I decorate my dwelling for the winter holidays ...
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It is summer here, you insensitive clod! (Score:5, Insightful)
And when it *is* winter, there isn't a holiday.
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I'm sure if you pull out a standard text on world religions you can find something to fit the bill.
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Only one day of the year?
That seems a touch limiting...
Re:It is summer here, you insensitive clod! (Score:5, Insightful)
Winter holidays? I decorate for CHRISTMAS, thank you very much.
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Yes, but they probably weren't expecting you to be the only person to answer the poll.
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just saying, many of us are resisting the "i'm ok, you're ok" watering down of Christmas to be some sort of namby pamby all encompassing festival season.
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I thought national lasagna day was June 19th! [wikipedia.org] (since 1978...)
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You could always show your love of the USA by staging a local celebration of the 4th of July...
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You could always show your love of the USA by staging a local celebration of the 4th of July...
Yes but in Australia we're still enjoying the Queens Birthday (first Monday in June, except if you live in WA where it's in October and the June holiday is replaced by Western Australia Day) which isn't actually the Queen's birthday rather just an arbitrarily chosen day for a public holiday.
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Twice dubya and twice Barack!
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nsa?
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Brits can celebrate the 4th of July as "yay, we got rid of the deadbeat tax cheats day".
Australians can celebrate the 4th of July as "If the Brits had kept America we'd be living on a continent without koalas day".
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I don't see how you drew that conclusion!
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I was more curious about how he drew the conclusion that I didn't party.
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Too bad for you. We have plenty of holly days (and parties) in June and July here at Brazil :)
Maybe you just need to start the tradition.
Re:It is summer here, you insensitive clod! (Score:5, Informative)
Who said Jul/Yule (pre-christian for xmas) is only celebrated for religious reasons? I celebrate it for cultural reasons, as do many other people I know.
There are various reasons people celebrate it:
- advertising (Hallmark event)
- peer pressure (imagine having kids who feel they're missing out)
- religion (I'm with you on this one.)
- cultural tradition (my reason for celebrating it, as I'm from Europe. Given how old Stonehenge is, the tradition of celebrating this event in some form or other is possibly 15+ millenia old.)
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Christmas was created to celebrate the birth of Christ. (While it's certainly not his birthday, that is, nonetheless, an accurate and reasonable description.) Those of us who are not Christian but still celebrate Christmas, though, are clearly not celebrating the birth of Christ.
Heck, a lot of people who are only vaguely Christian probably celebrate it for some of the other reasons that LongearedBat mentioned, and not just because it's a celebration of the birth of Christ. Recent surveys in the UK revealed
Blinking Lights (Score:5, Funny)
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My living room IS my bed room.
Not everyone here has the luxury to live in multi-room apartments!
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Who puts their router inside their office instead of their server room?
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Who puts their router inside their office instead of their server room?
My server room is my bedroom closet.
My bedroom is the server room.
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And you don't even need to unwrap it. Of course only as long as you do not encapsulate, that is.
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*sing to "Little Drummer Boy" tune*
NAS and switch have pretty blinking lights.
They bring joy with every packet that arrives.
I change the pass every two weeks as advised.
They let me see all the porn there ever was.
Rom pa pom pass
Rom pa pom pass
Hanukkah Menorah (Score:5, Informative)
I put an electric Hanukkah menorah in a front window. It is now put away, however, because Hanukkah ended over two weeks ago.
"Bah humbug"? (Score:2, Insightful)
Why is not celebrating any of the religious days in this period considered bug humbug? Do you decorate your dwelling for Muslim holidays? (Of which the Christian Christmas, and the Gregorian New Year are neither.)
Where I live, not only isn't there winter (or summer for that matter), there are a variety of religions, they all (or at least most of them) get official holidays. I'm irreligious myself, so I'll be doing nothing special this Christmas. But why does "bah humbug" apply? Because people are pushing th
Re:"Bah humbug"? (Score:4, Interesting)
I guess is all depends on interpretation. I put "moderately"... I live in a zendo, and change the decorations on the altar as the seasons change. So, no more in the winter than any other time.* The closest thing we have to a winter holiday is Bodhi day, the celebration of Buddha's enlightenment, on which day many of us still on pillows and stare at the wall... a little more than usual. And that was weeks ago. (Well, in our tradition. Like we really know the actual day.)
