Holiday Traditions

Posted at 8:12PM, Dec. 19, 2013

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Everyone celebrates the holidays differently…what do you do?
 
Every year my family goes to see the "Eaton's Fairytale Vignettes." These are super old…they used to be displayed in a department store that closed down when I was just a young'un. It was a big deal back then, and they were displayed in a nice cozy area with a Santa nearby for photos. They've been put up every year since the place closed nonetheless, but were often just stuck in an unused room somewhere. They got progressively creepier and more depressing as I got older as they fell into disrepair. The Butcher's wife was missing fingers, the little matchstick girl had a crack through her face, and so on. But just a couple years ago they completely restored them, and they're kind of lovely again.
 

 
We also like to torment each other with a Santa doll that sings that song "Jingle jingle jingle you will hear my sleighbells ring…" We wake each other up with it, leave voice mail messages and so on. :)
 
Whatever you celebrate, share your holiday time traditions! Even if you just hate the whole month of December and throw snowballs at a mall Santa every year.

Posted at 8:01PM, Jan. 1, 2014

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Warning: Incoming Text Wall of RANTING!
(I seriously hate not being able to break this up into smaller chunks)
For the 1st of December me, my sister and her fiance get chocolate advent calendars. Mum and dad usually have a hard time finding three different ones. Especially considering the other two are pretty easy to cater for. Because they, like the usual age demographic for advent calendars, like superheroes and cutesy things. I like more traditional-looking ones with well-painted pictures of snow, Father Christmas and reindeer but those are usually absent from the same stores so I usually get something to do with an animated film or TV series (Usually The Simpsons but last year I boycotted it since they made fun of Hillsborough in an episode I hadn't seen before) and I don't feel bad about that… But this year I got Despicable Me 2 while she got Hello Kitty and he got Captain America. Surely some of you can feel my 1st world pain, right?
The tree was usually set up just before or on the 23rd to the sound of Disney Characters, Pop Idol Contestants from 2003 or the Smurfs singing carols but those old tapes got lost when we moved and now we have Andrea Bocelli. A welcome improvement but I still miss the stupid crappy stuff because it makes me feel WAY more in the spirit because of the nostalgia factor. But every year I still try and look up songs from other countries just to have something new and interesting to play or share. This year it was South Korea. And damn don't they beat us HARD at happy Christmas tracks.
The last decent (read: serious) one we had that's stuck in the public consciousness was "Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)" from 2003. And it was about a guy that misses his high-flying career-climbing girlfriend when she's working away and he doesn't want Christmas to end so she doesn't have to leave again on Boxing day. It's epic and beats "Christmas Shoes" in terms of a sad song but we didn't have anything like it for a whole DECADE prior… It was about a breakup. 
BRITANNIA: LAND OF MISERY!
Every Christmas Eve I change my bed and tidy my room as much as I can. This year I got a seriously thick and fluffy double duvet since around this time of year it takes a good hour and a half of shivering and throwing on three dressing gowns before I wear myself out and eventually get warm enough to sleep. So yeah, super hot in bed now since I folded it over to fit in the cover. It's awesome!
Every Christmas is a gorge fest where after opening all the presents, you have a massive cooked breakfast. Straight after everybody's finished that the dinner starts getting cooked and is ready by 6 or 7. We pull the folding dining table out and set up all the five chairs before stuffing our faces and craning our necks to watch the Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Dr.Who Christmas episodes. I enjoy giving presents jsut as much as getting them. Because when giving presents I don't have to worry about where the hell I'm gonna put everything. It's somebody else's problem. Lol.
Boxing day is when we get to use all our presents, digest the behemoth of a meal and chillax… Except this year people had to work early so everybody went to bed early so they would get up in time for the drive into town before sunrise… Which was annoying as hell since my cousin got engaged on Christmas and phoned up so I had to wake my parents up to get them to congratulate her at 11:30, when they would normally be awake.
New Years Eve we set up the dining table again and only eat a light lunch or dinner before chowing down on cheese, crisps, pizza, dip, bruschetta and chipolatas. Watch the countdown and fireworks in London on TV, clink glasses, sing Auld Lang Syne and hug each other, then switch over to Scottish TV and see what the hell they're doing up there for Hogmanay. Usually people/bands that are only or still famous or well known in Scotland playing acoustic guitars, fiddles, accordions or singing and everybody treating them like they're the shit interspersed with actual funny comedy (England doesn't do that as far as I know). This year it was Rab. C. Nesbitt and a Chewin' The Fat rerun… There were also people throwing flaming buckets of tar on the ends of chains around in the street. It's like jumbo fire-poi!
Then we phone up family, say happy new year, promise to go up to visit them soon and then the next evening we have a big dinner all over again.  Then everything's done. Few days later everything's back to normal except for the Christmas markets and Pantos still running and new year sales driving the majority of the populace batshit crazy to the point of beating each other up over deals.
… Why the hell did we introduce Black Friday this year again? Enough people get shot, stabbed and beat up during the Boxing Day and New Year sales so why do we need an extra day BEFORE all that to be evil bastards to each other?
Season of good will, my infected kidneys that have kept me stuck in the house all month!
Yeah, I'm bitter about it. Ever had a kidney infection? It's not something you want during the holidays. And this is the THIRD TIME THAT'S HAPPENED TO ME!!!
I wanted to busk this year, god dammit!
…
Anyway, resolution same as ever. Get my comics started!
Thankfully this year I'm a lot closer to that than ever. Hope you guys like MS Paint drawings! Lol.