Merry Christmas Everyone
What are some of your favorite memories from Christmas? Share them here :)
- Josh :)
- Josh :)
But my favorite was Christmas 1999. My girlfriend was out of town with her family and there was no reason to go home to mine, so I was alone (my roommates were with their families too). I decided to go to the movies in Emeryville.
I was going to see Galaxy Quest, Bicentennial Man, and Man on the Moon. The timing lined up perfectly to see all three. About 50 other people were there to do the same thing. When it was time to go in for the first movie, a staff member came out and told us that it would start about 30 minutes late. This would of course cause us to miss all the other movies.
About 30 people stepped forward at the same time and asked to speak to the manager. :). We explained to him that it would throw our whole schedule off. Since it was Christmas, he was kind enough to adjust the schedule so that we could all see all three movies.
That was a great day.
https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&releas...
Many consider 1994 the best single year for movies ever.
I got really lucky that that was also my peak movie going year.
Pulp Fiction
Lion King
The Mask
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Dumb and Dumber
The Crow
Speed
True Lies
Interview with the Vampire
Natural Born Killers
Ace Ventura
Stargate
Clerks
The list goes on. Lot's of movies that turned out to be classics or cult classics, or the start of some great careers.
This was a time when movies were on VHS tapes, and there was a bit before the start of the movie that said something like “have you seen every movie ever made?”[1]
And at the time it certainly felt like we had watch nearly everything that store and one other had over the previous five years.
1. https://youtu.be/VfuzebAAesk?si=z3-HYkZwJK6mmtWP - I think there was at least a couple variations
But the elevator lobby shootout from Matrix -- that scene ruled my home theater configuration for at least a decade
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I watched Dark City years after watching The Matrix (on opening in the cinema) and I enjoyed it very much, have watched it multiple times over the years.
Here is Dark City’s director Alex Proyas: “Alex Proyas on: The Matrix copying Dark City” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytxjsetVIRM
And this is a juxtaposition of some scenes with background music: “The Matrix vs. Dark City.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moW17YHl6B8
This is Mr. Hand [Richard O’Brien] talking in ”Memories of Shell Beach”:
> It was a very groovy movie, you see?
> I remember saying to Rufus Sewell [who played the protagonist], I said, you know, it actually, truthfully, it really doesn’t matter, does it, whether it’s a box-office success because we’re going to get paid as actors anyway, sorry Alex [Proyas] but this is true, we’re gonna get paid as actors anyway and isn’t it nice to be part of something which is groovy?
Existenz was another unique underappreciated movie of that year and whose theme never got picked by any other movie. When Jude Law realizes that the Chinese food he is eating can be put together to assemble the gun my mind was blown.
Saw all of them in 1999 / 2000, my career direction was decided in that brief period.
Also tried 1973 — same (The Day of the Jackal, Soylent Green, Westworld, The Wicker Man, Papillon, American Graffiti, The Sting, Serpico, Mean Streets, High Plains Drifter, Don't Look Now, Badlands, The Long Goodbye, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Three Musketeers, Fantastic Planet, etc.).
I think they simply made better movies decades ago.
It's Christmas, I shouldn't be so negative.
I think I'll indulge in Alastair Sims' version of "A Christmas Carol".
The other lazy writing is the lack of conflict resolution enabling a continuous source of needless conflict, making an entire show out of a situation that could have easily been resolved if there had been a single ‘adult’ in the room. This has the added problem of normalizing the extreme confrontational or evasive communication styles as opposed to productive engagements. I guess this is what happens when TV raises a generation and then that generation goes on to make their own TV shows, each cycle worse than the previous. As bad as ‘engagement’/‘rage bait’ YouTubers are now I shudder to imagine what the next generation would bring.
Many catchy classic Christmas songs were written by Jewish songwriters.
Christmas in the Heart (2009) - 34th Studio album by Bob Dylan
Rudolph has an odd nose, and he gets chosen to lead all the other Reindeer! Kids love this song. You teach it to them when they are young and they'll never forget it!
"I saw a spiral pad... Forty minutes later that song was written. I wrote all the music and some of the lyrics."
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
- The New Testament
My parents felt otherwise when I was growing up, so my siblings and I weren't allowed to do anything Christmas related, but now my wife and I would do seasonal things like watch a live performance of Nutcracker or Pentatonix or TSO. And can't forget about watching the holiday classic movies like Elf and Die Hard!
For example, Christmas trees date back no later than the middle ages:
- Yule
- Dísablót
- Koliada
- Lohri
- Saturnalia
- Yaldā Night
- Nardoqan
In the absence of evidence about the timing being affected by other festivals and in the presence of much evidence that all the actual traditions are far more recent than pagan, I don't believe it's fair to claim Christmas has pagan origins. The absolute best we can do is say that its timing may have been influenced by other, pre-Christian celebrations.
Here's another one on Saturnalia from the same scholar:
Later during Soviet times secularish Christmas traditions including Ded Moroz were moved to New Year's.
My general take is that every major religion has some sort of solstice related celebration.
As near as I can tell the myth of the pagan origins of Christmas has its roots in fundamentalist Christians who wanted to abolish things that aren't contained in the Bible. "Pagan" made a good rhetorical whip at the time, but it's since been taken as a serious approach to history by popular culture.
ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/share/676c8fd1-b6e0-8005-a86f-d43ac17634...
Grok: https://x.com/i/grok/share/8fQKIFO1WGl3nDVZ6uFaJmPTW
†Grok on proving negatives: https://x.com/i/grok/share/kcHkjqzJ5lx5kMyl4GL0nMuw3
I provided a source from a religious studies scholar on Christmas trees specifically (one of the most frequently-cited "pagan" traditions). If you can point me to something with similar provenance I'll read it, but I'm not going to waste time on LLM responses.
Saturnalia? (I’m watching your video.)
Given how diversely Christmas is celebrated, it seems wild to conclude that it hasn’t been significantly affected by predecessor celebrations.
What is the argument for it not having influenced many modern Christmas practices, including but not limited to the celebration’s timing in the West?
FWIW, I'm very open to the timing having been shifted to coincide with other festivals, but that's not what most people mean when they say Christmas has pagan origins. They're not saying that Christmas isn't actually the day Jesus was born (I'm totally on board with that idea), they're saying that X, Y, and Z aspects of the Christmas celebration were originally pagan and were adapted for Christianity. I have seen no compelling evidence in favor of that claim about any aspect of Christmas traditions, and I've seen plenty against.
The drunken revelry?
1. Christmas has its origins in Saturnalia, but the only remaining similarity is the approximate date and the drunkenness.
2. Humans will happily accept any excuse to get drunk during the longest nights of the year.
I lean towards option 2 as a much simpler and more likely explanation.
Personally for me, it's a good excuse to take time off work and hang out and feast with people who also have time off work. I personally think that (at least in the States) it's basically a Commercial Holiday, in that it just encourages over-consumption, consumerisation.
It's not something I personally want to do for my family, but I don't think any less of families that do that.
Soviet style New Year's is still celebrated in a number of post Soviet countries including I believe to some extent in some of the Muslim ones. It's also celebrated by post Soviet Jews in Israel and to some extent the US. Although the recent full scale invasion on Ukraine might effect popularity due to it's Soviet association.
In fact my friend's house is featured in the top link on HN right now. He's helped me with my own show.
Talk to them about their youth, when they were wild and rebellious. Find out what trouble they caused. Remind them, and it just might crack the encrusted exterior a little bit.
Classic.
If you are Jewish, Christmas obviously isn't nearly as important to your (often nominally) Christian neighbors and there isn't much to do on Christmas day. If you decide you don't want to cook, Chinese restaurants are way over-represented in the choice of open restaurants. Once you do that for a couple years it becomes its own tradition.
I grew up in a Catholic household but my family, after years of making Turkey and spending hours cooking, for the past few years has switched to Chinese food on Christmas. I don't miss the turkey and gravy.
Source: family apocrypha.
This is all apocrypha, so take it with a grain of salt. But my understanding is that this would be a case where marit ayin would not be a significant concern, since the Chinese dishes in question were not visually identifiable as e.g. pork.
Or another framing: if you were a semi-secular family (like mine) that tried to keep a semi-kosher home, it would be easier to eat a dish that contained finely minced pork or shellfish or similar. American Chinese food fits those parameters while also being available on Christmas, etc.
I came into this thread thinking that I don't really have any great Christmas memories. My family was poor growing up, my parents shouldn't have been together for as long as they tried to make it work, and my father had a lot of issues with drugs and alcohol. But now that I think about it, these Christmas Eve memories with my wife are my favorite.
She did her best, given that my grandfather was old fashioned and had stopped her from going to school after she became twelve, although she was among the smartest in her class.
That Christmas she had bought me the brand new then Sinclair ZX81 personal computer. We were visiting the grandparents in a small village near Athens.
I spend the night by the fireplace with a small portable TV and the machine, typing in games published in the UK PC magazines of that time and occasionally watching the Chrstmas shows. Debugging my typos was the way I learned how programming works.
Nothing really interesting here, but I am remembering that night again and again so when I saw the prompt I felt I should share. Merry Christmas everyone.
Since you asked for the greek market I can share one more memory. About a year later, 1982, I wanted to upgrade to Texas Instruments TI-99/4A so I tried to see a machine up close going to the local representative. I ended up at the "company's HQ" which was a small residence appartment in the fifth floor of a building.
I found the door open so I entered a room full with boxes thrown around randomely. After waiting alone for an awkward period of 5-10 minutes, the owner of the company himself emerges from the bathroom with a wet face and kind of surprised to see me. He listened to what I wanted. "It's somewhere there, go and have a look" it's all what he said. He couldn't care less.
13 years later I had my own small company and reselling PC and equimpent was part of the job. The man with the wet face was one of the biggest suppliers in Greece, since besides Texas Instruments he moved on to be the representative of Intel and Microsoft and reseller of many others and the company became on of the biggest in Greece.
Maybe his mentality ("there it is, go and have a look") never changed much though, because a couple decades later the company went bankrupt.
On Christmas day, it ran a program which asked for our names (my sister or I) and then printed out a personalised message and small game.
