Has anyone ever spent Xmas day totally alone?

[shari91]

Every day is the same, once you realize that I think you get out of your narrow minded world that most live in

There is no difference between xmas day and June 17th

There is a HUGE difference! Yes they're too commercial now but I still love them. I love waiting at the door for someone to arrive from the airport or a long drive. I love memories of my kooky family putting differences aside and everyone slamming my grandparents house to celebrate. I love that full feeling in my belly when I've eaten too much, drank too much and the turkey enzymes have kicked in so badly I'm ready to pass out. I love the lights, the way people smile a little bit more and I love singing carols at Midnight Mass - something I've never missed no matter what country I've been in or if I couldn't understand what the f they were saying.

I love it so much that I've decided this year my son will go to Midnight Mass too. And then on Xmas day we'll go to see the penguins march on an island, check out the window display at Australia's version of Barneys, go to a Slovak hall for dinner (thanks Pavy) and then finish off our night at Crown Casino with Santa and the over the top lights.

[obamaismyuncle]

There is a HUGE difference! Yes they're too commercial now but I still love them. I love waiting at the door for someone to arrive from the airport or a long drive. I love memories of my kooky family putting differences aside and everyone slamming my grandparents house to celebrate. I love that full feeling in my belly when I've eaten too much, drank too much and the turkey enzymes have kicked in so badly I'm ready to pass out. I love the lights, the way people smile a little bit more and I love singing carols at Midnight Mass - something I've never missed no matter what country I've been in or if I couldn't understand what the f they were saying.

I love it so much that I've decided this year my son will go to Midnight Mass too. And then on Xmas day we'll go to see the penguins march on an island, check out the window display at Australia's version of Barneys, go to a Slovak hall for dinner (thanks Pavy) and then finish off our night at Crown Casino with Santa and the over the top lights.

Shari, where are you originally from?

[infamousbacardi]

The best part of X-mas alone is that Chinese people are always there for you with their delightful food w/ all their restaurants remaining open!!
I recall a time when I was growing up that my family was on our way driving 4 hours to our relative's house, and the car broke down, so we just said f* it, and got a tow truck ride home and hit up the local China Wok. Definitely top 3 x-mas ever!

[obamaismyuncle]

The best part of X-mas alone is that Chinese people are always there for you with their delightful food w/ all their restaurants remaining open!!
I recall a time when I was growing up that my family was on our way driving 4 hours to our relative's house, and the car broke down, so we just said f* it, and got a tow truck ride home and hit up the local China Wok. Definitely top 3 x-mas ever!

Isn't this out of the movie Christmas Story?

[shari91]

Shari, where are you originally from?

A smallish town in Canada. But before I left on my Euro/Aussie work tour of 50 thousand friggin countries I lived in the States for quite a long time too.

[obamaismyuncle]

A smallish town in Canada. But before I left on my Euro/Aussie work tour of 50 thousand friggin countries I lived in the States for quite a long time too.

Minnesota here, feels like Canada most of the time.

[shari91]

Minnesota here, feels like Canada most of the time.

My home town is a 45 minute drive to the Grand Portage Casino. I can imagine exactly why you'd feel that way.

[obamaismyuncle]

My home town is a 45 minute drive to the Grand Portage Casino. I can imagine exactly why you'd feel that way.

Was -11 here yesterday morning, an unseasonable 14 right now. Spent countless days up in that area snowmobiling and fishing

[MonkeyF0cker]

What is Christmas like in Australia, Shari? Do they have Santa Claus there (complete with Rudolph) even though it's summer? That sounds hard to fathom. I would imagine it's a bit different from the Christmas celebrated in the northern hemisphere.

[shari91]

Was -11 here yesterday morning, an unseasonable 14 right now. Spent countless days up in that area snowmobiling and fishing

Awesome part of the world and if it didn't
get so bloody cold in the winter, I'd go back in a heartbeat. I love explaining to people the concept of plugging in cars, auto car starters, heated garages and how your eyelashes and nose boogs freeze. People never believe me until they check it out online. It may be hard to believe since I have the air con blasting here at the moment, but I'd honestly trade places with you in a second. If only to hit up the Duluth Target. Same shit here but I have many fond memories of that place.

