Christmas time!! What is it good for?

 ♫♪ ♫Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer!! Fun for all that children call, their favorite time of the year~♫♪ ♫

Happy Holidays readers!!! Hope you are all having a wonderful time, whether you are alone, with friends or family, I hope your days have been merry! But that always brings up the question, what does this season mean to me, to you, to us? Well, I'm glad I asked, because that's why I intend to talk about on this generic Christmas post! :)

Why we celebrate 

Now first question is usually "why we celebrate Christmas?" Well whether you celebrate it for religious reasons, AKA Christ's birthday (or supposed birthday), for pagan reasons AKA you still do what the Romans did and have a Saturnalia week, where you generally speaking, have a purge night/week like in the movie "The Purge", though unlike in ancient times, I don't believe human sacrifices are as heavily marketed or culturally accepted these days; or perhaps it's just a fun tradition you do because of commercialism and presents. Whatever the reason one thing is usually a common variable, and that is being surrounded by the one/ones you love, that's right even if you are a loner, because you yourself could be the one you love most, (no judgment here... unless you do the human sacrificing still, then some may give you a little judgment) the point is, this is a time where we truly allow ourselves to appreciate those who we care for and are thankful for, even more so than Thanksgiving.

Now certainly many of us love the season for the low low prices in all the cool new gadgets and clothes, and the presents we will get, so much so that we overshadow what the best gifts actually are. Now I can hear you all groaning ¨Ugh things are about to get preachy here, honey, hold off on the sacrifice and let's hear him out....¨ but hey, somebody has got to say it. ;) That said, the best gift you can give and get on Christmas is the time you get and give with those you love, whether they be family, friends, or the less fortunate through volunteer TIME (see the key word being time). Now, as old and annoying as it may sound, giving time is the most fulfilling gift you can give, and as they say it's better to give than to receive, so despite all the cool gifts that we may get, which we also equally enjoy, and I have no doubt those who gave them to us enjoy it more seeing the joy on our faces, regardless, the time spent, lessons learned, and memories forged... that my dear friends, that is truly the best gift of all. Also you get to work on some fun low budget decorations when you concentrate more on the experience than the money spent.

(The things one can do with loose ornaments, a balloon, ribbons, twine, and a good attitude.)

In the end we all have our own personal situations and traditions in regards to this famed holiday season, some, like my mom, don't even celebrate it all, and you know what, that is perfectly fine, however if you do partake in a special tradition, I'd love to hear why you do, as I find it amazing how different everyone does a relatively similar thing such as celebrating a holiday all because of a tradition or belief. (I mean just look at how KFC used marketing to make eating fried chicken a Christmas tradition in Japan; Why? Because of their Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii! campaign back in 74, which originated due to a family opting for fried chicken s a substitute for a Christmas turkey... pshh I see you Sanders lol)

How we celebrate

So now that we have analyzed why so many of us celebrate this time, the next obvious question is "how do we celebrate Christmas?" Now if you are part of the afore mentioned groups we discussed then Christmas mass or meetings (depending on your religious sect) and a family gathering of some sort is generally what is done/expect, just like for those who still try and push for Saturnalia (please don't hurt me) then human sacrifice is going to fall into the "how" category quite nicely. As for many others however, also including the 2 previous groups, do you all follow the almost ritualistic tropes of Christmas? That is to say, put up all the decorations, murder nature in order to display it proudly after adorning it in ornaments and lights? Do you hang stockings for even more gifts you greedy bast-- *ahem* Uhh, what about chestnuts, do you roast them upon an open fire? What about snowmen (if there is snow on Christmas where you live)? And if so do you plague your neighbors by mindlessly polluting the air with that Frozen song (Do you want to build a snowman)? Do you sing carols or watch old timey Christmas films??? Do you beat the crap out of each other in order to settle conflicts and start the year off fresh like they do in Peru? (it's called Takanakuy, look it up)

Well however you celebrate it, I'd love to hear about it, personally we celebrate it here on the 24th, opening our gifts at mid.night, unless you fell asleep ya pansy, in that case you can open your gifts on the 25th after the sun comes up, loser... I also enjoy volunteering and giving to the less fortunate, sacrificing a gift that would normally be for me and giving it to someone who usually never gets anything at all is an amazing experience and one that I would honestly recommend anyone to do. I also watch campy horror films and Yungtown Christmas videos on Youtube (Seriously, if you appreciate video games, satire, and awesome raps I whole-heartedly recommend his stuff). Aside from that my Christmas is standard fair, littered with an abundance of food, secret santas, good times, and awkward karaoke. That said, I'd love to hear how you all celebrate the holidays, do you do anything unusual?

