The Christmas Thread

Started by Square Ball, October 15, 2007, 01:58:21 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Never beat the deeler

All the shopping done? Still have the traditional Xmas eve dash to get through
How many will be at your table for Christmas dinner? 8 - 10
Favourite Christmas movie? Home Alone
Schloer or wine? vino
Favoruite between Fairytale of New York or All I want for Christmas? Fairytale
Christmas Eve Mass or Christmas morning? Midnight Mass Xmas Eve
Favourite between Oh Holy Night or Silent Night? Oh holy night
Michael Buble or Justin Beiber? Would go for Buble - best of a very bad lot
Snow on Christmas day or a mild one. Will be about 35deg
Hasta la victoria siempre

Captain Obvious

Quote from: Hashtag on December 19, 2011, 07:47:39 AM
Christmas Week.

Few questions for all of you:

All the shopping done? No
How many will be at your table for Christmas dinner? 4
Favourite Christmas movie? Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Scholer or wine? Wine
Favoruite between Fairytale of New York or All I want for Christmas? Fairytale
Christmas Eve Mass or Christmas morning? Eve
Favourite between Oh Holy Night or Silent Night? Silent night
Michael Buble or Justin Beiber? Buble
Snow on Christmas day or a mild one? Snow

Olly

All the shopping done? - No I haven't started yet and will probably wait til the Jan sales.
How many will be at your table for Christmas dinner? - just me
Favourite Christmas movie? - The Wrong Trousers
Scholer or wine? - Not into football.
Favoruite between Fairytale of New York or All I want for Christmas? - Neither. I'm a pianoman.
Christmas Eve Mass or Christmas morning? - Not religious anymore since MJ died.
Favourite between Oh Holy Night or Silent Night? - Prefer afternoons.
Michael Buble or Justin Beiber? - Don't drink beer.
Snow on Christmas day or a mild one? - Stiff one all day.
Access to this webpage has been denied . This website has been categorised as "Sexual Material".

AZOffaly

All the shopping done? - Almost. 1 small stocking filler left.
How many will be at your table for Christmas dinner? - We'll be down in Kerry, so 8 for dinner and about 18 afterwards for cards and brandy.
Favourite Christmas movie? - Polar Express or Santa Claus the Movie
Scholer or wine? - Don't know the first one, so Wine.
Favoruite between Fairytale of New York or All I want for Christmas? - Fairytale
Christmas Eve Mass or Christmas morning? - Christmas Morning
Favourite between Oh Holy Night or Silent Night? - O Holy Night
Michael Buble or Justin Beiber? - Que?
Snow on Christmas day or a mild one? - Snow, but as we drive down on Christmas Morning, not too much please.

Denn Forever

Scholer = Shloer  No alcoholic wine substitute.  Young children can be like their parents at Christmas dinner.  But you can get alcoholic cocktails.

http://www.shloer.com/
I have more respect for a man
that says what he means and
means what he says...

AZOffaly

Quote from: Denn Forever on December 20, 2011, 11:43:45 AM
Scholer = Shloer  No alcoholic wine substitute.  Young children can be like their parents at Christmas dinner.  But you can get alcoholic cocktails.

http://www.shloer.com/

Ah. Ok. Still wine.

ziggysego

Quote from: Minder on December 19, 2011, 01:19:29 PM
I have checked the TV listings and can't see Home Alone on at all, which is pretty devastating.

Look harder.

RTE One: Friday at 3.45pm
Channel 4: Monday at 7.05pm
Testing Accessibility

Minder

Quote from: ziggysego on December 20, 2011, 03:57:26 PM
Quote from: Minder on December 19, 2011, 01:19:29 PM
I have checked the TV listings and can't see Home Alone on at all, which is pretty devastating.

Look harder.

RTE One: Friday at 3.45pm
Channel 4: Monday at 7.05pm

Excellent work Ziggy  ;D
"When it's too tough for them, it's just right for us"

Hashtag

Quote from: ziggysego on December 20, 2011, 03:57:26 PM
Quote from: Minder on December 19, 2011, 01:19:29 PM
I have checked the TV listings and can't see Home Alone on at all, which is pretty devastating.

Look harder.

RTE One: Friday at 3.45pm
Channel 4: Monday at 7.05pm

The Santa Clause- When is it on? Go.

thejuice

All the shopping done? - Done! Mostly on-line and delivered to the door.

How many will be at your table for Christmas dinner? - don't know yet.

