It's Christmas time!!!

[u2roolz]

"It's Christmas Time"

[embiggen]

Christmas ALWAYS comes too soon. it's summer that's never here quick enough.

[April]

I look forward to Christmas every year. The season never starts soon enough and always ends too quickly.

 

 

[lamradio]

Christmas ALWAYS comes too soon. it's summer that's never here quick enough.

 

Not when you live in the south... Summer means HOT weather...

 

Well at least for me.. Most people down here welcome the hot weather and it can't come soon enough... It'll be 60 degrees and you'll see people walking around in Eskimo jackets...

[mfwahl]

Not when you live in the south... Summer means HOT weather...

 

Well at least for me.. Most people down here welcome the hot weather and it can't come soon enough... It'll be 60 degrees and you'll see people walking around in Eskimo jackets...

This past weekend I had the heat on in the car. It was 61 degrees.

[alison the wilca]

personally, i prefer Krampus Day- Dec 5th, the day before St Nicholas' Day. I reeeeally want to go to Krampustag in Germany- has anyone ever been?

 

[uncool2pillow]

We Germans are a creepy lot.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Okay. It was 57 degrees in the house when I woke up so we turned on the heat (62, baby!!!). It's 18 outside (feels like 7!). We just created a Pandora Christmas station, and now I remember why I look forward to Christmas: the bright spot on a cold, dark horizon.

[mpolak21]

I can't abide Christmas music or anything else christmas until after thanksgiving.

 

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I'm starting a new tradition this year with my daughter. I taught her to play Alice's restaurant on guitar so we are going to sit and play along with the entire song when it comes on at noon on the radio. Of course she doesn't actually know this yet.

 

I whole heartedly endorse this move. I make a mix CD to play during the day every year with Alice's Restaurant on it.

 

--Mike

[Good Old Neon]

(62, baby!!!)

 

62 is the perfect degree.

[u2roolz]

62 is the perfect degree.

 

Why do I feel that there's going to be at least 3 hate filled pages debating this in a heated manner?

[jenbobblehead]

My fiance wants to use her fake tree and I want to go up to the mountains, per usual, and cut one down. She doesn't like the idea of killing a tree. These are marked trees and part of National forest and it's only $10. Someone convince her please. I've never had a fake tree and don't like the idea.

So, there are a lot of reasons for why a cut tree is better than a plastic tree. 1. Plastic is often loaded with lead. They collect dust and need to be cleaned every year. They off-gas. They are often made in China and shipped and trucked to the us on pallets that are loaded with Asian Long-Horned Beetle and Emerald Ash Borer that are going to eventually kill off all the hardwood in Colorado.

 

Christmas Tree Farms, and selected cutting of national forest trees are a far better idea. Christmas tree farms are one of the last bastions of farming in suburban communities, keeping openspace open, with lots of habitat for wild animals such as deer, birds, etc. Tree farms allow landscapers to keep employed during the winter months where it is cold (such as new england) and supplements income often enough so that those guys don't have to get laid off. They are often grown on land that nothing else will grow on and they keep it from being developed into townhouse farms or 1 acre zoning lots that suck up all the resources.

 

Selective cutting in the national forest helps trees get bigger because there's less crowding for root space and resources such as water and sun, and the cutting of the smaller trees is also a fire protection measure.

 

Getting outside to cut your own tree is also far healthier than going to Target or Walmart and picking on out there. Do I need to go on, or do you think she is convinced? Any self respecting hippy would always opt for a real tree over a plastic one. Some communities (san fran for one, and perhaps pdx) have programs where you "rent" a balled and burlapped or containerized tree for the holiday and then when you're done with it, the urban forester or non profit picks up the tree and plants it where it is needed.

 

I know i'm late to this thread and perhaps a bunch of this has been discussed already but i had to just stop and post because it is something i feel strongly about and I am also pretty sure I am not wrong.

[caliber66]

Any self respecting hippy would always opt for a real tree over a plastic one. Some communities (san fran for one, and perhaps pdx) have programs where you "rent" a balled and burlapped or containerized tree for the holiday and then when you're done with it, the urban forester or non profit picks up the tree and plants it where it is needed.

Oh yeah, we had a balled and burlapped Christmas tree a couple years ago. It is now planted in our front yard.

[jenbobblehead]

and is the lit up, snow covered tree that speedracer thinks was a light up sex toy now posted in the calendar thread.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Well, it looked dongy!

[Moss]

Speaking of trees, put ours up yesterday, here it is:

 

[Guest Speed Racer]

That speaker.

 

Our fake tree was rescued from our basement, stands about waist high, and my sad speakers bear the same relational height as the speakers in your photo.

[Moss]

That speaker.

 

Our fake tree was rescued from our basement, stands about waist high, and my sad speakers bear the same relational height as the speakers in your photo.

 

 

Actually they look more impressive than they are, they kind of suck. I'm on the market for some new speakers. Might need to start a thread to get some ideas actually...

[Winston Legthigh]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A8KT365wlA

[gogo]

That whole scene looks so warm and cozy to me, the tree, the placement of the tree by the windows, the piano. Looks like such a classic christmas-y setting.

 

We haven't gotten ours yet, but word is that the trees are phenomenal this year. The tree sellers are reporting lots of early sales, just because people are driving past the lots and seeing how amazing they look. This makes me very happy.

[Duck-Billed Catechist]

So, there are a lot of reasons for why a cut tree is better than a plastic tree. 1. Plastic is often loaded with lead. They collect dust and need to be cleaned every year. They off-gas. They are often made in China and shipped and trucked to the us on pallets that are loaded with Asian Long-Horned Beetle and Emerald Ash Borer that are going to eventually kill off all the hardwood in Colorado.

 

Christmas Tree Farms, and selected cutting of national forest trees are a far better idea. Christmas tree farms are one of the last bastions of farming in suburban communities, keeping openspace open, with lots of habitat for wild animals such as deer, birds, etc. Tree farms allow landscapers to keep employed during the winter months where it is cold (such as new england) and supplements income often enough so that those guys don't have to get laid off. They are often grown on land that nothing else will grow on and they keep it from being developed into townhouse farms or 1 acre zoning lots that suck up all the resources.

 

Selective cutting in the national forest helps trees get bigger because there's less crowding for root space and resources such as water and sun, and the cutting of the smaller trees is also a fire protection measure.

 

Getting outside to cut your own tree is also far healthier than going to Target or Walmart and picking on out there. Do I need to go on, or do you think she is convinced? Any self respecting hippy would always opt for a real tree over a plastic one. Some communities (san fran for one, and perhaps pdx) have programs where you "rent" a balled and burlapped or containerized tree for the holiday and then when you're done with it, the urban forester or non profit picks up the tree and plants it where it is needed.

 

I know i'm late to this thread and perhaps a bunch of this has been discussed already but i had to just stop and post because it is something i feel strongly about and I am also pretty sure I am not wrong.

I'd like to point out that most of this argues against buying (not reusing) fake trees.

[Sir Stewart]

The off-gassing and cleaning necessary to maintain aren't enough for you?

[Beltmann]

[u2roolz]

Pretty Amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMcMiNkJzws

[lamradio]

I just made homemade Jack Daniels eggnog. Yummy!

 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/eggnog-recipe2/index.html