Holiday rants—2025 edition [Archive]

iris lilies

12-15-25, 1:05pm

None. I have none, can you believe it? Every year I have bitching and moaning to get out here on this forum. But not this year. I’ve had quite a lot of fun decorating, going to a few parties, entertaining my brother for a few days. Now it’s just coast into the new year with one or two additional parties to attend if we wish to, but we don’t have to.

so far no stupid unwanted packages of crap of entered my home. Some Christmas cards have come in and that’s easy enough to deal with.

early morning

12-15-25, 1:15pm

Darn! And I was just going to drop by with a crap-ton of stuff from Dollah Gentral for you! Guess I'll have to wait until next year (when I actually may be CLOSE to Hermann).

KayLR

12-15-25, 1:20pm

iris lilies

12-15-25, 2:42pm

One of my next door neighbors always comes by with a plate of cookies before Christmas. I don't know her very well; she just does this for all the neighbors in the hood. Well yesterday she came by with a wrapped gift. Its a jigsaw puzzle. Im always a bit flummoxed by her doing this because literally I only just wave to her all year. I suppose I should make more effort. Ill make her some cookies I guess.Some people are just compelled to give useless objects to other people because it makes the givers themselves happy.Why don’t you get with early morning and you could take some of that crap off of her hands and then you could distribute it on your block to your neighbors. Haha!

iris lilies

12-15-25, 2:43pm

Darn! And I was just going to drop by with a crap-ton of stuff from Dollah Gentral for you! Guess I'll have to wait until next year (when I actually may be CLOSE to Hermann).
Ummmm……No! Thank you. Ha

rosarugosa

12-16-25, 8:30am

Yes, we should all make up thoughtful little gift bags and send them to Iris!

I don't really have much to bitch about this year either. At this stage of my life, I can even greatly limit my exposure to the unwelcome sound of Xmas music, not completely, but better than in years past. I can even add a couple of raves! A leader in our rose garden restoration group had sent out an email a month or two ago saying that if we wanted an Xmas party, she was willing to organize it. Absolutely nobody responded. I believe I have finally found my tribe! Our instructor at Clay School also does not do any type of holiday celebration. When we were taking classes with another instructor, the studio owner, she had beginning of session parties, end of session, big end of year holiday celebration with Yankee Swap. I thought I had left that crap behind when I retired! Sessions are only 8 weeks long, so I personally found that obnoxious. Our current instructor is great, and if she remembers, says we can bring in snacks on the last day of a session, or not, as the mood strikes us.

iris lilies

12-16-25, 8:52am

Rosa, you are having a lovely UnChristmas. I like hearing about your new group that does not value getting together for boring holiday cheer!

rosarugosa

12-17-25, 7:58am

Thanks, Iris. Although I did have a period yesterday afternoon where there was a hateful little boy stuck in my head doing the "pa rum pa pa pom" thing. I just hate him so much! I've only become aware recently that I am far from alone in loathing this song.

HappyHiker

12-17-25, 6:45pm

This thought occurred to me as we were driving home from our friends' neighborhood which had homes with over-the-top masses of holiday lights and displays--what does this have to do with celebrating birth of baby Jesus?? Or the coming of the solstice? Wouldn't a few simple candles suffice? Why this wasteful crassness?

Or is it just me-- am I a curmudgeon?

iris lilies

12-17-25, 6:50pm

Well, yesterday, a sack full of stuff entered my home much to my chagrin. Our house cleaner gave us a gift bag of stuff. Most of it is consumable so that at least it’s good. I estimate the contents of this bag conservatively at $25. I wish she had not spent this money.

rosarugosa

12-18-25, 8:17am

Yesterday was my day to be with Mom, and it was the day for the music therapist from hospice. Guess what type of music he played? :laff: I quietly slipped out of the room and busied myself with other tasks. Fortunately he had a very pleasant voice, Mom enjoyed it, and the drummer boy did not make an appearance.
I had expected some guy with a playlist on his phone, but he played the guitar and sang, which was nice.

early morning

12-18-25, 12:33pm

iris lilies

12-18-25, 1:47pm

I like “serious” Christmas music, mostly instrumental.

the Bing Crosby/Andy Williams/old guy stuff and remakes of Xmas classics by current pop stars make me barf.

