Thank f**k that’s all over...

LuttiS

It's the junk that gets to me... Panic bought tat that you wouldn't normally go anywhere near. 
Mrs.L is usually awful for it.. she will panic buy for me crap that I just don't want or need that Is usually over priced too. 
This year I told her what I wanted and that she wasn't to get it for me until after Christmas as was for the new house and it would be cheaper in the sales. 

Come Christmas I got a pair of socks with dinosaurs on them.

Best Christmas morning ever. 

p90fool

We just spent three days in a cottage in Pembrokeshire, walking around nice villages and beaches. If you're playing the Christmas game wrong don't blame the capitalist money machine. 

terada

p90fool said:

We just spent three days in a cottage in Pembrokeshire, walking around nice villages and beaches. If you're playing the Christmas game wrong don't blame the capitalist money machine. 

Precisely. Currently with family sipping a red in front of a roaring open fire.

No way am I looking forward to this ending.

skunkwerx

I'm glad its done. 

In my game it means zero time with family. 

Granted, you get xmas day off, as your day off that week, but thats it.
The stores open til 11pm over most of December too instead of 10pm.. which is silly. Wouldnt mind so much if you got any anti social hours pay or summat, but nah, a flat £8.60 odd an hour.
To add insult to injury, you watch as the favourites never work past 6pm or have to work Sundays, for the same damn wage.. 

 Wank! 

You're not allowed to book holiday from Nov-Feb either  

That was my 10th xmas in retail.. 
Hopefully I'll be out of it soon.. 

I'd love to have time to enjoy it next year. 
Currently I feel drained, physically and emotionally. 
I think I really have had enough haha.. 

terada

skunkwerx said:

I'm glad its done. 

In my game it means zero time with family. 

Granted, you get xmas day off, as your day off that week, but thats it.
The stores open til 11pm over most of December too instead of 10pm.. which is silly. Wouldnt mind so much if you got any anti social hours pay or summat, but nah, a flat £8.60 odd an hour.
To add insult to injury, you watch as the favourites never work past 6pm or have to work Sundays, for the same damn wage.. 

 Wank! 

You're not allowed to book holiday from Nov-Feb either  

That was my 10th xmas in retail.. 
Hopefully I'll be out of it soon.. 

I'd love to have time to enjoy it next year. 
Currently I feel drained, physically and emotionally. 
I think I really have had enough haha.. 

That sounds properly tough mate. I used to have a similar thing but during the summer. Never could get time off in the summer, mega busy during that time, stupid hours, mates going for drinks in the evening sun while I was still slaving away. Trying to squeeze time with family where I could, but usually just not able to take part.

Then this year I decided I wasn't doing it anymore, decided I was spending too much time on my current employers needs and not enough on mine or my family's. I made a huge change in my life and walked away from it. It was not an easy thing to do, in fact it was bloody scary, but this year I had my first summer since being a teenager, and it was absolutely glorious.

Really hope that you get to enjoy the same for winter some time soon. It's truly liberating.

skunkwerx

terada said:

skunkwerx said:

I'm glad its done. 

In my game it means zero time with family. 

Granted, you get xmas day off, as your day off that week, but thats it.
The stores open til 11pm over most of December too instead of 10pm.. which is silly. Wouldnt mind so much if you got any anti social hours pay or summat, but nah, a flat £8.60 odd an hour.
To add insult to injury, you watch as the favourites never work past 6pm or have to work Sundays, for the same damn wage.. 

 Wank! 

You're not allowed to book holiday from Nov-Feb either  

That was my 10th xmas in retail.. 
Hopefully I'll be out of it soon.. 

I'd love to have time to enjoy it next year. 
Currently I feel drained, physically and emotionally. 
I think I really have had enough haha.. 

That sounds properly tough mate. I used to have a similar thing but during the summer. Never could get time off in the summer, mega busy during that time, stupid hours, mates going for drinks in the evening sun while I was still slaving away. Trying to squeeze time with family where I could, but usually just not able to take part.

Then this year I decided I wasn't doing it anymore, decided I was spending too much time on my current employers needs and not enough on mine or my family's. I made a huge change in my life and walked away from it. It was not an easy thing to do, in fact it was bloody scary, but this year I had my first summer since being a teenager, and it was absolutely glorious.