* Well, okay, often sometime in late January it becomes all asian lilies and oranges because I just can't take the winter any more.
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Well, I did in fact come of age in the Seattle area Pagan community, but I assure being a Chan Buddhist and being Pagan are not equivalent.
Unless you subscribe to that special version of paganism that means anyone not part of your own sect. *eyeroll*
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If you're going to be technical, the consensus seems to be that the use of the term pagan to mean someone who wasn't Christian post-dates the use to mean country-dweller (or civilian) - "hick" might be a reasonably colloquial rendering. ...which only underlies the point that a meaning of a word isn't absolute, but exists in a particular context. And in our current context, as "pagan" has been adopted by a group of religions as an identity term, and the intermediate sense of pagan meaning non Christians* is
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Look at my sig.
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This is an American website. The majority of users are Americans. As a result, it will sometimes contain cultural references that are irrelevant to you. When that happens, just click somewhere else. Don't go out of your way to get all huffy that some people might talk about something that doesn't concern you.
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Look, I don't have any problem with the poll. Just the implication that by not decorating my dwelling, I'm saying "bah humbug". Which, frankly, isn't the case. I'm just not celebrating anything. I'm not objecting to you, or anyone else, doing what they will (with certain obvious caveats).
Also, this website maybe "American", but I don't the majority of the members and visitors are American.
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Also, this website maybe "American", but I don't the majority of the members and visitors are American.
But I think the majority of the members do often words out when typing comments. It's a weird thing about typing that happens to me quite often.
Yule (Score:4, Informative)
dude, chill out...
Christmas is a modern adaptation of a pagan holiday, Yule. [wikipedia.org]
It was a pagan holiday celebrating the solstice (Dec. 21st) and was changed to reflect the Catholic Monarchy's human population control plan.
Also, even if the above is true, you're still wrong to be insulted by "Bah Humbug"
It's a joke...it's not an endictment of anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas as an evil atheist. It's a little bit of fun.
Get over yourself. No one cares that you're "irreligious" just as no one cares about what I think either....you're being over sensitive because it makes you feel important.
It's a secular holiday in origin and now, by any measure, Christmas is again a secular holiday where our culture celebrates ***consumerism***
not really secular (Score:2)
It's not a secular holiday. That's just something that non religious Christians tell themselves since they celebrate it that way.
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Christmas trees, candy canes, snowmen, Rudolf, elves, Grinch, 1-horse open sleighs, presents, stockings, Christmas lights displays, eggnog.... not really religious stuff there and none of it biblical.
Santa.... eh, might be based on something religious but certainly not a religious icon today.
No, most of Christmas has nothing to do with religion. It's a bunch of winter solstice celebrations crammed together into one big holiday.
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It's not a secular holiday. That's just something that non religious Christians tell themselves since they celebrate it that way.
No it's secular. Non Christians (people who actively practice other religions like Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam) still celebrate it where its a part of the culture where they live. Same with non-religious and Atheists. I get paid days off because some dude was allegedly born on this day to a woman who claims she got pregnant without ever having sex (Joseph must have been whipped bad to swallow that). I dont believe any of that tripe, but I'll still take the day off if it's all the same.
But really Christm
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Well, to be fair, Christmas does have a significant secular element to it in our (U.S.) culture, and to some extent, there's nothing wrong with that. It's true that the majority of Americans are Christian, at least nominally, but there's a reason that you constantly hear things like "Keep Christ In Christmas". The consumerism part of the holiday is particularly bad and I think few of us fail to succumb to that, whether we are deeply religious or not. My wife and I decided to tone down the gift-giving thi
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I don't care if Christmas is the freaking birth of the FSM, or the discovery of a teapot in orbit around the sun. I'm also not decorating anything for the New Year.
I.e. you're reading too much into my post.
