Are You Cute as a Bug or Bah, Humbug at Christmas?

[Peg Herring]

This is the time of year when we tend to divide into camps: those who get all soft and gooey about lights, tinsel, and manufactured bows opposite those who grumble about conspicuous consumption and overcrowded malls. I thought it might be fun to let you try your hand at listing the best and worst things about your Christmas experience. You can be serious or funny, specific or general, but I won't publish anyone's name, no matter how many ugly ties that person has bought for you in the past.

Here's what you do: write one sentence that begins: "At Christmas time I love..." and tell the world (briefly, please) what good the season brings you.

In the interest of equal time, add a second sentence: "At Christmas time I hate..." This is your chance to be Scrooge, not Tiny Tim, so be as nasty as you like. I promise not to tell Santa, and I'll use only first names if I quote you.

Next Monday I'll make a list (and check it twice, of course) of the good and bad for all the readers out there who wonder how their experiences stack up with everyone else's.

Go ahead, send out your Christmas message! Heart-warming or cathartic, I'm anxious to read it.

[LJ Roberts]

At Christmas time I love the lights and decorations, that I am blessed to still have both my parents alive and healthy with whom I spend my Christmas, the time with friends, going to the Christmas Revels, and especially the warm memories of many wonderful Christmas' past.

At Christmas time I hate--I try not to hate anything--intensely dislike that retail Christmas now starts October 1st, the feeling of stress leading up to Christmas.

At Christmas time I most miss, although you didn't ask, is having both sets of grandparents with us, and seeing the Christmas lights reflected on the snow (I live in San Francisco now),