The Everything Christmas/New Year (2023/2024) Thread

[comicsgate]

That Peanuts was so early on in my life, that I don’t even remember the first time I saw it. Of course, it’s been around longer than I’ve been alive. Also, Peanuts kind of gave us something that is missing in the modern day and that is the instrumental jazz single music. There was a time when you’d actually hear the number one jazz song on a radio station that would just cover music. I really like jazz. Second only to Classical.

The Christmas music totally changed my motivation for walking. Normally, I do it for purposes of steps and just to use the legs, but now, I go out just to to hear the music, so I hear Christmas tunes while walking. It really puts pep in the step and gives such a positive feeling. I like to hear the older stuff because there is good cheer. I think all else has become to edgy and full of itself that this season is just a relief.

[Maverick]

^Holy Cow, I always thought that was a young Stevie Wonder! Great song, mellow and nostalgic.

 

Over-commercialization of the season is a justifiable criticism, but honestly I enjoy shopping. I like the challenge of getting people things I know they’ll like…within budget. There’s also something special about being out and about during this time…the decorations, music, aromas and of course people who just seem happier…it’s contagious.

This one sums it up nicely…

[comicsgate]

The commercialization deserves the critique, but sometimes, it is done well. Anyone who went to movies lately saw these two commercials. I found them both touching. I’m gonna need to eat some steak, drink a whiskey and go to the range, because I can’t believe they hit me in the feels. I am not a fan of Big Tech in any way. Don’t know what I think about Bezos and Zuckerberg, but with Mark, not really a fan, but I do wonder if the second commerical is a self-insert. Whoever is working at the marketing department at the Tech companies did an EXCELLENT job on these commercials. They both had a very human factor with heart, which is unexpected from tech companies or even corporate America.

[Maverick]

Those are well done, especially the first. These guys have a history of making great ones as well…

 

 

[comicsgate]

Some people have lost family. That’s why I post stuff. Might as well get it out now. Tomorrow is not promised.
I appreciate the older artists who kind of change their hearts and change their ways and put out material later. Makes you wonder.

Was surprised to hear this one at the mall last year. Unexpected. He still has it. BA.

[comicsgate]

George Bailey.
Just seeing him run thru the streets after a Near-Death Experience with all that energy was something that left an impression. It was so good that made me wonder if people ever feel that good in their entire lives?

So, this movie is a tradition for some people. I have not watched it in years. I really love retro and vintage things, but sometimes, what is weird, is that I get a bit triggered by it because sometimes, I think the person that is showing me it is taunting me over the intended America that was destroyed by the floodgate politicians.

[Vknid]

@comicsgate

“Some people have lost family. That’s why I post stuff. Might as well get it out now. Tomorrow is not promised.
I appreciate the older artists who kind of change their hearts and change their ways and put out material later.”

Well said sir.

Christmas is an interesting thing.  Many people don’t know what it’s about.  Many know and don’t care.  Yet, these people are typically affected by it nonetheless.  I don’t mean they participate with a tree and presents but they end up feeling a way they don’t rest of the year.  In fact the feeling they often is akin to the feeling one should have knowing that God loves them.

Scrooged is my favorite Christmas movie.  It’s funny and the speech at the end , while not about Christ, does explain the way we should all treat each other.

[comicsgate]

Carol of the Bells” is a popular Christmas carol, with music from Mykola Leontovych’s Ukrainian song “Shchedryk”, and lyrics by Peter Wilhousky. Leontovych wrote “Shchedryk” in 1914, and in 1936 Wilhousky wrote English lyrics for it, creating “Carol of the Bells”

The conductor of the Ukrainian Republic Capella, Oleksander Koshyts (also spelt Alexander Koshetz) commissioned Leontovych to create the song based on traditional Ukrainian folk chants, and the resulting new work for choir, “Shchedryk”, was based on four notes Leontovych found in an anthology.

