Does anyone out there feel like I do about this season?

Question

I have decided to "drop out" of Christmas, starting now. I am sick and tired of being part of the mass hynosis which pervades this nation at this time of year. From now on, I will honor each loved one on HIS or HER birthday. (Please don't try to guilt me because December 25 is Jesus' birthday. If you do, you'll have to prove that; even if it is His birthday, I doubt he feels honored because you make Sears and Zales rich.) Aren't you all as tired as I am of making the major retailers very, very rich by buying their merchandise? Aren't you all as tired as I am of being lockstepped into the same old rituals year after year?
You have no idea how FREE I feel and how ridiculous the scene looks when you step back and observe instead of participate. No, I'm not a lonely, cynical person...not at all. I am a highly educated adult woman with a great family and good friends. In many ways my life is charmed. Are there others out there who've come to the same conclusions as I have?

Answer 1

The commercialism i am not into but you can always celebrate christmas whatever way you want ..This year we are getting together at a friends house we are having seafood on the bar b que and spending the day around the pool we have declared no presents but a donation to a local charity will suffice what a relaxed way to spend the christmas season

Answer 2

It is true that too many people do the materialism dance during the Christmas season, but we dont all have to follow them. It doesnt matter whether or not December 25th is actually Jesus' birthday, the season gives us a chance to celebrate His birth, whenever it was. We do give gifts...in moderation. Our main emphasis is on the spiritual side, with the sincere church services, the magnificent concerts, and the family get togethers to remind us as to what it all about. I am really saddened by what the frantic marketers have done with the Holiday.
If I see any of them using a representation of Jesus to pitch beer or toys or some such foolishness, I am liable to dive headfirst into the TV and throttle anything or anybody I find in there.

Answer 3

I was reared in 2 mainline Churches. My children were raised in an Evangelical Church. We have not put up a Christmas tree in years. I keep telling them that we are really "Jewish"--after all Christ is supposed to be the Jewish G-d, at least one person of Him. I was depressed last Christmas at the evangelical message the youth minister gave in December. The church had no decorations. He was flanked by a stark dark wooden cross. He started out with the traditional Christmas birth and how Jesus was God's gift to each of us sent to earth to die on the cross for our sins. In my mind's eye, looking at the cross behind him, I could almost see the howling angry Jewish mobs and Roman soldiers rushing to Bethlehem to crucify the infant Jesus on the cross! ( No offense meant to the Jews and Romans.) It was a typical Evangelical sermon. I was still depressed the next Sunday morning when the pastor preacher a Christmas message on John 3:16! I thought that it would have been more fitting if the Church had been decorated in black instead of red and green.
In my childhood Churches, we celebrate a joyous Christmas, not Good Friday and the Crucifixion during the Christmas season! This is one of the churches that is always saying how "bloody" the Old Testament sacrificial system was. All they talk about is " the saving and atoning blood of Christ. In the meantime, I am still having "culture shock".
How can you have a "Merry Christmas" when they keep trying to kill Christ on the cross at the end of every sermon during the invitation? I didn't grow up this way and I think that they are the strange ones, not me. I think that I am the only highly educated, thinking person in the church who is not afraid to ask questions and am open to new ideas. I also believe in freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
My other feelings about Christmas is that the "traditional American Christmas" as practiced today belongs in that sacred category "Only in America". Let the Americans have any holiday and we will change and blow it out of all proportions, making it into an endurance marathon that only the financially fittest can survive. The real meaning and characters of Christmas got lost with all the dollar signs years ago. We may never find them again.

Answer 4

I agree with you on some levels.I am a bit jaded by all the phony "good tidings" and all the artificial hypocrisy of feeding the poor and throwing money away on gifts for people you see maybe three times a year.My wife and I buy something together for our home and something small for each other.Our immediate families get a small gift as well.I firmly believe in the ceremony of Christmas,not the commercial end of it.People running around like wild banshees stressing out over everything,coming to blows at department stores,etc, is totally ridiculous.And they start the hype in SEPTEMBER!!I love Christmas for the fellowship with friends and my family.I love the season for the fond memories I have of past Christmas'.I feel your pain and if you are content to skip Christmas,then so be it.But may I make a suggestion to you?Spend the holidays with your closest friends and family.Enjoy the reason the season is important to you,regardless of your religious beliefs.I just wish the feeling could last all year.Merry Christmas to you and peace for the coming year.

Answer 5

Oh yeah, I agree with you. I am jaded. Plain and simple. Last year I had a great holiday, so I don't understand why I feel the way I do. I just do. I wish I could step out of the holiday BS this year, but Since I created a monster of christmas with my kids I can't. Not for a few years yet anyway. so let me live vicariously through you, have a good unholiday.

Answer 6

I realize you don't want my sympathy so I'll keep quiet about that. You are untitled to feel anyway you want. It's a shame you can't get through the holidays in a more productive matter, such as giving to the less unfortunate. Give to a good charity in your loved ones name instead of a gift for them. Something that makes YOU happy this holiday season. Think about it, there is no reason to be such a Ba Humbug.... Merry Christmas Big Charlotte

Answer 7

i agree with some of your question but not all of it yes it is stupid to have all the gimmie gimmie and it is tupid for everyone to forget to put christ in christmas but there are a few good points to christams also it is where your family and friends gather to spend a day of joy and happiness i would not care if i recieved any gifts at all as long as my family and friends were there with me and we take the time to honor jesus who was born to save this world and not to be the gimmie gimmie type person and i am so glad that you asked such an important question thank you

Answer 8

I understand how you feel...christmas stuff up the day after halloween, it seems everyone is always in a rush, one friend of mine started christmas shopping in july!! sometimes i feel its a race to see who can get the biggest and best present. I enjoyed christmas as a kid but as a grown adult I feel a little disappointed sometimes after its all over....

Answer 9

i understand where you're coming from. but i refuse to drop out because i'm very very afraid that with the way things are going, we won't have a "christmas" for much longer. the things you're talking about have more to do with the generic "holiday" message flying around, anyway.

Answer 10

I'd like to sometimes. I HATE the way they the put decorations up in the stores in September, I can tell you that much.