That Christmas Feeling - Then and Now

Remember what Christmas was like as a kid? The anticipation that built up weeks beforehand, doing holiday activities in elementary school on a daily basis, seeing the decorations on all of the houses and all of the stores. Christmas music everywhere and whatever cartoon channel you watched had almost non-stop Christmas programming like The Grinch or Rudolph, as well as your favourite cartoon's take on a holiday special. Remember the night before and how hard it felt to get to sleep, but eventually you'd doze off, only to wake up way to early and have to sit there staring at presents for what felt like yeeeaaarrrss. The feelings that made Christmas so special and miraculous.


Every Christmas Eve my family would watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and How The Grinch Stole Christmas. That was really the only 'ritual' we had, but to this day I still try and watch them at least once within the week before Christmas. We would go to bed at our specified bedtimes and my dad would tell us he was going to bed too but if you woke up in the middle of the night and wandered into the hall you could hear the faint sound of tape tearing and him cursing "why don't I ever pineappleing remember to do this earlier."

On Christmas morning I always slept until 7:00 or 8:00 and would find my sisters had already been out in the living room staring at the tree for hours, trying to feel out what the presents were. They would have already eaten half of the candy in their stockings as well. As we got older they started trying to get sneaky about it by poking holes in the wrapping paper and trying to see inside. One year they opened some of my presents and put them in my stocking and when my dad woke up he was like THOSE WEREN'T IN THERE... WHEN I CHECKED EARLIER and they got major hell for screwing with stuff, haha. I'm not entirely innocent as I did my fair share of shaking and poking, but I was no where near as devious as they.

My dad really liked to make us suffer. He'd stay asleep until 10:00 and then he wouldn't let us open presents until he had had his first coffee, which he took forever to make, intentionally. Thinking back on it, I actually believe he probably woke up earlier and just stayed in his room to be a jerk. When we finally got to it, each year he'd pick one of us to hand out the presents, which was always an exciting job to get because we held the fate of christmas joy in our grubby little paws. How many times did my sister yell, "SARAH, SARAH GIVE ME THE BIG ONE IN THE BACK! IT'S FOR ME!" only to receive that obvious pair of socks in return. Muahaha. There was no questioning 'The Gifter' either. What they handed you was what you had to open. Any complaints to my father would result in him standing up and saying "ONE MORE COMPLAINT AND CHRISTMAS IS OFF" which would shut anyone who may be griping or sobbing up.

After we finished opening our presents and throwing out the garbage from the wrappings we were forced to try on any new clothes before we could play with our toys. My Earthworm Jim doll was so close but I just couldn't play with him until I tried on that ugly sweater from grandma. You know, the one with the puppies! After that we had about 3 hours to play with whatever we got (since I was into games and my sisters weren't you could usually find me plopped down in front of my SNES during this period).

Finally, to finish the night off, the whole family would head for my grandparents house. My aunts and uncles and cousins (on my dad's side) were all there. We'd sit around and then open up presents from them (mostly clothes) before dinner. It was usually really boring. Really, really boring. Dinner was split between two tables; adults and kids. My cousin was the oldest and thus the leader of the kids table. His leadership often led to us all "doing the caveman" which meant abandoning all utensils and shoving our faces into the mashed potatoes and getting as much as we could in our gaping mouths. One year he tried doing this after the hot gravy had just been poured... we didn't make that mistake again.

After the long day, we'd get home and were all pretty exhausted so it was typically straight to bed as far I remember. Only 364 more days 'til Christmas.



Now, I typically forget Christmas is coming up until the week before. There is no excitement, unless I've got someone a really good gift and I can't wait to see them open it. I still love Christmas but the magic is mostly gone. I'm hoping that when I have (a) child(ren) it'll all come back, or that I can re-experience it through them, maybe in a new way. I totally intend to torture them like my dad did us, though.

Because that's the real meaning of Christmas.


Do you feel any of that now? How was it for you as a kid?

I still get excited around Christmas time. Not as much as I did when I was a kid, however.

I'm not that excited as last year, but that's probably due to my winter break starting on Christmas Eve >_>. I don't even get a half day on the 23rd.

I'm not particularly excited about this Christmas this year, at all. I can't remember a time when I WASN'T excited for it. Sad..

Overall, I don't get as excited about christmas these days. I remember nights where I couldn't sleep because I was waiting for Santa to show up.. These days I just don't get as excited for it..I guess being so involved in the present buying kills the anticipation for me.. or something.

