Am I the only one who insists on spending Christmas day at home in the UK. OK going out to work on Boxing Day but watching the queen and eating too much at home on Christmas day is sacrosanct
Just think about it, no;
Jason and argonaughts
Only fools and horses
Rain
Watching kids play on new bikes
Getting up at stupid-o-clock on Boxing Day to catch flight to Verona so you can get to your first class
Listening to next door having arguments
Socks from mum
Etc
Etc
Can we start a movement to ban British people (insert music – land of hope and glory/Pomp and Circumstance) from going skiing abroad over Christmas?
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Wayne,
Quote:
Just think about it, no;
Jason and argonaughts
Only fools and horses
Rain
Watching kids play on new bikes
Getting up at stupid-o-clock on Boxing Day to catch flight to Verona so you can get to your first class
Listening to next door having arguments
Socks from mum
Etc
Etc
I think i could give it a miss when the delights of the piste are on offer.
Why not take your extended family with you and then you could have it all.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Wayne wrote:
Am I the only one who insists on spending Christmas day at home in the UK.
Yes.
Spent most of the last 12-15 Christmases in the Alps. It's my favourite day of the year. Just me and Jane, a little bit of skiing, chat to the family by phone or Skype, open a couple of little presents, Christmas Dinner, no stress. Perfect.
Wayne, see, I do both. This year Crimble is in Austria followed by Christmas Day on 28th December in UK with the close family - we all just suspend belief for a few days. Beauty is that I'll be doing all the pressie shopping on 27th at knock down prices.
Anyway... Trentino v. Wigan - help me out here, I'm struggling with the problem.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
rob@rar shame on you
And for anyone else one who will not join the movement to ban Christmas skiing - before your time up against the wall -
I went skiing on xmas day last year and very nice it was too. this year I'm likely to be in UK with my sisters family..
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Wayne,
After all it is free
After all it is free
bertie bassett,
You'll feel much better for it. A warm glow in your heart that will last all year.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Wayne, last 2 Christmases in Jackson Hole. so... errr.... no
Bit disappointed to be in the UK this year...
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
I'd quite happily go to work on Christmas Day but instead I end up spending six hours of it on the motorway every year. One of these days I'm going to refuse and stay in bed all day eating sweets and watching rubbish on telly.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
I am at an age where the UK Christmas is crap. I am 31 and have no children (yet). So off skiing for another Christmas (I am also agnostic). Why would I stay in the 9 degree pissing rain of the UK at Christmas watching crap TV and feeling depressed?
Andorra already has 100cm
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
I really hanker after spending Christmas in a ski resort - however being as hubby, mother-in-law & offspring and their other halves don't ski and are committed stay-at-homers ....
Would I miss
mother-in-law's acerbic remarks over dinner
feeling like **** after eating too much & seeing the fridge still groaning under those things the family insist on having as "it's tradition!"
listening to hubby moaning he has eaten too much and feels like ****
listening to hubby snoring loudly in front of some old film or other, trying to sleep off the excesses before replenishing them
getting just groans when I suggest a little outdoor exercise might work off the excesses
NO!
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Butterfly, I am really beginning to dislike Christmas. People, don't just eat too much. they also drink too much and spend too much, then spend the first couple of miserably dark months of the year trying to claw it all back again (or off again). Children are bombarded for months beforehand with advertising to create "needs" with which they can then browbeat their parents. The shops are full of total tat from October onwards. People rack their brains thinking of presents for people who really, really, need nothing. At least they don't need yet more Stuff, no matter how tastefully wrapped. My grandchildren already have too many toys. This year they're getting ski lessons. Like it or not.
Some years ago our family decided to drop presents except for the very littlies. We get together in various ways, enjoy some good meals together (quite a few of us in the Alps this coming Christmas, but by no means always) and try to spend time, rather than money, on it all.
One memorable Christmas we rented a youth hostel on the top of a cliff in Cornwall and had 18 of us - we did one of those "one present for everyone" efforts and went for loads of walks along the cliff paths - fortunately it was very dry and sunny, though perishingly cold. And the hostel was not really set up for winter warmth. No telly. The kids (including cousins from Australia and southern Africa who they saw very rarely) played cards, went for walks, went to the pub. We catered for ourselves, everyone did a bit, nobody was put upon. Grandma, and my sister in law, who has rheumatoid arthritis and can't cope with bunk beds in cold youth hostels, stayed in a nearby time share at night and joined us during the day. It was fantastic, and cost next to nothing.
One of these days we're going to do it again, though for the best hostels you have to book very early in the year. Renting big houses is ruinously expensive at Christmas.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
every year for the past 18 years my wife and i do the whole christmas thing for all the relatives, major effort and stress but last year went to our place in mottaret. my wife, daughter and i had a great time.. I loved it to bits but what are we doing this year.... cooking turkeys and hams again for all the relatives.. why.. cause no one else will do the "family get together" and mrs skimottaret feels guilty....
