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Do You Hate Christmas And All The Fuss That Goes With It?

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    #122
    freshpopcorn
    Registered Users Posts: 30,354 ✭✭✭✭freshpopcorn


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Or maybe those who don't like it are grieving or alone or a million other things that matter to them and are not just "an excuse".

    I give you that. Some people are upset after loved one's but some people just hate Christmas and no matter what you do for them will make them happy.


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    #123
    pilly
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 9,005 ✭✭✭pilly


    freshpopcorn wrote: »
    I give you that. Some people are upset after loved one's but some people just hate Christmas and no matter what you do for them will make them happy.

    Why are you so bothered about that though?

    I don't get it? Why do people feel the need to force others to "enjoy" Christmas? I don't feel the need to force anyone not to enjoy it?


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    #124
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 21,679 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    freshpopcorn wrote: »
    I give you that. Some people are upset after loved one's but some people just hate Christmas and no matter what you do for them will make them happy.

    Many many people find Christmas difficult for different reasons and they may never find happiness in the season. Traumatic memories, depression, death, illness, being far away from home, and on it goes. It's a loaded time filled with expectation and I think it's ok if people hate it no matter what. Let them be.


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    #125
    freshpopcorn
    Registered Users Posts: 30,354 ✭✭✭✭freshpopcorn


    pilly wrote: »
    Why are you so bothered about that though?

    I don't get it? Why do people feel the need to force others to "enjoy" Christmas? I don't feel the need to force anyone not to enjoy it?

    I'm not bothered about it and I don't think people should force others to enjoy it but they give you a list of what they want for the perfect Christmas and then then they land onto your house and all they do is complain about it.
    Do you get that?


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    #126
    pilly
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 9,005 ✭✭✭pilly


    freshpopcorn wrote: »
    I'm not bothered about it and I don't think people should force others to enjoy it but they give you a list of what they want for the perfect Christmas and then then they land onto your house and all they do is complain about it.
    Do you get that?

    I've no idea what you're talking about now, it's obviously a personal experience of yours.

    But yeah, if someone does that then they're ungrateful pricks.


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    #127
    freshpopcorn
    Registered Users Posts: 30,354 ✭✭✭✭freshpopcorn


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Many many people find Christmas difficult for different reasons and they may never find happiness in the season. Traumatic memories, depression, death, illness, being far away from home, and on it goes. It's a loaded time filled with expectation and I think it's ok if people hate it no matter what. Let them be.

    Yes, I totally agree with you but you shouldn't want to make everybody else miserable in my opinion!


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    #128
    pilly
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 9,005 ✭✭✭pilly


    freshpopcorn wrote: »
    Yes, I totally agree with you but you shouldn't want to make everybody else miserable in my opinion!

    You're getting het up about this fresh when there's no need.

    You've obviously had a bad experience with someone who doesn't like Christmas but the vast majority don't go around making others miserable so stop accusing people of doing that.

    Also, take a look at how self-centred that is. If you're good friend lost their mother this month for example would you expect them to either be in good form at Christmas or stay away from you? Because that's what you're suggesting.

    You've already said don't visit and don't make others miserable.


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    #129
    castletownman
    Registered Users Posts: 11,115 ✭✭✭✭castletownman


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Many many people find Christmas difficult for different reasons and they may never find happiness in the season. Traumatic memories, depression, death, illness, being far away from home, and on it goes. It's a loaded time filled with expectation and I think it's ok if people hate it no matter what. Let them be.

    A hugely valid point that tends to get totally lost in the ether this time of year. It's always assumed that Christmas is a magical time for everyone.

    From my own POV, finances are only trickling in since the paper I worked for folded in the summer, my grandad passed away in October so it'll be my first christmas without him, my GF's granny coincidentally died a month later and she is in the same boat, while we have a wedding that I am admittedly looking forward to ten days before xmas but that will dent the bank balance too. So the in-your-face festive cheer can take a hike as far as I'm concerned.

    And I know there are countless others in a similar position. And may be suffering silently. So people should bear that mind when trying to spread enthusiasm onto those with a "meh" mindset


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    #130
    irishrover99
    Registered Users Posts: 2,025 ✭✭✭irishrover99


    I really don't mind it other than completely over commercialization of it. My kids are already been overloaded by it on Tv,pre school plays,shopping centers.
    I've nothing against people using it as a reason to be happy,except for when its over they have to realize its back to the grind of normal day to day.
    Having to small kids and a Wife who is not Irish and didn't grow up wit Xmas helps make it exciting.
    The misses already wanted to put the tree up this week and i had to put the breaks on it at least for another week.
    My favourite part about it this year is my 4 days in a row off work.
    Then in Feb it's off to SE Asia with the family for a bit so Xmas for me this year is really a stocking filler for what i'm really looking forward too.


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    #131
    freshpopcorn
    Registered Users Posts: 30,354 ✭✭✭✭freshpopcorn


    pilly wrote: »
    I've no idea what you're talking about now, it's obviously a personal experience of yours.

    But yeah, if someone does that then they're ungrateful pricks.

