With 10 being “the best Christmas ever!” and 1 being “the worst Christmas ever”, how was yours?
Feel free to elaborate if you wish.
I’m gave it a 5, but I think I adjusted my scale considerably after reading about that poor woman who lost her three daughters and her parents in a Christmas day fire. 
I say about a 6. Saw lots of family and my niece is old enough to “get” Christmas for the first time now.
Minus points for lack of SO and mega minus points for no snow!
Pretty much my worst. I think I’m going to stop celebrating it.
It turned out to be not so horrible. We had a bit of excitement. My ex-husband I haven’t seen in 22 years, the father of my oldest, found us a few days ago on Facebook and last night he called her. It was an emotional experience for all of us. A good one, I think. I hope. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my daughter so happy.
I give it an 8, which is astonishing.
We just about didn’t celebrate this year, as it’s been a pretty bad year. Lost my grandmother, an aunt, and my mother-in-law, and my mother has been diagnosed with cancer and is going through chemo. So we aren’t exactly cheery around here lately.
Mr. Athena and I decided no decorating, no tree, no gifts this year. And we held to that up until a couple weeks before Christmas, when I saw a book I knew he would love, so I bought it for him. Then he saw something for me. And then the weekend before Christmas, we decided to get a modest tree, because where would we put the gifts if we didn’t have a tree?
My sister-in-law offered to host Christmas, so we went over there, and everyone was in good spirits, including my Mom & Dad who have every reason to be down, but they weren’t. Sis-in-Law & family made a great meal, and she even had planned a game with gifts for the winners for after dinner.
All in all, what was shaping up to be a not-too-great Christmas actually turned out pretty darn good. I think a lot of it was that by deciding NOT to do much, neither me nor Mr. Athena stressed about anything. I think we have something to learn from that.
I gave it a 9. A bit surprising because it was the first Christmas since my dad died.
Mom and I have become much closer and supported each other this holiday. Things went really well.
i gave it a 10. I’m back home with my family for two weeks- a wonderful respite from my uber-busy life. Everyone was here and while everyone’s health isn’t perfect, on the whole we are doing pretty good. I got to bond a bit with my cousin, who I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time with. I also got to spend some time with my favorite uncle. Our family is changing and evolving, but it’s not all bad getting-older stuff. My mom is sooo happy with her boyfriend, and my cousin is growing up to be a pretty smart kid, and a good family friend has really become a part of the family, and we are all richer for it.
My mom LOVED her gift (I’m flying her back east to spend a weekend with me) and my other gifts turned out beautifully. I got people calendars off iPhotos with pictures from my lastest travel adventures. The printing turned out full-on gorgeous. It really is a quality product with a great presentation…I was pleasantly surprised.
Dinner turned out beautifully, and I was able to contribute, which feels good.
Overall, just a really time with family, something to treasure.
Which is why I too gave this a high score (9) this year. SO and I decided not to buy a single gift for each other. Money is tight, but there wasn’t anything either of us really needed so why?
We made lots of phone calls to friends and family - very nice - but just the two of us were here. Made plenty of food, lots of goodies with too many calories, watched a few films on TV and basically just had a nice, quiet time together. The most low-key, stress-free Christmas in decades and yet it made it even more special and just right. I agree - we learned something from this.
Four, I guess? I don’t know, it seemed needlessly stressful somehow and we wound up taking the baby (he’s just over a year old) into the ER on Christmas Eve because he had an uncontrollable fever approaching 104 and had some other worrying symptoms, which kind of ruined the whole “waking up before dawn” excitement for his older brother who actually opened all his presents when we got home from the hospital at like 1 o’clock in the morning. The baby still doesn’t give a shit about his presents, most of which are still unopened.
I want to break the news to my oldest – who, at 8, probably is only keeping up the charade for my benefit anyway – that Santa doesn’t actually exist so we can skip Christmas all together and spend the time and effort on vacations or something.
Bah humbug.
