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Christmas, ughhhh. January can't come soon enough

F

Fade2black

Well-Known Member
Anyone else hate the period between Thanksgiving and New Years? I tend to lose my mind during this period. Too many people, too much mindlessness and way too much fakeness. I want to vomit when everyone is clamoring for that perfect facebook shot to show how happy they are, how much money they spent or perhaps to show how “rich” they are for social status. This usually comes after their bad behavior pushing, shoving and being obnoxiously rude while shopping. I have a December birthday and this just seems to make things worse. If there is an obligatory gift required, it's a gift certificate. I buy them all from the same place for the same amount of money, stuff the envelopes and wash my hands. I hate this time of year so much, I don't even have a single decoration.

I haven’t seen any posts here about the holidays so maybe I’m alone on this one.
 
Might be worth having a break from social media, or muting the worse people.
Do understand about December birthday. Hard to have a birthday gathering properly when everyone is more bothered about Christmas events. I don't bother trying anymore.
 
There have been posts - they're just buried.
I don't get the facebook shots either. My son's ex mother in law and her, still fairly new, husband was constantly sharing posts about how in love they were, sending each other romantic posts over FB (I say - keep that at home - surely you see each other day to day). They were sickening about it. They were divorced this past year. hmmmm Are they trying to get other's to envy them for all this great stuff? Do they not realize that all that stuff, the rest of us knows is hiding something else that is causing misery?
Sorry about the birthday in December. To me, I would think a December birthday is often forgotten in all the other excitement and expect people to be broke by the time your birthday rolls around. I guess, like you said - it would feel cheated out of a proper birthday. Although, I used to try to work on my birthday so no one would do anything. I just don't like being acknowledged and drawn attention to.
My most horrifying birthday was my 40th - a surprise party and an Elvis impersonator that stayed in my personal space.
 
 
Am I the only one on the forum who loves Christmas?

I just imagined my psychiatrist dramatically removing my diagnosis because he discovered I love Christmas LOL
 
Fino said:
Am I the only one on the forum who loves Christmas?

I just imagined my psychiatrist dramatically removing my diagnosis because he discovered I love Christmas LOL
Click to expand...
I enjoy most parts of Christmas, even though parts of it can be very stressful. I enjoy decorating - that's the one time of the year that my home can look gawdy and be acceptable. :) I love kids at Christmas and watching their eyes twinkle and the smiles on their faces. I like the merriness of the season everywhere you go. The part that is stressful is trying to make everyone as happy as it used to be when they were little. I think that's why it's so hard for me when it comes to finding the right gifts for my children. Because when they were little it was easy to make them excited and squeal with pleasure. You want to keep doing that for your kids (at least I do) but it doesn't happen. At best it's just going to be that they appreciate the gift and the gesture. But my kids are like me and try to make it something special, rather than something expensive or whatever. Last year one of my sons gave me a gift that thrilled me. I had a bear figurine I had gotten in Alaska made from glacier silt. I lost it in all my moves. He found the exact figurine at Goodwill and gave it to me for Christmas. What's even funnier, is that a week before I was wondering whatever happened to it. I wondered if it could be the same one (after all, how many people in a small town in NC is going to have that same figurine from AK?) But later I found mine had been at my daughters in her curio cabinet. What are the chances???
 
Fino said:
Am I the only one on the forum who loves Christmas?

I just imagined my psychiatrist dramatically removing my diagnosis because he discovered I love Christmas LOL
Click to expand...
Me! I love Christmas too! Although I don’t have big family get togethers...I’m not a fan of Christmas shopping and prefer to do it as early as possible (but I don’t like shopping anyway).

Thanksgiving isn’t a thing here, and we (as a country)focus more on the religious elements of Christmas on the 24/25th. With (depending on the presence of snow) do skiing. Santa comes 6/7th December for the children who get nuts, chocolate and an orange. Although in recent years Black Friday has been introduced, but I avoid completely.

But OP at least your birthday isn’t 24/25/26th December. That definitely would duck.
 
Moomin said:
Me! I love Christmas too! Although I don’t have big family get togethers...I’m not a fan of Christmas shopping and prefer to do it as early as possible (but I don’t like shopping anyway).