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Wayne wrote:
Can we start a movement to ban British people (insert music – land of hope and glory/Pomp and Circumstance) from going skiing abroad over Christmas?
Certainly not, Mrs DallyPaul & I need people to ski with and entertain
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
We''l be getting up at about 3am Boxing Day morning to go off skiing in La Plagne
Our friends wouldn't come with us as they couldn't bring themselves not to do the whole relatives thing on Boxing Day.
Christmas Day might be pushing it a bit as we do have great family Christmases.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
pam w, my sister did the youth hostel thing one year with her husband's family and I think it sounds great, but you'd never get my mother-in-law to do that. She lives about 1/2 a mile away from us, hubby's sister is on the south coast as is his brother with whom we've all lost contact (despite me & my kids making efforts through his daughter who we found on Facebook) so for her Christmas is with us, or with her dog! Fortunately she doesn't like to stay out too long, we have to fetch her by car in time for a Scotch before lunch and take her home after the Queen's speech, so one of us has to stay "dry" till after then. Hence, like Mrs skimottaret, I am bound by the guilt thing . This is the same treasure who insists I have to cook lunch for her on Mother's Day - hubby wanted to take us out but she was aghast at the idea as wherever we chose would have KIDS about. My (adult) daughter did the cooking one year, and m-i-l told hubby she preferred me to do it
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
What's this then? Labour Headquarters?
Picture the scene...
Minion - Oh mein Fuehrer, what shall we do? we have not banned anything for two whole days now?!
Brown - We cant have that! they will start to think they are living in a free country!
Hmm let me think.... I know, I hate those posh b******s that go skiing, especially at Xmas, so we'll ban that!
Get a focus group together on that site and see what the reaction would be like. If nothing else it will help us introduce an unneccesary skiing holiday tax to help save the public finances... err I mean planet.... before the budget ...no... err...climate summit!
....Scene fades.
Please do not give these people ideas- it only encourages them
We end up going on alternate years, although I really think we should do it all the time. It is very liberating not to worry about where we go and when. No turkey (I don't like it), no sprouts (I abhor them). Our families are large enough for someone else to sort lunch out. We do the whole lunch thing here on the other year. With large families, we do a Secret Santa , and give out all the pressies before we go. Everyone gets one nice pressie then, instead of lots of tat.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Quote:
We''l be getting up at about 3am Boxing Day morning to go off skiing in La Plagne
I think that's a great way to go - it's the way Christmas, and the leftovers, and the telly watching, drag on and on which is so grim.
Fortunately my MiL has 3 offspring living in this country, so they can take turns. She was very game, coming with us to the hostel (we sort of presented it as fait accompli, and very unusually all four of her kids, then living in 3 continents, were there. My mother died a few years ago, and as her house was the central one, with spare space, and near my sister's, it made family get togethers easy. We all enjoyed them, and nobody had to do all the work, but now those times are past. My sister gets fed up with the Christmas thing too, and my borhter always loathed Christmas, even as a child, for some reason. We all speak to everybody, in both families, and try to get together for other occasions - big birthdays, for example. So it's not that I dislike "family" stuff at all, it's just Christmas, because of the relentless commercialisation.
It seems I am in the wrong. As the founding (and only) member I hereby abolish the Committee To Ban Christmas Day Skiing, and instruct that all committee property (the wrapper of the mars bar I was eating when I wrote the 1st post) be sold and the proceeds sent to Yorkshire to assist the unfortunates of that county.
Note for those living south of Watford Gap.
Yorkshire is a depressed section of northern Britain. The good people of this area, who are not lucky enough to be still employed as bonded laborers on the Rhubarb farms, are suffering terribly following the decimation of the cloth cap manufacturing industry. This has been exacerbated by the reduced requirement for livestock from the ferret breeding centers from certain restaurants in France, which made up a large proportion of the York’s’ GDP.
Please send any donations you feel able to.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Been skiing at christmas for the past 3 years. Loved it, it is a completely feel to the whole affair. Unfortunatly this is my first year at home for christmas in 4 years. But I'll still enjoy it (do slightly miss watching the likes of the great escape on boxing day), although waiting for skiing is going to be tortorous this year as some of our friends are ggoing at christmas this year.
After all it is free
After all it is free
I would go away every year if I could. Spent last year in Zermatt with the usual suspects - fantastic !
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Wayne, can those exiled to Lincolnshire claim on the fund - will it cover an extra ski trip - perhaps over Christmas??