Man why do I bother writing these massive threads when none of you ingrates are willing to take more than 2 minutes to write a post.

Is it really that difficult to sit there and think for a minute before posting and then responding to a topic appropriately? I guess not based on most of the responses I see here, where people end up posting the same thing someone else has said 14 times on a single page.

Well, considering it's my birthday I pretty much know when it's coming up. I'm still babied by my family and get lots of presents on Christmas, if not then I get lots of cash from the ones that don't know what to get me. I don't think I have that same excited feel I had when I was a kid, but you're a lot easier to impress when you're a kid. When you grow up, this kind of stuff just gradually wears off.

I dunno, maybe I can't really provide much insight since my parents always made Christmas a bigger deal for me since it doubles as my birthday. I still get double the presents, more presents than the kids of the family get, but nobody minds or finds that strange because it is my birthday after all.

-Ignore this post so thread doesn't get derailed-

Man why do I bother writing these massive threads when none of you ingrates are willing to take more than 2 minutes to write a post.

Is it really that difficult to sit there and think for a minute before posting and then responding to a topic appropriately? I guess not based on most of the responses I see here, where people end up posting the same thing someone else has said 14 times on a single page.

Just to be a pain in the arse this post probably took you less than two minutes.

If you really want I'd whoop up a 3 paragraph post like Swerve does, but really, I don't really give much thought to my posts unless the threadstarter specifically says so, or if I'm extremely passionate about the subject. I'd never repeat posts, though, unless it's an extraction or Nexon announcement thread, ha ha.

Why bother posting at all, then, if you may ask? Probably to do with my younger self's habit of trying to get the most posts on Southperry. I gave up after I got it for like 3 days but I evidently still retain the habit of writing short quick posts.

-Ignore this post guys and go back on topic-

Like everyone, when I was a kid, I was estatic about Christmas every year. It was the best thing ever.


Ever since I turned 17 ~ 18ish, it's just... "eh... I couldn't care less." It's kind of depressing, boring, lonely, and dumb at the same time.

When I was younger, I used to be relatively naive about christmas. I'd hear noises during the night that sounded like they were coming from the roof and i'd get all giddy, thinking santa was dropping off presents. Then one year I found my presents in a black trash bag, and it was then I started to grow bored with it.

Then my mother met her now husband, and things went downhill year after year. They'd argue and fight on christmas morning over stupid pomegranate, like "hey open that gift," "no open that gift first," "don't tell him what to open," and it's escalate from there. Then when my sister was born and she was younger it just got worse.

After those years of dealing with them ruining the day before 10 a.m., and just seeing how people got lost in the commercialism of the holiday around me, I grew disinterested in it.

So yeah the feeling of joy, and just child-like elation, those feelings died. pretty quick.

Man why do I bother writing these massive threads when none of you ingrates are willing to take more than 2 minutes to write a post.

Is it really that difficult to sit there and think for a minute before posting and then responding to a topic appropriately? I guess not based on most of the responses I see here, where people end up posting the same thing someone else has said 14 times on a single page.

Sarah, your opening post let us know that part of your motivations behind this thread was to be personal with each other about a topic you'd like to hear a diverse number of stories, opinions, and perspectives about. You shared with us stories and memories to give it that personal touch, and you put a lot of yourself into that post. The fact you took the time and effort to post that much shows it, too.

I found your Christmas stories to be particularly nice to read. You highlighted the humor, the feelings, and of course- the details of the memories; and that's what made it fun to read.

I can certainly understand why you're let down by the quality of the responses. I don't think anyone's quite put themselves into their posts about this topic as much as you did. Yet I don't find it too much to be discouraged about. This kind of thing is something as personal as you make it to be. Somewhat like the high school dance- it's as fun if you make it out to be a fun experience and try to have a fun experience. It was obvious to expect brief responses to it that weren't quite that personal and deeply into it. I'm sure, though, that other people would be willing to write something equally personal eventually; you just have to have patience to not get discouraged so fast.

I'd be willing to write a long response, but at the moment, I'm a bit tied up by homework; but while I was taking a quick break to skim through Southperry, this post really caught my eye and I decided to take 5 minutes to write to you about this.

Man why do I bother writing these massive threads when none of you ingrates are willing to take more than 2 minutes to write a post.