You can do what you want with your own dwelling, but I shall be doing nothing. And I don't see what bah humbug has to do with that.
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That is the very definition of bah humbug!
Bah = an expression of disdain. Humbug = nonsense, tom-foolery, fraud, etc.
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Except that I'm not expressing as disdain for anything, and I'm not saying that decorating your dwelling for "winter holidays" is nonsense or anything else. I'm just saying that: A. I'm not doing anything. B. the poll is flawed because it makes too many assumptions about the audience (e.g. that there will be winter, and that there will be holidays in the winter).
But anyway...
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It's OK, I dwell in a dwelling that is basically a hole in the ground. But not just any hole, not a dirty, wet hole filled with half ends of worms, or stuff like that. But a nice hole, with carpet, and pantries, and round windows. I.e. a hobbit hole.
My only trouble is, I'm a tall person, and I keep hitting my head on the damn ceiling...
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You forgot the most important detail... "and that means comfort!" :-)
I have the height problem too. It's particularly fun when you are in a house that's more than about 100 years old. There's a great restaurant in town that's in what used to be a house and I nearly gave myself a concussion going up the stairs one time.
good point (Score:2)
Yep you're right. I should have said Pagan.
What's hilarious to me is how these terms mean different things to different people. Ex: Pagan. Paganism is a full-on religion, ancient in origin. We don't know nearly as much about its original practice as something like Islam, but it's definitely a religion or form of spirituality of you'd like.
However, in religious contexts, the word "pagan" is often used interchangeably for agnostics and
evidence? (Score:2)
'try again jackass' isn't a response...it's a random peanut-gallery comment made by you to stroke your ego
if you were **contributing** to the conversation you'd say **WHY** and hopefully show some sort of evidence for it
Solstice (Score:2)
Why is not celebrating any of the religious days in this period considered bug humbug?
Even if you are not at all religious you can celebrate the solstice which is the astronomical event that is actually the reason that many the religious holidays coincide at this time of year. So the only reason not to refuse to celebrate with everyone else is because you are being extremely grumpy in which case "Bah, humbug" seems highly appropriate.
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Oh, there's a solstice is there? Do you also celebrate the summer solstice? If not, why not?
Simple - in agricultural based economies the winter solstice is the time of year when you can do the least because there is so little light plus it is the middle of winter. Hence it is an excellent time to have a celebration since everyone has time on their hands and since it is cold dark a celebration is a great way to cheer everyone up. Compare that to the summer solstice when there are many hours of sunshine and lots of work to do in the fields.
This is why we generally celebrate one solstice and not
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Why is not celebrating any of the religious days in this period considered bug humbug? Do you decorate your dwelling for Muslim holidays? (Of which the Christian Christmas, and the Gregorian New Year are neither.)
Where I live, not only isn't there winter (or summer for that matter), there are a variety of religions, they all (or at least most of them) get official holidays. I'm irreligious myself, so I'll be doing nothing special this Christmas. But why does "bah humbug" apply? Because people are pushing their religion and/or point of view on others.
The poll could easily have said simply "not at all".
Because Bah humbug specifically relates to not celebrating Christmas... read some Charles Dickens :)
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Right, because who doesn't love another excuse to celebrate? Woo hoo!
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Why is not celebrating any of the religious days in this period considered bug humbug? Do you decorate your dwelling for Muslim holidays? (Of which the Christian Christmas, and the Gregorian New Year are neither.)
Where I live, not only isn't there winter (or summer for that matter), there are a variety of religions, they all (or at least most of them) get official holidays. I'm irreligious myself, so I'll be doing nothing special this Christmas. But why does "bah humbug" apply? Because people are pushing their religion and/or point of view on others.
The poll could easily have said simply "not at all".
Thank you for providing such a carefully crafted example of a bah humbug attitude.
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Why is it that people who post from these exceptional and/or exotic areas that have unusual qualities and/or properties never bother to tell us where it is? Is that part of the 'hook' for us to be in awe of them or something?
