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Although I love much of Christmas spent with family in the US, there is one thing I really do not mind missing this year while staying put in Moldova, where I live right now: Being swept up in the awful consumerism of the holidays in the US and the mad dash to find presents for everyone at the last minute because we usually arrive very shortly before the holidays and have had no time to be more efficient about it.
I hear you. I do, really. One year, I’d quite like to forget about Christmas on a beach somewhere – but can’t say too much now because that’s the subject of a post later in the month!
Going home for Xmas. Almost didn’t for a few reasons but decided “Eff it” and will head home for a couple of weeks.
Well, good for you! And your hometown must be a great place to spend Christmas. Another place on my Xmas location wish list…
It’s not too bad. Thanks. 🙂 Staying for shorter than last time so that my family doesn’t drive me too nuts. 😐
Hehehe you are so right about the depressing theme. Then again we have the classics like Slade’s ‘I wish it could be xmas everyday’. (Was that Slade?) Then there’s Chris Rea’s ditty about ‘Going home for xmas’. My memory is shot but I’ll blame the meds making me foggy.
Actually, both those are on the same CD! Also Wizzard. The Gary Glitter one is very cheerful too, but of course you can’t mention his name in polite society any more, much less burn his songs onto a CD from iTunes.
Wizzard did ‘I wish it could be Xmas’ and Slade did ‘Merry Xmas everybody’. Glam rock Xmas songs….all the same 🙂
Strangely, being an expat in the UK and Japan taught me that as long as I could be flexible about Christmas traditions, I could celebrate the holidays anywhere — whether in a Vietnamese bar decked out in tinsel listening to a local band sing ““We weesh you a merry Chreestmas,” or in the UK watching the Queen on telly, stuffing myself with Christmas pudding slathered with brandy sauce & fresh cream.
It did take me several years, though, to develop that flexibility. During that time, I also gave up celebrating Thanksgiving as it was too much like hard work! (I didn’t live in an American expat community.)
Now that I’m back in the U.S., I find myself nostalgic at this time of year for my UK Christmases (in my view, no one celebrates it better than the Brits) and for my exotic Christmas travels, usually into Southeast Asia, during my Tokyo expat days. Go figure! As for Thanksgiving, I love it! For me it’s the best American holiday and one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about repatriating…