    I've relatives and they said all they wanted was the whole family home around the table and when we went to a lot of hassle getting people home/etc and when this was organised the house was to crowded/the expense that was put on the people home/the cost of the dinner and it would have being better if everybody wasn't there.
    Same with decorations. I was asked to decorate a relatives house and I went told I over the top and they asked me the next year and I only put up a few bits and I didn't put up enough.
    Another things was with a Kris kindle in a place my sister worked the limit used be €10 and people complained about the rubbish that they were given so they wanted the limit uped to around €40 and the same people were complaining.

    I get that people can be upset/lonely at Christmas and I have no issue with this.


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    #132
    eviltimeban
    Registered Users Posts: 5,088 ✭✭✭eviltimeban


    It is commericalised but you can get around that by not buying into it (no pun intended).

    I have two small kids so we're smack bang in the middle of it all, but have decided that certain rules apply. They ask for five things from Santa. We throw in a few stocking fillers (books, dvd, small toy, markers). Grandparents give them something small, or money. That makes the whole thing manageable.

    As they have gotten a little older we've discovered the best thing about the few days covering Christmas is spending time together. So we watch movies, go for walks, eat, talk and play board games, and that's really the best thing about it all.


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    #133
    ArnoldJRimmer
    Registered Users Posts: 2,494 ✭✭✭ArnoldJRimmer


    I enjoy the family and friends aspect of Christmas, particularly as I'm an emigrant and only get home twice a year. However, the fuss surrounding Christmas drives me mad

    Shopping for my nieces and nephews is quite fun, love looking at Lego for instance, but for everyone else its a pain in the a*s. There's also the crowds everywhere, shops are crazy, traffic is crazy, cant even go for a quiet pint (last year, there were 12 pubs minibuses pottering around rural Donegal).


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    #134
    Itssoeasy
    Registered Users Posts: 39,679 ✭✭✭✭Itssoeasy


    I don't hate Christmas but as the years have gone on it's become harder to enjoy it because of people who aren't here like my grandparents.

    I'm not a person who does well in crowded social settings at the best of times and Christmas seems to be all about if you let it which makes it far worse. Also being single and in my thirties and most of my cousins and family either married or have kids or both means they seem to far more excited for it.


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    #135
    _Dara_
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,971 ✭✭✭_Dara_


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Many many people find Christmas difficult for different reasons and they may never find happiness in the season. Traumatic memories, depression, death, illness, being far away from home, and on it goes. It's a loaded time filled with expectation and I think it's ok if people hate it no matter what. Let them be.

    Because I have terminal cancer now, Christmas is bittersweet for me. How many more of these will I get? How will my family find Christmas after I'm gone? It's tough.

    And New Year's is worse. It's always inspired mixed feelings in me but those feelings are more acute now and tend towards the negative. New Year's is all about making plans for the future and deciding how to better yourself and move your life forward. It really highlights how different my life is now to that of my peers who are planning careers, families, house-buying and wild holidays. My only plan is to try and make it through another year and hope my health doesn't deteriorate much and maybe, maybe try to get abroad a good few times in the year.

    So that's a snapshot of one person who finds the season a bit trying and my reasons for it.


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    #136
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    pilly wrote: »
    I'd have to take a months leave if Christmas FM was played in the office. :mad:

    I'll have it on nearly permanently in the car from now until new years :pac:

    I got a dose of excitement last Tuesday when it launched for this year


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    #137
    _Dara_
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,971 ✭✭✭_Dara_


    freshpopcorn wrote: »
    Another things was with a Kris kindle in a place my sister worked the limit used be €10 and people complained about the rubbish that they were given so they wanted the limit uped to around €40 and the same people were complaining.

    These people are just complainers then and it has nothing to do with Christmas.


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    #138
    topper75
    Registered Users Posts: 5,942 ✭✭✭topper75


    November and early December are grand times of year in their own right. Nature is asleep. Things aren't hectic and you can get time to think for once.

    If only people would let those months be.

    A months-long build up to one day is not exactly the best mental health strategy I've ever encountered.

    Commercialism will never let us dial it back though. So it is up to people to ACTIVELY reject it.


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    #139
    end of the road
    Registered Users Posts: 29,001 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    the whole fuss and commercialism around it is annoying but i'm lucky that i don't have to buy into any of it. christmas for me starts on christmas eve and ends stephens day. relax on christmas eve, a nice dinner and a few drinks christmas day and relaxing again stephens day. it's done and dusted until next christmas eve. i don't hate it and i don't love it either, i just appreciate it for what it is, a nice few days off from the world. i don't do turkey either. it works for me.

    ticking a box on a form does not make you of a religion.



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    #140
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    I love Christmas but I hate that for the last few years it has started a solid month (at least) too early. Like so many things nowadays, it is a case of "too much of a good thing" - having 2 months of Christmas dilutes the enjoyment gotten from it enormously. When I was a kid we put up our decorations maybe 10 days before and it was perfect.


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    #141
    andekwarhola
    Registered Users Posts: 4,638 ✭✭✭andekwarhola


    Bobby Early Cobble wrote: »
    I'll have it on nearly permanently in the car from now until new years :pac:

    I got a dose of excitement last Tuesday when it launched for this year

    I just have a playlist of decent Xmas songs I'll put on on the car because some of stuff on Xmas FM would even test the patience of a committed Christmas lover like me.


