My father-in-law can’t remember a single Christmas carol. His version of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” consists of everything up to and including the first “…and a happy new year.” In spite of this, he likes to go caroling. And what he does, the whole family has to do. It’s incredibly uncomfortable from the carolee’s perspective: a dozen people land on your doorstep, belt out eight bars of a carol then STOP with an akward silence and goofy grins. I get invited to join them every year, and every year I say no.
Three neighbors dropped off plates of cookies and assorted goodies. Every last one of them has nuts. Guess what food item I’m allergic to? I know I’ve mentioned this to at least one of them. Adding insult to injury, most of the goodies are chocolate, and I love chocolate. The worst part is, I recently discovered I’m insulin-resistant, so I can’t eat any of it anyway. They’re getting devoured by the rest of the family, while I watch, and nibble on the wretched sugar-free fudge I tried to make.
They can ban public smoking in entire states, but they can’t do a thing about blasting cheezy holiday muzak over the PA everywhere you go? I’m appalled that this is not specifically addressed in the Geneva Conventions. There’s going to be a serious public health concern in the Fort Worth area if something doesn’t change soon.
“No, I will not be going to the company’s holiday party” means “no, I will not be going to the company’s holiday party.” It’s being held 45 miles from my house, I don’t drink, and I didn’t enjoy sitting in a smoky bar all night long listening to music I hate and watching people I barely know get smoochy with near strangers the last time I did it. I’m certainly not subjecting my wife and under-5 children to that either, I don’t care how many other co-workers are bringing their kids. Thank you for reminding me I’m going to miss it, but you know what, I don’t think I will.
People who see that my husband is overweight and still give him candy and cookies for Christmas. Worse yet, his family who know what a struggle he’s had with his weight most of his life, and how he’s been fighting high blood pressure and high cholesterol lately (along with actual physical symptoms), and give that stuff to him. In years past I’ve been trying to eat up the goodies, but now I’m at the point where my tummy threatens to call for a new size of pants, so I can’t deal with the bounty either.
My father-in-law who has a “traditional” Christmas Eve dinner of linguini and clam sauce every year. I put traditional in quotes because according to my husband it didn’t start until sometime around when he and I met, give or take a few years, even though his dad tries to make it seem like it’s a traditional Italian thing and he’s always been doing it. This year my husband and I will be spending Christmas Eve with my mother and sister, a couple hours away, and spending Christmas Day with his family. Well, when one of the sisters decided to spend Christmas with her father-in-law, my FIL moved the dinner to this past Saturday, expecting all of us to show up too. Then when she fell ill Saturday morning, I got a message from him on the answering machine, talking about how he was moving it to Sunday afternoon and how it was better for everyone’s schedule. No, it was better for his schedule, the retiree who doesn’t have work interfering with things like time to shop for Christmas presents or putting up the tree - which we’d planned for yesterday. At least we got the presents done. Oh yes, he told us that he’d moved the linguini dinner so that this one sister wouldn’t have to “miss” it, but for the other sisters, he used our absence as an excuse - we hadn’t expressed any regret over it.
My only grievance is the whole “family” thing. We’re not close, we never have been, but this one time of year people suddenly try to make us feel guilty about wanting to do our own thing. My mother usually goes away at Christmas, just for a few days, but she says she does it because she doesn’t want anyone where she lives (in sheltered housing) to invite her to spend the time with them and their family (because she wants to be on her own) and because she doesn’t want me to feel bad if I want to spend the time at home with 'im indoors instead.
We see each other immediately before she goes away - that’ll be Friday then - and we’re both happy with that arrangement. It’s everybody else who sticks their noses in and says either that she’s selfish for going away on her own, or that I’m uncaring because I leave her by herself. Why can’t they keep their noses out and accept that we’re both doing what we want to?
Newlyweds Only Mostly Dead and El Perro Fumando are feeling the strain of this one this year. We have three family parties to go to (since all extended families are geographically adjacent), and maybe want to attend one or two, at best. The fact is, all of the kids have, like ourselves, grown into adults with their own lives and obligations, and don’t really have any reason except inertia to continue coming together for Christmas. But the network of aunts and uncles can’t let go, and so we get together and eat and engage in petty, meaningless conversation while thinking of all the other things we’d rather be doing. Fun, fun, fun.
My gripe(s), although it’s/they’ve been done to death - gas prices and family.
I live two hours from my where my parents. No big deal. They live two hours from where my grandmother lives. I can cut the distance and make it straight to my grandmother’s area in three hours. No big deal yet.
My mother calls me and says she needs me to come up early, on Wednesday, and help her out. I explain I have to be in town on Thursday, so she agrees to give me a little gas money for helping her out. No big deal yet, again, except that Saturday I have to drive to grandmother’s for our large family Christmas. My mother calls me and swears that she doesn’t want to drive up the night before, but can’t drive by herself on Saturday morning, so I have to meet her. Honestly, my two sisters live within 20-30 minutes of her house, and it is on their way to the party, but I have to drive an hour out of my way to get her because they won’t???
This isn’t so bad. 2 hours up and back Wednesday and 4 hours up on Saturday. I’m only driving 2 hours back on Saturday to stay in my hometown, while Mrs. Small is driving the 2 hours Saturday night after work to get there. When we get up in the morning, we are doing Christmas with her parents and siblings on Sunday morning. I agreed (this was my own fault but…) to drive Mrs. Small back to our apartment Sunday afternoon for work, back to her parent’s that night afterwards, and going to my mother’s in the morning for my family Christmas (immediate family instead of extended).