Only years later did I really think about him setting up this program days or weeks before hand, learning to code it all in Atari Basic, for that big reveal on the day.
He always had menial blue collar jobs because of his working class Irish Catholic background, and he died before I really got into computers/dev later on in life, so I never really got to ask him about it.
Enjoy the day everyone and hopefully build up some nice family memories!
I was born in Istanbul, a sprawling, chaotic city that's a fascinating blend of thousands of cultures. Christmas was always a thing there, even under an Islamist regime. As a non-believer, I never cared much for religious holidays, but I did enjoy the cozy decorations and sipping Glühwein (mulled wine). Beyond that, it didn't mean much to me.
Now I live in Germany. My first Christmas here, back in 2009, was quite different. I was alone in a rented room provided by my employer, watching TV shows I couldn't understand on a tiny screen, just trying to pass the time. My laptop wasn't working (the charging cable was broken), and I was bored out of my mind.
Around 6 PM, there was a knock on the door. It was my employer, heading to a hippie-style gathering in the forest to celebrate Christmas. He figured I might be alone and decided to come in person since I hadn't answered my phone.
Of course, I said yes, and it turned out to be one of the most heartwarming experiences of my life. The group was incredibly kind, and even though I was the only foreigner, they went out of their way to make me feel included (switching to English when talking to each other, for example). The setting was magical: small fires inside carved logs, nature-themed decorations, and delicious food I'd never tasted before. I was so happy.
That day, my love for Germany grew a hundredfold.
My third year in college, we had a new Warden (head of college) and while he, like all the other academic staff, generally vacated the college over Christmas, he felt obliged to offer Christmas hospitality.
So he sent out an email to the entire student population: "Any students in college over Christmas are welcome to come to the Warden's Lodge for afternoon tea at 3pm on Christmas Day." -- and as I was the only student in college over the vacation, I had a lovely afternoon talking to the Warden and his wife.
Graduate students generally don't have much interaction with college academic life -- undergrads usually meet with the Warden every term, but grad students are left to the academic departments to supervise -- so it was a rare and precious opportunity.
I was maybe about ten. It was fairly average refractor on a wooden tripod but, growing up in an environment where things like that weren't the norm, I didn't understand that at the time.
On Christmas day my family, my aunts and uncles and cousins, would all cram themselves into my grandparent's small council house for Christmas dinner. Then the kids would play with their toys and try not to get stood on by the slighly tipsy adults. Too many people in too small a space, but I have happy memories.
When it got dark, that time, I took my new scope out into my grandparent's small front garden to look at the moon and try (unsuccessfully as I remember) to locate a planet. It was very cold, and people wandering past kept asking me what I was doing. I could hear everyone indoors talking and laughing. Eventually it started to snow very lightly, so I packed up and stood watching the snow for a while and then went back indoors.
That was amost fifty years ago, but I remember how my universe suddenly got hugely bigger that day. And the snowflakes coming down in the dark.
I passed the telescope on to five year old friend a few years ago. I don't know what she makes of it though: she can get images from the Hubble and James Webb on her tablet, if she wants.
Merry Christmas everyone.
I have had to recreate Christmas for my family on my own - my wife is Turkish and although she is not highly religious (especially about food!) it was not a "thing" for her for most of her life.
When I was living in Istanbul with her, Christmas was just another working day although I noticed a somewhat wistful attitude - people who sort of wished to join in but felt they were on the outside. The occasional Christmas tree. It was very odd for me. I couldn't surmount those odds and I also had never had to be the initiator. When my mum died years and years ago, everything died.
Back in the UK it's easier and I have a daughter so I HAVE to make it happen. I'm not that good at it but today my daughter, without telling me, filled my christmas stocking :-) So the bug has caught on. :-)
Now it's time to have breakfast and open presents from under the tree.
I wish a very joyful day to everyone. I risk controversy by saying that Christmas was not originally a religious festival and whatever religion you are, you're not excluded from enjoying it. It was a "middle-of-winter" party and I think it was to keep Northern Europeans spirits up at the darkest time of the year. That it has turned into "good will to all men" is great but it isn't owned by any church.
Every year it reminds me how I eventually became an IT professional.
My parents took us children to the village restaurant before Christmas. Must have been 1983. Then we were asked what we wish for Christmas and I had not really thought about that, yet. Some of my friends have been talking about a computer. I had no idea what exactly that meant or what to use it for but it sounded cool. Computer. Also I knew that the brand was Commodore.
So when asked what I want for Christmas I said "A Commodore computer".
The next day it dawned on me that it might be a good idea to find out what my Christmas wish actually was. In a toy catalog I found a Commodore C64 computer and decided that must be my Christmas whish. I started collecting the limited info that was publicly availabe about computer.
In a proper Christmas story I would get my C64 and live happily ever after. But my parents were not sure if such an expensive present should be bought.
My mother found a book about the basics of Computers though and I got that later for birthday. Now I really wanted one. I sometimes took a 30 min. Bus ride to the neighbour university town and there was a department store with a computer department and you were allowed to try them. So all you had to do is use the book to prepare some BASIC programme at home in paper. Take the bus, find a free computer in the store, key the programme in, hope that it works on that version of BASIC and you had a programme.
