Home-Country Ghosts of Christmas Past: Do you miss them?

[GammaGlobulin]

Dear Folks,

 

In case you haven’t returned to your Home Country in awhile, say about over three decades, then how do you imagine Christmas festivities have changed back in your Home Country, since your last visit.

 

I do have vivid memories of the Christmas Holiday during the 60s and 70s, when I was last in the USA. Living in my Asian Bubble, I have been duly insulated from exposure to the gradual changes in my Home Country’s Christmas habits which have doubtlessly occurred during my absence. Would I be shocked to suddenly return, like a half-Asian Santa to find just too many distortions to the once more-refined way we once passed the Christmas Holidays, with family time, good cheer, and a home-cooked dinner, provided by our maid, Eliza, from North Philly. I remember her for being quite stout, and for her one glass eye.

 

I never did enjoy Christmas very much when I was living in my Home Country. I have never celebrated Christmas in Asia, either, since I first arrived.

 

Does anyone know how Christmas might have changed since I was last in the USA, or the UK, for that matter?  I would love to know.  YouTube vids of holidaymakers just cannot do justice to the experience, and are a poor substitute for being there.

 

So, that’s the question I pose this day, three days before this annual coming-together of people of all faiths.

 

And now, let me tell you what I will be doing on Christmas Eve….

 

Sommerset has always been one of my favorite authors.

Maybe it’s because Asia was a favorite subject for Maugham.

 

And I have just found a free Christmas Story written by William, on Google, my favorite resource for all things good and holy.

 

This story is: Christmas Holiday

 

The story begins like this:

 

 

You can read at least part of it for free, right here, using this link, I think.

https://www.google.co.th/books/edition/Christmas_Holiday/wdwXEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

 

This is my Christmas Gift to you….

 

Please don’t say I never gave you nothin’.....

 

Best regards,

Ho’ Ho’

Gamma

 

 

[Ralf001]

1 minute ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

 

In case you haven’t returned to your Home Country in awhile, , then how do you imagine Christmas festivities have changed back in your Home Country, since your last visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nope I do not imagine, family and friends keep their facebook profiles well updated as to their respective xmas activities.

[KannikaP]

Wow, now it's Ghosts, after Refined Falangs 3 hours ago and Flaunting Wealth yesterday morning, as well as several others.

Gamma, you joined as this name in July 2021, 42 moths ago. Since then you have posted 12667 times, which in my maths is 301 per month or TEN EVERY DAY.

What do you do the rest of your time?

[GammaGlobulin]

2 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Wow, now it's Ghosts, after Refined Falangs 3 hours ago and Flaunting Wealth yesterday morning, as well as several others.

Gamma, you joined as this name in July 2021, 42 moths ago. Since then you have posted 12667 times, which in my maths is 301 per month or TEN EVERY DAY.

What do you do the rest of your time?

 

I have always, since my early youth, been known for my prolificacy.

 

[KannikaP]

56 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

I have always, since my early youth, been known for my prolificacy.

 

Prolificacy means lots of bull<deleted>?

[scottiejohn]

35 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

I have always, since my early youth, been known for my prolificacy.

 

What a Victorian era Trollope you are proving to be, but not very successfully unfortunately!

[GammaGlobulin]

16 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

What a Victorian era Trollope you are proving to be, but not very successfully unfortunately!

 

This book was also one of my favorites, about a famous imaginary trollop.

 

It is beautifully written.

I have enjoyed it many times in my youth.

 

I have not read Trollope.

Although, I may yet become a writer of Trollope's stature....IF...

I just put in a bit more practice...

On TV.

 

 

 

 

[herfiehandbag]

1 hour ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

I have always, since my early youth, been known for my prolificacy.

 

You mean you "put it about a bit"?

[metisdead]

A troll post of an callous nature has been removed. 

 

A post with disguised profanity has been edited, as a reminder @KannikaP:

• You will not post vulgarities, obscenities or profanities.

Continue disguised profanities with the intent to bypass the profanity filter will continue to be edited or removed. 

 

[save the frogs]

2 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Wow, now it's Ghosts, after Refined Falangs 3 hours ago and Flaunting Wealth yesterday morning, as well as several others.

