Bah Humbug!

Pokiedots

The Christmas thread was so happy and cheerful, I didnt want to be a downer on it BUT I hate Christmas!

Every year the build up starts earlier and earlier, I predict year long Christmases soon!
I have a housemate who is Christmas mad, we have a deal from 1st Dec she can decorate all she likes but I'm already putting things away she is leaving out- its the principle of it too!
Also I work with children - so that brings me so much joy this time of year 😕, although I can fake it alongside the best of them for the kiddies!

I have never been a big Christmas person, but to me its always been for children, sadly I lost my daughter years ago and for some reason Christmas always hits me worse than her birthday or anniversary,

So share in this safe haven from the mania- tell your bah humbug story- it cant be just me????

Galwayguy35

Much the same here, I live on my own and have only one brother but we don't see each other much so Christmas is just the same as the rest of the year for me.

People that have big families are lucky as it's a time of happiness and joy and thats how it should be, personally i'm glad when it's over.

username123

I hated it for years. Now I have no family of origin left but I am married so I spend it with my husbands family. Being honest about it Id prefer to just have the day to ourselves because, like all families I suppose, there can be some tension between some of his family members.

My perfect Christmas would be just myself and himself exchanging gifts, lounging about watching movies, eating a nice meal and having some wine later on. But instead the day seems to get a bit hijacked into morning visits with friends, and then the bulk of the day is spent in the in laws, by the time we get home that evening Im usually wiped!

meeeeh

I don't mind Christmas day but work stress before, some other stuff and running around looking for presents make me dislike this time of the year.

clairefontaine

I don't like it either.

There's lots of mountains near me, I think I may go snow tubing or hit the slopes.

loubeelou

Can't stand it myself. It's a horrific amount of pressure that just magnifies any problems that exist in peoples lives. I know it's great for kids and most parents of young kids tend to be able to re-live their own childhood experience through them.
But for anyone who's struggling in anyway, and families in stress it's just heaping mountains more pressure on.

username123

loubeelou wrote: »

Can't stand it myself. It's a horrific amount of pressure that just magnifies any problems that exist in peoples lives. I know it's great for kids and most parents of young kids tend to be able to re-live their own childhood experience through them.
But for anyone who's struggling in anyway, and families in stress it's just heaping mountains more pressure on.

Yes, Im inclined to agree with this. In my own life growing up in a family with an alcoholic parent Christmas Day was invariably ruined by some angry drunken behaviour or simply disappointment that yet again the alcoholic was drunk as a skunk. I can remember my mother slaving over a stupendous dinner and my father keeling over unconscious face first into it. Horrendous stuff for a kid to experience.

Lucyfur

loubeelou wrote: »

Can't stand it myself. It's a horrific amount of pressure that just magnifies any problems that exist in peoples lives. I know it's great for kids and most parents of young kids tend to be able to re-live their own childhood experience through them.
But for anyone who's struggling in anyway, and families in stress it's just heaping mountains more pressure on.

Just in response to this, I'm linking to this thread in After Hours. It is indeed a terrible time for some people.

confuseddotcom

Have a love/hate relationship with Christmas. I wouldn't go so far as to say Bah Humbug, I do love the time of year and the buzz and the run-up and the food and merriment and the family time and all that. I know financial hardship and a variety of other things are a high worry and issue for many so I don't want to take away from any of the more pressing serious things, but it's not a nice time of the year at all to be single and have no kids to go through all the fuzziness / warm-glow-of-the-lights-and-the-fire-feeling etc. and happiness and merriment with, and a little annoyed lol that these things are force-faded into the background into insignificance really that it is expected of you to still be happy for everyone else. I don't know if there is a lot of meaning to Christmas without the direct involvement of kids anyway.

Plus it's starting to get earlier and earlier every frigging year. :rolleyes: Lights turned on in Dublin already yesterday and Boots have Christmas music blaring. Be realistic like, it's over a month away people!! Plus the poor kids are gonna be driven demented when they are starting to see stuff about Christmas and TV Adverts. this early and if they don't understand about being patient, the next month-and-a-half-away will feel like forever! The poor kids! to have to be subjected to Christmas so early!!

But I do still love Christmas though! But it's just too damn fricking early! Maybe by the first week of December I will be more jovial and less whingey lol and get into the Christmas spirit when it is December.

Umbreal

I usually like Christmas but this year is the first year in a long time that I'm spending it single. So I've been a bit of a grinch so far. I will be spending it with family but the wound is still raw so I can't help but be a bit bitter about things.

P_1

Personally I don't like it mainly down to it being a classic example of indoctrination. Most people are conditioned from an early age to enjoy it and generally it is frowned on to question why it's celebrated or by attempting to distance oneself from it. Going to Godwin the thread by suggesting that it isn't too far removed from Nazism and the cult of personality (albeit a much more cuddly, less evil and murdering way).

meeeeh

I didn't know that Wham's Last Christmas has such a profound effect...

Snoopy1

I dont like it either. This my 6th year of working Christmas. I dont have kids, which is the excuse people have given me over the years.
I have no family in Ireland, and my other half has told me there's no point me coming to see him Christmas day after i finish work, as he will be too drunk by the time i get there!!!
I dont normally watch normal tv, but yesterday i watched something on UTV. Every single ad break was a Christmas advert, it drives me mad, that its not even December yet.

Liam McPoyle

Snoopy1 wrote: »

I have no family in Ireland, and my other half has told me there's no point me coming to see him Christmas day after i finish work, as he will be too drunk by the time i get there!!!

He is presumably aware that you have no family here yet he is perfectly happy to get gee eyed and essentially has told you to PFO to allow him to do this.

And you are putting up with it?

Jesus wept.

clairefontaine

I find Christmas really hard because I'm not domestic. If I were not a mother I would be freed from all this baking, shopping, and decoration. I am a martha Stewart anti Christ who by the channels of motherhood have a **** load of domestic expectations that I must fulfil,,like wreath making, gingerbread man cookies, Santa lists, Christmas dinners, and no no no I am not filling the living room with fake snow dear child. Suck it up.

bumper234

Hate hate hate Christmas.

Lost My mother on Stephens day in 93 so that put a downer on it for starters. I also used to work as a doorman so the silly season (esp December) was always a nightmare. Normally sane people out on Christmas do's from work would drink idiotic amounts of alcohol and turn into animals (not everyone of course) but it was a messy messy time. Every year i would pray for new years eve (usually one of the best nights of the year to work) to be over so work would get back to what passes for normal