Yule tidings.

Do you like Christmas?

  • yes

    Votes: 2 25.0%
  • No.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • There are things I like and dislike about Christmas.

    Votes: 6 75.0%

  • Total voters
    8

veganDreama

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Joined
May 30, 2018
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Age
54
Location
Birmingham, England
Lifestyle
  1. Vegan
It’s the winter solstice today. The shortest day of the year. I celebrated it by going out for a meal at Joyti’s and eating too much. Still I can lose any weight I gain after Christmas.


What do you think of Christmas anyway? I’m in two minds. I like vegan mince pies and the bright colours around this time of the year but it also means that the things I like to do get closed down until January. Also Christmas is a time when lots of birds get killed for Christmas dinner and their is a lot of waste around this time of the year.


I hope you enjoy (or at least endure) your Christmas.
 
I live near a mall and the traffic around me is killer all of December.

I do like a lot of the popular Christmas time music. But I'm also glad to see it go away in January.

I don't like the short days or the bad weather. I do like the decorations.
 
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I like my neighbors Christmas lights but think about fossil fuels. We get a little of hydro, wind and solar here but I still think about the natural gas and coal .

I am having some red wine on Solstice and on Christmas I'll make a Celebration Roast and gravy, veg and cranberry just like my Tofurky on Thanksgiving and my latkes and gelt during Hanukkah.

I like excuses to party and be nice to people and make food but I don't like how animal slaughter seems to speed up this time of year and I can do without all the crap in stores.

My coworker may have a bonfire on the night of the 25th. That's cool.
 
Despite my family not being vegan, I like Christmas because it brings family together, if even only for once a year. My family is completely respectful of my lifestyle though. I will bring my own food. A local place makes vegan Christmas loafs, which I've heard are quite tasty, so I will get one of those, and hopefully impress them.
 
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Christmas in Australia is hilarious. It’s summer here, and you have people putting up decorations of snowflakes and sleds, santa and reindeer and putting up/decorating evergreen trees in their homes at basically the start of our summer. Just goes to show how far tradition will go even when it’s completely out of whack with the season.

I see friends and we drink, play games like table tennis and basketball, and cool in either the shade or a pool if one is set up. We also eat but I will be bringing vegan community food this year as they are meat eaters.

I don’t celebrate in any religious or spiritual way. In fact I don’t do that with any of the western holidays. Most of the celebrations are seasonally tied, and as such relevant only to people North of the equator and the religiously observant. Religion and tradition, not season, are what keeps them alive here:



Australia :



Christmas/New Years – summer

Easter – autumn

Halloween - spring





I do however make an effort to respect certain times, these fall on a calendar that is not widely practiced in most of the world, so when I do it is alone.
 
Yule is different every year... There has been some bad ones but this Yule's much better than some in the past, so I'm immensely glad about that. I'm anxious, so I think I'm going to meditate and go on a walk in the woods. I also think I'm going to draw and color today. And in the evening I'm going to dance and listen to The Serpent's Egg by Dead Can Dance.
To me, Christmas is jus like any other day, but that's sad. It seems like festive people have more fun.

It's a shame on humankind that so many pigs lose their lives over this one day, for no good enough reason. I don't like how this time of year is an excuse for most people to make the kitchen look like a spiced up morgue.

I'd love to make some decorations, like dried citrus wheels. Haven't yet, but will some day. I do wear a pentacle, like everyday, if that's considered a decoration. Pentacle is an protective symbol. It also looks like a star, which is usual decoration on top of the Yule tree.
Helped mom with decorating her house. She has around 20 santa claus candles (they never get burned. Heartwarming from my point of view), figurines, pictures and so on. She has even saved old hand made decorations, made out of wood and wool, from her childhood, which is awesome.

Reading about the legend of the Holly King and the Oak King, and about the old, but also new traditions, and the origins, of the festival is facinating. I haven't established much of my own traditions, but I still like to collect information of myths, legends and origins in order to build from that.

I wear some colors of the season: dark green sweater and bright red socks. I don't really like bright colors, but these are special because I got the socks as a gift around the time I was reading The Lollipop Shoes, so these are my Lollipop Socks. After the 25th day I'm going to celebrate the sun by wearing some white clothes.

Dreaming of the day when everyone turns minimalist and asks for non-materialistic presents, such as donating to charity for them. But since that is still to come, I bought a lot of presents and spend too much money. It actually feels nice to give. To everyone I got something I KNOW they will need and will use. I have been observant.. haha!

Bonfires would be really amazing, but here where I live there are none.
BUT we got A LOT OF snow! I wished that so much. It's so beautiful and it's everywhere. I love it how the passages of all kind of different animals from dogs to hares to rodents and birds are visible in the snow.

So there are something that I don't like, and some I do like. Perhaps, it mostly depends on how much negativity I'm carrying with me, how the Yule overall turns out.
This Yule is full of childlike wonder and exitement over small things like the snow, moon and stories. Well, as close to childlike as one can get at this age...
 
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I enjoy the spirit of the season, the music, exchanging greetings with family and friends that I only communicate with once a year. I like the excuse to buy a few thoughtful things for my honey, sometimes we spend time with family, this year it will be just us and we are fine with that. Don't have to drive anywhere, just eat some cool food, tip a glass of something, watch some movies.... Just a tiny lit tree with a few other decorations. Different times of life call for different involvement in the season and this year is low key.

Merry Christmas, Happy Yule, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings... whichever expression is appropriate.

Emma JC
:innocent: (this was the only Christmasy one lol)
 
I enjoy the spirit of the season, the music, exchanging greetings with family and friends that I only communicate with once a year. I like the excuse to buy a few thoughtful things for my honey, sometimes we spend time with family, this year it will be just us and we are fine with that. Don't have to drive anywhere, just eat some cool food, tip a glass of something, watch some movies.... Just a tiny lit tree with a few other decorations. Different times of life call for different involvement in the season and this year is low key.

Merry Christmas, Happy Yule, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings... whichever expression is appropriate.

Emma JC
:innocent: (this was the only Christmasy one lol)


But you got that cool festive mood hat. I couldn't find that one.
 
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