Right about now I could name the person who sent me an email expressing disquiet about larger sized, or more mature, naturists featured on these pages. Or even men. Or women with pubic hair.

The inference being that I should only post photos of your women who conform with the author’s vision of what is ‘attractive’, and managed to body shame the majority of the human race in just a few lines.

Here’s some news just in, friend. People put on weight, particularly in middle age. People get old, particularly after they’ve been young. People choose to be hairy, smooth, pierced, piercing free, tattooed, non-tattooed. And it would benefit you to hope that you, too (I assume you’re a young male) grow old and develop a middle-aged paunch. And live long enough to maybe change your mind over those body adornments two or three times. Because not everyone is lucky enough to grow old, or gain weight as their metabolism slows. It’s all part of life, and all acceptable in naturism. Accept the beauty in older naked people, or bigger boned people, too. Everybody is beautiful. Every body is beautiful.

Ella

Mistletoe.

It’s that plant that can be found at numerous Christmas parties and, if you happen to find yourself under it, alongside a total stranger, tradition has it that you have a kiss.

Many of us will be out partying at this time of year and, if unattached, may well find ourselves stealing a kiss. We may be out with friends, having fun, getting drunk, doing silly things, laughing, enjoying ourselves.

Not everyone is so lucky at this time of year. There’s a lot of homelessness and loneliness around at this time of year too.

People who have no friends, friends far away, no family close by or family at all. I suspect that some SL users actually use the game to battle against that loneliness. To have friends that, forever reason, don’t exist or are absent in real life. Heartbreaking all of the time, but particularly at this time of year with a focus on family and festive fun. I know I’ve logged into SL on Xmas Day before, not for very long usually, but I’ve sometimes logged in to maybe grab a few of the advent calendar freebies when sims are theoretically going to be quiet, only to find they aren’t that quiet at all! Sometimes, I’m guessing, there are people logging in at Christmas because there’s no one to kiss, hold, hug, or talk to in real life.

Perhaps even worse are the homeless at this time of year. People can be lonely, but with a roof over their heads. Just coming in from an afternoon where the temperatures are falling (although projected to be above zero) it’s still very cold on a windless day. I’ve got the heat on. Some people won’t have that luxury, and will find the abject cold seeping into their bones tonight, tomorrow…in a month or year’s time. It has to take a physical toll.

Gabby, deliberately cast in military fatigues, contemplates another hungry night on the street

I know that people will stand an applaud servicemen and women in US airports, but how often do we hear of former servicemen and women then slipping through the net of community support? How many of these people might end up homeless? In 2015 it was estimated 47,000 ex-service personnel were living on the streets of the USA. 

Here in the UK, the number is estimated to be 1100, a figure going down from a time when it was estimated 20% of all of London’s homeless were ex-military.

In the UK, it’s estimated there may be 83,000 homeless teenagers in the UK.

And it’s estimated that 20-25% of America’s homeless have some sort of mental disability (compared with 6% of the general population who suffer with mental disorders).

All the sort of people we need to be supporting with the most basic of needs : food and shelter.

A couple of weeks back I wrote that I’d made myself absent from the workplace Xmas dinner. I find it offensive that we were asked to spend £55 on…a plate of turkey, basically. I don’t care that the chef has an alleged international reputation and the restaurant is highly thought of, £55 ( $75, 65 euro) is too much. You could feed a family of four on that for a week. No luxuries included, but you could do it. So I did it. I spent the equivalent of my workplace Xmas dinner buying items for a local food bank.

We live in the industrialised west, but there’s still poverty around. A lot of poverty, a stain on our governments, our society, in the UK, around Europe or in North America.

This Christmas, I’m rather hoping that you might join me in making things a little brighter for someone by buying something -it doesn’t have to be the cost of a workplace Xmas dinner, a tin of beans or canned peaches will do- and throwing it into the food bank collection baskets that are in our supermarkets almost permanently now. And if you are logging in over Christmas, be sure to shout ‘Merry Christmas’ at any other avatars on the grid you may encounter. Give them a wave and be part of that global SL community that has always felt like a community, perhaps being the only community some may have at Christmas.

Ella

A very Merry Christmas from all of us at SL Naturist.

It’s the time of year when, once again, Howie holds his Christmas ‘soiree’. Held over a couple of nights, due to SL being a thing where not everyone can guarantee being online at the same time, particularly in a busy RL period like Christmas, many of his SL friends, almost exclusively naturists, drop by for an evening of conversation, with the conversation often focuses on our RL naturist activities over the past year, and our RL naturist hopes for the next year.

Pine needles getting everywhere! Howie prepares for the party.

Beers on the beach for Ella, Howie and Diane

Don and Charlene by the pool

Ayna arrives dressed…

…but soon gets into the spirit of the evening with Ricky and Duncan

Ayna hams it up for Harry’s camera.

Koo, Dick and Ayna by one of the Christmas trees

Ricky and Heather

Poor Evie gets BBQ duty!

But there’s time for some assistance and a cuddle from Harry.

Harry snaps Zika on the beach

…before Zika grabs Martin and some mistletoe!

Howie, Karen and the two Liz’s.

Sandrine and Pino, both French avatars, hop across a small body of water 😉 to help put candy canes on the SLN tree. Entente cordiale in an era of ‘Brexit’

The next set of photos all feature Malgorzata, who has been busy grabbing the Advent calendar gifts from the Eternal Dreams store. Free on the day, or still available to buy thereafter. Some of the poses are called ‘Seeking the sun’ and are absolutely superb poses that easily lend themselves to a naturist theme! I’ve been over there myself to grab many of them.

Incidentally, Bill, who modelled with Mal, is sporting a ‘Prince Albert’ genital piercing. This particular piercing has featured, in an article written by Pookes, four years ago. But if such a piercing should be your idea of fun, or fun for a loved one, you can find it on the Marketplace priced at L$50. A little inquisitiveness and a willingness to hop around the sims -or even just be imaginative in your Marketplace searches- will reveal many, many bargains at this time of year! But back to the party…

Malgorzata loves her poses, and she pointed me in the direction of Helamiyo, where there’s some lucky chairs with excellent poses. Also available to buy (L$45) is a set of what I would describe as ‘dramatic’ (as in ‘theatrical’) styled poses.

Offended by textilism

As usual, many poses can be set in a naturist environment (or many other environments) to offer a scene not intended by the creator of the pose. 🙂 So I’ve called the one above ‘Offended by textilism’.

And in case you’re wondering if we got invaded by textiles at this point, Model Jim (not my Jim, incidentally) had to dress just for the two of us to create the pose! 🙂

I’ll call time on this post for now, and round out on Friday’s ‘Part 1’ of the party and pick up tonight’s ‘Part 2’ of the party in a subsequent post.

Ella