Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
26,700 posts, read 41,737,988 times
Reputation: 41381
Advertisements
Over the last few years I have gotten less and less utility out of the holiday season. This year, due to finances I'm saying why even bother at all? I'm not close with my extended family outside of my mother. Holidays seem to be more for the family. If you don't have much close family to speak of is it really worth going through the trouble of spending hours of your precious free time decorating your house, blasting annoying Christmas music, etc. Whatever household I've lived in has not had one decoration for the holiday season since 2005. Honestly, I hate Thanksgiving and Christmas and the consumerism behind both. Why bother wasting time if you aren't into it?
I'm an atheist and living thousands of miles away from the family members I am close to. I like the holidays though. Thanksgiving, I'm planning to have a little some kind of potluck for my other friends, and Christmas I will go back to spend time with friends and family in the homeland. I'm going to be buying gifts for my mother, my father and my cousins' kids.
Look, from my perspective, the decoration and consumerism IS silly, but I'm perfectly happy to show up at any gathering with a dish or bottle of wine. The holidays for me just mean a spike in my socializing. Why not just enjoy it?
I always do SOMETHING to acknowledge the holidays even if it's only an excuse to buy a pumpkin and hang a wreath on the door. It's fun for me and doesn't take any time unless I decide to carve the pumpkin..also fun. Other than that I no longer plan anything but I usually happen upon "holiday events" and take advantage of them.
If you don't want to celebrate, don't get pressured into it. But if you do enjoy certain parts of it, why not just do those things?
For example, I don't like writing cards. I did it mainly to keep in touch with out of town friends/family pre-Internet/email (yes cue the dinosaur sounds because I am that old, lol ) As more and more people I knew got internet/email access, we started keeping in touch year round, so the one part of the cards I enjoyed was no longer relevant. I kept it up for a bit out of habit, but one year, sitting in the airport, writing out cards before I got on a flight (I was working full time and going to grad school part time), I realized I wasn't enjoying this, it was pressure and a chore. So I stopped doing it after that. Some people whine that I don't send cards, but I'm gradually learning not to let other people impose their Christmas expectations on me. Still working on gift exchanges, which I do mostly out of obligation. I'd like to scale back.
I like lights, so there are strings of lights and LED candles in my living room. Whether I like baking depends on my time. If I'm pressed for time, I'll skip baking. If I have time to do it in a way that I'll enjoy it, I bake.
I also don't put a lot of pressure on the 24th/25th. I have a pretty dysfunctional family with people who have made it a miserable day or so. I may have the courage this year to spend the day with a friend's family. I already spend the Eve with them. But I've always made it a point to look at it as a season with fun times with my friends and saner family throughout. Taking the focus off those one or two days has resulted in a greater enjoyment of the season for me. And I've even embraced the dysfunction somewhat, two of my favorite Christmas songs are The Ramones, "Merry Christmas, I Don't Want to Fight" and The Pogues "Fairy Tale of NY"
I change my decorations seasonally. It's just something I enjoy. Changes the look of my home and I love white lights so even if I don't full out decorate a tree I do use lights in varying ways.
As for all that cooking --no I don't enjoy that-ever. I volunteer my day serving meals to the needy/hungry on Thanksgiving day and usually I take in a movie on Christmas day.
I do my best to minimize as much as possible the Xmas madness. I spent one Xmas in Las Vegas and it was fun. It is NOT fun to visit family now that we're in our sixties, for some reason we're just sick of each other and I try to avoid them, and everyone else. I like the 'spirit' of the season, but that's about all.
I think a lot of people are so turned off by the commercialism of Xmas that they feel much the same. I rarely say merry christmas to anyone, though I do like to say 'happy holidays' as it's much more inclusive of those who celebrate for other reasons, as do my jewish, asian and black friends. Besides, I love to tweak the fat noses of arrogant evangelicals who think the whole world revolves around their "religion."
Stats indicate that Thanksgiving is a bigger holiday, at least from the traveling perspective. I like this holiday, as we can be grateful for what we have (Thank You to Americas farmers - and farm workers) without it being another holiday organized around smarmy religious themes.
__________________
- Please follow our TOS.
- Any Questions about City-Data? See the FAQ list.
- Want some detailed instructions on using the site? See The Guide for plain english explanation.
- Realtors are welcome here but do see our Realtor Advice to avoid infractions.
- Thank you and enjoy City-Data.
I haven't quite gotten to the bah humbug mode yet, but I feel it creeping up every year. Once we get the lights on the house, the yard decorated, the tree up and the inside decorated, I feel obligated to be in the mood, so I put on the music and bake some cookies and try to be as festive as possible. If my kids were all grown and out of the house we would NOT do do all of this. We would have a small tree and go away on vacation for Christmas and have a small get together when we returned.
The commercialism around the holidays is over-the-top, but at their very heart the upcoming holidays are about being thankful for what you have and being generous to the ones you love. Even if you aren't close with your family, you can use the holidays as an opportunity to be grateful for the good things in your life, and help where you can and share what you have with people who are less fortunate. Or you can sit at home by yourself in the dark. Whatever floats your boat.
I don't really celebrate Christmas much other than buy my close family some gifts and all.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
the holidays"?
) As more and more people I knew got internet/email access, we started keeping in touch year round, so the one part of the cards I enjoyed was no longer relevant. I kept it up for a bit out of habit, but one year, sitting in the airport, writing out cards before I got on a flight (I was working full time and going to grad school part time), I realized I wasn't enjoying this, it was pressure and a chore. So I stopped doing it after that. Some people whine that I don't send cards, but I'm gradually learning not to let other people impose their Christmas expectations on me. Still working on gift exchanges, which I do mostly out of obligation. I'd like to scale back.
