I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year

Good for you, op. Please rub some of the Christmas enthusiasm off onto me this year.

Decorate 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. It's much less exhausting in the long run!

I am the Grinch when it comes to Christmas. I hate everything about it!

R3 yeah nobody is surprised your comment.

Miss OP will be wearing her newest Christmas-themed caftan while addressing and signing all her cards.

Percy Faith! My family listened to this every year and I found it on Apple Music. Brings back a lot of good memories!

Crain!

You must be the reincarnation of Edith Wharton…

r6 I think this is my favorite track

Crane

I do like your choice for this year's card OP.

I love Christmas too. My Mom died two years ago and last year's Christmas was hard for me. I went all out and decorated more than usual, prepared a huge feast for my siblings and tried my best to continue the tradition of fully embracing the joy of the season. Unfortunately my brother fought with me on Christmas day about the most ridiculous thing and ruined everyone's holiday. I think the first year without Mom was hard on everyone. This year I hope to regain that joy I've always had for Christmas. BTW -I like your Christmas card.

I love this thread. I love it anytime someone posts a tender feeling and others respond in kind (even with the Mary!!!s). Christmas used to be huge for me. Our parents went big with decorating (homemade stuff from designs in Better Homes & Gardens) and made it all feel magical. We lost both parents a few years ago during the holidays. Since then, we've been finding new traditions (full moon hikes, e.g.), so Christmas is kind of an exploration now rather than a time to keep up traditions. I didn't even put up a tree last year. I feel like I'm in some kind of transition, maturing, or maybe just taking a break. It's entirely possible that in Christmases to come I will madly decorate again. I'm okay with this liminal holiday space and doing things differently. AND I still love the tradition of Christmas cards!!

R11, So sorry about the family fight on Christmas. Shit like that often arises when people are in grief, don't know how to deal, don't even know they're in grief, and end up lashing out. Not that knowing that makes it any better.

Ok r8 I’ve gotta be a grinch and tell you to slow the fuck down. It is too early for Xmas music but you do you.

I used to send the most unique Xmas cards I could find to fam & friends until I stopped because it wasnt really appreciated or reciprocated. I think the perception is that I think I’m exclusive or “fancy” when in reality I am not. To counteract this I dial things down while not sacrificing my personal tastes.

I’m glad you and others find so much joy in Christmas, OP.

I’ll leave it at that.

I always preferred the least unique card.

I love Christmas too, OP. It has been difficult since my mother died a few years ago. We loved decorating together and shopping for discounted ornaments after Christmas but I carry on. I bought the complete Andre Kostelanetz Christmas Albums last year because I have such happy memories of my parents' LPs in the 70s. I'm looking forward to playing them even though I know I'll shed a tear or two.

I would like some advice: how often do you replace Christmas string lights? I prefer the GE incandescent string-a-longs because they have the best colors (no orange!) and bought new sets last year. I know they're only guaranteed to work for about 3 months and I leave my tree up for at least 6 weeks. Would you use last year's lights again or just buy new ones? I'm a total Mary about my tree.

Six weeks?? You’ll be screaming MARY!! as the fire dept. tries to save your home one day…

My God, you’re an adult—act like one.

Why you no like Annunzio Paolo Mantovani? Now that’s real easy listening music!

R18, it's an artificial tree and I only have the lights on a few hours a day. You must not have been raised Catholic.

I wish Christmas was in late January instead. There’s a long fucking frozen stretch between December 25 and the first day of spring that needs a celebration. February makes me homicidal.

R17 Being Catholic is irrelevant. No missal, catechism, parish priest, bishop or cardinal I’ve ever seen or heard would allege a cockamamie rule about six weeks for a tree. That’s not how it goes—Lent == tree schedule.

That's why I wait until just before Christmas to put the tree up and leave it up so long, R21. It really helps! I also don't play Christmas music until Christmas eve and get my shopping done early to avoid the Christmas stations that only play the same 20 songs every year.

Maybe have a Mardi Gras party? It's February 21 next year. It must be so festive to live in New Orleans if you can avoid becoming a 600 pound alcoholic.

Advent does not = tree schedule

Good for you, and I love your cards.