2 years later my parents seemed convinced that I really wanted a computer and got me a C128. Much better BASIC for structured programming. And from then I happily lived ever after. Or so.
Whenever I feel stress, overworked, or frustrated with colleagues as an IT professional, I remember what got me into programming and all the fun I had with these computers.
Then I could do computer school homework in M2 on my Amiga and just had to translate it to Turbo Pascal in school to submit it :-)
I had rented Final Fantasy 7 from Blockbuster so many times that my brother decided to get it for me for Christmas. Even though I never really snooped for presents he decided to mess with my head and wrapped it in two large bath towels and put it in an even larger box. This giant package below the tree for me, and it sounded like cloth - I figured it must've been a jacket or something until I opened it.
Another time I was looking for something (not presents) in my parent's room, and happened to find a very poorly hidden Playstation 2 from my father. The waiting until Christmas part was fitting punishment for accidental snooping.
Some of the finest memories are just a jumble of similar situations though. Christmas Eve was the night my entire local family would gather at my maternal grandmother's house, and we'd all have a big meal and sit around chatting afterwards.
Then there's that one Christmas Eve when I asked my now-wife to marry me. I knew she'd say yes but there's always that little bit of fear about it. I wanted to ask when everyone I loved would be around.
Time sure flies. Both my father and my maternal grandmother have passed since the last time we all celebrated Christmas together.
Merry Christmas.
I see my family too rarely because of the everyday hustle. I love the holidays for the slow pace, the long lunches and dinners. Talking about nothing and everything.
This is how I feel about Xmas, thanks for putting it in words.
Your favorite memory warms my heart.
I hope 2025 brings you more luck than 2024 did.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas Sam
The best non-Christmas morning memories were just random times I was at family Christmas parties or gatherings. Seeing aunts, uncles, and cousins dancing talking having fun. As a kid, we used to have the parties at family homes, which was always fun and super memorable. Later we moved to a hall as the family got bigger and cousins started to bring their children, in laws, and friends. I can't really point out any particular memory as good; just all the time spent with family, not necessarily caring about what else was going on in the world at the time.
Which ones if you're able to recall?
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499003/ [2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0208654/ [3] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290683/
My mom was enthralled by Tetris, better at the game than anyone in the house by a good 10 levels, and basically impossible to depose from the controller. I think it softened the blow with Grandma.
That slowly became a schism between our already chaotic households (his wife, my mom) It culminated with him buying my 100yo birth home, suddenly evicting us and then razing the house to make sure we never returned. I was 19 and homeless. Also, my mom had terminal cancer.
Nevertheless, my best Christmas memory is just me and my brother and a walk in the woods. There isn't much to it other than an exceptional moment where having a brother felt like a good thing.
When I was 16, we (Wash DC region) had a rare white Christmas. My brother called the house early and invited me to walk. No families, just us, the snow and the woods (the land was my childhood and is all gone now). Mostly he called me because he had coke and wanted company. (His wife didn't know; he did quit after.)
For that hour or so, we were happy and unburdened by everything we'd ever done to each other. The morning felt like a gift. Probably our last one.
When I was in college and home for Thanksgiving, my folks invited everyone out to dinner. After ordering, my dad would often introduce a topic of discussion that we'd bat around until the food came. That year he said: if you didn't need to worry about money or success, what other career path might you find interesting. Without much thought I said, I'd like to play electric bass, due to the fact that when I listened to albums, I was really mostly following the bass. I don't even recall what my other siblings said.
On Christmas day there were the usual gifts: socks and underwear, a couple of new shirts, and a book or two. But after that was all done, my dad said: tomorrow when the music store is open, let's go buy a bass. It was a $200 hondo (a fender p-bass knockoff) and a 15 watt Crate amp. What an extravagant gift! I'm 60 now and still playing, though never professionally. :-)
That hondo had action so high I needed to attach a parachute to each note I played.
Such a wise way to both elicit ideas and encourage introspection. Very inspiring!
My dad had brought over a self-propelled walk behind snowblower to help my uncle clear a sidewalk in front of the house. My cousin and I were doing as kids did in the 90s, running around in the snow having fun when we made a discovery. A squirrel had not survived the cold and was frozen solid.
My dad and uncle had gone inside for some reason and left the snowblower unattended. We decided that it would be really funny if we put the squirrel in the snowblower chute, so that when they turned it on it would shoot out and we'd all have a good laugh.
Except that isn't what happened. The frozen squirrel blocked the auger mechanism from working correctly and after some very unpleasant noises some kind of belt or other part broke. The squirrel was not hilariously propelled across the sky as anticipated / desired.
My dad and uncle were PISSED, I am sure there was some fallout but it's gotta be one of my all time favorite holiday / winter shenanigans I've been involved with.
On a sad note, this is my first Christmas alone after going through divorce earlier this year. I hope you get to spend time with your loved ones, and I encourage you to remind them how you feel about them. You never know how much time you have left, so make the most of it. You have less than you think don't wait. Tell them now.
Up until I was about 10 years old, my family would drive to my grandparents’ house every year to celebrate Christmas Eve with my extended family. We’d track Santa using the NORAD Santa tracker (which, by coincidence, reports Santa being in San Francisco as I type this) and open presents from my grandparents.
