Generally for most Americans, the Christmas season is a positive time. Even those that don’t see it as a religious holiday. It evokes positive feelings from their past or childhood. But for some it isn’t a positive feeling at all, but one they try and avoid.
For me it is generally positive. Time spent with family. Seeing the decorations up, even commercially, is a positive feeling. It is a reminder of good feelings as a kid growing up with a loving family and generally good memories.
Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’s birth and that is joyful no matter what. I have some good memories of Christmas and certainly appreciate when celebrations add to the joy of the feast day (and I enjoy giving gifts), but they are incidental.
I have a lot of good memories of Christmas from when I was growing up, and even during my 20s and 30s, but now the thought of Christmas mostly leaves me exhausted.
I went with ‘other’ because I still think there are a lot of positive aspects to it, but I wouldn’t mind living in an alternate timeline where Christmas had never been commercialized, had nothing to do with gifts, and was strictly a Christian thing that wasn’t even a secular holiday.
I had to say ‘other’ because my feelings are distinctly mixed. I have years and years of wonderful Christmas memories, but with so much of my family gone, Christmas has become bittersweet. I have a new grandson and am looking forward to his first Christmas, but I am now a ‘guest’ at Christmas, rather than a Christmas-maker as I was for so many years. And while that is perfectly natural in the grander scheme of things, it is also a reminder that I’m getting older.
I’m not sad exactly, but there are just too many ghosts at my Christmas celebrations now.
It puts me in a cheery mood just because of the atmosphere of the whole thing. My family gets together once a week for dinner and hanging out so if I didn’t see them all the time and only on holidays I’d probably be more cherry.
I think my feeling can be summed up as “Put Upon”.
I can’t do anything without running into Christmas this and Christmas that - crowds just about everywhere any commerce is done (drug store, pharmacy window being the only exception*).
Gaudy displays of cheap, tacky crap in every store - even if the place doesn’t sell the stuff, it will still be displaying it.
And my DSL seems to be slowing - no doubt e-commerce at work.
And: never have any home or auto repairs done - the workers are too pre-occupied to pay attention to what they are doing. The old saying was "Never buy a car made between Dec 26 and Jan 2.
I simply block out the dates from Dec 15 through first weekend of Jan.
What’s poor, quiet atheist to do?
even then one must pass through the store’s decorations and the decorations they are selling.
When I was a kid and when my kid was a kid, Christmas was mostly fun. Apart from the year my mother completely forgot me…
Now, it’s pretty much just an annoyance. I do enjoy that $10 goofy gift exchange we do, and we’ve quit giving gifts among the adults, but I don’t decorate and I just want it to be over.
The ine saving grace WAS fruit cake (yes, I love the stuff).
Now, ‘mail order’ is the only source*.
only fruit cake seen in the wild is a miserable thing at Wal-Mart, using a Wal-Mart grade recipe**. Not fit to eat. I have 5 pounds of decent, not great stuff coming in.
** Wal-Mart’'s site shows both Entenmann’s and Claxton fruit cake. I was able to get 3 lbs of Claxton. Now, they no longer sell either. Bastards. First they take away my Big Red soda, now they take away fruit cake.
My dysfunctional family didn’t handle holiday stress well, so my childhood memories are mostly unpleasant ones. Nowadays, I don’t so much avoid Christmas as it avoids me. I have no family except for a brother and (Jewish) sister-in-law, we don’t exchange presents, I don’t decorate, I’m not religious, and I don’t spend much time in stores any time of the year.
New Year’s means more to me. My friends always get together on and around New Year’s Eve, and my curling club always has a fun party on New Year’s Day. I’m much more of a New Year’s person.
I’ve grown too cynical to enjoy pretty much anything, even stuff I loved as a kid. I’ve considered trying to lighten up, but that would mean letting my guard down. Not gonna happen.
I can completely see why they say there are more suicides committed during this time of year. Not that I’m posting this from the roof of a building or anything, but I definitely feel blue. I enjoy the decorations and music for the most part and living in a vacation destination means an onslaught of tourists and seasonal residents, so that obnoxiousness would be here regardless. But hearing everyone make plans, and being surrounded by media that’s saturated with family centric themes just reminds me how alone I am. I have enjoyed it in years past but I must say this year really sucks.
Some years are worse than others, that’s for sure. The first couple of years after my intended passed away were really bad.
I generally like Christmas – I like the lights, and I like us all getting together. I don’t care much about presents, but my family exchanges a few items, nothing over the top.
I get a little sad when I think about all the family who have died. We’re one of those families where people only had 1 or 2 kids (or no kids) for a few generations, so our numbers are shrinking.
I’d enjoy Christmas more if it was smaller. A batch of cookies and a Christmas ham and a few presents, a tree with some lights and ornaments. A ribbon tied up for decoration somewhere. Hot cocoa on the couch and the lights low and snuggling with my husband watching a movie. That is a perfect Christmas. But instead I have to travel somewhere to be with one or the other’s family, which is either ho-hum-nothing-to-say or get-drunk-and-get-super-loud. Neither of which is fun. If it’s the far away one I have to sleep in a cold uncomfortable bed, sleep poorly, and then drive hours to get back home, too. I don’t like doing it at all. Past Christmas memories are merely “ok” so nothing much to draw on there.
Thankfully I don’t go out shopping or listen to broadcast radio or TV so I am not inundated with the commercialization as much, which I’m sure I’d be thoroughly sick of.
Growing up, my family was not religious (although other branches were), nor do I consider myself so (even though I was a church secretary for five years), but I loved the imagery (both religious and non-), the atmosphere, the music and stories and lore. Although the Biblical aspect was not something I wanted to join in on, everything else felt like a community I could belong to, just by being there. I loved seeing the department store and city decorations, love to decorate the tree and house (inside and out), going to events (Tuba Christmas is this Saturday!). It makes winter not as dreary. Then again, the rest of winter is sort of a let down afterwards,
I went with: No, even though I have good memories of past Christmases, I see nothing positive currently with it. Since becoming an introvert, this season sometimes triggers anxious moments, especially in group settings where small-talk is needed. I am just no good at the social gatherings any more, and as these approach (the one’s I cannot get out of), I am filled with dread.
I just try to get thru it without spending too much or offending someone. The non-stop seasonal music, and the expectation that everyone is happy runs afoul of my general mood, but especially around this time of year everyone who’s into it kinda rub me the wrong way. Fortunately, the season passes.
I had some happy childhood Christmases but don’t celebrate anymore except for taking pictures of neighbors’ decorations and giving to Toys For Tots. I live alone, my relatives don’t need gifts, and I get fed up with the way Christmas is relentlessly forced upon people from Labor Day onward. Also, if I ever have to listen to those hideous chestnuts or sleigh ride songs again it will be too soon.