Thanksgiving isn’t a thing here, and we (as a country)focus more on the religious elements of Christmas on the 24/25th. With (depending on the presence of snow) do skiing. Santa comes 6/7th December for the children who get nuts, chocolate and an orange. Although in recent years Black Friday has been introduced, but I avoid completely.

But OP at least your birthday isn’t 24/25/26th December. That definitely would duck.
Click to expand...
I find all this interesting. Is nuts, chocolate and an orange all the kids get?
May be surprising, but I've never celebrated Christmas as a religious holiday. Probably only half the people I know do and a few refuse to do Christmas at all because of their Christian beliefs. To me, it's just another holiday and a fun time of year to enjoy doing things for your loved ones. People always seem nicer around the holidays. Except on black Friday, which I also avoid. lol
 
Fade2black said:
Too many people, too much mindlessness and way too much fakeness
Click to expand...

Agreed that this type of mentally is what has led to the "commercialization" of a once honored tradition. Its people and their conceitedness, greediness, and self-importance that they attempt to "out-do" everyone around them. I still remember days long past when family & friends got together for reasons other than what "masks" as "tradition" today. What people are "masking", subconsciously, is the "elitist" mentality that they are better than everyone else.
 
Pats said:
I find all this interesting. Is nuts, chocolate and an orange all the kids get?
May be surprising, but I've never celebrated Christmas as a religious holiday. Probably only half the people I know do and a few refuse to do Christmas at all because of their Christian beliefs. To me, it's just another holiday and a fun time of year to enjoy doing things for your loved ones. People always seem nicer around the holidays. Except on black Friday, which I also avoid. lol
Click to expand...

Depends on how traditional the family is. My family is not traditional so we have Christmas like normal, minus the religious aspect but we do go skiing or snowshoeing.

Santas:

Here we have two Santas. So traditional Normal Santa still gives out presents on 24/25th but we have on the 6th Samichlaus who comes with Schmutzli to visit the children. Schmutzli used to punish children who weren’t good in the year but now he’s like Samichlaus’s assistant when giving out bags of nuts, oranges and chocolate. That can be their present from Santa. Anything else can be from family. I know that my mom’s friend used to just buy her children new sleds or skis every Christmas. And anything else, they’d have to wait for their birthday.
 
Moomin said:
Me! I love Christmas too! Although I don’t have big family get togethers...I’m not a fan of Christmas shopping and prefer to do it as early as possible (but I don’t like shopping anyway).

Thanksgiving isn’t a thing here, and we (as a country)focus more on the religious elements of Christmas on the 24/25th. With (depending on the presence of snow) do skiing. Santa comes 6/7th December for the children who get nuts, chocolate and an orange. Although in recent years Black Friday has been introduced, but I avoid completely.

But OP at least your birthday isn’t 24/25/26th December. That definitely would duck.
Click to expand...

I don't go shopping and have no family gatherings. Maybe that's why we like Christmas? :D:rolleyes:
 
Christmas originated as a European pagan festival related to the Winter solstice. Many of the traditions of Christmas and significant elements of the Nativity story were appropriated from the Roman religion of Mithraism which predates Christianity by several hundred years. Mithraism worshipped the Sun as the source of all life and the 25th Dec was regarded as the Sun's birthday following it's death at the Winter solstice on approx 22nd Dec. When the Roman Emperor Constantine founded the modern Christian Church in the 4th century, which evolved into what we now call the Roman Catholic church, elements of Mithraism were absorbed into Christian tradition and in some cases, just the names changed. Constantinople, now Istanbul in Turkey was the centre of Christianity until it was moved to Rome after the fall of the Empire. There is no mention of Christmas prior to Constantine from any known sources.
So there is symbolic meaning to Christian faith from Christmas but the Nativity story is a mixture of fact (the census during the Roman occupation of Judea) and elements borrowed largely from Mithraism (The guiding star, shepherds etc...)
Christmas as it was and still is to some people is more like New Year is to us now. A celebration of new life and a new start. As good a time as any to pick for the origin story of your prophet/deity.

I used to hate Christmas until a few years ago when, along with my wife, we made Christmas the way we wanted it to be. A few days away from work to spend together and exchange gifts. We go out for Christmas dinner with her parents, then get together for a couple of hours on Boxing Day (26th) because it's my mother in law's birthday. She's 80 this year so we're making a little extra fuss of her ;)
That's my social obligations done with and I only have to worry about gifts for my wife. Christmas is good now :)
 
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