I freaking hate December 25th, which is also my
B-day. It was always the most horrible day of
the year for me, and I never do anything to celebrate
it anymore.
Every year I get into a funk starting in November, I have a feeling that it is SAD and that combined with the double whammy of Christmas and New Years always sends me into a tail-spin. Christmas is usually pretty bad, but New Years is worse. I have always thought that it is a day that is designed to show you tht everybody else is having fun and a good time, while I don’t. For some reason it just seems to knock the stuffing out of me. This mild blue funk tends to last until February when I start to recover. If I had a choice I would pull the blankets over my head in the middle of November and not surface until the end of February.
Keith
First of all, I’m Jewish, and I do look forward to Hanukkah. However…
I do NOT look forward to morons telling me to “get in the Christmas spirit”, wear stupid Christmas-related clothing, decorate their houses and block traffic in the process. Nor do I enjoy the commercialism and the guilt. “Unless you buy your child a Cabbage Patch Doll/Tickle Me Elmo/Furby/whatever, you don’t really love them.”
Number 2 on my list is all those sappy TV specials in which some old coot meets a child and s/he teaches him/her the Magic of Christmas.
This year, however, I will be barfing all the way to the bank as I work so much OT (including Thanksgiving and Christmas) that I will most likely double my paycheck.
Robin
You’re not alone.
I detest most aspects of Christmas.
I still live at home.
GRRRRR.
I’m not big on Christmas myself. Of course, I have four kids who live for it, so thank god my sister is into the whole experience. She and the kids decorate the tree and sing their jolly little songs about mythological beings, and I sit quietly and smile, hoping that the season ends soon and my Visa bill won’t be too high.
No, you’re not the only one. For the past several years one of my brothers and his dear wife have spread traditional holiday angst to almost everyone else in the family. I’m expecting it again this year, but hoping that it doesn’t happen.
I normally wouldn’t give a toss about the holidays, but this year I’m spending Xmas and New Year’s in Sweden with a large crowd of unrepentant, alcoholic, camo fatigue- and bullet-belt- wearing Death Metallers. Lovely folk, should be quite a blast!
\m/
R-n-R
Same goes for me… Except I’m not Jewish, and I do celebrate Christmas, but sometimes I just wanna slap people! The same people who are saying how wonderful that time of year is, blah blah blah… and Peace, Good Will Unto Mankind, etc… are the same ones getting in fights in the mall, yelling at their kids (and saying some vicious things sometimes) and getting into yelling contests in the parkinglot. The gift giving aspect as a competitive activity ruins the holiday.
I love the holidays. We throw or go to parties every year all weekends from Halloween on. Some family, some friends, some company. I wouldn’t give those up for anything.
Family… Carroling… THAT’S EXACTLY why I hate Christmas. I kind of enjoy it when I get to stay home alone, 1200 miles away from my family, eat pizza and watch bad TV. Sometimes I even rent movies. When I lived in South Florida, I’d go to the beach…
Family is exactly what makes Xmas miserable. They totally suck! Alone, I don’t have to sing, be cold, eat animals and hear about, “Are you gonna be an old maid?”
Family… ack.
I love Christmas.
I love planning the dinner. I love shopping for the dinner. I love making the dinner.
I love choosing the gifts. I normally hate crowds and long lines and jammed parking lots, but I endure them by telling myself it beats having no one to shop for. I love wrapping the gifts. I love continuing Mr. Rilch’s and my tradition of hiding one small gift someplace where it will be found quickly.
I love putting up the tree. I insisted on an artificial tree when Mr. Rilch and I first started living together. No needle, no fire hazard, no forlorn tree sitting by the curb the first week of January. And it’s the same tree every year. Like my childhood tree was the same (and often the only good thing) every year.
I love Christmas music. I think there’s one song I don’t like, but I can’t remember it. I love singing along, and since I can sing, people have a bit more tolerance instead of immediately saying “can it”.
I love making Christmas cookies. One year I made the cookies while Mr. Rilch watched A Midnight Clear. (Good movie). When the movie was over, I was so fed up with rolling and cutting I asked him to finish for me. He did, in about five minutes. Another year, I got a kit for making a gingerbread house. I didn’t start it until the evening of the 25th, when I was drunk. It looked like an avalanche had hit it. We ate it anyway.
I love the mandatory phone calls. Some people I just don’t talk to, and they don’t talk to me, unless there’s an unavoidable excuse. Also, my sister’s birthday is Christmas.
I love Christmas specials. Charlie Brown, Rudolph, The Grinch. I loved last year’s version of A Christmas Carol, with Patrick Stewart. Nothing he’s in can be bad, and it’s the only one I’ve seen that didn’t make me want to break Tiny Tim’s other leg. I do not love It’s a Wonderful Life, but neither does Mr. Rilch.
I love the end-of-the-year editions of magazines. I’m a collector. Around that time of year, I get out previous versions and compare.
I love the day-after-Xmas sales. Last year I got an Opus tree ornament. And marked-down bakery cookies will take you through till Valentine’s Day, if you freeze them.
I love Christmas!