Christmas Thread: Santa, Reindeer, Elves & Yule Goats

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    Christmas Thread
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Discussion Overview

The thread discusses various aspects of Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule Goats, and related holiday traditions. Participants share personal experiences, preferences for gift-giving, food, decorations, and memories associated with the holiday season.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express a preference for gift certificates over traditional toys, citing ease and practicality.
  • Others share fond memories of holiday traditions, such as playing Santa and decorating for Christmas.
  • Food plays a significant role in the discussion, with several participants mentioning favorite holiday treats like eggnog, cookies, and Christmas pudding.
  • There are mixed feelings about the commercialization of Christmas, with some participants expressing dissatisfaction with the pressure of gift-giving.
  • One participant reflects on the challenges of finding meaningful gifts, particularly in relation to a spouse's desires.
  • Some participants mention the joy of decorating and the importance of food and social gatherings during the holidays.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a variety of views on gift-giving, food preferences, and holiday traditions, indicating that there is no consensus on how to approach the holiday season. Some enjoy the traditional aspects, while others critique the commercialization and express a desire for simpler celebrations.

Contextual Notes

Participants' comments reflect personal experiences and preferences, which may vary widely. The discussion includes references to specific holiday practices and sentiments that may not be universally applicable.

Who May Find This Useful

Readers interested in holiday traditions, personal anecdotes related to Christmas and other winter celebrations, and discussions about the cultural implications of holiday practices may find this thread engaging.

  • #31
Math Is Hard said:
The Grinch hated Christmas!
The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be that his head wasn't screwed on quite right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

I'm not going to lie, this was an excellent responce and I chuckled a little bit.

I still don't like Christmas music earlier then a week or two before the holiday, and some local radio stations had gone 24/7 christmas songs before Halloween.
 
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  • #32
Ivan Seeking said:
12 egg yolks
5 cloves, whole
4 cups milk
4 cups cream
3 cups light rum
1+ ¾ cups sugar
2+ ½ teaspoons vanilla essence
1 Cat

Whip the cat lightly and combine with eggs and cream...

Whip lightly? I think you need the "Smoothie" setting on the Blendtec TB-621-BHM. And notice we leave the bones in the cat because bone marrow is a source of protein and high in monounsaturated fats that are known to decrease LDL cholesterol levels resulting in a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.

(I've got to get one of these. It's so cool when your blender has a military sounding model number.)
 
  • #33
Ivan Seeking said:
12 egg yolks
5 cloves, whole
4 cups milk
4 cups cream
3 cups light rum
1+ ¾ cups sugar
2+ ½ teaspoons vanilla essence
1 Cat

Whip the cat lightly and combine with eggs and cream...

The moment I hit reply, I somehow knew that this "cat-nog" idea was headed off in a different direction. :bugeye:
 
  • #34
GleefulNihilism said:
I still don't like Christmas music earlier then a week or two before the holiday, and some local radio stations had gone 24/7 christmas songs before Halloween.

I like enough time between the holidays to make them distinct, otherwise they all run together like creamed corn and cranberry sauce on a plate.
 
  • #35
Math Is Hard said:
The moment I hit reply, I somehow knew that this "cat-nog" idea was headed off in a different direction. :bugeye:

I figured that you were begging for a kitty torture joke.
 
  • #36
Math Is Hard said:
I like enough time between the holidays to make them distinct, otherwise they all run together like creamed corn and cranberry sauce on a plate.
EEWWWWWW! UGH! That is the nastiest thing I have ever read!

The eggnog recipe sounds wonderful, I am going to try it without the cat though, too much protein can cause flare ups of gout.
 
  • #37
Math Is Hard said:
I like enough time between the holidays to make them distinct, otherwise they all run together like creamed corn and cranberry sauce on a plate.
Yay! If you put a wreath on your front door before Thanksgiving, you're screwing up an otherwise good holiday, when people come to your house because they've been invited to share in some great food, drink, and conversation. Pretty much anytime after Thanksgiving, you can put that wreath on the door for decoration for when people come to your house because they've been invited to share in some great food, drink, and conversation for Christmas. Coming from a rather poor family, I was always rather partial to Thanksgiving because going to school afterward and hearing about some kid got AAA for Christmas and some kid got BBB for Christmas got old real fast, especially when most of the kids in my neighborhood got little or nothing. I grew up with families in which children got necessities - one kid might get a new pair of shoes, others might get hand-me-downs from older siblings, and another might get new (or used) shoes because the properly-sized ones were pretty much worn out. One year I got a girl's bike handed down from a family friend, and the next year, I got her white figure skates. I did a lot of face-plants that winter trying to to duplicate moves that I had developed in previous years with the now-outgrown hockey skates.

