[J m HofMarN]

Laura, that was magnificent. The two best lines were:



Evergreen trees, whose continued existence in the summertime confuses and infuriates me.

and

I'm drawing a naked lady, not a naked Christmas lady.

Indubatably an excellent article, and quite true as well.

But one question: Caramel cherry? :yuck:

[Rory]

I just want to say that there is a special place in my heart for pieces of humor that end with a punchline.

[Chyld]

When was Thanksgiving, remind me? Because over here in Britainland, there is no such yardstick for whacking up decorations. I swear I saw some crackers somewhere in October, and a shop asking for Christmas help... back home, before I left in September. Hmm...

[SimeSublime]

They ask for christmas help really early, so they can go through the long interview process. I had to sit through it myself.

I found your article slightly confusing. For example, pretty much all our trees here are evergreen. But to top it right off is your talk of snow. To me Christmas is getting together with extended family in the sweltering heat, having a barbie for lunch, perhaps an impromtu game of lawn cricket. Though it's best summed up by this quote:

"We can't replicate an Australian Christmas over here. It's too cold. Sometimes it snows. You can hear sleigh bells. Nah, it's not like Christmas at all." - Lee Tulloch in New York, The Age, 22/12/99

[Laura]

I'll be the first to admit the article was America-centric.

[SimeSublime]

Which is fair enough. I've seen enough TV to know where your coming from, it's just a matter of adjusting my mindset. Well written.

[J m HofMarN]

Hmm I had thought of that. Tell me, do Australians tend to associate just about everything possible with Christmas. For instance would someone normally wake up to a hot, cloudless day and remark that it looks just like Christmas?

[FastEddie]

No. No they would not. I can't speak for everyone, but christmas for me means that the boxing day test is only a day away.

This post has been edited by FastEddie: 04 December 2004 - 09:51 AM

[SimeSublime]

Forgot about that. I'm not a big fan of cricket, so it's not that important to me. We still think of christmas trees and red&green and so on as Christmas, but not much else. I find Christmas reminds me of things(such as beach cricket, barbeques and paper hats), but not much reminds me of Christmas.

[J m HofMarN]

You know Sime, that made quite a bit of sense. I think that's the problem here in the states. As Laura pointed out just about everything means Christmas to us and Christmas to us means buying crap. Therefore the message apparently being sent is "When you see the colors red and green, you will buy." Whereas you seem to have things in the correct order, IE : "Oh look its Christmas, better put up red and green decorations."

[SimeSublime]

Interesting perspective. I assume that a lot of people think that way here, perhaps to the extreme that I'm the odd one out. I've just never thought about it like that.

[Chefelf]

It's amazing to me that Christmas makes people think of barbecues. Of course, it didn't even occur to me that people in the southern hemisphere had warm weather during Christmas until I was about 24 so there ya go.

Laura's list rings true for me. Particularly the jazz music thing. That always makes me think of Christmas. Take, for example, John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things". It's always played around Christmas but if you stop to think about it at all you'll realize that that song has nothing to do with the holiday.

[Laura]

I was totally remarking about "My Favorite Things" the other day. I guess there's a part in it about packages tied up with string, but it's actually only Coltrane version that's associated with Christmas and that has no vocals. They just play it a lot at Christmas for some reason.

I didn't think I really came down against commercialism in my article. If I did I'm sorry. I love commercialism!!

[Caolan]

I noticed that too! Maybe that song was ins ome christmas movie one time?

maybe it's just because you get things for christmas. like, they're just listening to the title, and ignoring the fact that most of the things you get in the song, with the exception of packages (which sound more like packages from, like, the bakery than from Santa) are things you don't really get at Christmas, like silver-white winters melting into springs, and schnitzel with noodles.

[Chefelf]

It's unusual, this tie in with Christmas, however it's fortunate because Coltrane's version of that song is KICK ASS!