How are you today?

So, that would be most of all our relationships? Wrong thread for this.

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If you think the latter point is true, you probably shouldn’t raise the former one, as that constitutes debate on the topic and invites response.

Hey lovelies,

As discussed above, we are moving away from the original point of this thread, and these areas would be best covered in a separate thread.

Hugs,

Ross

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As an update, As of this morning their were three stages of restrictions in the UK.

I’m currently under tier 4, which is basically…

So we’re all back in trying to find a new, new normal. Hope everyone’s keeping safe.

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I propose that we just move Christmas to July…

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Why not June, which would be half a year?

I’ve always wondered that myself.

The idea of re-scheduling our midwinter festival to winter is not new in Australia, but it has always been promoted as “Christmas in July” rather than, say, St John’s Day. No-one has ever explained to me why the postponement is seven months and not half a year. I think it might have to do with restaurants and hotels wanting to fill in a gap in their bookings after the Queen’s un-Birthday in June.

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I assume in the case of the UK, at least, it’s because July is warmer. June doesn’t feel like peak Summer (ignoring the fact that Christmas isn’t peak winter…)

That’s exactly the fact I wouldn’t ignore, thought.

If there’s an American influence (which there probably is from simple cultural diffusion), the idea of July as “summer celebration time” might well slip in that way.

This actually makes very little difference to me, because I already hadn’t planned to go out visiting people at Christmas. I do realise that it matters a lot to some people, and I’m sympathetic; it just isn’t the gut-punch for me that it clearly is for some.

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@Benkyo is correct - July is warmer. The school summer holidays also start in July.

I wasn’t denying that. I just don’t see it as relevant.

You can read “July” as “an arbitrary date in the future when things may be less terrible” if you prefer.

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As a math geek, I’m sympathetic to “without loss of generality” as an argumentative mode. But it wouldn’t occur to me to move Christmas to an arbitrary day; I would move it to 25 June, the calendrically symmetrical day.

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I’m basically the same. I mentally checked out of Christmas when I was 12 (I remember it distinctly because I slept late) and my wife and I don’t celebrate it.

I know, right? Stores will have “Christmas in July” sales, but I always thought it should be June instead.

Also, many on this thread are showing their northern hemisphere bias toward Christmas in winter. ; )
Living in California, I don’t associate Christmas with snow (unless we drove up to the Sierras) and it isn’t that cold.

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Being from the Canary Islands, and now living in the Southern Hemisphere, I can relate to going to the beach in Christmas again. The rest of the family still find it awkward, but I was like that for 25 years, no winter all year round does that to you, I guess.

Still, I did enjoy Christmas in July when we did it. It is an excuse to wear silly jumpers and put a tree up and some lights, who cares. Is not like the birth of JC (alleged) matters that much in Christmas in general any more.

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And I to Midsummer Day, the traditional quarter-day corresponding. Except that I wouldn’t call it “Midsummer” here, of course. Too many murders.

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When I spent a year in Oz, I so wanted to have a BBQ on the beach for Christmas dinner.

It pissed it down for two days… Bah humbug.

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We met with 12 families yesterday for a spontaneous Christmas/Advent party… it lasted 3.5 hours until everyone was rather tired from staring at their screens … we met on our jitsi server and almost everyone I told about it (just one day before) showed up.

It was good, I really needed that—to see everyone and their children not in person but still together… :heart_eyes:

At the end I could tell they were all really tired but nobody wanted to leave…

After a couple of exhausting weeks, I feel recharged and ready to tackle the holidays :slight_smile:

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How good is Jitsi, better than Zoom?

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