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So Christmas is coming up, in fact Advent is next sunday (in case you're not a christian or know about christian custom it basically marks the beginning of christmas for the church). So what does christmas actually mean for you? Do you celebrate it, how? (are you Christian/Catholic? i know quite a lot of non-christians celebrate it just because they've become acustomed to it). Do you go to christmas parties? Do your family congregate for christmas? I'm sure everyone has an individual approach and view to Chistmas so share it with us

Christmas for me, as a catholic, means that we have to go church midnight mass on christmas eve/christmas day and also as an alter server i do various stuff on the night. Then when we come home we'll pretty much go to sleep, then wake up Late Christmas Morning (10/11) then start cooking the Christmas Dinner. Which we would eat at about 4pm. Christmas also marks a time were the 5 members of my close family come back together, as my brother is at uni in Sheffield and generally the rest of us are quite busy in London. Then on Boxing Day i have to go back to church and after which i will go to some friends houses just to visit them, come home and open all the presents .

What are your views on Christmas.....

I'm not christian, so xmas doesn't have a religious meaning for me. I know that it's actually a christian event, but you can't really say that anymore.

For me christmas means being together with my family. It means getting presents, but also giving them. I like it . It's also really close to newyear, so you can call it "the event" of the year. And there's also snow then, so that's another reason for looking forward to it.

yes i agree christmas isn't really relegious anymore, it's a lot more commercial and for me certainly the first real break i get since hte start of term to just chill out and have fun.

we usually dont get white christmasses, we get snow in febuary

Same as Evil. My family is christian and does all the religious stuff, but i'm not a christian, so I just stay out of it. I am, however, always up from presents.

lol you make it sound as if i don't just cause i actually open them on boxing day lol

To me, christmas is not really special...

I like the weeks between 18 November and 5 December. Then we have something called Sinterklaas. Read about it here...[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas]Sinterklaas[/url]

My family still celebrates it every year, because it is something essential for the Dutch culture. And yes, I also believed in that ''Sinterklaas can live forever'' stuff.

Anyway, christmas is not important to me, but it is for some other people here, and it is really being exploited here in the Netherlands.And we normaly have temperatures of around 5/10°C at this time of the year, but it actually is 18°C...(no white Sinterklaas this year.... )

"Sinterklaas"... that's interresting. Sounds like "Santaclause", and over here we have something like that on the 6th december called "Samiklaus" or "St. Nikolaus". So it's also some kind of saint.

You can find so many paralels in traditions and also in old stories / legends... It's really interresting imo

It actually is related.
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas]Saint Nicholas[/url]

it's all very similar imo. you still do the present thing there's still the whole Santa Clause and its still a time to be happy

I'm getting a bit sick of this. A lot of celebrations, shopping, hystery in the end... I got sicker with this years ago .. I long for a nice Xmas, not this over-hyped event. But it's nice when you're with the ones you love