Years ago Tradd offered up some musical artists that made good Xmas sounds. She might suggest some again.

iris lilies

12-18-25, 1:48pm

I love much Christmas music. Especially when no one is singing. I have my carefully curated selection of CDs and LPs. We don't play anything by Wham! DD detests LDB also. This is her fav column on the issue
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2015/12/17/little-drummer-boy-the-worst-holiday-song-of-all/
I don't know if the link will work. It's an old column so it may, sometimes the paywall seems to "time out".
Rosa, it's nice that the music therapist plays!

The headline says it all!

I had not thought about hating this drummer boy song any more than most of the drek out there. It is so tedious, yet, it reminds me just a bit of dirges which I sometimes like.

Alan

12-18-25, 2:36pm

Always being the odd man out I have to admit I like the Little Drummer Boy. I find it comforting that the poor boy had nothing to give his newborn king but a performance on his drum, and it was okay.

catherine

12-18-25, 2:44pm

Always being the odd man out I have to admit I like the Little Drummer Boy. I find it comforting that the poor boy had nothing to give his newborn king but a performance on his drum, and it was okay.

I'm with you, Alan, for the reason you say. My other favorites are O Holy Night and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. I asked Alexa to play Christmas carols, and she didn't do a good job with songs I was into, so I asked her to play Christmas songs by Susan Boyle, and it was amazingly pleasant.

early morning

12-18-25, 2:55pm

happy to send all renditions of LDB I encounter off to the both of you, lol.

KayLR

12-18-25, 2:56pm

I like to listen to the Nutcracker Suite at least once a Christmas. I actually prefer instrumental music or a few hymns versus the popular dreck. "In the Bleak Midwinter" is one I enjoy very much.

Rogar

12-18-25, 7:06pm

I could do without most popular holiday music but I do like "Sleigh Ride", especially the end where the trumpet whinnies like a horse.

rosarugosa

12-19-25, 7:54am

I like the Nutcracker, Carol of the Bells, Good King Wenceslas, and God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman. There are also some more modern irreverent ones that are OK, e.g. Bob Rivers and Mojo Nixon ("modern" being a relative thing, some of this stuff is from the eighties, but at least it was the 1980s not the 1880s).

rosarugosa

12-19-25, 7:57am

Alan

12-19-25, 10:20am

And only recently, I've seen discussion as to how welcome a drum solo would actually be to a woman who just recently gave birth, in a crummy barn, no less. I have never given birth myself, but the consensus seems to be "not very."
Did anyone ask Mary?
"Shall I play for you, pa rum pum pum pum On my drum? Mary nodded, pa rum pum pum pum"

catherine

12-19-25, 10:27am

Did anyone ask Mary?
"Shall I play for you, pa rum pum pum pum On my drum? Mary nodded, pa rum pum pum pum"

OK, sorry Alan, but I'm kind of with rosa on this one. It is true that I don't care who I give birth do, the last thing I would want after giving birth is a drum solo by my bed. In fact, I was convinced that the song must have been written by a man.

But I was wrong. It was written by Katherine Kennicott Davis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Drummer_Boy) in 1941, and the first to record it were the Trapp Family Singers. I'm guessing that by the time the Little Drummer Boy got around to the manger, Mary was already high on frankincense.

Davis was born in St. Joseph, MO, BTW

iris lilies

12-19-25, 10:42am

Etiology of The Little Drummer Boy, complete with Missouri roots!

come here to this forum for life’s trivia, you won’t be disappointed.