Really hope that you get to enjoy the same for winter some time soon. It's truly liberating.

Its one of those things I guess I got used to as it came with the territory, I just sucked it up and got on with it.. but when I was 20 I didnt care so much... now I'm 30 and realised I havent seen or done anything with the family I live with at all this month + the general pitfalls and shit retail gives.. I'm starting to feel differently. 

My parents are getting on now and I dont want to remember never being able to see them because of a shit job! 

Once the hours settle next week I'll be on looking for further pastures..  

This year!! Its gotta be done. 

57Deluxe

just got home 1.00pm cold foggy morning, after two days with my Mother. I once again have reminded myself why I left home at 22 and saw burdening myself with a mortgage and free-spending girlfriend a better option...

schrodinger1612

skunkwerx said:

terada said:

skunkwerx said:

I'm glad its done. 

In my game it means zero time with family. 

Granted, you get xmas day off, as your day off that week, but thats it.
The stores open til 11pm over most of December too instead of 10pm.. which is silly. Wouldnt mind so much if you got any anti social hours pay or summat, but nah, a flat £8.60 odd an hour.
To add insult to injury, you watch as the favourites never work past 6pm or have to work Sundays, for the same damn wage.. 

 Wank! 

You're not allowed to book holiday from Nov-Feb either  

That was my 10th xmas in retail.. 
Hopefully I'll be out of it soon.. 

I'd love to have time to enjoy it next year. 
Currently I feel drained, physically and emotionally. 
I think I really have had enough haha.. 

That sounds properly tough mate. I used to have a similar thing but during the summer. Never could get time off in the summer, mega busy during that time, stupid hours, mates going for drinks in the evening sun while I was still slaving away. Trying to squeeze time with family where I could, but usually just not able to take part.

Then this year I decided I wasn't doing it anymore, decided I was spending too much time on my current employers needs and not enough on mine or my family's. I made a huge change in my life and walked away from it. It was not an easy thing to do, in fact it was bloody scary, but this year I had my first summer since being a teenager, and it was absolutely glorious.

Really hope that you get to enjoy the same for winter some time soon. It's truly liberating

Once the hours settle next week I'll be on looking for further pastures..  

This year!! Its gotta be done. 

Do it mate, I was in retail for two years before going self employed a few years ago and I’m still recovering from the chronic fatigue and depression that it brought about. I worked for Morrison’s...horrid company.

Kilgore

Most of it is bollocks .The rampant spending, stress, hard work, etc, etc.

Whether you find any deeper meaning is down to the individual. It makes me pause and realise how grateful I am for what I have in my life. Something that it is all to easy to forget about at times.
 Then again I can be a sentimental old fool at the best of times.

Oh, and the answer is Quality Street. Roses, Heroes, etc are crap.

joneve

Was our first proper Christmas with our little boy, who just so happens to have his birthday on Christmas Day (he's basically Jesus), so I had a fucking GREAT time. 

munckee

joneve said:

Was our first proper Christmas with our little boy, who just so happens to have his birthday on Christmas Day (he's basically Jesus), so I had a fucking GREAT time. 

Should have said chief I would have brought some myrrh. 

gubble

It was my wife's first Christmas Day off in 5 years (glad she changed jobs in 2018). Christmas morning was just the two of us, took the dog for a walk, made the lunch together. That was the best bit.

Some family came over for lunch and to exchange presents - was quite nice really.

Boxing day did a 150 mile journey to pick up my daughter, my dad and sister came over. Spent yesterday evening having to unblock to the toilet after one of them dropped off a yule log  - that was the worst part.

Now back at my desk in the office like it all never happened.

Fretwired

Emp_Fab said:

Bloody Christmas bollocks.

Same old shit every year.  WTF is it?  A celebration of the birth of Jesus? A celebration of trees, coloured lights, capitalism, alcohol?  What?  Domestic violence peaks, suicides peak, people get up to their eyes in debt buying stuff that the recipients probably wouldn’t have bought for themselves anyway.

I agree it’s magical for kids, but for grown ups (curmudgeonly, greying old bastards), it’s bollocks.

Bah Humbug.  

Walks in .. reads .. another depressing thread from the Emperor .. rant, rage, rant, rage - what's the point?

