Christmas traditions that are awesome

3. Spending Christmas Eve working on some writing project or other while listening to commercial-free Christmas radio, ever since I was a wee teen. I always end up creatively inspired on Christmas Eve (at least partly now that it’s become a habit) and the music’s a big (but importantly temporary) part of that.

5. Playing Christmas Lemmings (http://noisetosignal.org/2008/12/my-month-with-christmas-lemmings)

7. Watching/reading A Christmas Carol.

I don’t care how many times I’ve seen various Christmas Carol films OR read Dickens’s story (which I still love and next week I AM going to read it again) IMO it can never be enough. I can’t wait for Zemeckis’s Beowulf-style mocap version that’s out next year. Jim Carrey as Scrooge, Gary Oldman as Bob Cratchitt, Colin Firth as Fred (Scrooge’s nephew), Bob Hoskins as Fezziwig. Could it be the definitive version? Er no, probably not. The Alistair Simm version is the closest we’ll ever get, and that’s certainly not perfect, but yes still the best. Apart from the Muppet Christmas Carol, of course. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KBthi_An5qQ

9. Movie/TV marathons – select the TV or movie series of your choice and watch for an unfeasible number of hours whilst consuming vast quantities of food and alcohol, until a) you fall asleep, or b) your brain melts.

11. The Muppet Christmas Carol. Followed by the pub.

13. Watching SingingPotato1979 watch The Snowman followed by watching SingingPotato1979 watch It’s a Wonderful Life on Xmas Eve.

15. Bill Murray in Scrooged. On DVD. Every year.

21. Christmas Case Swap. That’s where a bunch of brewers go to someone’s house (usually the person is aware of this) with a case of their beer, and then everyone swaps so they walk away with a bottle of everyone else’s. Essentially everyone has a great time getting drunk and talking about beer. At this year’s swap there was 14 beer taps hooked up :)

23. The Christmas lights around the G+T header pic.

(16. Home Alone
17. Home Alone 2
18. Die Hard
19. Die Hard 2)

> watching the League of Gentlemen Christmas Special.

This. Can’t wait for Mark Gatiss’s Crooked House ghost story this year.

Frank Cross: I am going to hunt down that shark, or whatever it is, and, hopefully, kill it. I’m not sure how, yet…maybe dynamite.

That’s never stopped you before… :oP

> That?s never stopped you before? :oP

I resent that accurate statement!

I ordered something from HMV on November 30th. It still hasn’t arrived.

23. Telling yourself you’ll watch the Xmas lectures. 23a – Giving up after you miss the first couple after oversleeping.

26. Decorating potted plants with christmas decoration.

25. All I Want For Christmas Is You

Which gives me yet another excuse to link to one of my favourite music videos ever (which is fast becoming my own Christmas tradition):

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pA8UHeoYHQM

Take your fucking sappy Christmas “home video” and fuck off. Why the hell they didn’t use this one everywhere instead is an utter mystery.

Which gives me yet another excuse to link to one of my favourite music videos ever (which is fast becoming my own Christmas tradition):

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pA8UHeoYHQM

Ha, ha! That’s great. I particularly liked the outrageous dancing girls in the background. Look at ’em go!

I can never understand them putting on Christmas Carol adaptations after Christmas Eve. Same with stuff featuring Santa.

27. Trying not to read any discussion about certain christmas specials I’ll have to miss out on

31. Karl getting the sequence wrong

33? Stuffing, ham, nice fluffy dinner rolls, au gratin potatoes, and that nice cream cheese and salsa dip that tastes so good with tortilla chips. (And probably some kind of cheesecake, this year.) And leftovers for days…

34. Enjoying a big Christmas dump.

35. Listening to this.