy, I keep expecting this conversation:

Jimmy Wah : [Cronauer is eating alone at Jimmy Wah's... Jimmy spots him] Aha! Earl! Ah, you again! No more fighting, OK?

Adrian Cronauer : Nice shiny green suit... you look like an Oriental leprechaun.

Jimmy Wah : Ha, ha! You like? I got it in Hong Kong... home of the shiny green suit!

[dgaddis]

My six year old brought home a nativity scene she made out of clay at an art camp at a school this week, we'll be putting up our tree this weekend. We've already been listening to Christmas music in the car as she's learning ' ' for a play.

The holidays hit different with little ones in the house. I'm enjoying it.

Pic from a few years ago on a Polar Express themed train ride.

[bigbill]

What Dustin said. In 2022, my son came home from Quantico for Christmas. He was 23 at the time, but we set up the tree, I set up the Lionel Santa Fe train around the tree, we made and decorated cookies, had cocoa anytime we felt like it, and binge watched all the Xmas shows of my youth. He didn't have the best Christmases growing up because of my deployment schedule and his mom's behavior. I'm trying to create good Xmas memories that he can share with his kids one day.

[echappist]

I've found Christmas markets in Europe disappointing. When the roast corn and cheap socks dealers appear, you know the Christmas Cabal is running the show. Others are still real community events and the best evidently have city/country regulations that keep traditional arts and crafts and food from getting overrun by fried Twinkies and "Tout est à un euro".

Ooph, that's pretty much what many markets are like Stateside. Vendors selling the same tchotchkes/ subpar food at various spots on a square.

At least in Europe, it can be a bit more organic, given that the Christmas markets generally take place at the the location reserved for traditional town market, which generally have history going back centuries.

The one we went to in Berlin was like that. Actual craftspeople selling their own hand-made items, and with baumkuchen bakes making the cakes fresh, on-site. Of course, the glühwein probably wasn't much to write home about, nor was the currywurst, but at least there was a lot more other than "here's an opportunity to make a few extra bucks".

The one in Ghent was also neat like that.

Couldn't say the same about Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. That one fell squarely into the "everything for a quid" territory, except there was so much over-charging that it was more like everything for five quids.

[j44ke]

Ooph, that's pretty much what many markets are like Stateside. Vendors selling the same tchotchkes/ subpar food at various spots on a square.

At least in Europe, it can be a bit more organic, given that the Christmas markets generally take place at the the location reserved for traditional town market, which generally have history going back centuries.

The one we went to in Berlin was like that. Actual craftspeople selling their own hand-made items, and with baumkuchen bakes making the cakes fresh, on-site. Of course, the glühwein probably wasn't much to write home about, nor was the currywurst, but at least there was a lot more other than "here's an opportunity to make a few extra bucks".

The one in Ghent was also neat like that.

Couldn't say the same about Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. That one fell squarely into the "everything for a quid" territory, except there was so much over-charging that it was more like everything for five quids.

Yes. The US used to have a solid tradition of marquee department stores and Santa's lap. The department stores took the town square out of the town, and the Internet took the department store out of Christmas. There are Christmas markets now, but they are largely for consumption by tourists from the suburbs and further afield. At least that's the case in NYC.

Bah humbug.

I prefer the Jewish tradition of Chinese food on the 25th. When we lived in Arizona, the local Ethiopian restaurant was open on Christmas Day (Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas is in January.) That was great. Thank you Jesus.

[BBB]

At the end of the day, unless you are Christian, Christmas is about family time and all that comes with that (positive, or depending on your family situation, negative). Obviously for retailers of all stripes it is about making a buck, religious beliefs or not.

In Australia, Christmas is in summer and generally marks the end of the working year and the start of extended holidays into January. Of course being summer, Christmas can frequently be hot (expect the one time it was cold and poured with rain and our gas heating broke and the outlaws, visiting from a tropical part of Oz, froze). Traditional Christmas fare (turkey, plum pudding etc) seems out of place when it is 30 plus! Seafood is great as an alternative, but is a pain to organise and line up to collect on Christmas Eve. Usually, irrespective of the weather, Australians eat and drink to excess on Christmas Day and spending Boxing Day recovering watching the Boxing Day cricket. Or going to the beach.

From the retailing perspective, what amuses me is how soon after Christmas Hot Cross Buns appear in the shops!

Jesus has sure made people a buck or two!

[sk_tle]

My son is here for Thanksgiving and we're traveling to PHX to spend it with friends. I say friends because family Thanksgivings are too stressful.

As a europan, my only reference of thanksiving are the mandatory horror stories with dysfunctional families in the US produced TV series.

I always wondere if that scenaristic "tradition" was something that some schools were teaching to future scenarists. They would always have a skeleton of a plot ready for the episode that would be broadcasted at that time of the year.

Or is there some universal truth behind this?

[Tom]

Paul Thorn wrote a good song about something he realized at a family gathering. The chorus goes something like "I don't even like half the people I love."