I'm an old grey bastard but I like Christmas .. spend the time with family .. drink too much .. play silly games. Got my son, grandson and his other half coming over for lunch today .. no clients on the phone .. no Brexit crap .. nice long holiday until 7 January ..

You're a humbug ....

EricTheWeary

skunkwerx said:

I'm glad its done. 

In my game it means zero time with family. 

Granted, you get xmas day off, as your day off that week, but thats it.
The stores open til 11pm over most of December too instead of 10pm.. which is silly. Wouldnt mind so much if you got any anti social hours pay or summat, but nah, a flat £8.60 odd an hour.
To add insult to injury, you watch as the favourites never work past 6pm or have to work Sundays, for the same damn wage.. 

 Wank! 

You're not allowed to book holiday from Nov-Feb either  

That was my 10th xmas in retail.. 
Hopefully I'll be out of it soon.. 

I'd love to have time to enjoy it next year. 
Currently I feel drained, physically and emotionally. 
I think I really have had enough haha.. 

It’s another thing to blame the Tory’s for - change of trading hours in the 90s begat Boxing Day sales. Although no bus services for poorly paid retail staff to get to work because they also deregulated the busses. 

There is much about the celebration of Christmas that I don’t like but I’ve had some time with MrsTheWeary and the kids and with my 91 year old mother ( and her carer, so I’ve been learning about Christmas in Zimbabwe - goat meat mostly). And we get Boxing Day ( since 1974, Labour brought that in) so it’s a two day public holiday which not everyone around the world gets. 
If I can ignore 99% of the build up it’s perfectly nice. 

deano

I split my attitude to Christmas based on my faith. As a Christian I approach Christmas as that time of year when we, as a Church, celebrate the birth of Christ. So I attend the Nine Lessons and Carols and this year I was serving at Midnight Mass so didn't go to the Christmas Day service.

Then there is the consumerist festival. The excesses of gift-giving, booze, food and TV. I, like most men, hate it for the most part. It really is for women and kids. The kids love it because they get gifts and get to watch tons of TV and so on. Women like to ensure it is "perfect", so feel they need to do thousands of jobs just so the damned day is "special". It can take it or leave it to be honest. I certainly wouldn't feel the need to do a "big hoover" on Christmas Eve!

A few years ago there was an uproar when one of the city councils (I think it was Birmingham) wanted to rename Christmas to Winterval. The newspapers were screaming about political correctness gone mad, you know the kind of thing. I remember thinking it was fine. Great. Rename the celebration of consumerism be renamed to Winterval. It wouldn't affect me in the slightest because I will be in Church celebrating Christ's Mass (Christmas - geddit!!!). If they renamed the consumerism as Winterval we could reclaim the word Christmas for its original meaning.

Anyway, I enjoy the Churchy-bit and get hacked off with the spendy-bit.

Legionreturns

I had horrid Christmases as a kid, as it took my parents 10 years too long to split up, and caused abject misery for the rest of us by spending a week arguing. As a result, my brain does not look forward to it and I'm a mess by the time we get there. Loath it, and if I had my way I'd spend it on a mountain, in a tent. 

Fretwired

deano said:

I split my attitude to Christmas based on my faith. As a Christian I approach Christmas as that time of year when we, as a Church, celebrate the birth of Christ. So I attend the Nine Lessons and Carols and this year I was serving at Midnight Mass so didn't go to the Christmas Day service.

Then there is the consumerist festival. The excesses of gift-giving, booze, food and TV. I, like most men, hate it for the most part. It really is for women and kids. The kids love it because they get gifts and get to watch tons of TV and so on. Women like to ensure it is "perfect", so feel they need to do thousands of jobs just so the damned day is "special". It can take it or leave it to be honest. I certainly wouldn't feel the need to do a "big hoover" on Christmas Eve!

A few years ago there was an uproar when one of the city councils (I think it was Birmingham) wanted to rename Christmas to Winterval. The newspapers were screaming about political correctness gone mad, you know the kind of thing. I remember thinking it was fine. Great. Rename the celebration of consumerism be renamed to Winterval. It wouldn't affect me in the slightest because I will be in Church celebrating Christ's Mass (Christmas - geddit!!!). If they renamed the consumerism as Winterval we could reclaim the word Christmas for its original meaning.