Gamma, you joined as this name in July 2021, 42 moths ago. Since then you have posted 12667 times, which in my maths is 301 per month or TEN EVERY DAY.

What do you do the rest of your time?

haha, you took the time to do the math?

[save the frogs]

To be fair, it's a valid non troll topic since it is Xmastime. 

 

Xmas is great if your family relationships are good.

The sibling rivalry in my family is off the charts and Asia is a perfect place to escape this bs. 

 

 

 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

The maid.

 

I bet she kept an eye out for you.

 

Especially at Christmas.

[GammaGlobulin]

6 minutes ago, Etaoin Shrdlu said:

The maid.

 

I bet she kept an eye out for you.

 

Especially at Christmas.

 

Yes.

One time, when I was 16, and just back from boarding school, I drank all her brandy she had prepared for baking our family's fruitcake.

 

"Gamma-Wamma",....!!!

She scolded me.....

"Stay out of my kitchen".....

 

Reminded me of some scene from....

Gone with the Wind.

 

Note:  Great Book, by the way....  I read it twice, cover to cover.

 

[fredwiggy]

Christmas is still the same back in the US, just to let you know. I left 6 years ago, and have visited three times since, and have connections back there about al the goings on.

[GammaGlobulin]

7 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

Christmas is still the same back in the US, just to let you know. I left 6 years ago, and have visited three times since, and have connections back there about al the goings on.

 

So then....

 

How would you characterize Christmas in the United States, 2024, compared to Christmas in 1965?

 

Or, for that matter, Christmas in 1939?

 

Still the same?

 

 

I prefer gifts made from recycled materials.

Maybe, Christmas, these days....is actually....

NOT the same.

 

 

[fredwiggy]

Just now, GammaGlobulin said:

 

So then....

 

How would you characterize Christmas in the United States, 2024, compared to Christmas in 1965?

 

Or, for that matter, Christmas in 1939?

 

Still the same?

 

 

I prefer gifts made from recycled materials.

Maybe, Christmas, these days....is actually....

NOT the same.

 

 

Still the same, as many people love traditions.

[GammaGlobulin]

5 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

Still the same, as many people love traditions.

 

Speaking, as you do, of tradition....

 

I would have thought that your first thought might have been for....

Zero Mostel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[alex8912]

7 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

Yes.

One time, when I was 16, and just back from boarding school, I drank all her brandy she had prepared for baking our family's fruitcake.

 

"Gamma-Wamma",....!!!

She scolded me.....

"Stay out of my kitchen".....

 

Reminded me of some scene from....

Gone with the Wind.

 

Note:  Great Book, by the way....  I read it twice, cover to cover.

 

I thought you mentioned living in Darien or Greenwich? Wouldn't Christmas in Connecticut be a dream come true? Quite frankly growing up very nearby the area looks very much the same but the mansions are just getting more modern. Well of course a little more riff-raff with the new money. 

[fredwiggy]

6 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

Speaking, as you do, of tradition....

 

I would have thought that your first thought might have been for....

Zero Mostel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, he wouldn't be in my thoughts at all. I remember snow in New Jersey, a chill in the air in the evening in Texas, a great dinner in both places with family, children opening their presents with wide eyes, going hunting or ice fishing, families getting together from a distance, Christmas music at stores, the smell of pine trees, A Charlie Brown Christmas, enjoyed as a child and seeing my own kids enjoy it later, and looking forward to being with friends on New Years Eve.

[GammaGlobulin]

12 minutes ago, alex8912 said:

I thought you mentioned living in Darien or Greenwich? Wouldn't Christmas in Connecticut be a dream come true? Quite frankly growing up very nearby the area looks very much the same but the mansions are just getting more modern. Well of course a little more riff-raff with the new money. 

 

What a memory you have.

 

It was Greenwich, CT.

Not, Darien.

 

As to the riff-raff, which I might have also written about, here is just one very minor exemplar:

 

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

13 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

going hunting

 

 

[jippytum]

I really miss the old repeats on the tv year after year. 

Nice to escape 'mrs Brown's boys' again this year. 