Tybee

12-19-25, 5:08pm

I was reading another forum and they were talking about LDB and it turned out it also means Long distance boyfriend. Rosa, can't resist:

Bing Videos (https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=von+traps+singing+german+christmas+ carol&mid=EC0644E641E1BE580EA8EC0644E641E1BE580EA8&FORM=VIRE)

I like it. very fast.

rosarugosa

12-20-25, 8:11am

Did anyone ask Mary?
"Shall I play for you, pa rum pum pum pum On my drum? Mary nodded, pa rum pum pum pum"

Alan: She was surely just being polite!

Tybee: The only virtue I can see in the faster version is that it might end more quickly, sorry!

SiouzQ.

12-22-25, 11:07pm

After having worked in retail my entire working life I can easily say I am just not a holiday person at all. One of my old jobs was as a display person in a high-end department store. We started getting ready for Xmas in July and by the time the actual holiday came around I was just so over it! Piped-in Xmas music all day long at every single store still drives me crazy to this day. I make sure to get any grocery shopping done during a week day so I don't get caught up too much in the traffic. At home I have Xmas lights set up all year round on the loft railing and just have to remember to plug them in.

Luckily my spouse feels the same way as me. We have a Xmas ritual that we began 8 years ago when we first started dating. We make pancakes and bacon for breakfast and by 9:00 am we are in the car heading to Ojo Caliente Hot Springs for a day of soaking. We get a nice lunch there, do some more soaking and leave to drive home no later than 4 pm (It's about a 70 mile drive) so we can get home before full darkness.

As far as gifts go, K. and I decide on what to get as a "together" gift. Sometimes it is something practical, like a Farberware Pot & Pan set. Other times it is something we find at an estate sale. This year we bought a beautiful landscape painting from a local artist.

6669 6670

happystuff

12-23-25, 8:56am

Sounds like a beautiful tradition, SiouzQ. And I like your decorating!

iris lilies

12-23-25, 9:40am

Nice decor!

catherine

12-23-25, 9:50am

That sounds like an awesome tradition, SoiuzQ! I'm jealous of the hot springs experience--I'd love that around now with the temperature in the 20s and wind chill near zero.

I really like that little stove you have--is that fueled by wood or propane? I think something like that would be great in my son's tiny house.

SiouzQ.

12-23-25, 3:47pm

Hi Catherine, yes it is a wood stove. It really cranks out the heat and it is a big room with tall ceilings (14 ft at the apex).

This stove is not original to the house. When we bought the house there was a HUGE old wood stove in this room. I can't remember why we decided it needed replacing but once we put in the smaller stove with a glass window we then had to get rid of the large old one. Oh my god, it was so heavy! We advertised it on Facebook Marketplace for something like $100 and a gentlemen from one of the near-ish pueblos wanted to buy it. It was SO HARD to get into his pickup truck that we just gave it to him for free for taking it away for us!

iris lilies

12-23-25, 9:20pm

… We have a Xmas ritual that we began 8 years ago when we first started dating. We make pancakes and bacon for breakfast and by 9:00 am we are in the car heading to Ojo Caliente Hot Springs for a day of soaking. We get a nice lunch there, do some more soaking and leave to drive home no later than 4 pm (It's about a 70 mile drive) so we can get home before full darkness…

thanks for mentioning this because I completely have forgotten about my experience with a New Mexico Hot Springs. My boyfriend dragged me to a Hot Springs near Las Cruces, I don’t know which one. . It took me a while to realize that it’s normal to go in to those places nude. I suppose I did go in nude, don’t remember for sure, but I remember I was shocked everyone was nude.

I am raunchy in thought and word, but not so much in deed. Of course nudity is not raunchy, but still, it was a bit of a shock even though I was no baby, I was 30 years old by then.

But mainly, I remember how damn hot it was in that water. It is HOT! Why do people want to suffer like that? Ya’ll are crazy, haha.That was an experience I’m glad I had but I never want to repeat it.

