Holiday Haters Speak Out!

mogambo

mogambo

Cathlete
I know I am not the only person who really hates the whole holiday season, if my friends and coworkers are any indication there are a lot of us biting our tongues out here.

I hate the predictable rituals, the tired old music, the decorations, the crowds, the obligatory junk-buying/money-spending commercial consumerama. I hate hearing about it. I hate being manipulated by a couple of my family members to participate. I hate the lines at the post office and oh so much more.

It is so overdone, tacky and commercial. Even the supposedly Christian celebration aspects are really just an excuse to continue this unassailable Holy Cow of a social phenomenon.

Anyone care to comment?
 
Maybe not hate, but I'm not in love with them (actually, my favorite holiday is Halloween, and even the good aspects of that have disappeared in recent years). One thing that annoys me is the sappy family programs that run from Thanksgiving through New Years. As someone who doesn't have a close relationship with those of my family members who are still living, I start feeling more and more like an outsider.

After taking a trip to the local mall the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I'm about ready to do ALL my shopping on-line. I'm a fast mover, and supremely annoyed at the seeming hoards of people in groups of two or three who take up an entire aisle while moving as slowly as humanly possible while still being in motion. I just like to get in and out as quickly as possible.

One year, when I went shopping a day or two before Christmas, I witnessed several people who seemed to be canvasing the stores, desperately in search of "something" as a gift to someone. Not a lot of thought going in to it!

There's also so much waste around the holidays: wrapping paper and ribbons that get tossed immediately after unwrapping (my family always carefully opened presents,and saved the undamaged paper and ribbons to use for wrapping the following year.)

I'd just like to see people be kind to each other (and to all living critters) all year round, rather than just at the holidays, when a lot of this "good will to all" sometimes seems a bit forced, especially compared to the rest of the year.
 
I heartily agree Magambo, and I like your term "commercial consumerama". It's just a season of hard sell, if you ask me. The retail stores are desperate to make up the losses they have suffered the rest of the year, and they prey on people's sentiments to make it happen. Here in New York, everyone gets completely stressed out.
-Nancy
 
With this very thing in mind, and my mom (the main impetus of pressure) gone to the opposite coast for 2 months, we "cut way back" this year and are enjoying lots of pressure-free family time. It's the best present around! I highly recommend it.

You have to be firm to do this, even with your own occasional "holiday urges" and just say no, even to yourself. It's worth it though.
-Connie
 
Hey Mogambo- I don't hate the holiday itself, but I hate the mass merchandising part of it, and really hate the attitude that seems to get worse each year.. My friends and I were just talking about how cranky people (sales and shoppers alike) seem to be this year.
I do like the charity that goes on, just wish people did it year round and not just once a year.
Tell what makes me nuts- kiddos that pitch fits when the tree is loaded with hundreds of dollars worth of loot but not the flavor of the season Mega Man Blaster with XYZ.
I also hate being guilted into buying STUFF.
I certainly would never guilt a friend into the holiday (I call it force-feeding the Christmas spirit) and I would very much resent it if my family did it to me. I have had years when life was tough and "passed" on a Christmas or two.
 
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Dec-23-02 AT 04:09PM (Est)[/font][p]I don't let myself get wrapped up in all the hipe - I get involved to the level that I'm comfortable with. It's a matter or personal choice, which we all have no matter what the relatives, co-workers, or whoever think or say.

I choose to keep gift buying simple - I'm going out TODAY to start my shopping - mostly gift certificates. It will take about 2 hours, if that. (Note: this is after the fact - it took one hour and fifteen minutes. I started at 7:15 am and was back home at 8:30 am.)

I don't wrap presents, don't send cards, don't bake cookies, don't decorate, or any of that stuff. I'm not a Scrooge, I just don't do much at this time of the year. Most of all, I DON'T FEEL GUILTY about my low level of celebrating.

I see who I want to see, don't see who I don't want to see, and I'm very stress free.

It's all a matter of choice, My Little Chickadees. You can choose to stress or not stress, celebrate or not.

Just Do It! :)
 
Wow, everybody has a point I agree with on this. I hate the commercialism of the holidays, the forced good will toward man, the crowds, the kids whining about not getting something(I have 3 and yes they've done it. We are very low middle class and I tell them to be grateful for what they did get.), and this will come as no surprise to HB, my mom trying to frce the Christmas spirit on me! I have a tree put up, I baked my cookie and made my candies, and went christmas shopping with her. Ok, ok, I did do most of mine online, but still I went once or twice with her:). So everynight she calls, "Why aren't the Christmas lights on? Why didn't you put the tree in the window?Where's your Christmas music?"
Hey, I do have the holiday spirit, but at my level. I won't do more because she wants it that way. I have been very stress free evxcept for when she calls or comes over. I love her, but she wants me to do things her way, and I do them MY way.
Keep your sanity guys. Do what you're comfortable with. Whether it's nothing or everything, put yourself first so you can give more back, all through the year.

Happy Holidays,
Aimee
 
I don't "hate" it either, I just don't participate in it like you see on "tv."

I am not from a very "holiday oriented" family, so I don't have the frame of reference when Thanksgiving and Christmas come along each year. It does make me feel like an outsider many times because I don't have those special holiday memories that I hear some speak of. I see movies like "It's A Wonderful Life" and it just reinforces all those feelings, so really I do dread this season. The only form of celebrating my family does is a dinner together, with ALL the wrong freaking foods! :( And we exchange gifts that nobody really wants! This I hate the most!

But for all those who do genuinely love this season and have close family ties and family traditions, I'm happy for you and I hope you know how lucky you are to have that closeness and family bond. Don't take it for granted because many of us just don't have the family thing happening!