[alex8912]

36 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

What a memory you have.

 

It was Greenwich, CT.

Not, Darien.

 

As to the riff-raff, which I might have also written about, here is just one very minor exemplar:

 

 

 

But that scene was filmed in Cohasset ( they just used the fake Eastwick name change) another nice Christmas town south of Boston. Were there any riff-raff in the Stepford wives? 

[GammaGlobulin]

10 minutes ago, alex8912 said:

But that scene was filmed in Cohasset ( they just used the fake Eastwick name change) another nice Christmas town south of Boston. Were there any riff-raff in the Stepford wives? 

 

Yes.

But...

You might have missed the point.

 

Nicholson made his last movie.....years ago.

 

And, I think....

We now mourn his passing, as a viable actor.

At least, I do.

 

Love him or hate him,

He made us laugh, and cringe.

 

[pchansmorn]

21 hours ago, save the frogs said:

To be fair, it's a valid non troll topic since it is Xmastime. 

 

Xmas is great if your family relationships are good.

The sibling rivalry in my family is off the charts and Asia is a perfect place to escape this bs. 

 

 

 

I agree with you. All of our Christmas family dinners everyone got drunk and started fights with each other. Lots of racism in my family. Been in Thailand 12 years went back 3 times but after Covid in 2019 never returned again. Thailand is my home now.  No regrets.

[Airalee]

The last Christmas I even celebrated was in 1990 when I came home from university for the holiday.   I had bought my mother an answering machine as she was frequently out of the house.  Upon opening it, she scoffed and said “I’ll never use an answering machine”

 

She then presented me with my present.  My parents had just returned from a trip to Scandinavia and she got me a Norwegian wool sweater almost identical to the one pictured below…in her size…not mine.  She knew I wouldn’t like it so she kept it for herself.  Pretty pathetic that she’d buy her son a woman’s sweater (maybe it’s a man’s sweater in Norway but certainly not in Southern California)….but I guess it was better than the year that she gave the all the children Trident chewing gum and large plastic paper clips.

I kept the answering machine

 

[connda]

On 12/22/2024 at 4:31 PM, GammaGlobulin said:

In case you haven’t returned to your Home Country in awhile, say about over three decades, then how do you imagine Christmas festivities have changed back in your Home Country, since your last visit.

I don't care.  I don't live in the past.

[Denim]

1 hour ago, connda said:

I don't care.  I don't live in the past.

 

I wish I did. I would find the man who wrote jingle bells and persuade him to take up farming or teaching...anything except song writing .

[GammaGlobulin]

1 hour ago, Airalee said:

The last Christmas I even celebrated was in 1990 when I came home from university for the holiday.   I had bought my mother an answering machine as she was frequently out of the house.  Upon opening it, she scoffed and said “I’ll never use an answering machine”

 

She then presented me with my present.  My parents had just returned from a trip to Scandinavia and she got me a Norwegian wool sweater almost identical to the one pictured below…in her size…not mine.  She knew I wouldn’t like it so she kept it for herself.  Pretty pathetic that she’d buy her son a woman’s sweater (maybe it’s a man’s sweater in Norway but certainly not in Southern California)….but I guess it was better than the year that she gave the all the children Trident chewing gum and large plastic paper clips.

I kept the answering machine

 

 

Well, that is a sad story.

 

But my question:

 

Do you think it's as SAD as the Gift of the Magi?

 

========

Still, your story is definitely sad.

And, that is a nice sweater.

... might be a unisex thing, or something.

 

Gift giving is a thankless job.

 

This is why it's best to give money, like the Chinese.

Nobody refuses money.

Just remember to give more than the receiver expects.

 

 

[Airalee]

20 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

Well, that is a sad story.

 

But my question:

 

Do you think it's as SAD as the Gift of the Magi?

 

========

Still, your story is definitely sad.

And, that is a nice sweater.

... might be a unisex thing, or something.

 

Gift giving is a thankless job.

 

This is why it's best to give money, like the Chinese.

Nobody refuses money.

Just remember to give more than the receiver expects.

 

 

It would have been better if the sweater was my size 😅