For nude bathing I would prefer the cool clean streams of Billy Barebutt’s Vermont.

sweetana3

12-25-25, 10:45am

Dang, holiday rant. My brother gave me a $500 gift cert to Wayfair of all places. I feel like Marie on Everybody Loves Raymond when they got the fruit of the month. Stressed and I cannot figure out anything I want from this company (that I do not support anyway). Nice of my brother to think of me but so not necessary. Got to again have the conversation about gift giving.

So husband and I are thinking of having 4/5 more wire dog crates sent by Wayfair to a charity we support. They are always in need.

First world problems, right?

Rogar

12-25-25, 6:27pm

I've been to a clothing optional hot springs. There were people there who would look much better clothed. Interesting experiences, but not something I'd seek out.

iris lilies

12-25-25, 6:50pm

Sweetana that amount is a shocking gift from a family member really. I can see where you’re having a hard time disposing of it. I buy a lot from Wayfair and like it, but I can see that it wouldn’t work for you guys. So your idea about cages for the shelters is a good one. We found out that our local cat shelter needs a few cat carriers so my brother is going to donate his extra cat carriers to them.

Rogar

12-25-25, 8:15pm

I like the idea of regifting, which seems like the way of Christmas spirit. I have wondered if a person could buy something with a gift card and then return it for a refund? I've read that many gift cards go unused, which seems too bad. At least it's not Ikea.

sweetana3

12-25-25, 8:40pm

iris lilies

12-25-25, 10:22pm

Rogar, I love IKEA. We are lucky to have one of their stores in our city and it is a special event to visit it. I can at least touch the item I am interested in and see if it is the quality I want.

Iris Lilies. All three of us got the final distribution from an aunt's estate this year. My brother has never married or had any kids and is very generous. He put a step sister thru college. But we are in the same financial situation and do not want him to spend money on us. My husband and I had an argument over whether a gift received creates an obligation.

No obligation. This was a one time thing? Tell him what you spent the money on and be done with it. it was his choice. if he doesn’t know by nowadays you don’t need cash gift then he has his head up his butt.

KayLR

12-26-25, 12:15am

On our drive home tonight we were listening to Sirius XM and I thought of you guys because they played LDB performed by Bob Seger! It was still a bit annoying but it was Bob, his voice & an intermittent ro k guitar sliding in & out. I'd ne er heard his cover before. You?

Alan

12-26-25, 12:31am

I'd ne er heard his cover before. You?
Most until you mentioned it, but now I have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj36MsDjbfc&list=RDzj36MsDjbfc&start_radio =1

Tradd

12-26-25, 2:17am

Dinner with goddaughters’s family was good except for one Orange Man fan who would not stop talking politics. He was unable to talk about anything else. He’d butt into totally unrelated conversations with his rants. I finally told him to shut the eff up. He was shocked and shut up.

rosarugosa

12-26-25, 7:08am

Ha Alan, no way am I clicking on that little arrow! I remember when I was a regular Talbot's shopper that they made the stores play xmas music through New Year's. I thought that was cruel and unusual punishment to their associates.

rosarugosa

12-26-25, 7:09am

Good for you, Tradd!

Rogar

12-26-25, 8:44am

Rogar, I love IKEA. We are lucky to have one of their stores in our city and it is a special event to visit it. I can at least touch the item I am interested in and see if it is the quality I want.

Iris Lilies. All three of us got the final distribution from an aunt's estate this year. My brother has never married or had any kids and is very generous. He put a step sister thru college. But we are in the same financial situation and do not want him to spend money on us. My husband and I had an argument over whether a gift received creates an obligation.

I have never been in an ikea store, so I suppose I am unqualified to offer a valid opinion, but they are known for low quality throw away furniture made with mystery woods and cardboard paddings. I was checking out what my local Habitat reuse store takes and see they specifically do not accept Ikea furniture donations.

iris lilies

12-26-25, 10:39am

I have never been in an ikea store, so I suppose I am unqualified to offer a valid opinion, but they are known for low quality throw away furniture made with mystery woods and cardboard paddings. I was checking out what my local Habitat reuse store takes and see they specifically do not accept Ikea furniture donations.

