The Happy Christmas Thread

[Dinny Breen]

Well lads and lassies

hope you and your families all have a happy christmas and a prosperous new year.....


Here's a fanatastic poem from Paddy Kavanagh

Advent, by Patrick Kavanagh

We have tested and tasted too much, lover-
Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.
But here in the Advent-darkened room
Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea
Of penance will charm back the luxury
Of a child's soul, we'll return to Doom
The knowledge we stole but could not use.

And the newness that was in every stale thing
When we looked at it as children: the spirit-shocking
Wonder in a black slanting Ulster hill
Or the prophetic astonishment in the tedious talking
Of an old fool will awake for us and bring
You and me to the yard gate to watch the whins
And the bog-holes, cart-tracks, old stables where Time
begins.

O after Christmas we'll have no need to go searching
For the difference that sets an old phrase burning-
We'll hear it in the whispered argument of a churning
Or in the streets where the village boys are lurching.
And we'll hear it among decent men too
Who barrow dung in gardens under trees,
Wherever life pours ordinary plenty.
Won't we be rich, my love and I, and
God we shall not ask for reason's payment,
The why of heart-breaking strangeness in dreeping hedges
Nor analyse God's breath in common statement.
We have thrown into the dust-bin the clay-minted wages
Of pleasure, knowledge and the conscious hour-
And Christ comes with a January flower.

[Doogie Browser]

Well said, I wish everyone (even the people who annoy me  ) a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas.

[Billys Boots]

For the first time in a very, very long time I'm not working on Christmas Eve - oh yes.

A very happy and peaceful Christmas to you all, and an improved New Year.

In thr spirit of Dinny, I'll stick on a poem too (may seem a strange choice for an atheist, but I like the spirit of it at this time of the year).

Cuireadh do Mhuire
An eol duit, a Mhuire,
Cá rachair i mbliana
Ag iarraidh foscaidh
Do do Leanbh Naofa,
Tráth a bhfuil gach doras
Dúnta ina éadan
Ag fuath is uabhar
An chine dhaonna?

Deonaigh glacadh
Le cuireadh uaimse 
Go hoileán mara
San Iarthar cianda:
Beidh coinnle geala
I ngach fuinneog lasta
Is tine mhóna
Ar theallach adhainte

Máirtin Ó Direáin

[stpauls]

Merry Christmas Lads and Lasses, hope Santa is good to you all, and that the New Year brings you everything you wish for!!
Nollaig Shona Duit!!

[longrunsthefox]

It is not an easy time to be a fox especially with all that snow and my cubs are hungry. I look in through your windows and see on your computers and gorging boxes of sweets as I scavenge about for a plump chicken or two. Ziggy I may be up your way on Boxing Day (or St Stephens Day- to keep the Mexicans happy  )

Christmas greetings to all, you too Laoislad, ...  this sent a tingle down my spine the first time I heard her perform it on the Late Late Show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy6ba_M6zww

[bingobus]

Happy Christmas to everyone except EC Unique, New devil, nrico and the other manc twats...ah feck it, happy christmas to them as well. 

[Shamrock Shore]

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Ny Kiree Fo Naghtey (The Sheep Beneath the Snow)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blhSZg8GRdA

[sammymaguire]

Nollaig Shona to one and all!!

[Square Ball]

And a happy Christmas to all as well

[mc_grens]

Stockings hung by the chimney with care, shutters down, sash fastened.

I'm in my cap, mama's in her kerchief, a Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!

[orangeman]

Happy Christmas to all = have a happy and healthy New Year.

[ONeill]

This sort of shite sickens my hole.

[armaghniac]

This sort of shite sickens my hole.

Keep her lit so. Happy Christmas to everyone even the begrudgers. 

[stew]

Shaney, hugs and kisses from Green Bay Wisconsin.

Happy Christmas one and all. 

[Hurler on the Bitch]

Sort of sickens my hole as well - and my wife's hole at that!