I used to love going carolling with the choir I was in at various times. We did not ask for money or represent a charity - people whose houses we went to were suspicious and thought we wanted money! They would peep at us warily through a partially opened door. When we told them were just singing to them, they were so happy! People would often invite us to come inside to warm up – and offer us hot cider or cookies, etc.

Now, I'm really bored by Christmas carols. I really hate the kitch "pop" songs.
Traditional carols are beautiful, but I’m totally tired of them and bored with them all. Another odd think that our kitch Christmas pseudo-culture does not acknowledge is the vast numbers of people and religions that do not celebrate Christmas at all -- the Jews, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddists and at least some other Asian religions and philosophies. In the Muslim religion, Christmas is not usually celebrated, but what small amount of research I did about how or why Muslims celebrate Christmas is "it's all around and cannot be ignored," and that the kids want more and more presents. And like one Jehovah's Witness friend of mine said, "I grew up without Christmas presents -- and it didn't bother me at all."

Another point is that celebrating Christmas in some countries, including USA, was against the law! All the info I'm discussing here is rampant on the internet.

From wikipedia: "In Colonial America, the Puritans of New England disapproved of Christmas, and celebration was outlawed in Boston from 1659 to 1681. The ban by the Pilgrims was revoked by English governor Edmund Andros, however it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region."

So Christmas as we know it now, has only been happening for less than 200 years in the United States.

I'm having a Saturnalia party this year. My boyfriend and I celebrated Saturnalia last year, too, but this year, I'm going all out. Saturnalia was the ancient Roman holiday that was coopted into Christmas when the emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be the official religion for the entire Roman Empire.

As one Saturnalia card says, "Yo Saturnalia! It's what you're celebrating anyway!"

"Yo" is actually spelled "Io," but Yo is how it's pronounced, I think.

My apt is quite small, so there will only be 4 of us at a square folding card table. But I have a metallic gold table cloth, and we’re drawing numbers for tiny gifts. We will each bring a small decorative gift, cost between $0.00 and $10.00. Thrift store items are fine.

We will dress in Saturnalia colors (gold, blue, and silver) and some of my decorations will be those colors. We are bringing traditional ancient Roman Saturnalia foods.

I have found MP3 music -- amazing, stunning/shockingly strange authentic music from ancient Rome! And The Planets by Gustaz Holst, a fairly well known classical suite. There is also a current music group called Saturnaila, which plays interesting music, and I have an MP3 of them, too.

So although I say "Bah, Humbug!" to the greed, commercialism and materialism represented by Christmas as we now know it these days,(and instilling those "values" in children at Christmas by plying them with all the toys the parent/s can afford to buy) I say "Yo, Saturnalia!"