The IKEA stuff really depends—it seems.

some of their upholstered pieces are fine. I don’t know much else about their furniture, but I know many people use their shelving pieces and the Billy series is a modern classic.

DH has installed a couple of IKEA kitchens and he thinks the cabinets were…Ok. The real value in IKEA is that it is a flat pack cabinetry so it can be easily shipped. Back in the day before IKEA came to St. Louis, one of my friends drove to Chicago and got her entire kitchen Cabinetry pieces packed into her little car.

I hate visiting the store because it’s disorienting to me with its weird winding pathway, but then all large department stores are disorienting. There are no windows so I never know what direction to go to get out. But I LOVE Ikea’s tiny sample rooms/ apartments. I just love them. So cute!

rosarugosa

12-26-25, 12:07pm

I have never been in an Ikea store, but I'm not in any hurry to correct that. I won't buy wooden furniture that isn't the real deal.

early morning

12-26-25, 3:34pm

But I LOVE Ikea’s tiny sample rooms/ apartments. I just love them. So cute! OMG, me too! NOTHING about me is minimalist or really wants a small space to live in, but I find their carefully curated tiny spaces sooo appealing to visit. I get mostly kitchen stuff at Ikea - spatulas, scrapers, scrubbers, and tiny battery whisks that I believe I can no longer live (or drink coffee) without. So much so that I am using the last one I had stockpiled, and am really jonesing for a restock trip. They last pretty well for being $4, but the battery cover is tight and after hitting the floor multiple times, it will no longer close enough to work. And yes of COURSE I've tried duct-tape but just can't get it tight enough. The store is about 90 min away, so it's an event to go there. I enjoy the winding way and all the room setups. We also like to eat there, the lox is good and I really like their meatballs. We've an Ikea chair/ottoman, and it's lasted fine, other than the cats love it for a scratch post. Bad kitties! I keep looking at the sofas, but still wavering and stuffing pillows into the holes in the one we have.

frugal-one

12-26-25, 4:33pm

A small IKEA store just came to this area. I checked it out but doubt it will be a place I frequent.

Alan

12-26-25, 5:37pm

I don’t know much else about their furniture, but I know many people use their shelving pieces and the Billy series is a modern classic.
We've had these Billy units with glass doors for about 15 years, no complaints here.
6671

catherine

12-26-25, 5:42pm

We've had these Billy units with glass doors for about 15 years, no complaints here.
6671

We had a Billy unit in my bathroom--IKEA was the only place I could get a 9" deep cabinet with glass doors. It was perfect for the small space I had for towels and other bathroom accessories.

IKEA is also great for the home accessories from everything from lamps to frames to rugs etc. I bought my knife magnetic strip there, and a great pegboard for my work folders. I might not appreciate the quality of the materials, but I do appreciate the design element.

Tradd

12-26-25, 6:30pm

I've had an IKEA Ektorp upholstered armchair for 17+ years. Still going great.

Rogar

12-26-25, 6:39pm

I'll have to ask Habitat Reuse why they won't take Ikea furniture. I'm due for a drop off. Maybe it not so bad. Billy Board is listed as one of the 12 things you should never buy at Ikea, but I don't have any experience and still don't plan to ever shop there.

https://www.reviewed.com/home-outdoors/features/12-things-you-should-never-buy-from-ikea

At the end of the article they actually recommend shopping at Wayfair.

rosarugosa

12-27-25, 7:58am

Alan: Those shelf/cabinet units look great. That's where the Roseville collection resides, right?

happystuff

12-27-25, 9:24am

There are some Ikea pieces that I actually have had great success with. One of my first ever kitchen tables was a foldable one from Ikea. Worked great, looked great and just "fit". I miss it. The similar one I have now from another place is not as good but cost more.