[shari91]

What is Christmas like in Australia, Shari? Do they have Santa Claus there (complete with Rudolph) even though it's summer? That sounds hard to fathom. I would imagine it's a bit different from the Christmas celebrated in the northern hemisphere.

It's completely the same. Xmas stuff starts pouring out at the beginning of Nov, Santa starts appearing in the malls mid Nov and everything else is 100% like home really. Except it's hot. And a lot of Aussies have an Xmas lunch that revolves around seafood and barbecues of some sort. There's always a lot of people at the beach on Xmas Day and since this country is sports and gambling mad, the Boxing Day cricket match at the MCG (the most hallowed sports ground in Australia) is pretty much a constant here. But the whole thing is just bizarre. I thought Xmases in Florida an L.A. were weird because of the weather thing. This is just too bizarre and I'd honestly thought we'd be back in North America this year. Even the Xmases I spent in Europe were weird. The weather matched and London does it up NYC style but it's still not the same. I'm just being a suck but I really was looking forward to the whole thing.

[MonkeyF0cker]

The closest I've spent to spending Christmas alone was my first year in Vegas four years ago. I just went out for a buffet with a couple of friends. My family wasn't having their normal get together since my family is really small and my brother and his wife were going to visit her side of the family. So, I stayed here. Christmas in Vegas is a bit surreal. It's a ghost town. It's mostly Asians and Indians. Most of the locals are from elsewhere and are gone. And nobody flies to Vegas for Christmas. We made the most of it, but I probably won't do it again.

[shari91]

Oh and they say Happy Xmas here, British style, which is picking my ass hardcore this year. It's bad enough I get the "oh you're not from here" thing everytime I open my mouth but I keep saying Merry Xmas to people just to stun them. It's lucky Oprah is here right now - she's taking a bit of the heat off of us foreigners.

[MonkeyF0cker]

It's completely the same. Xmas stuff starts pouring out at the beginning of Nov, Santa starts appearing in the malls mid Nov and everything else is 100% like home really. Except it's hot. And a lot of Aussies have an Xmas lunch that revolves around seafood and barbecues of some sort. There's always a lot of people at the beach on Xmas Day and since this country is sports and gambling mad, the Boxing Day cricket match at the MCG (the most hallowed sports ground in Australia) is pretty much a constant here. But the whole thing is just bizarre. I thought Xmases in Florida an L.A. were weird because of the weather thing. This is just too bizarre and I'd honestly thought we'd be back in North America this year. Even the Xmases I spent in Europe were weird. The weather matched and London does it up NYC style but it's still not the same. I'm just being a suck but I really was looking forward to the whole thing.

Interesting. It is odd not having snow for Christmas. I'm from Wisconsin so going from that climate to Vegas was a strange transition. Although, I don't miss the cold six months out of the year. I could do without the 110 degree summers though.

[pdx107]

Never spent it totally alone however it is looking more and more like I will be this year

[shari91]

Interesting. It is odd not having snow for Christmas. I'm from Wisconsin so going from that climate to Vegas was a strange transition. Although, I don't miss the cold six months out of the year. I could do without the 110 degree summers though.

Yeah, I lived pretty much on the Minnesota border until I finished my Masters and headed to Florida. Complete shock weather wise at Xmas time but it was new and exciting so that made up for it. After the first Xmas spent in Florida though when everyone came to me to celebrate, all of us decided that we'd rather spend it up north. After reading your post about Xmas in Vegas though I remembered I actually spent one there in either '02 or '03. I wad living in LA and I was still so pissed off that my mom had died that I rounded up a group to go there to get pissed and forget about it all. It was snowing when we drove in - a tiny little dusting but apparently it was so drastic that every main road closed down so we just passed around various bottles of booze while we tried to figure out the detours. And when we finally got to our hotel and checked out the people who were there, we were all so depressed that we went to go see an Elvis impersonator fromcthe OC to try to make us feel better. Vegas is definitely not the place to be on Xmas day.

[hubie69]

I live up in IA and it's warmed up into the 20's this week but over this last weekend it was down into the single digits, well below 0 with the wind