Is it really that difficult to sit there and think for a minute before posting and then responding to a topic appropriately? I guess not based on most of the responses I see here, where people end up posting the same thing someone else has said 14 times on a single page.

Forgive us for not all wanting to write a goddamn novel when we reply to a thread.

Anyway, Christmas for me is likewise nothing special, but I don't think it's just recently it's been like that. Yeah, when I was little I couldn't wait until Christmas came. We'd go to my mom's mom's house on Christmas Eve to exchange gifts, then on Christmas I'd either be at my dad's or my mom's although which didn't matter because I knew I'd get to see the other. Then I'd get to hang out with all my cousins on my Dad's side I couldn't sleep, couldn't believe the gifts I got, N64 kid, yadda yadda yadda. All in all great fun.

But when I became a teenager it just...kinda died. I stopped counting down the days and it was more like "Oh pomegranate, Christmas is on Saturday isn't it?" I stopped even wanting much of anything, in fact whenever people'd ask me what I'd like for Christmas the first thing I'd think is "Well I know people don't have a lot of money so I shouldn't ask for much" (I guess that's kinda mature, right?). Yeah there'd be Christmas morning which was pretty special but right after the unwrapping everything'd be like any normal day--me trying not to piss my dad off, siblings fighting, etc. Now I really don't even care anymore, and I really don't feel anything to look forward to. The magic is gone, the cheer is gone. Everyone around me is in trouble or apathetic or snarky or whatever. I don't see my family all getting together since we didn't for Thanksgiving. All in all it's kinda depressing. I don't know if it's just the fact that I'm not as religious anymore or if all the Christmas music got to me or what have you. It's looking to be another same old day, and I figure it'll be like that for the rest of my life. I don't see how kids would bring back the joy...although I honestly never want to have kids in the first place.

Don't want this to be a story about my life, but I'll try to make this brief (though I doubt this'll work).

Back when I was a child, around this time of year, or maybe it was Jan-Feb, I only celebrated one major holiday: Tết. It's the Vietnamese New Year, but based on the Lunar calendar. When I was eight and immigrated to the United States, I didn't know what Christmas was, to be honest. My very first Christmas, I received a Batman action-figure from my aunt. From then on, I would always look towards to Christmas, not because I was expecting toys, but because it was different in America. It just seemed really different, because in Vietnam, during Tết, I would receive money in red-envelopes. Yes, the same ones that you guys get on MapleStory during the Lunar New Year's month.

When I moved from CA to PA, I lived with my aunt & uncle at their house for a couple years. It was fun, and I was always looking towards to Christmas. I loved the music, seeing Santa Clause at the mall or whatever. Similar to you, Sarah, watching "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" was literally a ritual. I hated the Grinch though, so could never watch that much. Watched it three times in my life, excluding the movie with Jim Carrey in it.

But anyways, as I grew up, that magic and expectation faded away. I was thinking more about managing money and giving gifts to friends. Recently, this year, I don't think I'm going to be expecting anything, nor will I give anything. I think Christmas should be a time for celebration and being with friends, families, loved-ones, etc. I don't care about receiving anything (besides figures omgwtp), and I won't be expecting anything. As long as I have a fun time drinking with some of my friends, I think it'll make my year. I don't get that excitement and joy out of Christmas anymore, I think Christmas is completely commercialized now, realizing as I grew up. People just spend money, and more money. That's all it is.

Relevant:

Is it bad to be 25% excited about the gifts, and 75% about the awesome pot luck dinner at my grandmas house later? o_o

Is it bad to be 25% excited about the gifts, and 75% about the awesome pot luck dinner at my grandmas house later? o_o

No. Food is awesome. Eating good food is pretty damn awesome.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

I loved Christmas growing up. The past few years though it's really lost it's luster....

Christmas Childhood:

Well. My childhood Christmas traditions...Early early on in my childhood, all my siblings and I always would open our presents early. If they were under the tree and had our name on it, that made it ours. Right? My parents eventually figured out a way to solve this problem. They would choose a TV Show teme every year at Christmas time, and wrap and tag all the presents as characters from that TV show. All the children were assigned a character name that was unbeknownst to us until Christmas Day. We'd do awesome shows like the BBC classic Keeping Up Appearances, Rocko's Modern Life, Dexter's Laboratory....It was all just great. We'd never know who was who. And years later, we still reminisce about all those great times and who we were named in Christmas past. Other great traditions include watching A Christmas Story when it airs on TBS I believe it is for 24 hours straight on Christmas Eve/Day. We'd watch that til the wee hours of the morning, then sleep for a few hours, and wake up at 6AM and watch all the classic Mickey Mouse Cartoons. All 8 of us children would cram into one room and have a big sleepover and watch those great shows. I think that was one of the most fun parts of Christmas, was that big family sleepover. Of course with me being the youngest, the few older kids would eventually give up on those sleepovers and sleep in their own rooms. It usually just consisted of the three youngest children, me, my sister, and one of my brothers. That was the best part.

