Our Bronze Serpents must be destroyed.

[Marc]

Or, buy everything online. One person gets one gift if I can find a good gift for them.

Usually from: http://www.thinkgeek.com/index.shtml

Please tell me this book found its way into at least one family member's stocking this year.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/books/humor/b6a9/

[Satori]

Or, buy everything online. One person gets one gift if I can find a good gift for them.

Usually from: http://www.thinkgeek.com/index.shtml

Please tell me this book found its way into at least one family member's stocking this year.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/books/humor/b6a9/

Rosarium probably bought it for himself.

[Historian]

Or, buy everything online. One person gets one gift if I can find a good gift for them.

Usually from: http://www.thinkgeek.com/index.shtml

Please tell me this book found its way into at least one family member's stocking this year.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/books/humor/b6a9/

Ha. No, I bought very little actually (I gave one gift this year, and I didn't buy it from there). I have no money to spare on myself. Maybe next year.

[SoCalLocal]

It isn't a Bronze Serpent if other people are doing it. It must be worshiped by the Faithful. What exactly are the Faithful doing wrong?

Are we Catholics not trapped in the same cycle of Christmas ritual that our secular cohorts are trapped in?  The shopping?  The fake sentimentality?  The cheery music that doesn't mean anything anymore?

Hasn't the worship of Christmas consumerism swept over us Catholics, too? 

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

I'm with you on this. The obligation to buy stuff for everyone. Hallmark putting the commemorative ornaments out in JULY. "Holiday Baking." Red and green everything, including M&Ms.  Decorating your yard with wire reindeer festooned with lights. Giant inflatable smowmen. Enormous wreaths. 4' candy canes built as a fence. How come no one makes one of those giant inflatable yard decorations of a Nativity Scene? I'd buy one.

I'm tired of Advent disappearing. Two years ago I hung blue lights on the house until Christmas Eve, when we got let out of work early, and I hung multicolored lights and left them up through the whole official Season. I doubt anyone noticed, but the lights were dirt cheap and I only used one strand of each. This year I didn't bother with the lights. (Yes, I know purple is the "real" color, but blue seems to be common too and they didn't have solid purple lights at the store I was in.)

The music is another peeve. Santa Baby, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, Silver Bells, White Christmas - all those songs that play in an endless loop everywhere you go. They have nothing at all to do with Jesus!

So many people I know are just sick of the hype. What we need is the Pope to write about commercialization and secularization of Christmas, and call for a boycott of some sort to promote Advent as a season of preparation. THAT would get the media's attention. And a whole lot of people, who are otherwise anti-Catholic, to say, "Yeah! I'm sick of it, too!" Parishes and Religious Orders also need to stop sending Christmas Cards out in early November.

[Arun]

how about this, yoyo. free knife wounds stabbings free stabbings sharp blade free stabs free enforced haemophilia free slashing free cuts.
for your spam-in-a-can self.
i'm talking to a robot.

[Historian]

i'm talking to a robot.

And since I deleted its posts, you look like you're completely off your rocker.  :laughing:

[Arun]

hehehe so it does. oh, well.

[Orville_B_Croft]

You know what--forget it.  I'm an idiot.  Just absolutely stupid.  Move on with something else, please.

:laughing:

[JacafamalaRedux]

It seems the biggest gripe people have with Christmas is the stress of shopping. One word: SIMPLIFY. Buy less. Go to ONE store to purchase your gifts and get it done in ONE night. It's possible. You just have to sit down and make a plan. Create an annual "theme" and stick to it. Give gift certificates to a restaurant that everybody likes, etc..

Or, buy everything online. One person gets one gift if I can find a good gift for them.

Usually from: http://www.thinkgeek.com/index.shtml

I neeeed this!
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/...Tauntaun_3

[Arun]

a good idea for gifts, I have always thought, is for the giver to perform a service for the givee.