One year, I got a Kindle Fire, which was the first computing device I called my own. Because I didn’t have my own computer and the family computer was usually being used, I did most of my early programming on the Kindle by downloading an app called AIDE that allowed me to compile Android apps on Android (of which the Kindle ran a modified version) and sideload them. By the time next Christmas had rolled around, I’d built my first complete Android application—a graphing calculator complete with support for basic algebraic expressions, trigonometric functions, and a page that explained what every supported mathematical function did and how it worked. I was so excited to show my cousins and grandparents.
We even have this whole thing on video.
A few years ago I was a bit down abd feeling like I'd never experience that kind of excitement and joy again. I've come to realize that now I'm older it's my job to create that same joy in others.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and can find a way to create just a little moment of joy for someone else. Merry Christmas!
To everyone else, I hope you have a nice festive break!
One of my fondest Christmas memories was when my brother and I got a PlayStation 1 for Christmas, the excitement and entertainment was amazing, we had graduated from Gameboys to 3D graphics. My brother is very competitive so it was the best to win against him in the car racing game (Tommi Mäkinen Rally). I can't remember what other game we got but I do remember he and I playing Command on Conquer years later and that background music is burned into my mind :D
Years later with my own kid I have a greater appreciation for the expense and planning our parents went through to find one for us.
My parents have been so good and kind to me, we were never poor but money was always tight with my dad being a small business owner with some ups and many downs, and yet they never failed to provide memorable gifts when I was a kid. I was very happy back then, but just as an adult I came to appreciate the sacrifices they must have made for me.
Here in Australia, Christmas is in our summer, so we used to have watermelon seed wars where everyone runs around the house eating watermelon as fast as possible to build up a mouthful of seeds to use as 'ammo' to machine gun spit at everyone else.
Was hilarious, and a very long time ago...
Back at the end of eighties and beginning nineties I used to go to my uncle and aunt (my mom's immediately old sister) home and I would spend time with my cousins, from which three of them were orphans. Fortunately the family could take care of everyone.
I would spend time with one of my orphan cousins (we are just one year apart) and my older sister playing some games like hide and seek around the house, I was hardly 7-8 yo.
My uncle and aunt are not among us anymore but at least I keep nice memories.
This was in Spain. Currently I am in Asia.
broke up with her in may this year; this is my first xmas all alone. all my friends and family moved out of state years ago, and i spent all my vacation days and sick days studying for a coding interview that i had last week for my dream job. i bombed it, partly because of anxiety, partly because ive been procedural programming for 8 years and suck at OOP principles, and partly because the PTSD makes it tough to study/concentrate around xmas.
anyway, im drinking a bottle of mccallan, out here alone with my two cats, and its still a better xmas than the last two years. apologies for trauma dumping, just tipsy i guess.
oh and i did get the oracle java 8 associate cert last night, so i got that going for me, which is nice.
edit:
best xmas memory was playing KOTOR 1 when it came out, while eating a big tub of dansk sugar cookies. that dantooine music was lovely
If it's any encouragement, I bombed a bunch of interviews during my 14 months of unemployment, but in January I'm returning to a position I loved.
Just saying that you shouldn't extrapolate too much from even a string of such things.
Hope your new year is awesome.
Sorry about the job, happens to the best of us. I think when it's the dream job you're that much more likely to bomb. I quit my dream job because it couldn't pay the bills and joined a place I thought I wouldn't last at, now in year 8 it turns out it was the dream job.
anyway. got surgery to fix that apnea issue in july, and ive been getting back to my old self.
edit: the other jarring thing was just how successful i was at work. anyone that uses AWS lambda benefited from my projects in 2023/2024 - some of that stuff got L10 visibility inside AWS. i guess i spent all my mental energy at work, even though i was (and still am) fully remote/WFH. anyway it was tough to reconcile my failures in my personal life with my successes in work life - i was both a failure and a success.
All that’s a long way to say I’m sorry for what you went through, and if any of what I’ve said resonates, you’re not alone and I encourage you to forgive yourself.
Enjoy your Christmas. Being alone ain’t the worst thing in the world.
[Insert TMI story.] Cycle of abuse: https://psychcentral.com/health/cycle-of-abuse
Fortunately, it ended ok. I healed for over a year before dating again, and dated someone for exactly a year to make sure it was good relationship. It still is. :D
Merry Christmas.
I feel this. Can't tell you how many interviews I bombed because of anxiety. The worst one I had spent like 3 months interviewing with the company, passed all of their tests, etc. When it came time to meet the team, I just froze. I answered all of their questions correctly, but it was like I wasn't myself. I became extremely slow, stammering my words, and just blanking out. The CTO couldn't take it anymore and said "just stop talking. This isn't going to work". I quickly ended the call without saying anything and felt so defeated. What is wrong with me.
That was years ago. I'm much better now, mostly because I have the confidence in my skills, but it still comes up, especially when people are being aggressive during interviews.
Anyway, Merry Christmas. I wish you the best.
The range of human experiences is significant. Humans communicate using the same languages and same expressions but mentally, different people are wired very differently.
Trauma seems to spread like a virus.