To make this all worse, no one has helped us out with the planning at all and we have tried to work around everyone’s schedule. I know I volunteered for 4 more hours of driving, but I’d rather do that than her drive herself, since I can sleep while she is at work and drive her back…
In many countries (Hispanic countries plus Italy for sure), it is customary for businesses to give a basket of goodies to their employees for Christmas. I still have to see ONE company where the goodies do not include alcohol. 12yo Chivas Regal helps the stew taste better but sheesh…
This year I’m sort of getting my wish in that I’ve been able to obtain some real nifty Christmas decorations (the Advent Market in Basel is great) but I don’t have to spend the holidays at home. So I’d really appreciate it if my coworkers could refrain from making dead-lamb eyes and saying “oh how awful!” when they ask whether I’m going home for Christmas and I say no. Even if we didn’t have a dying in-law, Christmas with my family has been giving every relative one or more bouts of gastrenteritis for years between the nerves and the too-much, too-sweet, too-greasy food.
Having to be at work at 7:30 because our store opens at 8 all week. I’m a college student. This does not fit in with my sleep schedule. My classes were all at noon this semester. Getting up at 6 is painful. I don’t know how I will last until 5pm today. Then I get to do it tomorrow and the next day. Then I at least get to close the next few days, which is okay minus the fact that it does not allow me to come home until the morning of Christmas Eve. And there is a rumor at work my asshole boss is stringing me along during the holiday season then firing me afterwards. I honestly see no valid reason for firing me besides the fact I don’t kiss his ass.
But yeah, waking up when it’s still dark sucks. Don’t know how I did it before college. And don’t know how I’ll do it after. I’m so tired my eyes are burning. Blah.
This one is a little odd; sort of the inverse of Ferret Herder’s grump.
I’m a volunteer fireman, and Saturday evening we had Operation Santa, where we escorted the jolly one around town on one of the engines. Wherever we saw kiddies, or knew where they lived, we stopped to hand out goody bags and had them sit on Santa’s lap for the customary talk.
We did this in our civvies instead of our gear, and it was cold. At one stop, the parents knew we were coming, and had hot chocolate waiting. It was appreciated, but I couldn’t partake. I’ve had a gastric bypass, and sugar causes some rather spectacularly severe gastric distress in me (‘dumping’ it’s called). Once you’ve done it once or twice, you avoid the dump triggers like the plague.
I was annoyed that I had to be the party pooper, and I said that I couldn’t have sugar. The hosts were slightly miffed until I said that, but figured I was diabetic (actually I am but it’s been under control for several months now), and I was excused.
I hate having to turn down hospitality, even when it’s almost a necessity. Brrrr.
I’m sick of cards. Just don’t want them. Can’t get people to stop sending them, even people who know I don’t celebrate anything this time of year.
I especially hate when people find out I don’t celebrate and make elaborate invitations to “try to include me so I won’t get depressed”. Like I was a Christian vagrant huddled in the shadow of the church, praying for a spare turkey wing and pie. Thinking I’m needy is kind of insulting. I say, “What if someone insisted you should spend Ramadan or the Tet holiday with them so you wouldn’t get depressed? You’d think they were coo-coo, right?” They still don’t get it.
I don’t know if this counts as vague or pointless, but it’s going to be the first Christmas without my grandmother, who died this past June. So it’s gonna be rough.
Also, my aunt and uncle are coming in from Philly. I love my aunt and their daughter, my cousin, but my uncle is an annoying perv who tries too hard to be funny and just comes off as gross and crude.
New one for me this year, but customs stickers! It’s no fun getting a present from your boyfriend in the US when it’s clearly posted on the outside of the package what’s in it
I hate Christmas carols even when they’re sung well, and you can’t escape them. People bring their CDs into work,; radio stations dump their normal programming to play them.
Everyone in the entertainment industry puts out a Christmas song – probably even William Shatner.
And those awful "specialty songs that should remain buried forever are dug up. “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”, “Snoopy’s Christmas”, “Jingle Bell Rock” – I’m not recalling other titles at the moment, but no doubt I’ll be forcibly reminded soon.
I’ll add my voice to the chorus of “the music sucks.” I was doing a lot of shopping this past week, and it is like a kind of torture to listen to any kind of Christmas music for any length of time. This is a good excuse to finally go get an iPod - save my sanity at Christmas.
Another persistent, small peeve of mine is the consumerism that I participate in, although I don’t agree with it at all. I keep trying to think of a better way to celebrate the winter solstice, but I haven’t come up with anything yet (and my family is not too keen on any of my ideas or my moral conundrum, either).
Christmas Eve at my husband’s smoky aunt’s house. She had a mini-stroke recently, so I’m hoping that a major scare like that might have convinced her to give up the cancer sticks. We spend every Christmas day with a smoke hangover from her, the other aunt, the other uncle, and two cousins chain-smoking the night away.
I have Christmas day off, and then nothing til the 1st. It’ll be okay (I’m having ten days off and heading down to Dunedin, yay!) The kicker is, I’m working til 1am tomorrow, and I’m in again at 8.30am on Thursday. Stupid timetable.
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