Random Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years/Year End Thoughts (2025)

[wriddle082]

I hope my wife likes the not-quite-Temu, not-quite-name-brand, moderately priced countertop nugget ice maker that I bought the household for Christmas!  Personally I could care less about ice types, but she's a Diet Coke fiend/addict and prefers them from places with chewy ice, or she'll drink them from a can at home.  Hopefully this gift saves us a few trips to Sonic!

[thenetwork]

I've always been amazed at how many of these holiday movies are set in Chicago

You need to watch a Hallmark movie. It might start in Chicago, NY, LA, Seattle, wherever. But it soon transitions to a little town where the heroine can meet her hero (or vice versa). And to get to this small hometown, they never take an Interstate - it's always some scenic backroad.

Take out the words Christmas and Santa Claus, and you pretty much describe all of Hallmark's other non-holiday movies!!!

[ZLoth]

[NWI_Irish96]

I've always been amazed at how many of these holiday movies are set in Chicago, like Planes, Trains & Automobiles, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, the Home Alone series (although most of the second film took place in New York), Christmas with the Kranks, and Fred Claus. As it is, I'm proud that my hometown is the most popular place to be at this time of the year, as far as Hollywood is concerned.

You just named three John Hughes films. All of his films, holiday or not, were set in Chicago (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles).

[ZLoth]

[kphoger]

People keep saying "what Christmas is all about".  The best I can figure is that it's all about attempting to buy people's affection by giving them moderately priced items they already explicitly told you they want.

[wanderer2575]

People keep saying "what Christmas is all about".  The best I can figure is that it's all about attempting to buy people's affection by giving them moderately priced items they already explicitly told you they want.

Humorist Dave Barry:  "Once again we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice."

[vdeane]

People keep saying "what Christmas is all about".  The best I can figure is that it's all about attempting to buy people's affection by giving them moderately priced items they already explicitly told you they want.

As much as I loved getting gifts as a kid, as an adult I find the whole thing to be more of annoyance.  I have money now, so if I want something I can just buy it, and if anything, finding things to get rid of to make more space in my apartment is the bigger challenge.  Scraping together a Christmas list every year isn't easy, unless I specifically don't buy some things so that they can be bought as gifts.

[JayhawkCO]

As much as I loved getting gifts as a kid, as an adult I find the whole thing to be more of annoyance.  I have money now, so if I want something I can just buy it, and if anything, finding things to get rid of to make more space in my apartment is the bigger challenge.  Scraping together a Christmas list every year isn't easy, unless I specifically don't buy some things so that they can be bought as gifts.

Similar story. I will say that having a small child has helped me rekindle some of my holiday spirit thankfully.

[Max Rockatansky]

As much as I loved getting gifts as a kid, as an adult I find the whole thing to be more of annoyance.  I have money now, so if I want something I can just buy it, and if anything, finding things to get rid of to make more space in my apartment is the bigger challenge.  Scraping together a Christmas list every year isn't easy, unless I specifically don't buy some things so that they can be bought as gifts.

Similar story. I will say that having a small child has helped me rekindle some of my holiday spirit thankfully.

Nothing is going to top the SNES I once got as a Christmas gift.  Thing is now, if I want something similar I'll just go out and buy it. 

My wife loves the atmosphere of the Christmas season.  The long term Retail LP Manager in me has long been over it.  For me it is just a month of social and work obligations that I don't have for the eleven other months of the year. 

[kphoger]

My wife loves the atmosphere of the Christmas season.

I love the atmosphere of having a well decorate house, spending time inside with the family playing games and watching movies, cooking special meals, playing seasonal music, all of that stuff.

Notice that all of these things take place inside my own house.  I can do without "the atmosphere of the Christmas season" out there, thank you very much.

(This is, now that I think about it, just another way of saying why I like Thanksgiving so much.  It has a lot of the same traditions as Christmas, without all the blech.)

[1995hoo]

I enjoy Christmas decorations, looking at the lights people put up, etc. I do not enjoy endlessly being subjected to roughly the same four or five insipid songs at every retail establishment, especially when those songs don't actually have anything to do with Christmas and are more "winter"-related.

[kphoger]

I enjoy Christmas decorations, looking at the lights people put up, etc. I do not enjoy endlessly being subjected to roughly the same four or five insipid songs at every retail establishment, especially when those songs don't actually have anything to do with Christmas and are more "winter"-related.

The only thing worse than the standard classic Christmas songs from the 1940s-1950s is... everything after that.  The canon of Christmas songs is a very tough one for a musician to break into, and only a few have managed to come up with something worth including.

