[MK Chris]

I have to start thinking about Secret Santa now as well. I shouldn't have entered but I did and I have no idea what to get.

[Ballbag]

If you got to buy for a girl, I suggest a big dildo. It's secret santa so they wont know it's you, and the comedy value will be priceless.

[pjordan2000]

Even if its for a bloke, i think the same present will present the same comedy value!

[Yudster]

I am so glad we don't do Secret Santa here.........

[Billy85]

I love all xmas songs all christmasy music is amazing in my eyes and it is just a shame that we no longer get wicked xmas songs at xmas time anymore i think the last wicked xmas song what the darkness christmas time and i hate the fact that the X-Factor feels the need to ruin christmas number one for the past few years.

I love xmas and i dont think its all about money i love the decorations i love the lights at night i love the trees i love that we have like a million types of food and drink in the house i love playing board game/dvd games there is alot of love there but xmas means alot to me it still is a special time of year maybe not for reglious reasons but for me xmas still has a certain uniqueness to it.

I LOVE XMAS TV the snowman soaps films like white xmas all the classic disney films the queens speach more recently doctor who xmas speicals all those "talking head shows" about 100 greatest xmas songs 50 greatest xmas toys all that stuff.

Christmas Dinner turkey gravy mash peas carrots leaks little sausages in bacon crackers stupid hats booze and more booze stupid unfunny jokes which for some reason make me smile only on xmas day any other day i wouldnt find them funny

I am on a bit of a high at the moment I love xmas sometimes i wish i still thought santa was real nothing could beat that feeling on xmas eve i cant wait to have my own children so i can enjoy that all over again leaveing a carrot and mince pie out with a glass of milk off to bed at 7 and not being able to fall asleep for ages hoping to hear bells on the roof.

this may sound a bit sissy like but xmas is a good time of year i like it alot

[Yudster]

Aw you're so sweet! And I agree.

[MK Chris]

He still doesn't use sentences very well though..

[foot-loose]

Time for Quote-A-Thon XXII - "Quote That (Back For Good)"

Another thing: the lights being on in George Square, Glasgow, means Xmas is almost here. And, they will shortly be installing the ice-rink, which is there for one month just of the year.

I went skating there two years ago - never ever doing that again. I simply was not designed to balance on two knife blades. Also, wee kids of about 5 years old were WAY better than I could ever hope to be. Foot-looses are not meant to skate.

Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin Stevens...... top trumps any Christmas song.

I'd almost agree with you - joint first with Fairytale of New Yoik.

That comes fifth.

I may have missed it if you said it, but what comes top four then?

Did you know the only reason Father Christmas wears a 'Red Suit' is because of CocaCola marketing? I believe he had a green suit before he appeared in old cocacola adverts, where he adopted a red suit, and then it just stuck.

I'll see if i can find online evidence...

I used to agree, but it was proved to be an urban legend - Coca Cola probably helped though...

It's an urban legend:

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/santa.asp

... see!

I love all xmas...
I love xmas ...
I LOVE XMAS TV ...

Hah, so you are a bit partial to the festive season then?

[Yudster]

At least he is trying to contribute though - most of the bad spellers/txt speakers/grammatical incompetents don't even do that. And he's better than a lot of them.

[MK Chris]

That comes fifth.

I may have missed it if you said it, but what comes top four then?

There are four Christmas songs I quite like, which are (in order)

The Pogues - Fairytale of New York (which is brilliant and none of the others come close)
Slade - Merry Christmas Everybody
Wizzard - I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day
Bing Crosby - White Christmas

All the others are a pile of shite.

(Although when I said that I was forgetting Shakin' Stevens.)

At least he is trying to contribute though - most of the bad spellers/txt speakers/grammatical incompetents don't even do that. And he's better than a lot of them.

True. It's still difficult to read though (even more than not putting paragraphs in...!)

[foot-loose]

The Pogues - Fairytale of New York (which is brilliant and none of the others come close)
Slade - Merry Christmas Everybody
Wizzard - I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day
Bing Crosby - White Christmas

All the others are a pile of shite.
(Although when I said that I was forgetting Shakin' Stevens.)

