Kind of a follow up from my question from a few days ago, for me just depresses me and usually I’m working or worried about stuff anyways so I don’t know how to enjoy festivities, plus being eternally alone without a partner makes things even sadder. Xmas is more of a post it of how much my life has failed.
Not much. Didn’t grow up with it, and trying to celebrate it when I’m older without kids or parents is weird. It’s time off work for me and not much more.
I love Christmas, and Thanksgiving. Opportunities to spend quality time with family are hard to come by these days, but it’s just as important as ever. I also like the core message of “the holiday spirit”, but not the gross consumerism it has been turned into. Love your brethren, peace on earth, and all that good old fashioned shit. Fuck yeah!
Of course it’s a very hard time of year for people without family or loved ones, and for people with emotional issues. I sympathize with those people. I’ve been one of those people at various points of my life. My mom gets super depressed every Christmas because it reminds her of a bunch of shit I don’t want to share on Lemmy. So I’m sorry that it’s hard for you. You do matter. Merry Christmas.
I still enjoy Christmas but there is a bittersweet element now due to loss, experience and outgrowing the magic. The values of cherishing family, friends and community are still important but I don’t make myself a wreck for the season.
I do what feels good and reasonable. That varies each year with my situation. It’s normal and not something to worry about. I’m a real person. I don’t exist in an advert so I don’t try to live like that.
As long as I can sit at the table with my loved ones and share the traditional meals then it is enough. I don’t need gifts or lavish parties. I also only give gifts when it feels right to me.
My country is small and we have Boxing Day so I don’t suffer the travel stress that Americans do. Maybe I would give up on Christmas if I had to deal with that. (Boxing Day should be a human right… ha ha)
Unlike another poster, I like that most stores are closed. I like the idea of everyone having time off together. I do get the poster’s sentiment though. I once felt that way. It can be really inconvenient if an unexpected need pops up.
I don’t like how commercialised Christmas has become but I mostly don’t let that influence me. A pet peeve of mine is Christmas advertising starting months early. It makes the season stale so I avoid the ads as much as I can and I don’t start listening to Christmas music until the weekend before the big day.
None of these holidays have any meaning.
Stress.
Stress about all the money spent on a midnight feast that we’re too sleepy and tired to enjoy (our Christmas meal here is at 12mn, it cannot start earlier), the gifts and decorations, and the electricity of all the RGB lights strung around to make our family to be “with the community spirit”. Stress about not having the energy to be able to smile and be cheerful all the time, or else you’d be the subject of dinner conversations, how you’re not “making an effort to spread the holiday spirit”. And worst of all, the stress of not being able to sleep and rest due to all the merrymaking, singing, and overall noisemaking (fireworks tend to be fired at random here, and increasing in frequency as it draws closer to the end of December).
I used to look forward to the food, the seasonal food, and the feasting. But now that I’ve got to prepare all that food, taste it, make adjustments based on who is going to be coming for the Christmas dinner, it’s just draining.
What is supposed to be a season to be merry, to be hopeful, and all that good cheer, has become the very cause of all the sorry hopelessness and drear.
I’m sorry that sounds so overwhelming. Is there anyone you press into your service to help out? Also potluck is great for these things because then no one has to cook more than one thing.
My partner’s parents just straight up said they’re not hosting anymore because it’s too much work. It’s allowed.
There’s my youngest brother, but he’s already with his family, and is the one in charge of cooking over there. I’m with my mom, who is really needing the help, and so yeah! I also told my mom to just stop hosting because it’s increasingly not worth it, but she’s stubborn and told me it’s always been this way, and will be that way until she draws her final breath.
Now, if I can only convince the others (the ones coming over) to just bring some food so that there’s a lot less need to cook here.
I won’t lie, usually Christmas is my favorite time of year. Something about the music, getting to see all my family, and trying to find inventive ways to make friends and family happy through gifts always cheers me up. Never really had the money to go all out, but the spirit was there.
This year I just do not care. Usually I listen to dozens of hours of Christmas music and this year it is less than 2 hours so far. I’m not looking forward to giving or receiving gifts; it just feels so formulaic and rabidly consumerist. My usual comfort movies hold no interest for me. I’d skip it if I could. And all of that was before my grandmother died this past Saturday.
Christmas is just commercialized Winter Solstice. Happy fucking holidays.
It means that I will be harassed for not being happy enough and wrong for not wanting to participate.
It means seeing my grandma the one (maybe two) times a year that I see her. I probably don’t have too many more of them so I want to make them count. It’s also one of the few (getting fewer) times a year I see my parents who are also aging. I think it’s good for me to remember what’s important.
There may be something in your life that is important to you that you can try to hold on to at Christmas, like your health or your pets.
I’m not religious so it’s just a cultural holiday. It used to be a time for family gatherings. Grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, etc. Most times I felt it was a pain in the ass. Now they are all dead and gone. In retrospect I wish I had taken more time to enjoy those family get togethers.
Thanks for sharing that. My family has been a bunch of loners as soon as the kids went their separate ways, but recently we’re experimenting with getting together for the holidays.
It doesn’t exactly come naturally to any of us, but I’m going to try to appreciate the moments while we have them.
No. Society has shown me that I mean nothing. I’m tired of trying be fit in with whatever this all is.
Im surprised to see that many people disliking christmas, seems like 50/50 in the comments, i would have expected something like 30/70
I find it stressful, i dont like feeling judged about how i give and receive gifts, having to be nice around my extended family even when they are mean or boring, the elaborate cooking, etc.
Im much more comfortable with new year’s night : no fixed traditions, usually with friends rather than family, overall simpler and just focused on being with people i like.
Nope. Just like valentines, fathers/mother’s day, or any of the other “hallmark holidays”. July 4th (US) too. And Thanksgiving, like ugh. “we stole land and murdered the people who were there, let’s celebrate” is just vomit-worthy.
Birthdays aren’t much for me but I make it a point to say hi when it’s a friend’s. “one year closer to death!”, as me and a friend say.
I’ve not-jokingly told people to wait until Feb 15th/Dec 26th/etc if they are hell-bent on buying me something. Thrifty and affectionate? Be still my heart.
Sure, it’s how I get my nieces and nephews who live on the other side of the country to remember who I am. I’m a good gift giver.
No.