Christclusion

So in conclusion, I hope you all had are having an amazing holiday season, and doing things you love. Whether it be dressing up as Santas reindeer whilst playing laser tag, (a game Rudolf can actually play), stressing out over last minute presents because your family doesn't appreciate quality time over quality gifts, or if you are getting drunk in order to drown your sorrows, rejuvenate your joys, or simply to appease your lord and master Dionysus; 

May not have turned water into wine, but his hair literally is wine

Lol whatever it may be, please be safe and make it memorable, and hey, try to end the day on a clean slate, don't end the holidays with someone mad at you (unless it's the dude you are sacrificing for Saturnaia, not sure if you can truly become buds after that) 

Nonsensical ramblings aside, I leave you to enjoy the rest of your evening with a huge virtual hug from me I wish you the happiest of holidays!! (Also remember, screw the song "Christmas Shoes")

Much Love,
Wachi

Uplifting Umbertaversary: Creating Holidays

It's reader butter jelly time!!! Hello my readers and happy October 10th, today we celebrate the 3rd annual Umbertaversary, that said, I would like to wish you all an uplifting umbertaversary!! Huh? What's that you say? You don't know what I am talking about? Well, for those of you who haven't read my LA Travel stories post, mainly part 2, umbertaversary is a holiday that me and my friends invented to mark the day another friend lost a bet, basically losing his real name in exchange for the name Ungrateful Umberta, but instead of being jerks about it, we have made it into a fun time celebration!! 

Give it up for that BIG 03 Umbertaversary <3

Now I am sure you are thinking, "Wow that's stupid and no one really cares SUPER COOL, I wanna make a holiday for myself and my friends!! But how?" Well fear not my compadreaders for I have found a pretty good recipe throughout the years of how to make your homemade holidays a little more legitimate, let's begin shall we!?

Step 1: Finding something to celebrate!

So first step is pretty basic, but probably the absolute most important one, and that is what are we celebrating, it can be a life changing event, something personal and sentimental to you, or something silly that erupted from a moment in your lives. Whatever it is you choose, make sure it is something worth remembering and celebrating as well as something others may be able to get into, as it isn't fun to celebrate alone now is it?

Step 2: Naming the day(s) and choosing a date!

This is where you need to get the creative juices flowing, after you have chosen what to celebrate, find a creative name that will intrigue others to join in as well as sound catchy enough to put on calendars, slogans, and possibly a song or two. A fun way to create a name if you don't know where to start, choose the emotion of the event and what it is that is celebrated and mash them together. Just as important as finding that perfect name, you need to choose an attractive date that will lure people into wanting to take a break from their lives to enjoy this day, now sometimes you can't choose the day as it is a situational or anniversarial (real words) experience that has to fall on a specific day, but if not try and make it on a date where you and your friends normally don't have anything going on.

Step 3: Choosing a proper greeting or saying for that special day!

You know a holiday ain't no holiday without a proper holiday specific greeting, we have the classics such as "Merry Christmas", "Happy Halloween!", and the lesser know, but just as important "Turn down the Mutha----ing lights, it's EARTH DAY!" Now with umbertaversary we chose to make the greeting, "Have an uplifting umbertaversary!" Now why uplifting? Well there's two reasons for it, 1. the origin of the name Umberta was due to our pal's increasing ungrateful attitude, as you may know, gratefulness is an important tool in order to be happy in life, hence Thanksgiving being a time of joy, good food, and even better company, a time of thanks!! Therefore, we want people to feel uplifted on this day as it marks a day where if you lift up those spirits, perhaps next year you can get your real name back, or something along those lines :)
and 2. The alliteration, that is to say that both words in the greeting begin with the same letter, it's not a must, but I feel it can give the greeting that extra pinch of catchy-ness. So have fun with it, and keep it simple!