- I got to see family on Christmas Eve, which was nice for the first couple hours. The next day, cabin fever or aquadementia set in, and Christmas Day itself was terrible. I got a Kindle Fire (along with my sister). Hers worked, mine came broken. So now I have the headache of returning it. And then I have to drive all the way back down to my mom’s to pick it up (because she didn’t want them to ship it straight to me, why? I have no fucking idea). And instead of letting me call Amazon, she insisted on making it (“I paid for the damn thing, I’m going to give them a piece of my mind!”). She verbally abused the hell out of an Indian call center rep for 20 minutes… Merry fucking Christmas. I’m really sorry, guy. But the she-bitch cannot be contained. When she got off the phone, she actually had the stones to say, “Well you know, every other call he has today is going to seem easy by comparison!” I glared daggers and told her she was a bad person, because the best judge of one’s character is how they treat their perceived inferiors. Her incoherent, irrational screeching caused me to storm out of the house and drive home several hours sooner than I had planned.
If I didn’t already have a week-long vacation scheduled next week, I’d be contemplating self-harm. But I can’t rate the holiday a 1, because a couple good things came of it. My sister no longer thinks I’m overreacting when I describe my mother as a shrill hell-harpy. And I got some really nice yarn, and eventually I’ll have a working Kindle. I’m trying to stay optimistic, although this was definitely the worst Christmas I’ve ever experienced. At least things didn’t come to blows?
I gave it an 8. We had a great dinner with a wonderful group of people. Lots of good food, wine and conversation. Only the most minor bit of drama (someone made a rather personal, and inappropriate, comment to me at the dinner table creating a bit of tension, but I was able to diffuse it after about a minute).
I really wanted to play golf on Christmas day, but couldn’t get that arranged.
I didn’t have to interact with any of my family except for phone calls. Christmas with friends is so much more fun!
Under 5 just because of the usual bullshit with my sisters in-laws. They honestly believe Christmas revolves around their family. They were disapointed as expected, and upset when I told them I wasn’t going to their place for dinner.
Since when does my sisters in-laws should have anything to do with me ? Sister has the gall to try and guilt me into it and had to say listen they’re your in-laws not mine, so back off with this retardedness.
Bunch of infants I swear.
I’m giving it a 10. Best Christmas Ever.
First, everyone in my family is employed. My brother finally got a job in his field. My husband got a good job in September–last Christmas he was unemployed. Everyone else has a job too. So that all by itself made it an excellent Christmas.
Then, we were able to afford some presents (because of the employment part). Last year I did fine and everyone had a nice time, but I produced everything out of cardboard and spit. Which was quite satisfying in its own way, but the fact that I could buy a Lego kit and a pair of knockoff Uggs was a lot easier.
And we all had a great time with family members, hanging out and relaxing, all that sort of thing. There was a very nice Christmas service at church. Nothing too exciting or extravagant, but it has just been really pleasant and lovely all 'round.
- It was nice having a little job on Christmas Eve playing music with my regular guitar player (he liked the croissants I gave him too), and it was really great having some cash and getting to spend an unusual night with my immediate family and some friends of the family (my uncle couldn’t make it, which was too bad). After my sister and her family took off, my parents, our two friends, and me drank a shitload of scotch, after careening through some bottles of very nice wine – I mean very nice – after dinner and had fun. And I got a ride home from the couple of honor in a really cool off-the-lot BMW, which was totally nice of them – otherwise I would have had to crash there, which would have been great, but probably a bit awkward in the morning, not to mention slightly hung over for everyone.
I had a great Christmas, but I had to give it a 9, only because my mom passed a year ago. I miss her.
I had to work. Despite that, it was a 7 due to Christmas magic being particularly strong this year, and family coming together.
I was going to vote a “2” but then I realized that was just self-pity talking. My Christmas wasn’t that bad, it just wasn’t that good. I’ve certainly had much worse.
I’m going with a nice, neutral “5.”
My Xmas was way better than I expected…overall I give it an 8:).
10
I’m still alive, I have a swell house, a great tree, a wonderful dinner and I was surrounded by little kids. What’s not to love?