You’d better celebrate it now,then. There’s not going to be a Christmas this year. Not even in your heart.

^Liz Truss

I think you should wear your Xmas tree skirt as an actual skirt.

r28 = Edith Bouvier Beale

I'm not.

I was, but I think this country is positively hopeless. The GOP will take over; the last vestiges of democracy will be destroyed. My husband and I want to move to another country. Yet, it'll be impossible because I'm 59.

R30 you need to stop watching and reading so much news and decompress. I know what I’m saying.

r30 =

No r29 that is from an episode of Designing Women when Bernice did it

Thank you r25

Thanks to r10 too!

I'm really excited for Christmas this year for the first time since covid. I bought a new pre-lit tree and it just came today. How are trees decorated now? I used to use gold garland and think that's out now. Maybe something like I attached? Also, where can i get some nice 14' artificial pre-lit garland for my fireplace mantle? All I can find is 9 foot. Thanks in advance bitches, I love you all dearly!!!

^ Forgot the link

I find these Christmas cards quite merry!

So even Halloween can’t hold back the tide anymore.

Beautiful r37!

Lol r38!!!

Less than two months, bitches!!!

This corporation is selling a product which uses the word "advent" instead of "Christmas" so as not to provoke the Anti-Christians.

I can’t wait until I’m dead. It’ll be a relief from this shit!

Nice cards. Maybe I'll send out some this year.

R45 maybe you should write one to yourself. Write a sweet little message about peace on earth. Then you should shove it up your ass!

[quote] This corporation is selling a product which uses the word "advent" instead of "Christmas" so as not to provoke the Anti-Christians.

Have you really never heard of Advent calendars?

Smythson is better than Crane

If I ever got such a lovely Christmas card, I’d just die!

R8, that's my favorite track too!

MARY!!!!!!! r50

My fave is "Happy Holiday" performed by Peggy Lee. It's mid-20th-century glee. Jazzy after-hour xmas cocktails. It may evoke images of Christmas shopping in NYC in 1965.

I prefer Crane r49

I have never had a Christmas tree of my own. I bought a condo last spring and it has high ceilings...and I bought a 9' tall Christmas tree last month and I have spent *way too much* on ornaments.

I have always loved the Christmas season. I've been inside a church maybe five times in my life, and never to engage personally with a church service. To me, Christmas is spiritually comforting oasis of warm twinkly lights and warm spices inside a warm home during a cold, dark winter. I love December. Coming in from the cold makes me feel safe and secure, and having glowing lights illuminating the long periods of darkness makes my feel all glowy. I am not religious but I am interested in all manner of spiritual ideas, and something about quiet, barren winters does make me feel like we are all closer to 'the other side' than we are throughout the rest of the year.

My mother died four years ago over the months of December and January. It was an absolute nightmare and I thought I would never enjoy Christmas ornthe season again. But over time, I've realized she is better off now and I still feel her presence a lot—and so now the season makes me feel that we can maybe be in closer contact during December if the liminal divide is thinner. Anyway, the terror of that experience has passed.

Most of the people in my family who have died have died in January or February after serious illnesses in Decembers. The season does have a kind of threatening feeling in a way, but it's a yin/yang kind of thing, reminding me of what we have to be grateful for and also reminding me that we are at the mercy of nature and life's seasons despite human bravado.

Soo I'm excited to put up my tree soon and cover it in big jewel-toned balls and lots of golden stars and hearts. I only wish it weren't so warm. A heat index of 79 a couple weeks before Thanksgiving is a major buzz kill.

OP, my great uncle always sent us Christmas cards with embroidered/cross-stitched designs, and my mom eventually started sending exclusively those. They look a lot like the ones you posted. Thank you for the reminder.

I started listening to Midwinter Graces last month. One of the songs came onto my playlist and sucked me into the spirit of the season.

Sending out my cards this week!

I’ll be waiting by my mailbox R57!

Have you been naughty or nice, r58?

R17, I have a string of white lights adorning a large rock in my garden that is plugged into a timer and has been on 4 hours a day for over two years. I think you can use your same lights from last year.

Christmas Eve is in a month, bitches!!