One of the junior introverted female developer was coaxed into being the Santa for gift distribution. She really shines as Santa and thoroughly enjoyed it. What's more, she even coaxed others to dance while accepting the gift and everybody has a good time.
My most memorable so far.
I also had an aunt who loved giving magazine subscriptions. Thanks to her, I had long-running subscriptions to Discover, Scientific American, Omni, and later BYTE. And, of course, the most important one of all: Dungeon!
Feliz Natal
नाताळच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छा!
As a kid born on X’mas eve, Christmas has been special to me, even in the dusty provincial non-Christian town of Central India.
After moving to Germany, and having a kid, I appreciate Christmas (Weihnachtsferien) even more nowadays. What a wonderful season of festivity
May this festival season bring happiness and joy to you and your loved ones.
It was at my first job and first time away from home. I was single and so was a colleague from work.
There was no one in the office that night. So we installed unreal tournament, played "mistress of Christmas" out loud, ordered in some food from a nearby restaurant and played a lan game till past midnight. Then we went home.
We were a bit scared to even stop playing, because we didn’t have any memory card to save progress on at first. But we left the console powered on over night and resumed playing the next day, and did the same for the next few days and then my father went and bought a memory card so we could save the progress.
Good times :)
As a non Christian immigrant, my parents did their best to understand and embrace the "good parts" of Christmas. We went from just having dinner to now exchanging presents and spending time together as a family. My wife is from the US and grew up with Christmas being a very big deal (and lavish with presents). She took it to the next level once we got together. Now, with kids, it's taken on a new life.
So, I guess my real answer: Christmas just gets better every year. I hope it continues to for me and does for all of you!
Good health, wealth and tidings to all of you - kindred spirits from all around the world!
After much convincing from his patient grandmother, the boy finally participated, his parents knew he had a hard time, and they told him that there was a present for him before the dinner (in our tradition, we open presents on christmas eve, after the dinner), so he thought they were taking pity on him, he said no, he didn't want any presents.
They asked him softly to consider it again, and he heard something in their voices and a feeling of intense shame came over him, he saw the giant boxes, inside it, a brand new PC, gifted from a wealthy, but distant relative who "thought it might be healthy for the boys development of his interest". He cried, out of shame, and out of happiness, and he grew up so much in those moments, to feel so undeserving and yet grateful. That computer was with him the next 6 years, a 100 mhz pentium, 16 mib of RAM, 814 mib (fat32 formatted) harddisk, 4x CD rom drive. 14" color monitor, windows 95, 3 button logitech ps/2 mouse, and ESS AudioDrive sound card(soundblaster 100% compatible). On that machine, he learned so much, and when he trashed it, there was nobody to help him format it, so in time, he figured it out, by trail and error, how to format and reinstall windows and drivers. What a time to be alive. That computer was upgraded with a Voodoo card, a CD burner, an ISA network card (he dragged it to many LANs at friends houses and at the local youth club), at some point 32 mib ram was added too. That machine sits behind me right now, still fully functional. It's not an understatement to say that that experience formed me as a human being, as well as helped shape my future and career, having unlimited and unrestrained access to a computer as a kid probably saved my life in more ways than one. So that is one of my favorite christmas memories.
This year, I’m flying solo. My wife and daughter are visiting family in India, and my mum’s spending the holidays with my younger brother and his family. With the house unusually quiet, I’ve decided to knock the rust off my frontend skills and catch up with all the new tooling.
Not a bad way to spend a quiet Christmas, really. Hope everyone’s having a lovely one, whether with family or a bit of peaceful coding!
My wife and I were dead tired, and my son woke us up in a state of complete excitement. She headed downstairs to “check for elves” and prepare a few things, with me and kiddo at the top of the stairs.
When the elves were confirmed to have vacated, I went down, followed by my son. We somehow got him to wait for me to sit on the couch and then… he rounded the corner. My son started singing “deck the halls” The look of pure joy and innocence and excitement is a memory I will treasure forever.
We’ve since tragically lost my wife to cancer, and although he’s much older now, we maintain most of the little traditions and either still believe or pretend to each other to believe a few special aspects of our celebration. Christmas was my wife’s joy and we revere it in a unique way.
Crăciun fericit! I can only hope for more peace in the world for the next year.
PS1 has got to be my most memorable gift. That loading screen is burned into the OLED of my subconscious.
I like how jakebasile put it though:
> Some of the finest memories are just a jumble of similar situations though.
Archetypical Xmas AM is me, my brother, and my mom. It was always a huge exercise of my willpower to wait for my brother (5 years older, lifelong night owl) to wake up. My single mom would always lavish us in gifts. We were relatively poor in our area; Xmas was the day she made us feel as wealthy as kings. I later learned that she sometimes racked up huge credit card debt to give us this experience. I haven't done an Xmas tree for myself in years but when our baby comes I will for sure revive that magical experience for her. In the late AM we would drive over to my aunt/uncle/cousins and enjoy bagels, talk about the gifts we got, and watch movies. Everyone stayed in cozy pajamas all day, I think that's a small but important part of why this day often felt different.
