My home is a Christmas-free zone and has been for years. I don’t go out to other folks’ places on Christmas Day, too much grief for me down that track, and I avoid Christmas stuff as much as I can up to the date.
I can’t stop friends sending me cards, that’s what they like to do, but I don’t display them anymore. For those close to me who celebrate the festival, I give gifts. Then again, I do that during the year for no other reason other than I love my friends, so there’s nothing extraordinary.
So I guess, in my own personal sphere of influence, Christmas got cancelled years ago.
I don’t see the point of Christmas cards at all. Why would anyone display them? Do you think a guest to your house is going to peruse them with much enjoyment as though they were some kind of fine art?
If it’s simply a medium for writing a letter, that makes sense. But do you put your letters or emails on display for every guest that stops by?
Christmas cards are a scam, and far too many people fall for it.
I share your sentiment, but I can see why some folks like them. They’re an essential part of a Kinkade Christmas. You’ve got your tree all decked out in lights and ornaments, tinsel strewn across the walls, Christmas cards perched on the mantelpiece, and a roaring fire in the fireplace. Some folks just live for that.
I may have to cancel Christmas this year. I’ve always been bad about buying presents for others, although last year I tried hard, but this year I’m simply flat broke, possibly too broke to visit my mother let alone buy presents.
I’ve been feeling that for the last couple of years. I think it’s because I put so much weight on having everything be so special and right. This year I’m going to let up the pressure on myself. I’ve cut the gift list down and I’m going to do as much shopping as possible online and I’m not looking for the “perfect” gift for anyone.
Each year, I get a bit closer to forgoing Christmas. Over the summer, I sold our huge, outrageous artificial tree at a garage sale, as we moved into a smaller house and there wasn’t room for it in storage. I also consolidated a lot of the decorations.
Over the weekend, I opened one of the two boxes of decorations I have and thought, “meh”. The boxes remain–full–in the basement. I’ve already stated that this year there will not be a Christmas tree at the house. It’s not that I dislike Christmas trees per se, it’s just that I hate, hate, hate having it up in my house. Plus, our place is crowded now as it is–there is absolutely NO room for tree.
Well, this year we got rid of the stocking tradition. Oh, and every year until this one we got our Christmas tree the weekend immediately following Thanksgiving. Not the case this time around. What is happening here?
Bah. I’m feeling as Grinchy/Scrooge-y right now as I’ve ever felt in my life. I’ve done the Christmas shopping, so that pressure is off, but I haven’t put up one strand of tinsel, one needle of tree, one blob of wax for a candle. I don’t even know if I’ll bother. (I suppose I’ll have to do the outside, or the neighbors will think I’ve gone insane.)
And I’ve always been a Christmas Nutjob as **MadPansy64 **called it.
Back in college I had this artist friend who always made his own cards. He’d draw/paint a little Christmasy scene on each card - some snow covered pine trees or something. The card itself was the handmade gift, and that’s the sort of card you keep. The Hallmark stuff gets chucked.
My family, being Hindu, is not big on Christmas, and only celebrated it when I was a child. So there were a few years when I was single or in the early years of my current relationship (and thus wasn’t invited home for Christmas) where I just bought a good book and ignored the day.
My brother cancelled a large part of Christmas once a few years ago. He told our side of the family that his family was spending Christmas with his in-laws and he told the in-laws that his family was spending Christmas with us. Then they just stayed home and enjoyed a simple, quiet Christmas. He told me about it years later. I’m trying to get my wife to go along with doing the same.
There will be no tree at home this year, but I’ll be putting out my door decorations and other knicknacks inside. Mr. J will be working the week of and just after Christmas, and I’ll be with him at the resort. On the plus side, it’s 7 days of hot tubbing, playing virtual golf, shooting pool, and playing in a commercial kitchen (squee).
The only other year we didn’t do Christmas was 2006. I was sick, we had just moved, and we were really broke. We managed 4 stocking stuffers each; they were wrapped in newspaper and propped up against the TV stand. Actually, we had three each on Xmas Day since I indulged Mr. J’s love of opening something on Xmas Eve.
But there will be presents this year! And likely dinner, drinks and gift opening with our neighbors just before we leave.
It’s putting up and decorating the tree, cleaning the house, and shopping for presents that burnishes my seasonal halo. I love the meal planning, preparation and socializing. I love the seasonal bling. I have dragged husband and friends with me on Light Tours.
Hmm. I might have to make a case for new outdoor lights for the balcony.
I don’t celebrate Christmas. I don’t decorate, send cards, or buy gifts. If someone gives me a gift, I try and accept it as graciously as possible (and then I write their birthday in big sharpie letters on my calendar).
Been about 15 years now I’ve lived this way, and I have no problems with it.
FWIW, I also don’t celebrate Kwaanza, Hanukkah, Festivus (altho that one almost had me ready to go buy a stripper pole), the Solstice, or any other similar holiday.
That’s fine by me. But these things are essentially decorations, and to pretend that they’re particularly religious or pious is silly.
I say don’t let the societal ambiance pressure you. Buying things doesn’t make you any better of a son/daughter.
And then what do you do with them? Do you have hundreds of them piled up somewhere that you never look at because all they say is something trite like, “May the joy of the season be with you,” or just, “Happy birthday”? If you like them, I completely respect that, and if you really like the picture, I can see keeping it. But usually they’re just run-of-the-mill images churned out by the greeting card company.
I have a friend in Canada who does hand made postcards, and they’re beautiful. But she also writes letters on the back side up-dating me on recent activities. It’s a way of sending her care and artwork along with a letter at a cheaper postal rate. I definitely keep those.
We pretty much postponed Christmas when my dad died on 12/23/2001, but since the OP specifically excludes death as a reason, I guess that doesn’t count.
We always had a wonderful Winter Holiday party: they would put up a tree, have a massive giveaway, and lay out a nice spread for lunch. They included all three shifts, which was really nice. So, one year they decided to add a desk decorating contest. A few people got really ticked off because HR wouldn’t allow them to put up a nativity scene. When they continued to protest, the company cancelled the whole thing.
I would actually be very happy to cancel it. I always get super depressed around this time of year. I have no family except my husband’s family. I have a wonderful job, but it’s very lonely: all the other groups have parties and stuff, and I never get invited to anything. (I work QA for a call center: therefore, I am the enemy.) If it weren’t for my kids, I probably would.
