Or any other holiday for that matter.
I enjoy giving the gifts to my kids, but the financial pressure, the anxiety over not being able to afford more, and worse, the quandary of what to do with the resultant excess material posessions (in other words, getting rid of old stuff on the sly) sort of ruins it for me. And there is so much mess- bits of wrapping paper, packaging, half eaten candy canes, etc.
I suppose that I like getting the gifts to some degree, but then I feel guilty over getting them. I never seem to be able to afford to give the people I love the things I would really like to give them. :-/
All the build up of expectations, and then.....the anticlimax.
My kids are happy. They like what they got. I don't know what I'm depressed about. I guess I feel that holidays are just too stressful.
I couldn't agree more Chamoisee. I can't stand Christmas, I took my son to my folks place, he gets hyper and overwhelmed and I feel all panicky and can't wait to get home. I often get accused of "ruining" either Christmas or some other occasion because my behaviour often comes across as sulky and irritable however hard I try to contain it.
Me either--my benefits cheque is usually not in, I 'm a bit short of funds then, I have to think of what people like/want, then go out, buy it, wrap it, and drop it off before my mom's party on the 23rd, I also have to play late night Christmas eve, so I get home late late late, then there's xmas day. I usually like to play it calm and slow, but then my sister and her kids come over (one's 4 and the other 6) absolutely wired on sugar and going at mach 1. I get a few things I like, most stuff leaves me stumped. I'd send a thank you note to people, but people don't seem to send me thank you notes either (my mom used to insist on that). My mom's xmas party is good, but there's a lot of noise, movement and socialization to content with (not to mention 65-100 people in the house), which I find exhausting
Christmas, eh....meh
In the words of Kevin "Bloody" Wilson that great, if rough Australian comedian
Shove your Christmas up your a*se
ho ho f***ing ho
J B
im over christmas. i told everyone in the family to stop getting me presents and that i wont be getting them anything. they didnt listen. oh well, what else can i do? i think now that the presents issue is sort of out of the way, i can sit back and relax and enjoy the company of my loved ones. i try to just think about it as a family day. it seems to really help. i do still buy a few presents, but i keep the spending to a minimum, $10 per person. its the thought that counts right?
it must be hard though having kids, having to meet their expectations and all must be rough. if i ever have kids im going to teach them at a young age that the idea of christmas is silly and that its not all its cracked up to be. maybe that way they wont feel so let down when they get older like we are. afterall, christmas is really just a training course for kids on "how to be a good consumer".
Maybe if I had kids I'd make Christmas a season to give not to receive. I think Jesus would do that, standing everything else on its head: love your enemies not hate them, the greatest shows humility, and so on.
You get to be a god consumer that way too.
That was a typo- honest!
You also get to send out a lot of Christmas cards (except to those you know would object- the Jehovahs Witnesses, in my family), of course, with the theme that the Savior of the human race was born to a virgin and is waiting for you to call on Him.
I am not sure what I would do with the secular aspects which I simply regard as fun. The gayly decorated tree, the gayly wrapped presents underneath, Christmas wreath, images of an old Scandinavian man dressed in red in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, YOU KNOW, maybe it is because I have English and Welsh and Scots-Irish and German and Swedish and Finnish ancestry I think it is fun??????
I am certain we'd be feasting as a family.
I really think kids are often conditioned to expect too expensive presents for Christmas. It should be according to what the parents can afford and what they think is right. Going into debt for Christmas and then being stressed out and snappy for the next 6 months or so is simply ridiculous but so many people do it that way.