Well, I had the same problem that Sarah had; parents. We'd always be up and rarin' to go at 6AM. My mom typically wouldn't wake up until noon. None of us were allowed to go downstairs to the presents. Period. We had my dad on guard all morning. The reason for this being, would be because "Santa" would give everyone a BIG present, that was left unwrapped, and put by our stalkings in the living room. We'd try to glance down from the stairs, but we'd only be able to see one or two stockings and we'd try to guess whose was whose. One year I specifically remember an SNES taunting us from the stairs, in plain view. One day I actually broke the rules and went downstairs at about 4:30AM, and found I had a shiny new red game boy. I played that Toy Story game for HOURS, then put it back in the box and went upstairs and told everyone else what they got for their big presents...I was the favorite sibling that year! Haha.

Christmas Today:

It really has lost it's luster. Especially being out of public schools now, I don't get that same Holiday Cheer from teachers, my environment, friends, etc. I typically don't go all out with presents, unless it's a few of my close friends, or if it's my assigned sibling 'secret Santa'. I still hate my mom's rule to this day of "friend presents". I haven't done friend presents since I was about 12. My mom's rule was, "If someone gets you a present, you need to get them one back! It's only fair!" So if a friend gave me a present, I'd have to get them one too. She still makes me follow that damn rule today. I have to go last minute shopping for friends tomorrow. I hate it. We still do the "Wait at the top of the stairs big presents" thing. It's just more stupid now because all of us kids are grown adults now...I don't like it. I'd rather just go down, get my presents, and deal with it. We don't do any big family parties now or anything, we just open presents, that is it. We usually just do our own thing after presents are opened for several days. We don't even really associate anymore....haha

And that's my Christmas. I miss the magic...haha

Don't want this to be a story about my life, but I'll try to make this brief (though I doubt this'll work).

Back when I was a child, around this time of year, or maybe it was Jan-Feb, I only celebrated one major holiday: Tết. It's the Vietnamese New Year, but based on the Lunar calendar. When I was eight and immigrated to the United States, I didn't know what Christmas was, to be honest. My very first Christmas, I received a Batman action-figure from my aunt. From then on, I would always look towards to Christmas, not because I was expecting toys, but because it was different in America. It just seemed really different, because in Vietnam, during Tết, I would receive money in red-envelopes. Yes, the same ones that you guys get on MapleStory during the Lunar New Year's month.

When I moved from CA to PA, I lived with my aunt & uncle at their house for a couple years. It was fun, and I was always looking towards to Christmas. I loved the music, seeing Santa Clause at the mall or whatever. Similar to you, Sarah, watching "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" was literally a ritual. I hated the Grinch though, so could never watch that much. Watched it three times in my life, excluding the movie with Jim Carrey in it.

But anyways, as I grew up, that magic and expectation faded away. I was thinking more about managing money and giving gifts to friends. Recently, this year, I don't think I'm going to be expecting anything, nor will I give anything. I think Christmas should be a time for celebration and being with friends, families, loved-ones, etc. I don't care about receiving anything (besides figures omgwtp), and I won't be expecting anything. As long as I have a fun time drinking with some of my friends, I think it'll make my year. I don't get that excitement and joy out of Christmas anymore, I think Christmas is completely commercialized now, realizing as I grew up. People just spend money, and more money. That's all it is.

That's awesome! I wish I could experience a big change like that. My best friend from kindergarten to grade 9 was a Jehova Witness and I was always kind of in awe that he didn't celebrate any holidays or even his birthday. Since we grew up together he learned to accept what I'd give to him, be it a merry greeting, a card or a gift. I know his mom wasn't happy about it though.

Do you still celebrate Tet at all? Do your parents celebrate Christmas now? How was the transition? Also, about the red envelopes... how much money did they typically contain? And who gave it to you? Just random family members? That seems like such a strange custom! Were the envelopes labeled with names so you knew who it was from?