Favourite Christmas movie? - Ben Hur or one of those older ones.

Scholer or wine? - Beer.

Favoruite between Fairytale of New York or All I want for Christmas? - The Pogues, though if I never heard that song again as long as I live I wouldn't miss it.

Christmas Eve Mass or Christmas morning? - Don't know yet, when I was at home it was the night before.

Favourite between Oh Holy Night or Silent Night? - Either, both good, really depends on how its sung.

Michael Buble or Justin Beiber? - Neither, They are both incredibly shit.

Snow on Christmas day or a mild one? - Whatever happens.

It won't be the next manager but the one after that Meath will become competitive again - MO'D 2016

ziggysego

Quote from: Hashtag on December 20, 2011, 04:18:56 PM
Quote from: ziggysego on December 20, 2011, 03:57:26 PM
Quote from: Minder on December 19, 2011, 01:19:29 PM
I have checked the TV listings and can't see Home Alone on at all, which is pretty devastating.

Look harder.

RTE One: Friday at 3.45pm
Channel 4: Monday at 7.05pm

The Santa Clause- When is it on? Go.

Not on, but The Santa Clause 2 is on Saturday at 1.30pm on BBC One.
Testing Accessibility

Hashtag

I have just had someone say 'Merry Christmas' to me on the phone, I felt awkward saying it back. I'm more a Happy Christmas sort of guy.

Discuss.

tbrick18

I used to work in a company where we had a lot of US clients. We weren't allowed to say Happy Christmas (or Merry Christmas for that matter) in case it would insult some of our American cousins. Instead we were instructed to say Happy Holidays!
Feck that for a bit of political correctness....it's Happy Christmas or it's fook all from me! :)

Hashtag


Where do our Christmas traditions come from?


Why do we have ADVENT CALENDARS?
They were designed to help children focus on the coming of Jesus by having a "window" to open each day from December 1st to December 24th with a picture behind it of something related to the nativity. "Jesse Trees" were used in this way too - see Christmas Decorations and Christmas Tress. But modern day Advent Calendars are often a countdown to Christmas devoid of anything to do with Jesus, and instead have pictures of cartoon charaters and contain chocolates.

What does the ADVENT WREATH represent?
The circle of the wreath reminds Chrisitans of God, His eternity and endless mercy, which has no beginning or end. The green of the wreath speaks of the hope that Chrisitans have in God, the hope of newness, of renewal, of eternal life. Candles symbolise the light of God coming into the world through the birth of His son, Jesus. The three purple candles in the Advent wreath symbolise hope, peace, and love. These candles are lit on the first, second, and fourth Sundays of Advent. The rose candle, which symbolizes joy, is usually lit on the third Sunday. A fifth candle is placed inside the Advent wreath. This candle is lit on Christmas Day. It is white, the color associated with angels and the birth of Jesus.

What is BOXING DAY?
In medieval times, the day after Christmas churches used to distribute the money that had been collected in the "almsbox" (charity box) to the poor and needy. This evolved into the tradition of giving tradesmen a "box", meaning a gift or money, on the first day of the week after Christmas.
Why are CANDLES a Christmas symbol?
Because Jesus is the "light of the world"! In the pre-Christian mid-winter festivals sun gods were worshipped, and the candles were a symbol of the needed light of the sun.

Why do we sing CAROLS at Christmas?
Singing to and about their gods was part of all pagan festivals, including the winter ones. When Christmas was established on the 25th December in the fourth century, the church initially tried to stop people singing these pagan songs, but then changed track, and decided to encourage the singing of Christian Christmas themed songs in their place. By the late medieval period the singing of Christmas carols had become a tradition. St Francis of Assisi (around 1220AD) promoted the use of carols to spread the Christmas message by translating songs sung in Latin into languages spoken by ordinary people in Europe for use in formal church services.

Hashtag

What is CHRISTINGLE?
The first Christingle service was held in Marienborn in Moravia in 1747, when the pastor, John de Wattville, wanting to find a new way of telling the Christmas story to children, gave each child a lighted candle tied with a red ribbon. He asked them to relight them at home and place them in their windows to show the Light of Christ to passers by. The tradition was kept alive by the Moravian church and in the United Kingdom was adopted by the Children's Society in the 1950s as a way of raising awareness of their work. Many churches and schools now hold Christingle services any time from Advent to the end of the Epiphany season. Each child is helped to take an orange (representing the World) and insert four cocktail sticks into it (representing the four seasons). Fruit, nuts and sweets can then be attached to the cocktail sticks to represent the fruits of the Earth. A red ribbon is then tied around the centre of the orange as a reminder that Christ died for us all. Finally, a small lighted candle is placed on top to symbolise Jesus Christ, Light of the World.