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Well, in my case it's because I don't want to make it too easy to tie this account to my real life self. But, it's obvious that I'm somewhere in the tropics. You can read some other posts to discover that the chocolate made here is crap. And, ah, I can't remember if I complained about the political system or not.
Yeah. I'm not advertising this place, I'm just using it as an example. So you don't need to know exactly where it is.
Re:"Bah humbug"? (Score:5, Funny)
WTF is this Israel thing you speak of? Bethlehem is in Pennsylvania you twit.
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True, and the proper pronunciation is "Beth-lem". :-)
Of course, not far from there are New Tripoli (accent on the first syllable of "Tripoli") and East Texas.
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Yup! This surprises many people.
My parents are in Israel and I am in Florida. I am pretty familiar with both climates. Israel is colder than Florida. This year Israel has had the worst snow storm in probably 100 years. My mom says her car was covered with snow. Here in south Florida it's been in the mid 80's almost every day so far. I've never seen snow in Florida. But Jerusalem gets snow every few years. Usua
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A careful analysis of Scripture, however...
Well, there's your problem right there!
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That's not a problem at all. In fact, it's very useful.
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That's not a problem at all. In fact, it's very useful.
For you, perhaps. YMMV and all that. I prefer to spend most of my time on things that are real. The bible was a good read, and it is somewhat useful to know the source material of superstitious people, because it can give some insight to their irrational behavior.
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Isn't that a prerequisite for writing a slashdot poll?
No, I was just confused, it's being willing to be called an asshole that is the prerequisite.
Festivus pole (Score:4, Funny)
The pole is an old shade structure pole that we had in the living room for testing our FRC robot's hanging mechanism, the base is a barbell weight from our trebuchet, which was used to weigh down some Vex field elements when practicing for Toss Up, and the topper is a ceramic Hello Kitty statue.
LED lights, finally (Score:2)
For years I've been pushing LED lights, and even had a few puny strands of them. This year, was gifted a few cheap strands (but better than I had before, by a long shot!) of multi-colored bulbs (some green, some yellow, some red -- not color *changing*), which I've now supplemented with a few water-resistant reels of 300 RGB LEDs that feature lots of remote-controllable choices for pattern, brightness, color, and speed. Now my porch is sufficiently cheerful / obnoxious!
I like these enough that I am just goi
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Use them as regular lights. White for regular days, specific colours/patterns for holidays.
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Yes -- that's what I'll probably do, actually. When people come to visit, I can set them to blink, and tell them to look for the blinking lights, too ...
I also think they're somewhat of a burglar deterrent, because they brighten the whole area of the door.
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What controller do you use to run them?
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Just the one that came with them ... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AJJDLHQ/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 [amazon.com]
I'm using one power supply scrounged from an old external hard drive, and another I bought at the Goodwill computer center the other day specifically for this purpose; they're both 12v (needed) and both somewhere in the 2.5-3.5A range.
Decorate? (Score:2)
Alek Komarnitsky (Score:4, Interesting)
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Well whoever loves as many flashing lights as possible is going to love animated gifs... and probably not have a good sense for design.
All I'll say is that it appears to be a perfect match for the... jaw-dropping kitschocalypse that is Christmas round his yard.
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Now there is a Slashdot story [slashdot.org] on the front page about this year's displat by Alek, with a video interview.
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I just want to thank /. for making me wonder enough who this guy is to find his page [komar.org]. It's like I'm back in the 90's.
Mien Gott in Himmel.
I thought the Marquee tag died a well deserved death years ago.
One item (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a Charlie Brown tree from Urban Outfitters that a friend gave to me years ago. It gets set up with a blue baby blanket a few days after Thanksgiving.
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Don't forget it cost $40.
Bells on the door... (Score:2)
To let me know when the burglars are coming and going.
Happy Hogwatch!
Happy capitalist greed day everyone! (Score:1)
that's all i see it as and nothing more. this time of year in north american reminds me of how much i hate society and how vane and disgusting you all are
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i like your creative solution to solve problems with alcohol.
bah fucking humbug. its a disgusting time of year i don't see everything in a negatively light, just i see this as humanity at its absolute lowest and it makes me sick.