In later years Xmas Eve is now my fondest jumble of memories. Growing up, we did not have people at the house. I resented my mom's antisociality a bit. But then one year, the family member who usually hosted Xmas Eve said they were tired of it. Quite the surprise to everyone when my mom said she would host the next party! She's now been hosting it for 10+ years and it's always a good time every year. I'm very proud of her for coming out of her shell and being the sturdy/reliable anchor that brings the family together every year.
I thought I was the coolest kid in the world because my bed could fold up into a couch. Funny enough, I still sleep great on futons. These days if I lie down on a futon, go ahead and assume I'm about to take an hour long nap.
Another was getting thru to mom while I was in Europe and watching the phone counter start counting up really fast.
I love seeing her happy as much as I love food. So it works out. I don’t get involved beyond what I would do on a regular day which is be happy for her, have good conversation and banter and eat a lot of food.
People will say well if you are not active, what’s the big deal? Well, It’s like how parents might give advice when you’re younger and some of it you outgrow or choose not to follow as you become an adult, but certain lessons stick with you for life because they feel fundamentally true. They become part of who you are. For me, not celebrating Christmas is like this. Even though I’m not actively practicing as a Jehovah’s Witness, that teaching still aligns with my values and feels like the right thing to continue avoiding it. It’s also a sign of respect and a nod to my beliefs.
You could have just said that you're still a believer. Not being 'active' doesn't mean anything if you're still a believer.
I don't know why you'd refuse to embrace the joy of Christmas in your situation. Self-denial and suffering aren't noble virtues, contrary to what religion loves to tell people. It's okay to enjoy things.
Later, in 1980, I bought Adventure with my paper route money and I had hours of fun playing that and trying to figure it out. When I finally found the Warren Robinette-created easter egg, I was ecstatic. Unfortunately, even though I was a huge fan of Adventure, it is the type of action-adventure game that when you solve the quest you quickly lose interest.
1980 was probably peak Atari 2600. By 1982, with the release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the game was so terrible and rushed to market so quickly and was so obviously shovelware that I moved on from the platorm.
I miss those days though. More than anything else the Atari 2600 was what got me into learning BASIC a few years later on the TRS-80 and the IBM PC.
Now he's a family counselor, a good one too. I see him a couple times a month at Movie Night, another old friend hosts those and we get good attendance even though we haven't worked together for forty years.
Merry Christmas!
* a few years later: same thing with SNES
* middle school: coming back from a small ski trip and starting to read John Grisham novels.
* college: staying over one break in western mass. Biking to Hadley mall where they had an Amy’s cheese pizza and bringing it back to the German house that had an oven.
* mid 20s: watching whatever odd PBS documentary while hanging out with my mom.
* early 30s: my aunt’s lasagna and extended family meals we took for granted at the time.
* late 30s: good news after a fertility journey.
* early 40s (today): my wife and I using our decade of experience navigating edge cases when filling prescriptions to help my MIL fill an important heart medication so she didn’t have to go to the ER for Christmas.
First taking out the branches from the top shelves of the closet. What was supervised by her - every branch had to be checked and smelled. After the branches were remowed she would laudly meow to be put on the shelf. For inspection.
Then she would demand to be taken down (or would jump out with a loud thud) and lie down on a branches.
Finally after some discussion the christmas tree could be build. She would supervise the whole process, look at the lamps, inspect the decorations with paws and lie observing them. Happy meows and loud purrs all the time.
Then she would lie near the christmass tree in triumph.
I miss my cat. She was very friendly and talkative
Today is a day made for celebrating the birth of Christ. Later, a tradition of giving gifts and spending time with family. I pray God blesses you in each of these things.
If anyone here is unfamiliar with what Christmas is, this page has links explaining the birth of Christ and why it’s one of history’s greatest events:
Having said that, merry Christmas!!
My kids have too much these days and wonder if they will ever experience something like that.
This year I got to experience this again and it made me so happy. Seeing my family together and happy, conflicts and troubles forgotten. It was a joy I hadn't felt in such a long time, I didn't know it was still possible.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Those trips were always fun. This year, he’s in a rehab hospital on another continent after a stroke, but we’re all staying hopeful to celebrate together next year.
When bedtime arrived, of course there weren't enough beds for everyone, so each of us kids would grab couch cushions, find a nook somewhere between two pieces of furniture, and sleep like the dead on the 1970s plush carpet.
My mom wised up a few years later and divorced him, instantly improving the other 364 days of the year. But I missed those crazy Christmases.
Two young kids under 10, a new house in the country and perfect weather. They arrived, and since they had heard about the gift-giving part they brought gifts! For the family, way nicer than they had to for a hostess gift but exclamations all around and thanks and we use that giant red baking pot to this day.
The Indian lad was just married and she was so curious and funny and happy to be with family - they had found America to be so quiet and empty! To be in a full house again with kids and noise and decorations and ceremony - she was ecstatic.
We introduced all the foods (my wife was a champ and had come up with things everybody could eat! A Christmas miracle in itself) and the trappings (lights and trees and drinks and songs) and had a lovely loud silly evening.
Later, each of those co-worker mentioned independently that though they'd lived in America for years, that was the very first time they'd been invited into an American's home. They were so grateful. Even today, thirty years later, I can call either of those guys and be greeted like an old Uncle.
