Christmas in the UK was always a disappointment - all that hype and build-up and it ended in a load of grannies sitting around the table in paper hats discussing who was going to be the next to die.
Now I take my own personal granny out for a superb lunch at low cost in a warm and friendly restau with a couple of neighbours (a Belgian married to a German and the common language is French).
I haven't been back to England for several years and don't intend to go there - unless noblesse oblige - for a funeral or similar.
I am an archer but used to shoot, I had a very rich friend who had a shooting estate in Cambridgeshire and served on the parish council that was chaired by the Master of the Hunt, who I once told I would put an arrow through his trouser seat if his cabal ruined my promise of venison or hare the coming Boxing Day. I think he believed me because there was no conflict about transgression of boundaries that year. Guess which side I am on, despite loving horses?
My Daughters but they have their own lives and partners now, our boxing day family get together fizzled out after the last of our parents died, Some food stuff we can't get here but I can do without that really, the french do, there's lots of other great food to eat here (canard farci yum yum). So not much really, I don't miss the commercialization of Christmas that has developed in the UK, I think it is less so over here but going that way I fear.
Yup I miss Kempton too. Had a really big win there one year (on a French horse funnily enough but I knew he'd be good as he had won at Auteil) - never brave enough to go hunting though. Went drag hunting once and thought I was going to die. After the first three minutes I resigned myself to my fate and it was utterly brilliant!
Actually, got me on one there. I used to go to Kempton Park with my father and as a child Prince Monolulu would give me something like a sixpence. Precious memories. One year we put it on a 8/1 winner and four and a tanner richer put a bob on a 4/1 winner. Mind you, the old man made me pay back the train fare that year, which was something like 10d. I still got home with more than eight shillings in my pocket!
Nothing! If there's less of it over here that's fine by me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally "Humbug", I simply like the meeting up with friends and family to relax and catch up and eat, drink and be merry. What I detest is the total 'plastic Christmas': naff things one must buy, Christmas 'elevator musak' wherever you go and lots of false and short lived good will to all mankind. I'm old enough to remember a good old simple family Christmas and I do not like what it has become - so I opt out.
I miss everything Christmas is a time for family. Just back from Northern Ireland and the atmosphere is so different there. There is a real buzz going around. I miss the family, the christmas shopping, the variety of food, the Christmas continental market, people dropping in Christmas morning and having an eggnog, Christmas Eve around the tree opening presents with family and friends, 10-12 people for Christmas day, people outside the door singing Christmas carols, my grandchildren's surprise faces when they open there presents, all the Christmas trees outside peoples doors, We used to go round just looking at all the trees and decorations. But most of all, I miss my family at this time of year.
I wish I could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.
I miss carol singing and the Christmas music on the radio, plus puddings and mince pies. But most of all I miss seeing my family - all of them. We have three cats and can't get them looked after over the festive time so we can't go back and of course they all have others to see, or are too old and ill to come, so can't come over. Even Skype doesn't make up for that.
The Great Escape. Oh, and the fact that it's the time of year when we Scots thank the English for the one decent thing they ever gave us - real Roast Potatoes!!!....Oh, and the studied indifference with which my family greets the Queen's Speech - although maybe that's just indigestion.
Seriously though - The Great Escape - which we made two years ago!
Going hunting on Boxing Day morning, then swiftly home to watch the racing at Kempton with great mates, champagne and tasty lunch leftovers and always a story to tell afterwards!
The round robin is a no-no anyway. I make random calls to my only living peer relative anyway, so why do extra? I send a few card letters to people I do not have online contact with, but that is often a long, cold winter night in January. I do not miss carols and their like and as for any message from the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha very rich and do not really give two hoots about us royalty, well say no more. As I said, simpler things in other countries appeal far more because they mean something. I am not Scrooge or Grumpy at all. I think the immediate post WW2 austerity of where I grew up in Cologne (my father was in the occupation forces) has stayed within me and whilst I personally do not do any religion, I have the greatest respect for the messages like the long forgotten Christmas one. It was meant to be the exact opposite of something so material and like the Indian Diwali was taken to be a message that gave the first light to a new and peaceful world. To see a quieter, more peaceful world would be worth more than all the expensive gifts in the world and for my children to see that would be the sprig of holly on the Christmas pudding.
