2010-12-23, 05:12 PM
Ben Wrote:As far as I can remember, I've always loved Christmas because of the atmosphere. It hasn't changed for me yet; Christmas lights and music and everything else have always kind of uplifted me. Every year my family has a party, which consists of generic Christmas stuff and me playing with my sisters/cousins/nieces and nephews. It's always been genuine though; there's never anyone that doesn't want to be there, and everyone's cheerful and appreciative of the lame presents they get, plus the money from the old people who have way too much income and nothing to spend it on. It's everyones favorite time of the year and you're surrounded by people who you like to be around.
Changing this by adding and removing a few things and it's basically about how Christmas is for me.
Christmas has always been a massive deal for my family. And I have a huge family. From when I was a kid and to now Christmas has always been a chaotic amount of fun because of all the people, as a kid rushing through people while food was being made and the younger people were playing and everything else made it oh so fun. I haven't really lost any of the feeling I had about Christmas as a kid to now, except for the rush of rushing through crowds of people in whichever family member's house it was in that year. And I had many of the same experiences you had Sarah, staying up but falling asleep, waking up before the adults, etc. I remember a couple of years where either just me and my sisters would stand watch and wake one of us up when they were going to sleep but we would all end up falling asleep together anyway, or doing the same deal with other family members around our age when unwrapping with the entire family since sometimes we just had the typical Christmas, and others the whole shindig with presents and such.
I still like getting presents from family members even if it's something I don't use or whatnot even though that has never really been a problem with the family Christmas, but I enjoy giving presents so much more. I always get someone something they're just going to adore and I get so excited waiting for Christmas just so they can unwrap it so I can see the look on their face. Luckily most of my family and friends who I get gifts for are more into sentimental type gifts instead of stuff "they want but don't really need". And while I enjoy giving gifts no matter what I have to say I far more enjoy getting gifts for the people who enjoy sentimental gifts more, but I don't really mind dropping some money on a fancy thingy if I am close to that family member/friend. Sentimental look > just an item look still though.
I also have all those old Christmas specials/movies/events on VHS and break them out every year just to watch them.
So in short, Christmas hasn't really changed for me at all. Except for going from looking up at the crowd to looking over the crowd.