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
I totally agree with pam w, I'd rather do without Christmas altogether. Luckily my family are reasonably sensible and we only buy presents for the kids with a strict spending limit, plus we don't bother with Christmas dinner, but I still spend the day driving 150 miles each way to see my nephews and nieces open their presents.
However, going skiing would not be a possibility for me, I only get two days off work and I prefer to go skiing when it's less busy and expensive (i.e. not school holidays). I can see why people would want to escape the Christmas grind and go skiing though.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
This Christmas day we will allow ourselves a bit of a lie-in, then our sons will come to our room for a cup of tea and to open their Christmas stockings which I will have filled with a few fun bits and pieces, including lots of chocolate and sweeties (they will be 20 and 23!). After breakfast we'll go skiing for the day on pistes which are pretty quiet because so many people stay at home all day. We'll splash out on a good lunch somewhere, ski a bit more, go back for a soak in the hot tub and get dressed for a good dinner.
We've done this for so many years now that the thought of staying at home doesn't bear thinking about, all that madness in the shops where people are buying enough food to feed five thousand. Years ago we asked our sons - pressies or skiing? Guess what their answer was?
We'll have the big family get together on New Year's day instead so don't feel the least bit guilty about not being around for Christmas.
Don't you dare ban it!
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Christmas comes wherever we are. Last year as I found out that wasn't needed at work a couple of weeks before, we changed booking and travelled on 25th. Slightly weird but very exciting. This year we are in the mountains for Christmas and New Year. Whoop!
I've just bought a tiny Christmas tree and lights to bring with us. Will bring cold turkey and ham and do veg etc there. What could be more perfect? Just the four of us (although dog at home, she will be very well looked after by my sister), wake up, yummy breakfast, skiing, Christmas dinner......
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Quote:
our sons will come to our room for a cup of tea and to open their Christmas stockings which I will have filled with a few fun bits and pieces, including lots of chocolate and sweeties (they will be 20 and 23!).
Lou, My daughter has married into a family where grownup kids still get stockings - they did one for her, too, which was lovely. They are a genuinely very Christian family (though my son and law isn't) so Christmas, whilst it has a real religious meaning for them, is just another festival, and not the most important. They are not precious about "family traditions" either - they were not bothered when my daughter and their son worked at Crisis and missed Christmas dinner - to which they had, typically, invited various neighbourhood waifs and strays with nobody to celebrate with.
I'm not going to take a Christmas tree to the Alps! I intend to send my son and his 3 and 6 year old out into the woods to find a very little one covered in snow. A romantic idea of mine which will probably end in tears. Maybe they'll get arrested.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
RachelQ, asked our sons the same.They gave us the same answer. Still buy a couple of pressies, usually ski socks, thermals etc.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
RachelQ,
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Helen Beaumont, exactly - things they need anyway! And usually a fun little 'I want one of those' type gadget for entertainment purposes. That's a throwback to when they were little and we got to stay in bed a bit longer if they had something new to play with.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Smokin Joe, ah! Great memories!
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
RachelQ wrote:
we got to stay in bed a bit longer if they had something new to play with.
One year our kids got cards on Christmas morning with a lottery scratch card each and an "IOU" for a ski holiday in January. On the envelopes we advised them to agree before scratching the cards whether any proceeds should be shared. They didn't, of course, and an entertaining half hour ensued when one of them won some small sum.
Not sure that was quite the "spirit of Christmas". But my daughter's favourite present of all time was an "IOU" for a kitten, ready to leave its mother mid-January. The cat has since, of course, cost us a fortune.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
pam w,
Quote:
not bothered when my daughter and their son worked at Crisis
thanks for reminder - haven't signed up for my two days, yet. (I always work as a medical receptionist at the main centre now. Best time was when I was ill myself, and very croaky - every bronchitic old lag that walked in had a kind and solicitous word for me, ahead of his own troubles. )
I think I'd rather ski than watch the Queen on tv...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Timmaah, I've usually volunteered to do the washing up.
After all it is free
After all it is free
pam w, it's a tiny tree with a tiny set of battery operated lights, which we will leave as a gift for the owner (we stay there often). I do actually have a couple of real alpine saplings in the same wooden trough as my Edelweiss (my youngest acquired them and stored them in the back pocket of his camelbak while walking in the summer) which are doing very nicely
You may find it hard to get even a little fir tree out of the ground. It was (I'm told) difficult to do even on a warm, wet summer's day
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Quote:
You may find it hard to get even a little fir tree out of the ground
they will use a hacksaw. and it will be a very weeny tree.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
pam w, the ones in question are now about 4cm tall.
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
. This is the same treasure who insists I have to cook lunch for her on Mother's Day - hubby wanted to take us out but she was aghast at the idea as wherever we chose would have 
KIDS 