Hmmm

I find that Slade and Wizzard are irritating now - Don't get me wrong, I like them, Christmas music certainly gets my juices flowing, but there's only so many times I can hear "IITTTSSS CCCHHHRIIIISSSTTTMMAMAASSS" before I get annoyed. I prefer the Oasis cover of the Wizzard song.

I'd have:

The Pogues
Shakin Stevens
Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song (The version with his daughter (called Natalie) is pretty good as well - recorded after he died)
Band Aid (the original)

I kinda like 'A Winters Tale' as well - Michael Ball

[MK Chris]

Hahaha - Michael Ball invalidates your whole opinion..

[foot-loose]

Shush.

It's a nice wee tune.

[Console]

I like that song too, and the Michael Ball version is probably the best: -

http://www.michaelball.co.uk/soundclips/christmas/a_winters_tale.rm

[Sunny So Cal]

"White Christmas," "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts one)," "All I Want for Christmas Is You," "Silver Bells," "Christmas in Killarney," "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas," U2's "Christmas Baby (Please Come Home)," "Fairytale of New York" & "Christmas Wrapping."

Billy's comments were darling, by the way.

And, my Christmas lights are up outside the house already. I put them up Saturday. There's so many strands & decorations that traffic stops in front of the house every year. All the neighbors come by with their little children to enjoy them and thank me. It's very sweet. Other than Halloween it's the only time of year I see these people. Oh sure, you can't pop the garage or run the dishwasher or clothes dryer from 5pm to 11pm without the fuses going, but it's all in the spirit of things

[Yudster]

Exterior decorations are getting more popular over here too sunny. I like twinkly lights, but the massive novelty figures are horrible. I can't stand the people who write to the papers every year complaining about them being vulgar and intrusive though - so what? It's Christmas, and if someone wants revolting inflatable Santas and novelty reindeer in their garden, let them!The kids always like it anyway.

[claradooblue]

That's all true and the sort of people who write in to newspapers will find anything to complain about. However, why do these decorations have to go up so early. We've had the street decorations up around where i live for a while now, due to Eid; that's fine. It's the house decorations that go up in september that i can't understand.

[MK Chris]

Exterior decorations are getting more popular over here too sunny.

Round our way (in some streets) houses in the same street compete with each other for the most extravagant decorations.

I can't stand the people who write to the papers every year complaining about them being vulgar and intrusive though - so what? It's Christmas, and if someone wants revolting inflatable Santas and novelty reindeer in their garden, let them!

People write into the papers about that? I don't read the letters page in newspapers very often.

I do sometimes pop on to the "Have Your Say" section on the BBC News web site if I need a giggle though.

[Yudster]

There are loads of people doing that in our village and the surrounding area - but thankfully none of them have started yet! I expect an explosion of tackyness by the end of next week though.

[Vivienne]

According to Edith Bowman, one billion pounds approximately will be spent this year on pressies by those living in the U.K. Yikes.

[MK Chris]

Yeah, but there are around 60 million UK residents, and the sensible ones have been buying for a little while.

I bet the average adult would spend around £500-£1000 on presents.

[Yudster]

Can someone who can do numbers and stuff tell me how much that works out to as an average per person?

[Vivienne]

I've done up a topic about this, because it feel it may make quite a good discussion

[Console]

Can someone who can do numbers and stuff tell me how much that works out to as an average per person?

Well, presuming that the billion refers to Giga (and not Tera), then a quick bit of mental arithmetic works it out as about £16.66 per person, but if we assume that only 50%* of the population is going to buy presents then it's £33.33. This number seems far too low to me, so unless the people buying gifts is somewhere in the region of 25% (which I extremely doubt), then I suspect that the amount spent is far higher.

* It's obviously likely to be far higher than that, but it does show that it's not really a lot of money

[Vivienne]

A quick bit of arithmetic! HA! That would have taken me all week. And what are Giga and Tera?