I’m addressing this to those who celebrate. Anyway, I am, and I know a lot of other people are, and TBH, there’s more to it than my father’s death a few months ago.
Even though I’m a Christian, it just seems like another day for me.
Right there with you. Glad all those folks are having a good time but I am just personally ambivalent about the whole thing and uninterested in the mass consumption around me. Good for children and grandparents I guess.
Hugs to those who are having a not very good one this year.
Two years in a row getting fucked by Southwest, so we won’t get out to visit my in-laws until Tuesday (we hope.) More annoying than anything else, but we wanted to spend Christmas with them.
I usually try to cook some inner(turmoil) entertainment however I can and what ever the situation. It’s a struggle to find joy some days.
Be happy if you have health. With losses of family members (including pets) hope for a better year. I had a big loss the year my Daddy died. I thought I’d never recover. I still miss him and wish to be with him, but I did recover some equilibrium. It gets better.
Hugs if you need or want. I’ll think about you. I promise 
Same goes for me too. Like Beck.
I hope everyone can find at least a little something to be happy about. And if you can’t, well, I’m throwing out good energies your way to try and lift your spirits.
One way one might view things is, no matter how shitty or fucked up things may be, they can almost always be worse. And if you can accept that and flip it over, well, then perhaps one can be grateful for at least a little something in their lives.
Fuck it. You don’t have to accept that. Any of it. However I am offering a tight and strong, supportive hug. Please be well, and since we are all here, we are a community and we are together.
Xmas eve is especially difficult and bitter sweet. My twins were born on Xmas eve 19 years ago in Shanghai. My youngest twin Serena had a difficult birth that I chronicled here in real time, and it was unclear she would survive the first night. She did, and was a joy for the next 18 years and two weeks. Serena passed away in a tragic household accident on 8 January 2023. RIP.
So, focused on my son and celebration his birthday alone for the first time ever. And I never want to take away from recognizing his birthday.
December 24 was always about birthdays. Dec 25 was a low key Christmas.
And a really good personal friend of mine’s father passed away in the night. He was 90+, and had a previous major heart attack close to a year ago, so not a surprise. He’s lived a more than full life, family had several get togethers since the first heart attack, so it’s not a shock.
Not my best Xmas season.
Not as bad as my brother, his wife is in the hospital with multiple organ failure. Earlier in the month I was diagnosed with two new life altering conditions, chronic kidney disease and cardiomyopathy, on top of everything else that’s wrong with me.
Yeah, this Christmas sucks more than all the ones when ‘Santa’ didn’t give me an Easy Bake Oven.
Not nearly as bad as some upthread, but I have recently divorced and this year is her turn with the kids.
Also if I can mini-rant: part of the joy of christmas is giving. I encourage my kids to think about what she might like, and we choose a budget and see if we can find those things in brick & mortar shops.
Then they wrap it, make a card (or two), hide it away and present it on Xmas. They (well, really I) got her a beautiful ceramic birdfeeder from a very small scale pottery run by a friend of a friend.
What did I get? Nothing.
I don’t care about the lack of gift, I care that she did not give the children the experience of choosing and giving.
I had covid during Hanukah which killed all my plans to get together with friends that holiday.
There’s no snow - it was almost 60 degrees yesterday - and it doesn’t feel like Christmas weather-wise.
Working retail this time of year is a trial and not a joy for most of the month.
Last night, for a few brief hours, I had a get together at the local synagogue for a Jewish-American Christmas (a movie and Chinese take-out) and that was the first few hours I felt some positive connection with people all month.
This afternoon a dear friend’s family will have me over for their Christmas celebration, but due to this year’s medical crap I have very little money, due to illness I had not time, and I do not have gifts for anyone, for which I’ve already apologized in advance. No time, no energy, no money.
It’s not a terrible Christmas in one sense, but it’s like there’s been no holiday season at all for me.
Oh no. I am so very sorry for your loss.
My wife nearly died on 12 November. She lived through that day and then she nearly died a few times later that week. I posted about that. She spent Thanksgiving in the ICU. She had been in the hospital or a rehab facility continuously since 12 November until just a week ago when she was finally discharged.
There isn’t any Christmas in our house this year. No tree, no decorations, nothing. Her prognosis is good and she should recover 100%.
That’s the best Christmas gift I’ve ever received. Ever.
Fortunately, no bad events have befallen me or my family but we’re traveling so we opened the household gifts before we left and did dinner with the in-laws yesterday and it’s unseasonably warm (well, probably the new norm) so feeling like Christmas never took hold. Not a bad honey but nothing festive feeling either.
Wow Bullitt, that’s great. Merry Christmas.
My Wife and I are taking care of my mothers estate. She died 14 months ago. It’s ok though. We are at the house, slowly going through things. We go home today.
We had a nice time with a friend on the 23rd, and last night was a blast. We had my cousin over. She and I are BFF. We all laughed and laughed and played Trivial Pursuit. Beers where consumed. Oh, and Chinese food.
My sympathies to all who have had such losses. I wish hugs could be sent electronically.
It’s a pretty good Christmas in my household, despite the holiday season having gone emphatically off the rails.
The new aches and pains I posted about in another thread precluded some things I really, really wanted to do. And the dirtball who cleaned us out (checking and savings) after finding our debit card . . . well we should get the money back soon. But I do keep thinking I ought to call my father, before remembering that he died this Autumn.
But the kids are still young enough to be in awe of the whole holiday, and the younger one pretends to believe in Santa just to hold onto the magic for a little longer. They’ve marveled (quite sincerely) over the tree they helped decorate, and have suffered through various Christmas movies without complaint.
We’re lucky.
This has been a rough year. My father in law died in January, and it was really, really hard on my husband. His mother has had all sorts of health issues (she’s 92, so no big surprise there) and shuttling her to her various Dr appts has been trying for him. Temporary reprieve, tho, as his mother is spending a couple of months with her sister so we won’t be bringing her back till February.
His middle brother died last month, tho there was no love lost between them - not going into the history, but I’ll just add that said brother only called when he wanted something. And his youngest brother, who was born with mental and emotional problems, refuses to take his meds or see his doctors, and just the other day tried to provoke a knock-down, drag out fight with my husband.
And our grandkids have been sick, courtesy of shared kindergarten germies.
So, not a particularly festive time this year. We’ll be spending Christmas afternoon with my side of the family - not usually a lot of drama there, so we shall see.
My father has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. I drive three hours each way on weekends to help. I’m still not quite recovered from my trip to the ER on Thanksgiving. I’m pretty exhausted.
So, ends the selfish whining. My sister is retired, so helps most of the time. However, she is 60 and recently had both knees replaced.
I go back and forth between disappointment and gratitude. It’s a very COVID Christmas and I miss what little family I have, and here’s yet another wasted opportunity where I could have seen them. I’ve been sick almost all of this month. I’m tired of being sick all the time, but it’s inevitable with a young child in school.
COVID was miserable for a while. Today was the first day in several days I didn’t want to lay in bed all day. I was able to engage with my son a bit. We built a gear robot together. He’s asking to open more presents, as is his right and privilege on this day. He’s building extraordinary things. I love to watch his brain work.
The two most important people in my life are right here, among the mess of wrapping paper and toys. It’s not what I wanted, but it’s what I have, and what I have is good, actually.
Yes .
I give you Tillamook. Always makes me happy.