This is why my wife and I have increasingly turned to playing instrumental versions of Christmas music in the house.  The same tunes you know and love, but less cheesy and annoying.

[JayhawkCO]

(This is, now that I think about it, just another way of saying why I like Thanksgiving so much.  It has a lot of the same traditions as Christmas, without all the blech.)

But there aren't any really good Thanksgiving movies.

[kphoger]

But there aren't any really good Thanksgiving movies.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles isn't good enough?

You know, I've never seen Alice's Restaurant.

But yeah, you're right, there aren't very many.

[1995hoo]

I enjoy Christmas decorations, looking at the lights people put up, etc. I do not enjoy endlessly being subjected to roughly the same four or five insipid songs at every retail establishment, especially when those songs don't actually have anything to do with Christmas and are more "winter"-related.

The only thing worse than the standard classic Christmas songs from the 1940s-1950s is... everything after that.  The canon of Christmas songs is a very tough one for a musician to break into, and only a few have managed to come up with something worth including.

This is why my wife and I have increasingly turned to playing instrumental versions of Christmas music in the house.  The same tunes you know and love, but less cheesy and annoying.

I'm willing to listen to some of those songs when a performer comes up with a distinct take, rather than just playing the same old thing the same old way everybody else does. That's probably one reason why I enjoy Twister Sister's A Twisted Christmas, which sets various familiar songs in heavy metal versions (my favorite one being "O Come All Ye Faithful" in the arrangement of "We're Not Gonna Take It").

Neil Diamond has some pretty good Christmas albums, which I find somewhat amusing because he's released three or four of them despite being Jewish.

[kphoger]

various familiar songs in heavy metal versions

I'm not a metal head by any stretch, but this is one of the most surprisingly good Christmas videos I've ever come across:

https://youtu.be/dgNNl-5b-5A?si=IQ6uawBkLbVeXa9r

For any musicians who may be interested:  I think they play it in drop-D♭.

[1995hoo]

Nice. And to be technical about it, that's really an Advent hymn, rather than a Christmas one, which makes it that much more appropriate for the four weeks prior to Christmas.

[kphoger]

Nice. And to be technical about it, that's really an Advent hymn, rather than a Christmas one, which makes it that much more appropriate for the four weeks prior to Christmas.

Oh, no need to apologize for the technicality.  It's in my Advent playlist on YouTube.

I also have a longer, Advent–Christmastide–Epiphany playlist, but all the Advent ones come before all the Christmas ones.

[1995hoo]

South Park had a new Christmas song this week, sung by Jesus' girlfriend (obviously, some people might find it offensive based on that description alone).

[formulanone]

As much as I loved getting gifts as a kid, as an adult I find the whole thing to be more of annoyance.  I have money now, so if I want something I can just buy it, and if anything, finding things to get rid of to make more space in my apartment is the bigger challenge.  Scraping together a Christmas list every year isn't easy, unless I specifically don't buy some things so that they can be bought as gifts.

Similar story. I will say that having a small child has helped me rekindle some of my holiday spirit thankfully.

Yeah, especially at an age where every gift feels magical.

My kids are suddenly at a point where they don't know what they want, aren't into toys, so that phase of holiday shopping has ended. It was a good 15 years.

[ZLoth]

People keep saying "what Christmas is all about".  The best I can figure is that it's all about attempting to buy people's affection by giving them moderately priced items they already explicitly told you they want.

As much as I loved getting gifts as a kid, as an adult I find the whole thing to be more of annoyance.  I have money now, so if I want something I can just buy it, and if anything, finding things to get rid of to make more space in my apartment is the bigger challenge.

As an adult, I much rather have people gift me a gift card from either Amazon, Audible, Steam, or Home Depot rather than have them try to figure out and purchase what they think I need. This is especially true of technology gifts when  what you need doesn't always match up with your frugal yet technically inept relative who goes "What does he need a 27 inch monitor? A 24 inch should go." not realizing that there is also the inputs, resolution, and refresh rate (especially Adaptive Sync). I would rather collect the Amazon gift cards to help offset the cost of the monitor which I need.

[kurumi]

For people who love to shop, Christmas is heaven: they can feel virtuous about it, and everyone else is roped into it.

Imagine if roadgeeks had taken over the holiday in the same way: "aw crap, one weekend left and still eight state routes I have to clinch..."

[Scott5114]

Imagine if roadgeeks had taken over the holiday in the same way: "aw crap, one weekend left and still eight state routes I have to clinch..."

I think a holiday where I can shame my aunt for not having clinched K-32 or whatever is needed.

[ZLoth]