One year (about 1964) I asked for a wagon, like a Western Flyer. My parents couldn't afford it and they kept warning me that Santa wouldn't have any room for any other presents if he brought me such a big present. They also said that I wouldn't have any fun with it all winter long, since I would have to stick it in the cellar and not play with it. I kept up my quest for the wagon, though, and on Christmas morning, there was a wagon under the tree, and precious little else. I was ecstatic. When spring came, I loaded it with cardboard boxes and roamed all the roads picking up beer bottles (2 cents) and soda bottles (3 cents) that emerged as the snow-banks melted and loaded my piggy-bank with change all spring long. That wagon served me well until I was old enough to be employable raking and mowing lawns to earn money for college.
 
  • #38
Evo said:
The eggnog recipe sounds wonderful, I am going to try it without the cat though, too much protein can cause flare ups of gout.

It does sound guuuuuud.
http://www.eggnogrecipe.net/christmas-eggnog-recipe.html
 
  • #39
Ivan Seeking said:
It does sound guuuuuud.
http://www.eggnogrecipe.net/christmas-eggnog-recipe.html
I'm an eggnog purist and use raw eggs and don't heat it. Heating became popular with the scare of salmonella, which I found out is nothing to do with sanitation, I found out that a certain percentage of eggs naturally contain it? Or was that just a lie to try to get me to cook my eggnog?

Both of my girls LOVE eggnog, but they love the "store bought" type. :cry:

Give me raw eggnog or give me death!
 
  • #40
turbo-1 said:
My parents couldn't afford it and they kept warning me that Santa wouldn't have any room for any other presents if he brought me such a big present.
I always loved my mother's explanation about why some kids got a lot of expensive presents and some kids didn't. She told me that the parents had to pay Santa for the toys (made sense, Santa had no money to speak of) so the wealthy parents could pay Santa more. It was obvious that the bunk about Santa's elves making toys didn't fly when the toys came from famous toy companies.
 
  • #41
Evo said:
The eggnog recipe sounds wonderful, . . . .
The recipe calls for cloves though. I suppose one could leave them out. The rum is a good idea. :-p
 
  • #42
I just always thought Santa was a little bit addled, and couldn't keep track of who was getting what toy. Afterall, he often mixed up my sister's and my lists, and there was always something that was similar sounding but not quite what I asked for (the one that sticks in my mind the most because it was so horrible was the year I asked for triominos...they were like dominoes, but triangle shaped, so made the game a little different...and I got some board game called Trilogy...we NEVER played that game, the instructions were a mile long and nobody could keep them straight long enough to get through a single game, so it just sat on a shelf and collected dust...my parents probably spent a lot on that game when all I wanted was a cheap set of something like dominoes :frown:).
 
  • #43
Eating Raw Eggs
Today, some unbroken fresh shell eggs may contain the bacteria Salmonella enteritidis that can cause foodborne illness. While the number of eggs affected is small, there have been scattered outbreaks in the past few years.

Researchers say that if present, salmonella bacteria are usually in the yolk or yellow of the egg but they cannot rule out entirely the bacteria being present in the egg white. No individual should eat raw or undercooked egg yolks or whites or products containing them.

Individuals with health problems, the very young, the elderly, and pregnant and nursing women are particularly susceptible to Salmonella enteriditis infection. Chronic illnesses also weaken the immune system making individuals vulnerable to foodborne illnesses.

Do not eat raw eggs including ""health-food" milk shakes containing raw eggs, Ceasar salad, Hollandaise sauce, and any other foods like homemade mayonnaise, ice cream or eggnog where the eggs are not cooked.

Source: Consumer Information from USDA: Egg and Egg Product Safety, October 1996.
http://www.solutions.uiuc.edu/content.cfm?series=3&item=176
 
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  • #44
Ivan Seeking said:
http://www.solutions.uiuc.edu/content.cfm?series=3&item=176
Damn them!

