Welcome to the TARDIS! You probably know the gist by now, but if you don't, have a look at regular hangout thread - and don't forget to bookmark it for future reference! We're open to discussions about anything although our united love for the Doctor, we will probably regularly stray back to that.
PLEASE NOTE RE: SPOILERS! Do NOT post ANY spoilers outside of spoiler tags(thanks Cherry!) regarding the xmas special after it's been aired!!
Also, please do not post any major plot points or spoilers without tags from the last two seasons or so, and be careful with really major spoilers from any episodes.
I think that's all that really needs to be said for now.. geronimo!
Last edited by ljosberinn; 12-25-2011 at 12:59 PM..
Yes Cherry, that was definitely what I meant. It wouldn't be much fun if we weren't allowed to talk about it after it airs, now would it?
Blame all the food. Omg I'm in food heaven. This is the best xmas day morning ever. *rolls around* I don't know how I'll ever be able to resist the temptation to go to my parents' place for xmas.
Would it sound silly to talk about yule in English? I think xmas is a bit silly but I feel really really weird talking about Christmas too as I am not Christian and it's really not a Christian, or even a religious celebration for me. We use the word yule (or well, jól, but it obviously comes from the same source) in Icelandic, I wonder if I could get away with using it in English. Would people know what I meant do you think?
I have no issue with you talking about Yule. I'm mostly-Jewish, but I consider the solstice a bigger holiday than Hanukkah (it's such a minor festival, really).
it never bothers me what anyone wants to talk about or not talk about.
i learn a lot from what people say and do.
lol at too much chocolate because i know how that feels.
i say speak your mind.
I think most people would know what you meant if you said Yule. :) I'm a little iffy on using "Christmas" to describe what I celebrate as well, as I too am not Christian. But what I do celebrate is very Christmas-like, just only with the secular traditions, and we don't do it actually on Christmas day.
We have a pretty normal Christmas celebration at my grandma's house with my large extended family on Christmas eve. With the other side of my family, it's usually just a nice big meal with family, which is also lots of fun. At home, my mom celebrates Winter Solstice. She gets me gifts if she can, but we came up with a fun tradition of our own where she hides one around the house each day and I have to find it. But we have some very christmas-like decorations like a ceramic christmas tree (they're even prettier in person!) and... I put tiny christmas ornaments on my asparagus fern. :lol: So... christmas-type-thing!
Cherry: Ahh I love ferns! I'd love to see one with decorations too!
I celebrate the solstice personally - the winter and summer solstices are important to me personally and emotionally (those are the two times of year I get homesick the most, by far, especially since you can really, really feel the difference of the two in Iceland with almost 20hr darkness and 24hr daylight) and although I don't really have specific ways of celebrating that in itself, that is what I think about the most. My family celebrates in ways that are rooted mostly in culture, so a mix of pagan and Christian traditions. We have a tree, lots of food, loooooots of lights everywhere.. but a big part of it is that at 6 on xmas eve, we wait to hear the church bells toll on the radio and we do keep the mass on while we eat dinner. But as my mum is the only really religious person in the family (which is funny, because when I was a child she was doing a BA in philosophy, so she really taught me to question religion, along with everything else), we don't take any of it too seriously. It's more a time of traditions and being with the family, and keeping warm and light during the darkest hours of the year.
Do I ramble on too much sometimes? I feel like I do.. sorry about that! It's like thinking out loud except it involves writing everything that comes to mind down. Really, I should just use my blog more.... Also I am in foodheaven right now, which makes my mind wander more I think.
Also downloading at my parents' is especially slow! I hope I'll get to watch the xmas special tomorrow. :C Anyone seen it yet then?
Lost - Did you miss the pre-event thread announcement at the top? Here's a link. :)
Ljos - You mean no spoilers except in spoiler tags, right?
I did read it, and I got a ticket... but I'm not sure what to do now. Is it just an item for our avatars, or is there something more to the whole train thing? I'm just a bit confused because Lance was talking about making stops and stuff...
ljos - I think you follow my tumblr, right? I'll probably get around to posting a picture eventually. I took one weeks ago but never got around to posting it. Now it's no longer seasonally relevant... :lol:
Whoa, 24 hours of darkness. I can see how that would be very significant for you! And no, you didn't ramble too much. It's fun to hear how others celebrate the holidays. :)
Lost - It's a cute little commemorative item. :)
You can read more about the stops here. On each day that there's a stop, a new EI will be released that relates to the area.