I beat you on the arrival of the first "round robin" ! Our first one arrived the other day !
Oh quelle joie!
I agree with you entirely, I read her month by month woes, about his Bells palsy,IBS & Hiatus hernia and surprise surprise John being made redundant !! I can't for the life of me think who the h-ll John is!!
Good mix here so far......I'm in the "don't miss anything" as I don't really do Christmas, never liked family get togethers just for the sake of it, eating and playing stupid games and ending in a big row. All the presents that nephews and nieces get, it's obscene. My niece will be putting up her decorations next week, having bought all her presents already. We will be getting the 1st of the Christmas cards on the 1st Dec as a friend always sends them out end November....??? mental. I send homemade cards to close family with notes on our year, I don't do "round robins" to people I don't speak to from one month to the next - why would they want to know how many times I've cut a llamas toenails - likewise, I don't want to hear about their "Johnny" having braces on his teeth - given I've prob. never met Johnny anyhow.
Getting up on the 25th with OH, taking the dogs for a walk, having a warm and cosy day, without OH doing any work (would be good) and relaxing for one day. Thankfully don't have telly so don't have to watch White Christmas, Sound of Music or the Great Escape, or even reruns of Morcombe and Wise...
Never liked Panto's, but do miss Carol Singing, but we've got a good group of ex.pats together with French and Dutch who organize a Carol/International sing song in December and the village have a French singalong with vin chaud one evening nearer the time.
Queen's Speech can be heard through the bbc radio on my laptop if I fancy listening to HRH.
Had a good one in Germany with my ex's family - very traditional, very Christmasy but without the commercialism, mulled wine at the local Christmas market, all very tasteful and not at all UK style trashy :-O
I've had 62 christmases in my life already. I think just over half (if I ever counted) would have been anywhere but the UK so I can safely comment on England, Wales, Scotland, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Norway, Switzerland and Peru, plus India (yes, really) but that is an entirely different version anyway, so I can leave it. I think the UK ones are actually my least favourite because of the sheer commercialisation and the way everything either exploits or infantilises us. That last point refers to media and how not just TV but also papers, etc treat us like kids. The other European countries are following suit and I am going off it but, and being a recycled person - which is to say married again and with young children despite great age - still find France and my wife's country Switzerland just enough less commericalised to keep it under wraps and pleasant (for now). I loved Peru, especially the rural places, where people went to church two hours donkey ride away to celebrate (I am not religious) then gave each other a few little things like a piece of meat for their dinner, some homemade jewellery and had a shared meal, wished each other peace and that was that. In the urban slums I lived and worked in many people had to work for survival but wished each other a happy christmas from very deep within and those with children worked a little harder to give them something special to eat that day, even if it was only more potato for the soup. I know why I find the Carrefour/Leclerc/etc packaged Christmas so undesirable... it is all about the material matters and not at all about the message that was once the main thing and both come at a high cost anyway.
I just miss my family, that's all, I've spent 5 out of the last 6 Christmases here in France with OH's family who are brilliant, there are normally 20 to 30 of us round the table on Christmas day, it goes on for hours and hours then we finally go out for a walk as the animals need feeding and the smokers need a fag etc. Don't miss the commercialism of the uk or much else really but I haven't seen my brother or sister and all my nieces and nephews for a couple of years now so I obviously miss them a bit. certainly don't miss the UK weather and when we did go there for christmas my OH couldn't believe it being dark so early and so dark damp and dreary even at lunchtime!
Every other year I go back to the UK for Christmas with the boys so I get a good fix. Last year was an 'in France' year and I spent it with my DB's family which was very jolly although of course primarily celebrated on the 24th.
I miss the carol singing concerts most I think. They conjure up Christmas in a charmingly simple way, especially when topped off with mulled wine and mince pies at the end.
I love the way that in the UK we start on Christmas Eve (well and truly with the Nine Lessons and Carols), have the big bash on the 25th and then carry on with family on the 26th. It means that it's not all over in one huge orgy of gluttony followed by a bad night's sleep and dyspepsia the next day.
I do get on with my family though, which helps... :)