Do you still celebrate Tet at all? Do your parents celebrate Christmas now? How was the transition? Also, about the red envelopes... how much money did they typically contain? And who gave it to you? Just random family members? That seems like such a strange custom! Were the envelopes labeled with names so you knew who it was from?

Yes, we still celebrate Tet. It's not a huge tradition as it was back in my country, but when the time comes, my mom or dad will remind me of it. As for Christmas, I personally celebrate it, but my parents aren't into it that much. They go to my relatives to dine with the rest of the family, but besides that, they're not into it as I am. My dad has been getting more into it as of recent, in fact, he has glowing Christmas trees on his PC's desktop. I actually smiled when I noticed.

The transition was really mind-bending, because I wasn't used to Christmas, and it took me a year or two until I was used to Christmas. In regards to the red envelopes, in Vietnam, I think I received somewhere around 10k-20k, which was barely a single USD if I were to convert it to today's conversion rate.

I would normally receive these red envelopes mostly from family members such as my aunts, uncles, and etc. My father's and mother's side have 9 siblings in the family, so .. yeah. Of course, my mom's side of the family was over in America at the time, so I haven't met them yet when I was younger. I would also receive these red envelopes from neighbors and my parents when I was younger.

And no, they were not labeled with names at all. They would just hand it to me as they walked into my parent's house, or whenever they saw me somewhere. I'm not sure if I did it right, but when I was younger, I think I always had to thank adults properly, and I may have bowed a lot as I thanked them. I don't remember this part really well, it's very foggy for me. In the United States, I still get these red envelopes during the Lunar New Year, except they contain USD. On average, per envelope, I receive about 20 USD. But I only get like 1 or 2 per year, and I don't look forward to it because I always felt weird receiving money from my parents' friends or whatever.

My aunt would also have these envelopes on her Christmas tree sometimes too, if she wanted to give it to us a bit early around Christmas time, and they were labeled with names. This was when I started living in the United States.

If you have any other questions, you're free to ask me.


Also, Sarah. This is basically what it's like every year during Tet over in Vietnam:

[video=youtube;s341hlJI-Ik]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s341hlJI-Ik[/video]

Frankly the only thing that hasn't changed about Christmas for me is me watching all the Christmas specials on Nickelodeon.

When I was a kid, I was probably Santa's #1 fan. I don't really remember any Christmases before age 6, but all I know is that Christmas 1997 is when I got my first Hot Wheels set. I started to worship Santa at that point. I remember waking up pretty early that morning with my mom rushing me downstairs to have me see what Santa got me; it was a big box sitting in the living room, curiously wrapped in the same wrapping paper I saw in the other room the night before and with a cheap 5 cent bow on top. I tore all of the gift wrap off and saw a Hot Wheels set with a "REAL WORKING CAR WASH". I think I played with it for about 2 days then went back to watching Rugrats until New Year's, but boy was I happy when I got that present. I started writing the most extraneous wish lists from that point on; when I became a fan of Tekken around age 9 or so I wished for every Tekken game out there, including ones that I already had and ones that didn't even exist (Ultimate Tekken, Tekken Showdown, Tekken 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, etc).

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 (or rather, Filipinos trying to be American stuff) and me playing [most recent first-person shooter of that year] with my cousins. 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 my aunts who have way too much income and nothing to spend it on. As much as I hate my family sometimes (particularly my mom's side), it's hard to be bitter about anything when it's your favorite time of the year and you're surrounded by people who you (mostly) like to be around.

It's gotten dull over the years, though. My dad stopped putting up the Christmas tree and lights when I was 13, since he would get mad when my mom never took them down until like February. Personally, my wish lists dwindled from every variety of Tekken ever conceived to two new video games to some clothes (Except for this year, I'm hoping for a watch...). I try to keep the Christmas spirit alive by doing some little things around the dorm I live in. I planted a tiny holly tree in the corner of the room and put Christmas lights in the bathroom where the toilet is, but it's hard to recreate the bliss that I felt when I was a kid; things get a lot more complex when you're older. I've come to the realization that it's the people you're around that make Christmas, though. Thanks for making this thread, your stories really cheered me up.

It's two days until Christmas and I haven't watched a single Christmas special. I'm think I'm gonna be busy all day tomorrow.