I’m curious.
I’m going through a divorce and Christmas has always been kind of relaxed, but this year it sucked. It was so stressful that I’m actually glad to be back at work.
I voted stressful, because it isn’t really relaxing for me. That being said, I don’t mind the stress of Christmas for the most part. The rushing around, cooking, shopping, baking, decorating, etc. Probably a better word than stressful would be busy. It’s very busy and not relaxing, so stressful, but not in a negative way. Does that make sense?
Ps…sorry your Christmas sucked. 
It’s the end of the year and the start of the summer…the tempo of everything slows down. I’ve always found it relaxing.
Seeing that I’ve never ever celebrated it, no stress at all regarding the holiday.
My wife went by her family over the holiday so it was even more relaxing.
It’s the most wonderful time to drink beer.
With the ol’ lady gone
And the football game on
And no nagging to hear…
It’s the most wonderful time to drink beer!***
Since I don’t buy any gifts except for my nieces, it’s nice and relaxing. I generally have really nice annual events to do like every weekend after Thanksgiving but they are far enough apart that nothing seems hurried.
If I had kids and a big family to deal with, and anything out of town, it would be a lot to handle. I’ve got the perfect setup.
I am The Mom, right now. The mom of a small child. We have to visit family, which is a big hassle. We have to have guests, which stresses me out. Then there are all the boxes that I want to check for my daughter, and guilt if I don’t. I am the parent who bakes, the one who addresses cards, the one who puts up the decorations (and takes them down), the one who buys and wraps gifts for everyone except myself. Oh, who am I kidding. I buy and wrap stuff for myself, too!
Don’t get me wrong: I love Christmas. But it sure is a lot of work, at this point in my life.
I celebrate Christmas as little as possible (unfortunately, my partner insists on presents, dinner out, etc.). The only real stress is if I have to go anywhere near a mall during the season, especially on the weekend. Now that I’m retired, this is much easier to avoid.
The stress isn’t because it’s Christmas, it’s because it’s my family.
Christmas with moderate doses of family: OK. Christmas with relatives, relatives, another set of relatives, more relatives… gastritis or gastenteritis, never mind the murderous feelings. If possible, the dosage of family should be administered during the early days of any vacational period, so that the rest of the period can be spent recovering.
Every other year we do absolutely nothing. It’s the best. The other years are completely stressful.
I put not stressful. The only stressful part is visiting family and that’s over in a couple of days. Traffic sucks, but I just put on some tunes and zone out. The rest of the time is spent with my SO and personally I love Christmas so I love putting up the tree, baking, and decorating.
Pretty much zero stress. We don’t do gifts, and we don’t travel on holidays. That just leaves making dinner, which I enjoy.
I said “sometimes.” I don’t find the Christmas season stressful, but sometimes life in general gets stressful, so yes, I sometimes experience stress at Christmas.
A normal Christmas is fine but -------- some others suck so bad that all the chocolate in Hershey aren’t going to make them better. My BIL killed himself on Dec 13 (my wifes birthday) and we didn’t get the body until the 20th. So needless to say that year Christmas really bit the big one. Thank God for Xanax.
Like Sattua said, I find it stressful trying to make Christmas good for the kids. I really hate shopping for gifts, and yet I find myself with a complicated spreadsheet of buyers and givers and cells to fill in so that the kids can choose gifts for various relatives. Then there’s decorating and going to various parties and baking cookies and making travel plans and trying to pack the car and driving 14 hours each way and…
By Dec 25, I’m a happy, relaxed person, but I’m pretty cranky for the prior three weeks.
I put stressful. I don’t like the holiday season any more. Too much forced togetherness with people I don’t associate with any other time of the year. Too much obligation. Too much trying to make things just-so. Too many stupid gifting just for the sake of it. Too many crowds. Too much food. Too much spending. Too much overload in general.
I might be happier if we tried to spread that joy everyone is seeking around to the rest of the year, like spreading cream cheese over a larger piece of bread. I actually get a bit anxious as the holiday season approaches. If I had my druthers, I’d check out for the month of December and go somewhere quiet, but the family would flip-out, so I suffer thru it. It’s a relief when January finally rolls around, to be honest.
Horribly stressful.
All year long, if I see something my gf, kids, nephews, nieces, friends, etc would really enjoy I get it and give it to them as a no-reason-needed kinda gift. Then xmas rears her ugly head and I’m at a loss to perform on demand. Kiss my ass, Kris Kringle.
I’m going to honest and say I hate Christmas. I feel the pressure to come up with gift ideas and to get them wrapped and shipped in time. Plus my company shuts down for a week after Christmas and that adds pressure on work deadlines and makes the return from the holiday absolute HELL. It irritates the crap out of me that I have to use vacation time for the shutdown when I really don’t like winter and prefer a summer vacation.
That said, I wasn’t really crazy about Christmas even as a young child, so the adult responsibilities are only part of it.
I have never celebrated Christmas, never exchanged gifts (we gave small Chanukah gifts to the kids when they were young, now to their kids, but nothing expected in return), or cards, so no stress. My sister, who married into a Catholic family told me 15 years ago that every year they gave–and received worth approximately $2000, including a minimum $500 for her MIL (since deceased). That meant that most of her luxury things for the year were chosen by others. It makes no sense to me.