[caleb]

Christmas decorations are in the aisles of all the big box stores before Halloween and I can see trees already up in houses. TREES ALREADY UP IN HOUSES!!!!! I don't usually come here to yell but WTF?

Fake trees were the beginning of the end. Once the holiday is no longer limited by how long you can keep a tree indoors before it turns to kindling, all bets are off. And American capitalism without a limit will turn anything without a limit into the worst version of itself.

The plan here is that the Friday after Thanksgiving we load up and drive out to the state forest with a sled and hot cocoa to cut a tree. My wife doesn't appreciate my anarchist tendencies and makes me get a permit. Turns out that if you cut a tree the day after Thanksgiving, it'll survive indoors all Advent and through the twelve days of Christmas.

The new challenge this year is using extra boughs to make our own garland for the fence facing the street. I'm looking forward to it, but absolutely not before Thanksgiving's lefse dishes are dry.

[TonyP]

I drove past a house two days ago that had Halloween on the lawn and Christmas in the window. Thanksgiving wasn't represented tho.

[bigbill]

As a europan, my only reference of thanksiving are the mandatory horror stories with dysfunctional families in the US produced TV series.

I always wondere if that scenaristic "tradition" was something that some schools were teaching to future scenarists. They would always have a skeleton of a plot ready for the episode that would be broadcasted at that time of the year.

Or is there some universal truth behind this?

Growing up in North Texas, we had Thanksgiving at the family farm while my grandparents were still alive. My mom has three sisters and they all need some kind of medication. We called it the thanksgiving war and you could hear the shouting in the kitchen about how the dressing was soupy, the rolls were overcooked, and the turkey was dry. My cousins and I would sit at a smaller table, usually two card tables pushed together in the hallway outside the dining room, which kept us out of the crossfire. Part of the magic of the day was being forced to accompany my grandfather in the early hours of the day to select and lop off the head of a turkey, because I was the only male grandchild, the girls helped clean the carcass. I never ate the turkey that I watched bleed out. One of my aunts made a great pecan pie, I'd mostly eat that.

I think holiday scripts write themselves. My mom (84) no longer cares about thanksgiving and can usually be seen driving her tractor and mowing pastures. We don't even bring it up with family. One of my aunts (84, my mom's twin) does thanksgiving at her house and we have an open invitation, but I live three states away. My friend in Phoenix is from high school. Her husband is a professor at Arizona State University and there are usually a few other professors at the table, exclusively mathematicians and scientists, but the food is great. Plus it's Phoenix, we can sit outside and not feel trapped inside.

[johnmdesigner]

Is this a reaction to all the "10% OFF!!" sales going on right now? You know what 10% off is called? Regular pricing!!

Please list names of best Chinese restaurant open on 12/25 in your neighborhood here:

Mine used to be Jing Fong. It wasn't the best but it was huge. And on 12/25 in NYC it was full. The place closed and now they have reopened in a (much) smaller place and eating dim sum in a restaurant smaller than a football field just doesn't feel the same.

Nom Wah is okay too.

Blue Willow
Grandma's Home
Uncle Lou
Chi Restaurant and Bar
Jiang Nan

[dgaddis]

Paul Thorn wrote a good song about something he realized at a family gathering. The chorus goes something like "I don't even like half the people I love."

Great song!!

[rwsaunders]

Thanksgiving is the best...4-day holiday, kids are together, all food, college football rivalry weekend, no gift exchange and bike riding without wasps and yellow jackets.

[mnoble485]

Thanksgiving is the best...4-day holiday, kids are together, all food, college football rivalry weekend, no gift exchange and bike riding without wasps and yellow jackets.

And we are all looking forward to your pictures of the table set by your lovely Mrs. RW!

Mike

[caleb]

Thanksgiving is the best...4-day holiday, kids are together, all food, college football rivalry weekend, no gift exchange and bike riding without wasps and yellow jackets.

Thanksgiving is my personal favorite holiday of the year. It's the proper scale (4-5 days), the emphasis is on food and fellowship rather than buying stuff, and the expectations are generally reasonable. The religious part is very take-it-or-leave-it. People don't need to re-enact Thanksgiving with every branch of the family as is too often the case with Christmas.

Have a big meal with people who can make it, appreciate it for what it is, and don't worry about what it isn't. Perfect holiday.

[bigbill]

Yesterday, I walked into the largest shopping mall - for the town I'm in - and Christmas decorations were on every wall.
Did I mention I'm in a +90% majority Buddhist country? Makes me chuckle.

I have been deployed to the Middle East during Christmas a few times. Christmas in the UAE is surreal. The Mall of the Emirates has several Christmas trees and seeing Muslim families posing in front of the tree is great entertainment. I'd get a camel milk latte and hang out on a bench and just marvel at the commercialism. You see Xmas, not Christmas, but they know.

[Marvinlungwitz]

Another reason I’ve always wanted to go to Lux is the story of the American St. Nick, which I’ve loved since I was a little kid.
It’s still celebrated.

Untitled by Marvin Lungwitz, on Flickr