I love Christmas. Christmas is the best time of the year here in Oz, and people (most people) are at their happiest. I don't like birthdays as much, because 1. there's no holidays, and 2. only one person gets a gift, which seems to piss everyone else off. (unless the birthday boy or girl is a twin, triplet, quad, etc)
Sure, statistics (fcuken statistics!) prove that Christmas is the time when domestic violence goes thru the roof and family members turn on each other like rabid dogs, settling old scores and starting new ones, but stiff schidt, it doesn't happen in my extended family and circle of friends, so I don't care,
I'm looking forward to my 4 weeks paid vacation, the taste of burned meat and cold beer at my annual Christmas Eve BBQ, the ridiculous tradition of a baked Christmas dinner cooked by my mother in law in 100 deg F(+) temps (or hail storms and massive flash flooding as we experienced on Christmas afternoon last year) and all the wrenching and riding I'll be doing over the Christmas period.
I couldn't care less about the gift giving and commercialisation of a religious event, blah blah blah, for me Christmas signifies the realisation that I've gotten thru another year intact, and I'm another year closer to retirement.
When I'm king of the world I'm gonna ban birthdays. Instead there'll be "Festivus" (stolen from an episode of Seinfeld) held in July every year, when everyone will celebrate their birthdays Christmas-style on a special paid public holiday. (lets face it, everyone takes a sick day on their birthday anyway, so there'll be no loss to productivity) Yeah, I know, so murderous families will get another crack at each other, but hey, that's life, and anyway, the sooner they sort themselves out, the better.
Oh, and after 35 years in the military, I hate camping, which is a bit of a concern for me, considering that I'll be sleeping in a tent for the next few weeks/months/years......... (except for Christmas)