So yeah, I remember that one from time to time and smile.
Hope you're having a merry Noel as well. ^_^
That's a great name. Do you know if Christmas was her mom's expected due date? Kind of wondering if they had the name planned before she was born or if they came up with it because she happened to come on xmas
The most _nerdy_ Christmas was when I returned to my mom's house as a student (probably Chris Rea playing when I rode home on the train.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDt3u2Ev1cI ), and the only kit within reach there was an old Atari ST 520+ with a copy of Berkeley Yacc (Bison) on 3.5" floppy disk next to it. I happened to have an (unrelated) machine learning paper in my backpack, so I dedided to reimplement the paper in Yacc on this ancient machine, which was most gratifying (no man pages, no Web, no StackExchange, ...).
My favorite memory as an adult was filling the kid's stocking with nothing but bananas one year. She was 6. At first she was pretend excited because she likes bananas, but by the end she was digging, pulling them out one by one and saying 'aw man another banana' each time. She then asked us why Santa brought her so many bananas, and I had to pretend not to know through my tears of laughter.
She gets great gifts, just having a bit of fun. We put a banana on top of her stocking each year since, but she's old enough now to roll her eyes and sigh.
One year it was just my parents and I for Christmas. None of us are that big on elaborate gift giving, we just want to see each other. Unknowingly we had all purchased some form of booze for one another, so we spent the evening chatting with libations by the fire, it was wonderful :)
I haven't used Ruby in about five years but I'm still looking forward to reading the release notes for 3.4(?) over coffee in the morning, as I've done every Christmas for about 15 years.
But I do really enjoy one single thing about the holidays: the VLC icon getting a Santa hat a couple of weeks before Dec 25.
VLC has been doing this as long as I can remember (earlier than 2005?) and it’s literally the one thing I look forward to for the holidays.
Merry Christmas everyone. :)
I’ve spent a lot of holidays alone over the last few years, and the HN community was a joy and a comfort every time.
I have the pleasure of spending holidays with family this year, and I’m trying to answer everyone’s questions about computer stuff, I invariably wind up referring to the great comments on HN as the best resource around.
I look forward to spending another year with all of you, and hope you all have a wonderful holiday.
I don't actually have this memory, since I was 2 and a half years old.
My parents wanted to go back to South Dakota and have a proper "family" Christmas, with all of the cousins and all of the babies. Well, Christmas was had and then the temp dropped to -30°F. My parents scrambled to get me into the car and drove overnight from South Dakota back to Minneapolis to try and escape the storm.
My family would pull straws to see which man would dress up as Santa clause and go door to door on my street to greet kids and give the adults some baileys or whiskey.
Great times. Merry Christmas.
It's a Wonderful Life each year.
More, but I'm tired, and it's Christmas! Merry Christmas all.
I remember real for trees as a kidm I haven't had one for five or more years now.
Not having the internet on Christmas. All is quiet.
Turn off news and social media on Christmas! Just respond to well wishes, that's fine.
Merry Christmas, everyone. Hug 'em if you got 'em.
______ __ __ __ __ ______ _______ __ __ ___ _______ __
| || |--..----.|__|.-----.| |_ |__|.-----. | __ \.-----..----..-----. | __|| |.-----..----.|__|.' _|.--.--. | | ||__|.--------.
| ---|| || _|| ||__ --|| _| | ||__ --| | __ <| _ || _|| | __ | | || || _ || _|| || _|| | | | || || |
|______||__|__||__| |__||_____||____| |__||_____| |______/|_____||__| |__|__|| | |_______||__||_____||__| |__||__| |___ | |___|___||__||__|__|__|
|_| |_____|It’s more than 30 years later and I still regard SMW as the best video game ever made.
The only line I can remember is “Five 555s”
Hope everyone was able to slow down the pace a little, connect a little more with people we may have not caught up with recently and send/receive positive vibes. And happy new year.
time is fleeting gents
Also, the Christmas I got the Atari 2600.
So yeah today was a great Christmas day! All the best to the HN community.
Merry Christmas everyone.
TL;dr.
No need like the communist china to object to Xmas so much that is it since 2023 (?) say silence night should be used to remember those soliders they sent to fight in North Korea against USA army, mostly died due to freezing cold and anyway many are not pla but nationalist surrender soldiers.
Let us have a little kindness, even if atheists or communists. Fir one second.
Christus natus est
O Χριστός γεννιέται
Христос раждается
המשיח נולד
ابن الله يولد اليوم
Thank all of you for being here and for the most part, being real.
We are a fundamentally good crowd.
Be nice to one another please. It counts in this world. A world where guilty pleasures like this one we share are seemingly on the way out, back filled with soulless places nobody really cares about.
- Me, pretty much every year.
Got my TRS-80 Color Computer 2 in 1981. Much of my entire life was shaped by that computer.
As an aside, the letter X a literal form of Jesus's name.
That's not strictly true. I suspect those that follow Orthodox and Ultra Orthodox Judaism are exclusive. However, those that follow Reform Judaism and the Conservative Movement support conversion to Judaism, so you are invited.
That's not been my experience at all.