I've eaten undercooked and raw eggs all of my life and I'm not stopping now!

Uhm, hollandaise sauce is cooked, and so is the egg custard for ice cream. Maybe the heat is not high enough to kill salmonella? But then that would mean all custards were not safe, and that's not true. Who are these people?

This morning I had two over easy eggs with cool runny yolks and tomorrow I may eat three! MUWAHAHA! I think I'm more at risk from the cholesterol.
 
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  • #45
Evo said:
This morning I had two over easy eggs with cool runny yolks . . .
That's the way I like eggs - with runny yolks - especially over grits. :-p
 
  • #46
Astronuc said:
That's the way I like eggs - with runny yolks - especially over grits. :-p
That's why I need toast with my eggs!
 
  • #47
That Blasted Article said:
Do not eat raw eggs including ""health-food" milk shakes containing raw eggs, Ceasar salad, Hollandaise sauce, and any other foods like homemade mayonnaise, ice cream or eggnog where the eggs are not cooked.

That's too much for me .
 
  • #48
Charlie Brown Christmas performed by the cast of Scrubs.

 
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  • #49
turbo-1 said:
That's why I need toast with my eggs!
Well, runny eggs over bacon in toast is pretty gooood! :-p

But my favorite breakfast is eggs over easy (with runny yolks) on grits, with bacon with hot sauce. Hash browns and toast are optional. And strong coffee!
 
  • #50
Evo said:
Damn them!

I've eaten undercooked and raw eggs all of my life and I'm not stopping now!

Uhm, hollandaise sauce is cooked, and so is the egg custard for ice cream. Maybe the heat is not high enough to kill salmonella? But then that would mean all custards were not safe, and that's not true. Who are these people?

This morning I had two over easy eggs with cool runny yolks and tomorrow I may eat three! MUWAHAHA! I think I'm more at risk from the cholesterol.

I don't like eggs unless the yolks are runny. Then again, I also grew up eating raw hamburger served on a slice of onion, and people freak out about getting E. coli from that too.

Besides, if you add a sufficient amount of alcohol to your eggnog, that should disinfect it for you, right? It just means you shouldn't drink non-alcoholic eggnog. :approve:
 
  • #51
I like my eggs over easy, and make a bacon and egg sandwich out of them, using toast. Then when you bite into the yoke, it spills onto your plate and you sop it up with the next bite of sandwich :)
 
  • #53
I love Creches too! A long time ago I started collectings the angles and sheep from very old sets, they are just beautiful.
 
  • #54
Oooooo! I'd love to see close up pictures of them! I just love nativity scenes. I have a small collection myself. I'll try to remember to take pictures of them this year.
 
  • #55
My uncle and I were very naughty. We used to line up the nativity scene in a conga line and make them dance. :redface:
 
  • #56
Math Is Hard said:
My uncle and I were very naughty. We used to line up the nativity scene in a conga line and make them dance. :redface:
Damn it, I just spit my Hawaiin Fruit Punch all over the monitor! First Pervect, now you. Twice in one day!
 
  • #57
My mother's younger brother used to challenge us kids to games of cribbage and if he won, he would grab some piece of bric-a-brac as his "trophy" and we would have to beat him in the game to get it back. It was almost always an exercise in luck and chance, but it was always fun, since he made such a big deal about the "trophy" and if we won, we got to get back our "trophy" and if we won another game, we got to take something of his.
 
  • #58
Math Is Hard said:
My uncle and I were very naughty. We used to line up the nativity scene in a conga line and make them dance. :redface:
Cute! :smile: Fortunately, I didn't have a mouthful of punch when I read this.
 
  • #59
I've just been cornered in the kitchen here at work by a co-worker inviting me to his family's annual christmas party. There will be dozens of small children there. NOOOO. I have to get sick for Dec 15th now. :redface:
 
  • #60
Evo said:
I've just been cornered in the kitchen here at work by a co-worker inviting me to his family's annual christmas party. There will be dozens of small children there. NOOOO. I have to get sick for Dec 15th now. :redface:
Tell him you have a previous engagement. Meanwhile we'll think of something.
 

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