Why do we eat CHRISTMAS CAKE?
These rich fruit cakes were a sensible celebratory food as they didn't spoil quickly, and could therefore be made in advance to have in ready for guests whenever they arrived, or could be taken on a journey to give as a gift, in days when travelling was a slow process. The fruitcake as we know it today evolved from plum cake recipes in England.
Who sent the first CHRISTMAS CARD?
Greeting cards were not new. Since Aloys Senefelder perfected lithography in 1796, merchants would send their customers best wishes for the new year. But in 1843 Henry Cole commissioned an artist friend to design the first Christmas card as a way of making his Christmas correspondance easier. It took some time for Henry Cole's Christmas card idea to take root with the wider public. In fact, until 1878, more Valentine's cards were sent in the post each year than Christmas cards. However, just three years later in 1881, the Post Office issued its first public instruction to 'Post early for Christmas', to help manage the volume of festive mail. The growth of the postal service, and introduction of a flat rate for sending cards allowed this custom to spread, especially when steam trains speeded up the delivery of mail.

Who first pulled a CHRISTMAS CRACKER?
Crackers were invented by Thomas Smith in 1846 as a way of attractively wrapping French novelties he was trying to get people to buy as Christmas gifts! For the full story see www.absolutelycrackers.com/hist_evolved.html

Why do we have CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS and CHRISTMAS TREES?
To appease the tree spirits, people in the Dark Ages attached painted stones and coloured cloth to oak branches in midwinter. The belief that bad luck will follow if you leave Christmas decorations up past Twelfth Night also has its origins here: if the spirits were not released once midwinter had passed, the forests and fields might not awaken again. Christian missionaries transferred the focus to firs, whose triangular shape they linked to the Holy Trinity, and people merged the idea of this tree with the tree seen in the Garden of Eden in the medieval "paradise plays"- depicting the story of man from Adam and Eve to the birth of Jesus- which had baubel like fruit hanging off it. The Christmas tree points upwards to heaven reminding us of the Christ Child who pointed us to God. The "Jesse Tree" is a custom from the Middle Ages. It comes from the words 'A shoot shall come up from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a branch will bear fruit' (Isaiah 11. 1) Jesse was the father of King David and the Bible tells us that Jesus will be born 'of the house of David'. Pictures or symbols representing people and events in the Bible were hung from a bare branch to make up a sort of family tree of Jesus. Christmas trees were decorated with apples, cakes and sweets for many centuries, and also decorated with candles, to remind children of the stars in the sky at the time of the birth of Jesus. Prince Albert didn't introduce the Christmas Tree to Britain, but he was responsible for the mid-19th century onwards surge in popularity. The first manufactured Christmas tree ornaments were sold by Woolworths in 1880. Electric tree lights were first used just 3 years after Thomas Edison had his first mass public demonstration of electric lights back in 1879. And in 1903 the Ever - Ready Company of New York began the mass production of stringed electric lights.

Why do we eat CHRISTMAS PUDDING?
The Celts kept the harvest god Dagda happy by stirring a pot of porridge for him. This was later livened up with prunes to become plum porridge; then it turned into plum pudding, and finally today's Christmas pudding. In theory, the pudding should be stirred by each member of the family in turn to show that everyone has done their bit, and only in an east-to-west direction, to mimic the sun's path across the sky. Flames from the brandy symbolise the heat of the returning sun and the sprig of holly - with its unique winter berries - evokes the fruit of the harvest. Two of the Christian version of this is that it should be made with 13 ingredients to represent Christ and His Disciples and that a sprig of holly is used to top the pudding as a reminder of the crown of thorns worn by Christ on the cross.

Where did some of the well-known CHRISTMAS SONGS come from?
Jingle Bells was written in 1857! "White Christmas" was first sung by Bing Crosby in 1942, and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was recorded by Gene Autry in 1949.

Why do we have CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS?
Christmas stockings come from one of the stories about the kindness of St Nicholas (see Father Christmas) who is said to have wanted to secretly provide the dowry for a poor girl to enable her to marry, and so threw a purse of money down a chimney...and it landed in a stocking hung up by the fire to dry!