Anyway, I enjoy the Churchy-bit and get hacked off with the spendy-bit.

Fake news .. never happened.

In 1997 Mike Chubb was working for Birmingham city council during the rejuvenation of the city centre. As the council's head of events he and his team were charged with creating a marketing strategy to cover:

    "41 days and nights of activity that ranged from BBC Children in Need, to the Christmas Lights Switch On, to a Frankfurt Christmas Market, outdoor ice rink, Aston Hall by Candlelight, Diwali, shopping at Christmas, world class theatre and arts plus, of course, New Year's Eve with its massive 100,000 audience."

Chubb realised that with so many events competing for visitors, marketing them as individual occasions would be expensive, time-consuming and ineffective in acquiring sponsorship or funding. What the events needed, he decided, was a "generic banner under which they could all sit". His team settled on "Winterval" – a portmanteau of "winter" and "festival".

Little did he or anyone else on the events team realise that this name was to found one of the most persistent urban myths of modern times, and that years later he would be writing an article explaining – again – what the event was and how it was never about renaming or banning Christmas.

How this happened makes for a fascinating story about the causes of bad journalism, the messages of irresponsible and paranoid church leaders, and badly informed, popularity-seeking politicians looking for a tabloid-friendly soundbite. The bad journalism started with the local newspaper that broke the "story" of Winterval on 8 November 1998 and travelled quickly through the national media. What is worrying is that the original story was so clearly completely untrue and contained clear statements from the council that demonstrated this.

To make things worse, it was not a myth copied and perpetuated solely by the tabloids; the broadsheets were equally responsible for repeating it, and perhaps did more to legitimise it than the tabloids. The Sunday Times, for instance, used the myth as a question and answer in three quizzes, twice in 1998 and then again in 2000.

Between them, the Times and the Sunday Times have in fact managed to repeat the myth 40 times in total since 1998, an achievement only surpassed by the Daily Mail, which leads the field with 44 mentions. The Daily Telegraph managed to repeat it 22 times, only slightly behind the Express (26), and a bit further behind the Sun (31). The Daily Mirror only seems to have repeated the myth on four occasions – less than the Guardian, which has repeated it on six occasions, even though it did eventually debunk the myth in several different articles.

The myth was not just repeated, either. It was also gradually distorted to become ever more removed from the original misconception. What started as a myth that one council had rebranded or renamed Christmas became a pluralised, open-ended narrative that "councils" and "authorities" were rebranding or renaming Christmas as "Winterval".

It then mutated from a simple rebranding to a calculated attack on Christianity by "atheists", "Muslims", or the "PC brigade" who feared offending "other faiths" or "ethnic minorities". In one extreme example, the South Wales Echo claimed that Winterval was the result of "virulent attacks on religion by atheists", which had led to "new rules such as Christmas being renamed as "Winterval". Who created and enforced this "rule" and who it applied to was not explained in the article.

In all, at least 15 articles directly claim that Christmas was renamed Winterval because of a fear of offending "other faiths". At least a further 10 articles directly claim that Winterval was used to avoid offending "ethnic minorities".

deano

Fretwired said:

deano said:

I split my attitude to Christmas based on my faith. As a Christian I approach Christmas as that time of year when we, as a Church, celebrate the birth of Christ. So I attend the Nine Lessons and Carols and this year I was serving at Midnight Mass so didn't go to the Christmas Day service.

Then there is the consumerist festival. The excesses of gift-giving, booze, food and TV. I, like most men, hate it for the most part. It really is for women and kids. The kids love it because they get gifts and get to watch tons of TV and so on. Women like to ensure it is "perfect", so feel they need to do thousands of jobs just so the damned day is "special". It can take it or leave it to be honest. I certainly wouldn't feel the need to do a "big hoover" on Christmas Eve!

A few years ago there was an uproar when one of the city councils (I think it was Birmingham) wanted to rename Christmas to Winterval. The newspapers were screaming about political correctness gone mad, you know the kind of thing. I remember thinking it was fine. Great. Rename the celebration of consumerism be renamed to Winterval. It wouldn't affect me in the slightest because I will be in Church celebrating Christ's Mass (Christmas - geddit!!!). If they renamed the consumerism as Winterval we could reclaim the word Christmas for its original meaning.