Step 4: Choosing Holiday characters/themes for your day!

Just as Christmas has Santa, Rudolf, and Frosty and it's usually associated with white, red, green, and gold colors as well as the Christmas tree and the stockings, and gingerbread, etc etc etc. Now you have to do the same for your day, what characters either existing, generic, or made up by your own mind represent what you celebrate? For example Umbertaversary is about Carlos AKA Umberta, he has a thing for Asian nurses, he has confirmed himself that he IS a Diglett, and he has a weird Spider Man "fetish", or so we assume, because he has a weird semi-sexual looking Spiderman toy with a hole in... a place, anyhow therefore Mr. Parker AKA Spiderman became an umbertaversary staple, lastly Muscle Man from that Regular show and Carlos share similar traits and therefore he has become a re-occuring umbertaversary character... Now, we don't have any definitive themes yet aside from LA and/or the beach, and since it is celebrated in October we think both settings are uplifting as they are a swift change of pace from the incoming fall into winter times that can sometimes make us feel a little "down" or "ungrateful".

With that said, feel free to grab that Holiday's meaning or person and dissect them for the most diverse cast of characters and themes that will help bring other people's holiday creativity out and about, which of course leads onto the next step...

Step 5: Merchandise and Advertisement!!

This one is a bit unfortunate as most holidays quickly dwindle from something meaningful to a simple marketing scheme or cash grab, but even so it doesn't mean you can't still make it special and  memorable for all, even those not involved!!

So here's some examples I have set up for proper Merch to get the best out of your holiday celebration!

Shirts: Shirts and any clothing for that manner, help people really get "into" the holiday spirit *cue laugh track*; and the fun thing with holiday themed clothing is that anyone can create their own, I recommend using the site CustomInk (http://www.customink.com/) for some great quality apparel using your designs. For those who haven't seen here is my Umbertaversary shirt design;

Umbertaversary "Kiss me Spidey" Shirt: CustomInk Umbertaversary

Memes: In today's society especially memes are just about anywhere and everywhere and therefore a good source of advertisement as it were for your special holiday, and since they are user created they can be placed anywhere without fear of copyrights and the like, here are some examples <3

Anyhow despite the above images probably not making much sense to you at first, one may become curious and wish to look further into this holiday you've created therefore hooking a bigger following for that special day of yours! :D

Holiday Videos or Songs: Now for those especially creative types, holiday videos and songs are the best way to create and further capture a holiday's essence and overall feel, make it catchy, and simple enough for anyone to pick up and follow along, there in lies the key to global holiday success!!

Now if you aren't very creative you can use Ecard site JibJab (http://www.jibjab.com/ecards?gclid=COHl6a-7uMgCFYoUHwodRW4Dsg) in order to paste your holiday-centric characters into a vibrant fun card, though there is a small monthly fee to use this service, but here are some examples to what you can create and share with the world!

Mr. and Mrs. Parker: http://www.jibjab.com/view/6fj0dtXRSl24RcohMUa_wQ

Now ignore the "Valentine's Day" at the end, unfortunately as highly praised as Jibjab is they still don't recognize Umbertaversary as a legit thing, even on the eve of it's 3rd coming. But here's another example in case you need one, here is one where we could include all the Umbertaversary cast!!

Umberta's Summer Fun: http://www.jibjab.com/view/SAwOTpqRSj2oz-Q_usdA2w

See this video actually contains the beach theme a more upbeat attitude which could undoubtedly bring in the younger audiences lol. In the end just have fun with it, if others see you having fun, they'll want to join in, and that is what will inevitably create holiday cheer! 

With that my dear readers I'd like to bring it to a close so that we can all enjoy an Uplifting Umbertaversary on this day of days! I'd love to hear any of your own created holidays so if you have any or come up with some in the near future feel free to share them with me and if they are interesting enough I may just add them to my calendar! S go forth, create some long lasting traditions and remember that October 10th is more than just the 10th day of the 10th month, it is the day Carlos became Umberta, and that is a big deal, especially because we choose to make it one, and in the end, isn't that what keeps the Holidays going on all these years? The meaning <3

Much Love & An Uplifting Umbertaversary to All,

Wachi