What is so special about Christmas

You get presents.

Good point, only problem with that is receiving and not giving is frowned upon and Christmas shopping this year has not been fun either and I haven't even started the horrible job of wrapping.

Have you done any more shopping?

You get time off work and are actually expected to come in with a hangover if you do end up working.

(Well at least at my workplace you do...)

Well my Mum is very religious so obviously growing up it was very much to do with Church. We are also all busy (mostly amateur) musicians and it's definitely the busiest time of year for that!

For me now, as a non-believer, I've hung on to alot of the non-religious family traditions that my parents built up. My youngest brother is 14 but has special needs and still believes in it all totally and it's really magical seeing him at Christmas. If we were all 'sensible grown ups' I suppose it would just be a great time to get together as a family and eat and drink nice stuff. There are 5 of us kids and we mostly have partners & busy lives so it's only really Christmas and weddings that we all see each other at the same time!

Nope. Two bits from Amazon. One's from my dad.

I'm over giving but will happy take, take, take!

It's having the time off I think, time to spend with the family which is a rarity these days.

It's a rare chance to get whole families together because we all get a holiday at the same time. If it wasn't for holidays like Christmas and Easter I'd barely see my sister.

I'm not Christian, so for me the joy of Christmas has always been getting everyone together, relaxing and thinking about the year that has gone and the one to come. Presents just make it extra nice.

It's the day I was born

I'm an atheist but I love Christmas. Although it's not my festival from a religious pov, it is very much mine from a cultural pov and therefore has a great deal of meaning for me. I love it as a time to be with family, I love all the traditions, I love giving presents (and quite like getting them). I love the food ?

I love Christmas. I love decorating the tree (so much that I have 3 this year - MrK was not amused ?), wrapping the presents, ordering the turkey, etc. This year we collected one of the trees from the village as pretty much every house puts a tree outside - the atmosphere was amazing, lots of laughing and children playing in the streets whilst their parents picked the tree they wanted.

I'm looking forward to getting the turkey on Tuesday as the butcher has said there will be lots of queues but they're supplying everyone with tea, coffee and mince pies whilst they wait.

I'm looking forward to Christmas Eve as we will spend it in our local pub and we've made lots of friends here already and the atmosphere on Carnival day was fantastic and apparently it's even better on Christmas Eve as everyone has a bit of a singalong with the carols and they serve mulled wine and mince pies.

Christmas Day is always fun - bucks fizz and eggs benedict for breakfast, then open presents, then this year we will go to the pub for an hour or two, come back and have dinner and then in the evening we'll just relax.

I suppose really I've never let the magic of Christmas go (much to MrKs annoyance ?) and even though I can't enjoy it in the same way I did as a child, I still make a huge fuss out of Christmas, especially now we live in a village that appears to be stuck in a Christmas film ?

3 months of enforced jolly build up, all for one failry unremarkable day.

I think calling it a family time is a bit of a misnomer for me as mine are spread all over the place so rarely all together for Christmas. In fact thinking about it, the last time we were all together was for my Aunt's surprise birthday party in the summer and I really really looked forward to that.

I guess this year's grinch is being compounded by the fact that MrPod is working nights both Christmas Eve and Christmas night.

Chook 2 or 1 is better than none?

As everyone else has said, it's one of the only times we get to see the people we want to see as most of us are so busy normally.

I love the atmosphere, presents (giving and receiving, I can't wait for my H to open his presents), the food and all of our little traditions. It's exciting going into the forest to choose our tree and breathing in the freezing cold air and falling down a lot and winding up covered in pine needles. It's funny putting up the tree and watching two of our cats play with tinsel and Beep the Christmas Grinch sitting in the corner glowering until we dump her into the tinsel box. It's also fun watching our cats get as excited as we do on christmas morning as they love ripping up the paper and climbing into the boxes. It's also an excuse to eat food we very rarely allow ourselves to eat with trying to be healthy.

More seriously, I had awful Christmas' growing up and it had got to the point where I hated them until I met my H. The good feeling and happiness I found spending Christmas with him and his family made me realise what all the fuss was about. The idea of being together and relaxed and happy with no one having to rush off, as twee as it sounds.

We get time to spend with the family. We eat lots of yummy food. Give gifts to people. Yes it sounds sickening but i love choosing gifts for other people. Watch heart warming films. Seeing my children happy.

I hate wrapping presents and I am also ham-fisted at it. There's a charity stall in Princes Square in Glasgow and I take bags of presents there on the 23rd, leave them for an hour or two while I go for lunch/shopping/waxing and then pick them up all beautifully wrapped.

I do generally like Christmas, but not so much for the family get-together aspect as we're a close family who have have dinner together at least once a week, but because of nostalgic reasons. of course, with happy nostalgia comes sad nostalgia, and there are two significant anniversaries of deaths which fall over the Christmas period, which makes for the occasional teary moment. I have no idea how I'm going to be on Thursday- probably fine, but I am feeling VERY weird atm and a bit hormonal. Tbh, I am just looking forward to catching up on sleep, lazing around with my darling pugs (resplendent in elf / fairy princess costumes) and avoiding this awful weather as much as possible until it's time for me to go back to work on the 6th. Also, I was supposed to be going on a buddhist retreat for a few days to chill out but i've had to cancel for various house-related reasons and I am very cross. Bah fu cking humbug. ?

It's my birthday too - which is good and bad because birthday specialness is lost in other people having presents and a lovely time too, how very dare they ?

I don't know, I'm normally madly excited about Christmas for various reasons - being with family, making an extra effort to see friends, chosing presents I think people will love - dammit, I usually even love wrapping them. This year I'm totally over it though. It's been a busy, non-stop year; we've just moved so the house is in a total state meaning I can't relax there without feeling I should be organising shelves etc, my granny has been rushed to hospital and probably won't be out before Christmas so we'll probably be there visiting on Christmas day, family is spread all over so we'll be rushing from one place to the other, dad and brother are being exceptionally selfish about their plans and upsetting my mum.... I just can't face it this year.

Bah humbug indeed!

I adore it! I don't get worked up into a frenzy 3 months before or anything like that-I am fairly chilled and last minute. I rarely work over it and make sure I book my leave early. This year, I am off from today until the 29th. Working 3 days that week-don't work NYE-even if I don't go anywhere. We have hired a converted mill in Hebden Bridge and today as I have been packing in readiness for our journey tomorrow morn, I am buzzing with excitement and anticipation.

Generally, I love being off work, catching up time with family and friends (in addition to that throughout the year) the nostalgia of Christmas past and gone, giving and receiving presents, eating rich, warming and indulgent foods, watching heaps of dvd's and crap tv (the only time I ever do)brisk walks, cheating at boardgames, being inside drinking wine during the day when it's cold outside.....so many things.

I think for me, the question is what's not to like about it?