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It is true that there are many who wallow in all the wrong things. There's no need to join them in that or to let them spoil a more sensible celebration. Give baked goods, have small get-togethers with like minded celebrants. Make up a big bowl of smoking bishop and do the Moosmas chant with some friends (Owa Tamu Siam) until you achieve enlightenment. Then drink.
Re:Happy capitalist greed day everyone! (Score:4, Interesting)
Moderation in all things. Including moderation itself.
Periodic consumer excess is perfectly in keeping with the European origins of the winter solstice celebration. (The austere religious crap that people try to foist on it, not so much.) Likewise the "fast" when the bills come in.
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This is the problem I find with Christmas, total lack of moderation. The problem is that all the shops go full-on Christmas mode some time in September, so by the time it's over we've had an entire third of a year of Christmas - it's too much. By the time December 25th rolls around I'm bored to death with it because of the constant pounding of the Christmas sales drum for three months.
If Christmas was traditionally celebrated by nothing more than a meal and booze and a Dr.Who special on TV it would be a lot
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There's no doubt that it has been turned into the "buy, buy, buy" season. But there's nothing saying you can't use it as an excuse to hang out with family & friends without spending yourself into 3-5 months of debt instead. I know our family keeps the spending to a minimum these days, $50 dollar gifts for a single person we pick out of a hat & that "white elephant" thing at my grandparents (re-gift of old junk). Might as well hijack the holiday, the same way the Christians hijacked it from the pa
I used to do it up big (Score:3)
FTFY (Score:2)
I'm relegated [google.ca] to yard decorations only.
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Relinquish [google.ca] deals with ownership or claim. Did he give anything to the yard decorations? Had he wanted to use the word relinquish it would have been something like "I relinquished my roof decorating duties and relegated myself to yard decorations only". See the difference?
Santa's robots (Score:2)
Custom tricked out... (Score:2)
Creating memories for my kids (Score:2)
Background.
I'm an atheist, wife probably is (agnostic at best, nothing organized), religion isn't something we bother with or talk about. At the same time we don't care what anyone else thinks, as long as it doesn't get in our face too much. I don't care that the Pledge of Allegiance mentions a god or that our money references the same.
For several years I volunteered at a church sponsored food bank, praying with people whose problems made me cry (hunger, violence/death, drugs/alcohol). For the very poor,
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Now that my kids are all grown, there really isn't any reason to continue that. I love the time and getting together, but the whole decoration and gift-giving is for children - to continue the "magic".
I tell everyone, "If I
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We're going with the "expectation" of good versus bad for now (for specific attitude control). I only expect it to last maybe three years (they are 3.95 years old).
I think it will end in a year or two at most, around the question of "How does Santa have time to be at the mall?" (why dad doesn't come to this won't come up, my wife's sister was in town and I don't deal with crowds). This year the questions were about what I would get (nothing, Santa gives things to good kids), and his favorite color (red, b
With one catch (Score:2)
Grizwold FTW (Score:2)
Yeah, I'm pretty sure the 11' inflatable reindeer in my 20x30 front yard pushes me into the Grizwold category - and I say that beaming with pride.
Missing Option (Score:2)
You can see mine from the Moon.
Decorations (Score:2)
If I were to actually decorate for the holidays, I'd want an ENIAC of a display. I'd want multi-colored vacuum tubes on the outside of the house making it appear like a psychedelic beehive that will cause an urban brown-out when I turn it on. Of course I'd turn it on during Xmas eve because I am a Grinch at heart.
Still decorated for Halloween (Score:2)
I still have my Zombie Yoda and Darth Vaderstein out from Halloween. I positioned a big dreidel in Darth's hands to decorate for Chanukah with a USB powered menorah between Darth and Yoda. Of course, Chanukah's been over for almost three weeks now. Maybe I'll keep them out and just keep adding additional holiday elements to the display until it encompasses all holidays. (Or at least the ones I celebrate.)
missing alternate "not at all" option (Score:2)
I didn't decorate my dwelling at all because I knew I would be elsewhere for the holidays.