Do you really dislike the Christmas holidays?

Question

I can't help but find that the holidays are just a really bad time of the year for me. 9 times out of 10 it ends up being an incredibly busy time at work with extra hours needed. Relatives come and stay and DEMAND constant attention, people are sick with the Flu, and someone is always in the hospital. Cap that off with everything being busy as hell, drunks out in public driving around, and having to scramble to get the latest "hot" gifts for people.

Does anyone else have holiday stress? I'm thinking about doing something different this year like taking off on vacation away from things for the week or so: Xmas to New Years. Any suggestions? I can't take the idea of another BAD holiday season.

Answer 1

I stopped enjoying it as a teenager. I never have any money and I feel bad when my family gives me expensive gifts. More than half the family has died, is in a nursing home or has become estranged so it's not the same anymore. Thinking of the past makes me sad. Drunk drivers worry me on every holiday. I start getting stressed before Thanksgiving and it doesn't let up until New Years Day. I usually wish they'd go away but I also wish I could just relax and enjoy them. - Oh yeah, I think about suicide (seriously) every time I see a Christmas related commercial/program on TV.

Answer 2

I have come to loathe Christmas.

Its one of those times when everyone is suppose to be happy and go out a lot and be happy - but all of that just highlights how sh1tty my life actually is, so i hate it.

Christmas is so overly commercialised now that the poorer people dread Christmas because of the expense involved. I really pity these people, who often end up taking how huge loans so their kids don't feel left out - it's so sad.

The TV starts Christmas adverts in mid November now, and it grates on me so much that there's even a sniff of Christmas in an advert I change channel, Im sick of having it rammed down my throat for the next for six weeks. There should be legislation to only allow two weeks of tacky Christmas adverts.

If I had my own family I would probably be happier, but as I'm all alone with my single mince pie on Christmas day, I guess I can only dream.

God I want to top myself after writing that pmsl.

(i dont actually want to do that, but you know what i mean)

Answer 3

I used to love it, yet were given extraordinarily jaded from each and every of the commercialism and non secular wars. To me Christmas itself has way too many expectations. heavily in case you at the instantaneous are not out spending your money on crap you do not comprehend someone needs then you definitely get stated as a "Scrooge". It also works any incorrect way at the same time as it is composed of receiving surprises you likely do not want or want. So yeah i ought to assert this is extraordinarily conventional to dislike the season, rather when you're lonely because the holidays enhance your emotions back by way of expectations. So in spite of the indisputable fact that in case you do not have a "Merry" Christmas or "chuffed" holidays, then the following is to wishing contained in the hot year :)

Answer 4

Yes, I have holiday stress, but, I love the holidays I enjoy spending time with my family and feasting and watching holiday movies and t.v and I like to listen to holiday music. I love getting things for my family and watching them open their presents, I love to give more than receive and we have Christmas parties to attend this year and a Christmas parade that my town does every year. I enjoy all of that and baking cookies with my children on Christmas eve and reading "How the Grinch stole Christmas" Its fun to do these things as a family and donate things to the less fortunate than us. I had to use that phrase, because I hate the phrase the Needy. Anyway, I wouldn't change my tradition for anything.

Answer 5

Holidays, final exams week, crunch time at work... these are all things that people say they hate. I'm willing to bet that it's not really the holidays themselves that people dislike (including myself), but the stress that goes along with all these things. In fact, I think you really answered your own question-- if you can swing it, a vacation and a chance to relax might do wonders for your morale. Lots of people do just that!

Hot gifts are all well and good, and the media makes us think that we have to give elaborate and expensive gifts, decorations and parties to make the holidays "perfect". But what happens? In a week, the holidays are over but we're still paying the credit card bills. If our plans for a Norman Rockwell scene fall through or go awry, we are disappointed. But I'm willing to bet that our real friends and family are more pleased with a gift that comes from the heart than the one that comes from the store. We might think that the sister with 2 kids and a full-time job would love to have that expensive geegaw, for instance, but she would really appreciate your thoughtfulness in presenting her with, say, a homemade "coupon book" good for several babysitting sessions so that SHE can have a few hours to herself. Or Dad might really just want to have someone to come spend time with him, and not that big plasma TV. Your kids don't need that fancy game station-- an inexpensive deck of cards or a few board games and some time at the kitchen table after dinner on weekends engaged in a game of rummy or Monopoly and laughter will be remembered much longer than that "what-was-it?" they got in 2006. Or, if you have no family and are alone in a big town, you could spend some time a few days a week visiting some housebound senior, doing Meals On Wheels, or volunteering at an animal shelter to give love and care to a pet waiting for a Forever Home. These are gifts that cost nothing more than a few hours of time but are worth more than gold.

Then, you can give yourself a gift of rest and rejuvenation-- take that ski trip or that tropical voyage. If the relatives want to come to your home again this year, you can always politely smile and say, "Sorry, but this year I'm going away for the holidays." You may have a different perspective next year, after a break. You might even discuss going to THEIR place next year... YOU be the one "demanding constant attention". Personally, I have a phrase, actually stolen from Mark Twain-- "House guests are like dead fish... after a few days, they start to stink and need to go." So, take turns starting next year. That's another option.

So, to recap-- take yourself a break, clear your head, and recharge. You might think of other cool ways to take the holiday stress off and make new and fun holiday traditions.