Remember the good old days?

[shaolin_monkey]

I miss old Christmases.
I think old Christmases were more fun, people seemed to embrace the sense of occasion more and accept the tacky, naff side. Christmas decorations just had to be colourful and could be home made. Now people want a colour scheme and the decorations have to fit in with some sense of interior design (ugh)!

My partner and I made our own decorations this year.  They looked pretty cool too, though her paper snowflakes were much better than mine.

I remember when Xmas used to be about carefully cajoling your parents into putting the telly on for either an Indiana Jones film or a Star Wars film.  Xmas has always been about Star Wars for me, 'cos those occasions were the only time you could see the films once they left the cinema.  This year has been like Xmas finally returning, what with The Force Awakens, and all the cool Star Wars toys I got from just about everyone!!!

[IndigoPrime]

We have a mini-person in the house now, and so I expect we'll next year be making decorations, or at least having ones that are less breakable.

[paddykafka]

local pubs on every street corner - in my old home town (Blackburn) and my current home (Hulme in manchester) virtually all the "locals" have gone - the smoking ban is one of the factors behind that.

Exactly the same has happened in the area of Dublin I live in. One after another, local pubs in the community have closed due to lack of customers, many of whom cited the Smoking Ban as their main reason for choosing to drink at home instead.

It's certainly why I rarely bother with pubs anymore. My social life was virtually non-existent in any case, so for me the decision was a very simple and logical one to take. If I'm going to be drinking alone anyway, why the hell would I bother going to a bar where I'm going to be forced back outside into the wind and rain if I want a ciggie, when I can drink and smoke in the comfort of my own little hovel? (But sure, I'm only a single, middle-aged oul fella and as I've learnt from experience, the likes of me don't really matter in this society. We never have and we never will).

[Prodigal2]

I miss old Christmases.
I think old Christmases were more fun, people seemed to embrace the sense of occasion more and accept the tacky, naff side. Christmas decorations just had to be colourful and could be home made.

Hmmm... sounds a wee bit like you just miss being a kid at Christmas, like everyone does.

This.

[TordelBack]

We have a mini-person in the house now, and so I expect we'll next year be making decorations, or at least having ones that are less breakable.

Making decorations with kids is great fun - we do paper chains (my favourite, the saggier the better), paper snowflakes and snowmen, wreath for the door and for some reason at least one Christmas pud made from a paper plate.  Add that to our tatty hoard of tinsel, ever-expanding tangle of lights, garish plastercasts and Star Wars/Disney tree ornaments and the place is like a maximalist anti-Ikea.  I love it.

This was the first year we didn't make the kids' main presents ourselves, and I dread the day we no longer deface the house with their creations too.

[Funt Solo]

...when you could find the original YouTube Gold thread so that you could post this: The Beach Boys sing "Hurt"

[M.I.K.]

...when you could find the original YouTube Gold thread so that you could post this: The Beach Boys sing "Hurt"

As much as I generally hate "A.I.", I can't quite bring myself to dislike Johnny Cash being brought back from the dead to cover Taylor Swift songs when it sounds like this.

[Hawkmumbler]

A burning ring of dire.

[Jim_Campbell]

A burning ring of dire.

*APPLAUSE*