I’m not talking about a willingness to put up a tree, sing carols, and run up a credit card debt that you won’t be able to pay off until June. I’m talking about that special glow, sort of like being in love, that pervades everything you do, that truly makes you feel honest goodwill towards everyone.
I used to get it every year, but I don’t think I’ve had it for a couple of decades now. I remember what it feels like, but I just don’t feel it any longer.
You?
Not really, but I want to, and I try to, every year. I remember it too, and I think it’s still out there for us to catch if we can.
My plan this year is to reduce my expectations* and spending, and stay out of crowds. Still, I’m surrounded by Scrooge-types (especially my husband), and it’s really hard not to succumb to all the wet blankets.
*Not gift expectations, but relating to the behavior of other people.
Despite my best efforts I still sometimes get the spirit. I put up my one string of lights around my bedroom window and the glow when I turn off all the other reminds me of the christmas tree when I was young.
The thing is, I’m not surrounded by Scrooge types at all – everyone I know loves Christmas.
Maybe it’s partly because I don’t look forward to getting gifts like I used to. Maybe it’s because I find it a stressful time of year.
I do when I watch my kids’ faces light up at the seasonal stuff.
Oh, and when my egg nog has enough bourbon in it.
I have a very quiet joy when participating in religious celebrations around this time–not the explosive joy of Easter but the quiet one of a cold and dark season with a Light shining in it.
I am disillusioned with any of the commercial stuff, or the overdoneness. Right now it looks like Santa threw up all over the office and that’s just jarring. Bah humbug. I also have overdone gifts in the past so I pulled back a lot and just make a general donation. Watching my friends take three hours to open their gifts just feels icky.
Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris’n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth!
Nope, not for a while. Now, Christmas is just another day and the season can’t change into Spring quickly enough for me.
I get it sporadically. There are things I love about the holidays, and things I loathe, and while I feel all sorts of goodwill toward men while I’m, say, hanging stockings… while I’m actually shopping I just tend to wonder why Jesus wants us all to suffer on his birthday.
I also wonder why, if there really is a God, radio stations play Josh Groban’s version of O Holy Night 837 times per day, and neglect Burl Ives’s version entirely.
I do when the lights are out except for those on the Christmas tree and there are some quiet Christmas songs on in the background and I have some time to just soak it up. Or when it’s snowing out and we can go for a walk in the snow. It always seems peaceful outside when there’s snow falling. (Assuming you’re actually out in the snow and not stuck in your car trying to get somewhere!) Or maybe when I’m baking cookies or other special Christmas goodies.
It comes and goes. Comes in the evening, when I’m walking the dog, and everyone’s outdoor lights are on. Or when I watch a favorite old Christmas special or movie. Goes when I’m feeling stressed, or pressured.
Oh dear God, no.
I always feel honest goodwill toward people no matter what time of year, all the way up until I want to stab them in the neck.
During the holiday season it takes just that much longer for the shiv to come out.
Christmas sort of affects me like alcohol does. If things are going well, for the most part, they seem even better around this time of year. If things are not going well at all (like this year,) they seem even worse this time of year. I totally get the depression and suicides around this time of year. (no, no, I’m not suicidal…I can just see why someone could just get pushed that last little bit this time of year if she’s already headed that way.)
I think when you grow up, you tend to lose the sense of wonder that Christmas used to bring. I don’t have any young kids now either, it used to be fun buying for them. Losing my mom a few years ago didn’t help either.
I still LOVE the Christmas spirit! I’m in a much better mood around the holidays and have a higher threshold for petty bullshit.
Nope. Unless by the ‘christmas spirit’ you mean egg nog infused with lots of liquor, but it seems that you don’t.
I don’t get the Christmas spirit. I get the holiday blues which extends to New Years. It’s either SAD or a nature/nurture issue because I know my mom has the same problem. Feeling extra weepy, screwed up stress responses etc.
Statistically, the most suicides are around the end-of-the-year holidays.
EDIT: Nevermind - read the Snopes article.
Yep. I don’t like Christmas shopping, bad radio carols, and extravagant displays, so I avoid those and do it my way, and have lots of Christmas joy. There’s no other feeling like it.
Have you tried a light box and that sort of thing? I now have a lamp that goes on in my face in the morning and it helps a lot with the light needs, but I don’t actually have SAD; I just can’t get up without light.