This one goes out to the people of Ukraine. Pray for peace between Ukr/Rus every evening at 6:30pm. There was no invasion under MAGA. Really appears the warmongers waited until MAGA was out in order to escalate the situation. It’s becoming more clear and obvious.

[Vknid]

“This one goes out to the people of Ukraine. Pray for peace between Ukr/Rus every evening at 6:30pm. There was no invasion under MAGA. Really appears the warmongers waited until MAGA was out in order to escalate the situation. It’s becoming more clear and obvious.”

I agree 100% here.  In the vein of Christmas I wish love and peace on both those peoples.

Under Trump no new wars were started.  Under Biden they ended one conflict (planned so under Trump) and started a new one.  I am not saying Trump is some political utopia but I am just stating what happened.  You make of it what you will.

I have listened to this for a few years.  I sleep to the music and I love the visual.

[Maverick]

Thanks for the last few posts, very thought provoking. They remind me of a story told by Casey Kasem on his Christmas Special back in the 80s. It was about The Power of Christmas and I still remember it to this day.

That someone would clip and post that specific segment on YouTube is a testament to how impactful it was.

 

 

 

 

[Vknid]

@Maverick

That was a great clip.  And as much as it speaks positively of Christmas it misses the mark.

Christmas is itself not a thing.  Christ is.  The “Spirit of Christmas” that seems to cause people to treat each other better than what they normally would is the spirit of Christ, the love of God.

It was not the spirit of Christmas that called to those soldiers on that  day, it was the example of Christ, a sign of the love of God.  (In Catholicism we would call this the Holy Spirt) This is one event over 2,000 years ago that still causes many people around the world to feel this way today for the month of December.  I personally cannot think of another example of that.  Sure, Christmas was not always the holiday it is now and it’s changed over the years but the birth of Christ has always been a happy time.

The Spirit of Christmas is love, God’s love.

I leave you with this.  A man born with no arms and legs. Nick Vujicic.  At this point is he sad?  No.  A victim?  No.  Unhappy to be alive?  No.  Is he thrilled to exist and help and love others so they understand that God loves them and there is hope and goodness?  Yes.

If a man born without limbs can be thankful and happy, WTF are we all crying in our beer about.  This too is the Spirit of Christmas.

 

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly[a] with your God.” –Micah 6:8

• This reply was modified 11 months, 1 week ago by Vknid.

[comicsgate]

Thanks for the Scrooged clip. I am hoping more people will share just about any clip that gives them that nostalgic Christmas feeling.

As for Casey Kasem, he’s probably the best DJ of all time that I ever heard. I liked how he would tell a short story or give a little trivia and then, transition to a song. He has that signature voice. His voice was so unique, that even when people who did impressions of him and mocked him, it was just that more more funny because he was so influential. When you spend a lot of time on the road, those radio guys sometimes really reach you. I also liked some preachers like Charles Stanley or Raul Ries. Go figure, but Greg Laurie is kind of new to me and he is very good. Along the lines of Casey Kasem was Delilah and John Tesh. Above, Casey Kasem is probably telling my favorite Christmas story. I knew the story, but have never heard him tell it. Kasem was so professional. That’s what it means to “add value,” in that he was always informing.

I am trying NOT to over-post, but Christmas music and stories and lore kind of affects me greatly. Roots go back deep. Supposedly, two millennia of great change.

[comicsgate]

Some people may believe in some kind of ancestral memory. There is rumor that a lot of carols were folk chants that were re-written into songs using notes and chords, so the historical bards did a great job at taking hymns and preserving them. Sometimes, I think a lot of these songs were just to boost morale and keep warm thru the darkness and the cold.

[Vknid]

“Some people may believe in some kind of ancestral memory”

I am not sure that’s even a question if you consider animals.  Call them instincts or evolution or whatever you want, functionally it is ancestral memory.

This is where the radio in my car stays from Thanksgiving until New Years.

https://www.siriusxm.com/channels/holiday-traditions

 

 

[Maverick]

So beautiful…

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