I loathe Christmas also, and would gladly do nothing to celebrate it. However my family has other ideas. For example, the issue of presents: I havent bought any, and instructed others not to buy any for me. What do they do? Buy me fucking presents. After I asked them not to.
I don’t have a problem with other people celebrating Christmas, but I do have a problem with being included against my will.
I know that was kinda off topic, but I really needed to rant about that.
Hey Gerome I had the same problem with presents. If you say “I don’t want any presents”, then what they hear is “I don’t expect a present, but getting one anyway would be nice”. What finally worked for me was making it clear that what I WANT is NOT to get a present and that getting one will make me unhappy.
I’ve more or less stopped hating xmas because for me it has ceased to exist.
Merry Festivus, one and all.
Gary, will you please be my boss, or at least talk to him for me? I’ve got too much to do in too little time (which is my official Christmas rant–you try to plan ahead, and get it all done, but still you find yourself frantically running through the mall at the 11th hour), and could really use the day off! Hey, since you’re going out to get that wrapping paper, could you please:
[ul]
You already had the perfect stocking stuffer but you let your mom have it to give to him.
I know, and it was BIG, too–it would have filled the whole stocking! The SO is right: I am my mother’s bitch.
Eh. I find it isn’t so bad when you ignore pretty much everything except getting together with family and friends.
I got a couple presents, but all for me and my wife. Otherwise I’ll just enjoy a roaring fire, family joking and alcohol.
I’ve got nothing against the holiday itself - what I don’t like is how it’s mutated into this disgusting expression of conspicuous consumption. The shopping madness that takes over is downright scary.
Also, for those of us who don’t have quaint Norman Rockwell families to spend the holiday with, it’s extra depressing - especially since the media go to so much trouble to give us lots of images of happy families and happy couples whom we are supposed to be emulating. All alone this holiday? Don’t get the week off from work? Can’t afford lots of high-priced prezzies? You must be a freak of nature! Grr.
Yeah, that’s far more depressing than just short days and long nights with no holiday “cheer”.
Kn(Grinch)ckers
Futile Gesture, I don’t know whether you’re male or female. It matters not. I think I love you. You have listed every single reason why I also hate Christmas and New Years. Hate it, Hate it. Please let it be January 2nd soon.
I feel the same way. The only good thing about Christmas is that I get some time off work.
And I feel the same way about being included against my will: I can’t go around to all my friends and acquaintances and tell them to exclude me from their Christmas plans. For one, it’s presumptious of me to think they are spending time/money on me for Christmas, and another, they do things for me or invite me for dinner because they like me! I have toyed with the idea of just telling everyone I am no longer celebrating Christmas, but I don’t think anyone will understand. It’s the only time of year I envy Jehovah’s Witnesses.
It’s particularly frustrating because I’m dirt poor and can’t afford to do anything, but I look like a real jerk if I don’t do something… so I buy gifts, even though I can’t afford it. Christmas makes me feel my poverty even more acutely, and it makes me feel like a jerk for not being a proper consumer and participating fully with everyone else at the lovefest. I hate Christmas with a passion.
I mean no offense or insult to those who’ve expressed this sentiment, but I was dirt poor at Uni and couldn’f afford presents either - so I made some. I don’t get the idea that you have to buy presents for people for them to count.
The expectation is what pisses me off. So far this year, nobody has been happy with the presents I couldn’t afford to buy them. even though I spent hours agonizing over what to get them and thought I had done a pretty good job.
Next year I’m spending any extra Christmas money on me. Fuck 'em.
Well…this just makes me sad!!!
Damn good idea, kferr. I shall institute it from here on in.
Thank you all for your kind greetings.
Yes, there are aspects to Christmas that are good. But they’re the kind of things that are good always.
I can get very cynical about the corruption of what was once a genuine celebration to cheer up what could be a very grim time of year, regardless of whether you want to dress it up as a Christian or Pagan festival. It’s now a greed-fest and the essense of everything that’s rotten in our society.
Just remember people, surviving Christmas is only a chore if you let it become bigger than you and yours. And there is nothing you need for Christmas that can’t be had and given for free at any other time.
So I’m not alone!
Recently I’ve been contemplating the idea of “opting out” of Christmas, starting next year. All that hassle and expense, for something which is over and done with in one day, just seems ridiculous to me. Although I enjoy giving presents (moreso than receiving), I’m pretty tired of spending money I don’t have on things which will just get shoved into a drawer and never used.
Christmas cards fuck me off more than anything. I think they’re a colossal waste of money, and would prefer not to send them. My family know this, but still continue to send the damn things to me. Really, I’m not ungrateful, but I feel that’s how I would appear if I didn’t return the favour. To be honest, I think a phone call, personal visit or a letter is a better way of letting someone know that you’re thinking of them over Christmas.
I’m an atheist, so the religious aspect of Christmas means nothing to me. Working retail for five years soured me on all the commercialism. That pretty much only leaves spending time with family and friends, which still seems pretty redundant to me - it’s something I try to do all year round, rather than on one day of the year.
Gary Busey yells “I hate Christmas!” and shotguns a television showing some holiday special near the end of Lethal Weapon.
Truly, a classic moment in American cinema.
Watch his mouth to see what he said before the overdub during that scene again. He’s a bit more upset than that, actually. 
Well, I had to give the clean version.
It’s Christmas, after all.
Christmas is what you make of it.
I prefer to enjoy it.