Also an excellent way to celebrate the holiday season!
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Does anyone else just not want anything? Over the years Iāve given or gottenā¦ Everything reasonable.
I guess the one thing Iād like to get is no shopping lists for disposable crap.
Okay, I slightly take that back. Japanese plush sushis are always welcome.
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So, whose brilliant idea to randomize the items on reload/back?
Thatās the problem Iām struggling with right now. I have to give my dad some sort of list, or he will spend a lot of money on (to me) absolutely worthless dreck. So what do I say? No, donations to non-profits is not an acceptable answer to him. It has to be STUFF. Stuff is what I donāt want.
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Standard gold bullion. Or original Banksyās.
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Not mine!
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Can it be stuff thatās fungible? Say, TP, mac&cheese, household goods that you could donate directly to someone in need?
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I wish. Other years Iāve had kitchen stuff I needed wanted to put on the list. But he can somehow smell if Iām not giving a real answer, and it seems to make him go out and buy something particularly WTF for me instead.
Iām one of those people who has an agreement with all my friends that we will spend time together over the holiday season but not buy gifts. So much better.
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When you consider the hassle of buying stuff for people and not knowing whether they are going to like it, getting stuff and not knowing what to do with it, spending money on this stuff when it could be better spent elsewhere and seeing all the waste involved, Iād rather throw that money in the fire and forget about it. My suggestion is generally to have a meal or some other experience together and bring a dish, wine or something similar. Handmade gifts are an important exception.
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I canāt even remember the last time I sang Christmas carols - but Iām sure it happens somewhere 
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As for the kids, Iāll be celebrating in the traditional way by giving them an uncertain offer of trinkets along with vague threats of violence from the former bishop of Turkey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYdpte1W0vk
Incidentally, St. Nicholas was briefly defrocked for religiously motivated violence at an ecumenical council. He also had a badly broken nose which healed asymmetrically, and gave him āa characteristic nose and rugged facial appearanceā.
In light of this, the children will obviously need to learn the traditional poem for this time of year:
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On the 18th I and a few friends are playing a Christmas concert. We are opening with Fairytail of New York.
Youāre a bum
Youāre a punk
Youāre an old slut on junk
Living there almost dead
On a drip in that bed
You scum bag
You maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God
Itās our last
Such a beautiful tune (no, really)
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Possibly that odd CD that insāt so easy to find and I am too lazy to hunt down myself or just have not found locallyā¦ I end up getting the few things I really want myself these days anyway.
This one was always terribly hard to find, but worth it.
My favorite Christmas song of all time, OF ALL TIME!!!
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Iām not Christian but I love the carols; itās probably because I love singing and the carols put me in the mood for the whole holiday season. And letās not forget the biggest English-language Christmas carol there is: Handelās Messiah. Iām actually doing daily pushups right now to try to keep my shoulders from seizing up this week: holding an oversized 264-page book at armsā length for 2 hours FOUR TIMES THIS WEEK is going to be a literal pain in the neck!
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Christmas songs are the only context in which I insist on the absolute dominance of Christianity, with very few exceptions. The alternatives are just too horrifying.
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I remember it did that last year, too. I believe the consensus is still: please donāt do it that way. It discourages us from spending money on that thing we saw a couple minutes ago.
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It is, in North Korea. But technically, itās everyday there.