Anyway, I enjoy the Churchy-bit and get hacked off with the spendy-bit.

Fake news .. never happened.

In 1997 Mike Chubb was working for Birmingham city council during the rejuvenation of the city centre. As the council's head of events he and his team were charged with creating a marketing strategy to cover:

    "41 days and nights of activity that ranged from BBC Children in Need, to the Christmas Lights Switch On, to a Frankfurt Christmas Market, outdoor ice rink, Aston Hall by Candlelight, Diwali, shopping at Christmas, world class theatre and arts plus, of course, New Year's Eve with its massive 100,000 audience."

Chubb realised that with so many events competing for visitors, marketing them as individual occasions would be expensive, time-consuming and ineffective in acquiring sponsorship or funding. What the events needed, he decided, was a "generic banner under which they could all sit". His team settled on "Winterval" – a portmanteau of "winter" and "festival".

Little did he or anyone else on the events team realise that this name was to found one of the most persistent urban myths of modern times, and that years later he would be writing an article explaining – again – what the event was and how it was never about renaming or banning Christmas.

How this happened makes for a fascinating story about the causes of bad journalism, the messages of irresponsible and paranoid church leaders, and badly informed, popularity-seeking politicians looking for a tabloid-friendly soundbite. The bad journalism started with the local newspaper that broke the "story" of Winterval on 8 November 1998 and travelled quickly through the national media. What is worrying is that the original story was so clearly completely untrue and contained clear statements from the council that demonstrated this.

To make things worse, it was not a myth copied and perpetuated solely by the tabloids; the broadsheets were equally responsible for repeating it, and perhaps did more to legitimise it than the tabloids. The Sunday Times, for instance, used the myth as a question and answer in three quizzes, twice in 1998 and then again in 2000.

Between them, the Times and the Sunday Times have in fact managed to repeat the myth 40 times in total since 1998, an achievement only surpassed by the Daily Mail, which leads the field with 44 mentions. The Daily Telegraph managed to repeat it 22 times, only slightly behind the Express (26), and a bit further behind the Sun (31). The Daily Mirror only seems to have repeated the myth on four occasions – less than the Guardian, which has repeated it on six occasions, even though it did eventually debunk the myth in several different articles.

The myth was not just repeated, either. It was also gradually distorted to become ever more removed from the original misconception. What started as a myth that one council had rebranded or renamed Christmas became a pluralised, open-ended narrative that "councils" and "authorities" were rebranding or renaming Christmas as "Winterval".

It then mutated from a simple rebranding to a calculated attack on Christianity by "atheists", "Muslims", or the "PC brigade" who feared offending "other faiths" or "ethnic minorities". In one extreme example, the South Wales Echo claimed that Winterval was the result of "virulent attacks on religion by atheists", which had led to "new rules such as Christmas being renamed as "Winterval". Who created and enforced this "rule" and who it applied to was not explained in the article.

In all, at least 15 articles directly claim that Christmas was renamed Winterval because of a fear of offending "other faiths". At least a further 10 articles directly claim that Winterval was used to avoid offending "ethnic minorities".

That's it. I remember the outrage but I didn't take any notice of the details because I didn't care.

All I'm saying is that it isn't the worst idea in the world!

Fretwired

deano said:

That's it. I remember the outrage but I didn't take any notice of the details because I didn't care.

All I'm saying is that it isn't the worst idea in the world!

Agree ... ;-)

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/146095/contentious-issue-thread-time-to-scrap-christmas-and-go-back-to-the-winter-solstice/p1

deano

Fretwired said:

deano said:

That's it. I remember the outrage but I didn't take any notice of the details because I didn't care.

All I'm saying is that it isn't the worst idea in the world!

Agree ... ;-)

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/146095/contentious-issue-thread-time-to-scrap-christmas-and-go-back-to-the-winter-solstice/p1

Fine, Winter Solstice, Winterval whatever. We will keep Christmas in Church, and the secular, consumerist festival can be called the Winter Solstice. If there is a division then nobody will be confused. We will have...

The Winter Solstice Radio Times
Winter Solstice opening hours
Winter Solstice decorations

and so on.

We will only have Christmas Day in Church, where we will celebrate Christ's Mass. Everyone else can have Winter Solstice day.

I'm all for it.