Cherry, yeah, I'm pretty sure I do follow your tumblr. :) And yeah, seasonal changes are pretty extreme here, and daylight times are all messed up. We are also in completely the wrong timezone (we're Greenwich Mean Time but don't do DST) so our bodyclocks are naturally kinda strange.
I didn't even think about the train stops things.. I only enjoy events for this event thread, occasionally some other ones, and the activity peak. :P
I've got the xmas episode, finally! Now I just need to wait for my brother to wake up haha. Hope he didn't catch a cold last night.. me and my brothers went outside around midnight to make a snow man, but realised the snow was too dry, so we had a big snow fight instead which ended with my other brothers burying the youngest in the snow, almost completely. He was pretty well dressed so I don't think he did get too cold, and I helped him out pretty quickly..
Hahhh just watched it. :D I don't think it was as good as last year's, but I still liked it a lot! And as usual the Doctor is superb at making me all sniffly.
Some spoilery stuffX
I loved the tree people! They were so beautiful and scary but you knew they were good at the same time. I was disappointed by how small Bill Bailey's role was though, I think I got a bit too excited about that. That trio was pretty good though, hopefully they will make a later appearance, I know Bailey is a big Doctor Who fan so I'm sure he wouldn't object!
Madge was a fantastic character, I love the brilliant people the Doctor randomly meets who just figure things out on their own and are ridiculously clever without even realising. I love her nonchalance about all the alien stuff ("oh I just met a spaceman, possibly an angel, who needs to get to a police box to fix his helmet, nothing major"), and of course how Cyrill (sp?) responds to it in the same way ("okay! - she's out!"). Brilliant kids.
And finally, yay Amy and Rory! I am going to have to watch the last episodes from the last series again because I can't remember the details, but I did really want to kick the Doctor for just letting them think he was dead. He did really seem to regret it though, so I kind of forgive him, but he really needs to work out his relationship issues! Thinking that you can just run away from having to say goodbye to people by having them think you're dead is a really douchy move, and he does it all the time. Hopefully this will at least somewhat show him the error of his ways.
I think I will digest it a little more (possibly watch the last couple of episodes again too) before I comment more. :P
EDIT: AND IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS YET!
Last edited by ljosberinn; 12-26-2011 at 03:11 PM..
I celebrated Christmas with my family a day early so I spent most of Christmas day itself watching the Doctor Who marathon on Space, leading up to the Christmas special.
Sounds like a good plan, Harley! Wish I could've done that too but I don't have the last series myself yet and there's no Doctor Who on TV over here in Iceland. We celebrate on the 24th though, in the evening. Though on the 25th we go to my grandparents' in the afternoon, and today we go to my grandmother's for dinner. So much fooooooood. :drools:
So did you watch the special yet? What did you think? :)
Wow, Iceland, eh? That's really interesting. I'm from Canada, where Doctor Who isn't terribly popular but I was influenced by an English stepfather. :p
The food and the company of family is definitely my favourite aspect of Christmas, so I could totally give up the gift-giving. But ah well.
Yes, I did see the special, and I liked it quite a bit. It was a lot more.. touchy-feely, sappy-wappy than some of the others. Like.. there wasn't a lot of violence, most of the episode had a happy tone to it, and there was a very happy ending as well. I thought Madge was really adorable as well. What about you?
Yarr. I live in London but I'm home for the holidays. Only a week though, but it's lovely. I always get very homesick this time of year. And it's been snowing so much! Like pretty much constantly since the 24th, and there was already snow on the ground before that. :D
I like giving presents, but the food and company are definitely the most important bit. And all the lights as well.
I actually wrote my thoughts on the special right above your first post already, I really can't be bothered writing them out again.
I totally agree. The tree people were awesome, and the end-ending was very satisfying. The doctor can be pretty 'douchey' at times, but we love him anyway. <3