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    #142
    Bellerstring
    Registered Users Posts: 655 ✭✭✭Bellerstring


    Stoner wrote: »
    For as long as I can remember people have been moaning about Christmas starting in "November this year"

    Christmas is great.

    No it's not.


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    #143
    freshpopcorn
    Registered Users Posts: 30,354 ✭✭✭✭freshpopcorn


    I do think Christmas are a little like weddings people who make a massive fuss out of make everything perfect generally end up making the event less enjoyable and it's the same for the people attending


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    #144
    screamer
    Registered Users Posts: 6,134 ✭✭✭screamer


    Christmas is what you chose to make it. If flapping around spending money on ****e that no one wants and stressing yourself out is your idea of Christmas then it's your thing. Personally I love Christmas time for family quality time with my kids time to make nice memories, to reflect on the past year and be grateful for the good things that happened to us. Santa sorts the kids presents I sort the food and adults buy their own presents. Simple quiet Christmas. I love it.


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    #145
    splinter65
    Registered Users Posts: 9,420 ✭✭✭splinter65


    whisky_galore wrote: »
    Perhaps if Old Catholic Ireland didn't try to brush things under the carpet it wouldn't have changed so much?

    You reap what you sow.

    Oh it hasn’t changed. It’s gone. And we’ve replaced it with an Aldi ad featuring a carrot.
    It’s so much better now, isn’t it?


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    #146
    splinter65
    Registered Users Posts: 9,420 ✭✭✭splinter65


    freshpopcorn wrote: »
    All these old fashioned traditions you mentioned are happening in every town/village in my area!

    They’ve been shoved out of the way by the brute force of iPhone etc
    If the proceeds of the sale of work and the entrance fee to the school nativity play weren’t going to some local charity no one would go to it.


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    #147
    pilly
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 9,005 ✭✭✭pilly


    screamer wrote:
    Christmas is what you chose to make it. If flapping around spending money on ****e that no one wants and stressing yourself out is your idea of Christmas then it's your thing. Personally I love Christmas time for family quality time with my kids time to make nice memories, to reflect on the past year and be grateful for the good things that happened to us. Santa sorts the kids presents I sort the food and adults buy their own presents. Simple quiet Christmas. I love it.


    What? Santa actually comes to your house? I wanna live there!


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    #148
    Atoms for Peace
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,888 ✭✭✭Atoms for Peace


    I starting to feel an urge to **** something at the TV due to those fake maudlin ads about grannies Christmas diner etc..


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    #149
    freshpopcorn
    Registered Users Posts: 30,354 ✭✭✭✭freshpopcorn


    splinter65 wrote: »
    They’ve been shoved out of the way by the brute force of iPhone etc
    If the proceeds of the sale of work and the entrance fee to the school nativity play weren’t going to some local charity no one would go to it.

    The only people I know who go to a school Nativity play are the parents. In some churches in my area the schools do the nativity but regularly church goers nearly all avoid it because it just a bunch of children. I don't think there's any entrance fee to any of these events.
    The entrance fee to any local markets/etc in my experience generally goes to the up keep of the hall/center.


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    #150
    pilly
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 9,005 ✭✭✭pilly


    Atoms for Peace wrote:
    I starting to feel an urge to **** something at the TV due to those fake maudlin ads about grannies Christmas diner etc..


    Imagine how someone with no family feels.


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    #151
    h7nlrp2v0g5u48
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,544 ✭✭✭h7nlrp2v0g5u48


    Hector Some Chemist wrote: »
    I agree OP. I like all the old fashioned traditions that go with Christmas - Carol singing, nativity plays, Sales of Work, etc etc but all that's being drowned out by big spending, consumerist crap.

    And some people really go way OTT with everything. Decorations up in November, gardens lit up like the Blackpool illuminations, crazy spending on stuff people don't need or want, buying Christmas plates, towels, mugs and bedlinen and dragging their kids around every single over priced Christmas fair/Winter wonderland/Santa Land/Meet Rudolph/Santa Train in town so they have loads of stuff to post on Facebook.

    Christmas is nice - in December, not the minute Hallowe'en is over.
    But no need for a six foot mountain of presents under the tree, or to meet every friend you've ever had in the two weeks before Christmas for an overpriced 'Christmas Menu', or all that stuff.

    I think we could do with going back to basics where Christmas is concerned and stop allowing ourselves to be conned into spending a fortune on food we won't get around to eating and expensive presents that will end up in charity shops or sitting unused at the back of a wardrobe.

    Going way back when I was a young fellow our local Brass Band would go around our neighbourhood on Christmas Eve playing Christmas Carols and we would all join in and sing it really was amazing to see all our neighbours out on a cold Christmas Eve enjoying the festivities. Unfortunately that doesn't happen anymore and it was my favourite old tradition also we used to make our own Christmas Logs another tradition that has died a death because of commercialism. You can now by them in most stores so people don't make them any more.


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