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When we took our son out for Halloween, we passed by one house that already had Christmas lights up by the front door. Then we looked across the street, and the house there had a Christmas wreath hung on the front door! Maybe next year, we'll see candy canes in the Halloween basket.
I listen to Christmas carols year 'round on Pandora.com. It's great music. I never tire of it.
I don't know how to not celebrate Christmas, but I'm going to try to accomplish that. Seriously. I'm holiday'd out. I would like some nice soup and then a good movie on Christmas Day. I'm tired of giving and receiving gifts and decorating. Nobody needs anything. I need a Christmas vacation...as in a vacation from Christmas. I am practicing saying, "Bah, humbug!" -- with feeling.
evaNC, congrats! I was a December baby and was almost named "Holly." I still plan to celebrate my birthday as a national holiday.
My stress level goes up between November and February. There's the massive shopping for Christmas gifts and tug-o-war between families on where we spend the holidays - his extended family or her family? Then after the holidays, come tax filing season where I need to collect all sorts of receipts and paperwork!
Looking forward to moving to NC next year so we don't need to do the family tug-o-war and we can start our own family traditions.. unless we get the dreaded phone call... "can we fly out there to spend the holidays in the east coast and see snow?" What snow??
We used to spend Christmas Eve with my parents (27 of us in total), Christmas morning at our own home, and then my husband's family on Christmas afternoon for dinner. It seemed to work well for everyone.
For my family, we would pick names from a hat for the following year, so everyone had to worry about only one gift instead of 26 gifts. My parents made sure all grandchildren (13 of them!) had many, many gifts as well.
Everyone -- how does your family handle the "tug of war" of where to spend Christmas and the sometimes overwhelming gift giving?
If you are a Triangle transplant, how has that changed how you usually handled the holidays?
islander03 wrote:
Quote:
My stress level goes up between November and February. There's the massive shopping for Christmas gifts and tug-o-war between families on where we spend the holidays - his extended family or her family? Then after the holidays, come tax filing season where I need to collect all sorts of receipts and paperwork!
Looking forward to moving to NC next year so we don't need to do the family tug-o-war and we can start our own family traditions.. unless we get the dreaded phone call... "can we fly out there to spend the holidays in the east coast and see snow?" What snow??
I've been reading this forum for 7 years now and this is the saddest thing I have ever seen posted here.
LOL. Really, I laughed out loud.
We don't have any elementary kids in our family, and that is sad. I always went all-out at Christmas for the kids. I enjoyed every single second of it.
The grandson has hit teenhood! It's just not the same. I never thought I'd want to opt-out, not ever. But now -- it feels quite enticing.
I want to see the family, as I always do, but everything else -- blecchh. The adult children can continue the holiday traditions.
They can have all the stress... er, fun.
Last edited by lovebrentwood; 11-01-2012 at 03:44 PM..
We don't have any elementary kids in our family, and that is sad. I always went all-out at Christmas for the kids. I enjoyed every single second of it.
The grandson has hit teen-hood! It's just not the same.
I never thought I'd want to opt-out, not ever. But now -- it feels quite enticing.
I want to see the family, as I always do, but everything else -- blecchh.
I think it was the fact that you said you wanted soup! I always think of eating big at Christmas and soup isn't what comes to mind!
I am counting the days to the Holiday Jo Jo cookies at Trader Joe's.
If you are a Triangle transplant, how has that changed how you usually handled the holidays?
Having moved away from "home," we had to approach the holidays a bit differently than we had been accustomed to.
First, we had to create our own traditions. We weren't with our extended families to do all the holiday related activities, and so we had to learn to create activities for our children and get them engaged in the holiday spirit. As an example, my family had an annual Christmas cookie making party. We got the recipes from Grandma to make the cookies from scratch and have carried on that tradition ourselves, involving friends and other children along the way.
Second, we had to resist the siren song (i.e. Grandma) begging us to come "home" for the holidays. From the beginning I was very firm with the grandparents. (A) "Home," for us, is where we live. (B) I do not want to spend Christmas on the road. I want my children waking up in their beds, and experiencing the magic and mystery of Christmas in our home.
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High stress alert