Donna
Fitness~It's a journey, not a race!
 
OK I am going to go slit my wrists now!! :)
Just kidding but I agree to some extent. Christmas is pure merchandising and it is rather tiresome. Every year it seems we are asked to top last year's loot-giving. However, having a two year old who will love whatever we get him and will be truly excited about it is going to be really cool.
Try to enjoy the spirit of the season if you can.
Trevor :)
 
Mogambo, you rock once again! I love your phrase "commercial consumerama" - I'll have to put it with your "bliss-ninny" expression about yogapods.

I'm utterly indifferent to the December holiday season, and that makes me look like a holiday-hater with this relentless barrage of holiday music, holiday shopping, holiday eating, holiday drinking, and promiscuous holiday "socializing". People are spending money they don't have buying things other people don't need, and the butcher's bill will come due in January during a time of skyrocketing personal bankruptcies. People are eating and drinking swill they don't need, anxious about weight gain but courting it anyway. And the cloying "family" aspect of it really heightens stress for everyone, because IMHO the "family" is a vastly overrated, oversentimentalized and overmarked human organization.

PLUS

There's a specific holiday "classic" song that I hear at least once a day, and if I hear it one more time I'm going to look for my gun. I won't put the title here, 'cause it'll be slithering thru everyone's mind ever after if I do.

a-jock
secret love child of the grinch and ebenezer scrooge
 
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Dec-23-02 AT 10:15AM (Est)[/font][p][font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Dec-23-02 AT 10:13 AM (Est)[/font]

I second everything Annette said so well
and wish I'd said it!

But having said that, I will now attempt to find some good stuff about Christmas:

The 10 Things I Like About Christmas

1. The smell of pine in the air.

2. Having the day off work.

3. Getting out early the day before the day we have off work.

4. The low volume rush hours.

5. Fewer calls from clients.

6. The look on my nieces and nephews faces when they open their gifts.

7. Having the gym to myself.

8. Free shipping on my ordinary mundane internet purchases.

9. Being Jewish.

10. Having the day off work. (Worth mentioning twice!)

How's that? :)
-Nancy
 
All right, Annette, DO TELL!!!!

Annette,

Now, I am simply DYING to know which tune you could possibly hate SO ferociously. Hmmm . . . could it be . . . Debbie Gibson singing "Sleigh Ride" like a freaking chipmunk? Could it involve Celine Dion oversinging each possible note? Could it be that tired old "Jingle Bell Rock" tune? I've got a feeling, ladies and gentlemen, that our Annette (aka Cyber-Grinch) hates "Jingle Bells". Yes, that's what my gut tells me.

I'm begging for a "gift" in the form of a clue.
 
RE: All right, Amadeus, you asked for it

"have a holly jolly christmas, and in case you didn't hear . . ." sung by that noteworthy tenor Burl Ives.

"Ho, Ho, where's my gun
Ha ha ha ha hee
Somebody waits for you
@#&* her once for me . . ."

Don't say I didn't warn ya . . .

a-jock
 
RE: All right, Amadeus, you asked for it

One of the best things about Christmas this year has to be reading all your replies to this topic. How refreshing and what a relief. I was a bit afraid to get flamed.

I do agree that the smell of pine and balsam is wonderful but I have a little bottle of essential oil that I drop into my heating vents all year round. Also lavender, citrus...

Thank you Honeybunch for distilling the problem to the essence. We all have choices. I don't decorate, buy a tree-carcass, or do cards. I think if marketing told us all to buy a large rock and put it in our living rooms, paint it orange and tape dollar bills to it, we'd do it. I buy people extremely unconventional stuff like tree-free paper and compact fluorescent bulbs. I love the day off part but we Americans need more time off all year long. Studies show we want time off more than money. I do tolerate my mother's forced Christmas since I don't want to see her pitch a very unbecoming screaming/guilt-tripping fit (I tried once or twice). My best Christmas was in 1984 when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant so she couldn't ask me to travel 5 hrs to her home. I spent Christmas in a nearly empty laundromat with my big baby-pod. Wonderful.

Maybe when the old folks finally die off, the holiday will peter out, eh?
 
RE: All right, Amadeus, you asked for it

I totally agree with what Honeybunch had to say. I'm pretty much the same way. I do what I feel comfortable with and nothing else. I work at home and therefore I don't have a lot of interaction with my co-workers. One of them had a party at her house for our department which I did not attend. We also had a luncheon at the office which I did not attend. I do not feel guilty at all about not going to either. I also do not bake anymore during the holidays than the rest of the year, which is not very much at all. We normally decorate the inside and outside of the house, but this year we only put up the Christmas Tree due to busy work schedules and remodeling our living room. And my Christmas Tree is not in front of the window this year as it normally is due to my new dumbbell rack and weights setting in front of the window. :) That was my husband's Christmas present to me in preparation for Cathe's pyramid tapes.

As for buying presents. I make sure I buy what people want. My family actually will ask each person what they would like to have and we all know what the price range is. No one is ever disappointed this way. We may not be surprised, but that is okay. Everyone is happy. We also do a lot of gift certificates. I have 2 boys. They make me a list with expensive and inexpensive gifts on it. I choose which to get them. They buy what they don't get with their own money.

As for Christmas dinner? My sister's family and mine spend Christmas Eve with my dad and his wife at their house. We're having cheese dip, chips, ham, etc. Christmas Day we always spend with my mother, grandmother, and uncle (along with his family)having the traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, etc.

I really like the holiday, but I do not get stressed out. I don't listen to Christmas music, my shopping is very quick, and I also do not send out Christmas cards.

Sorry so long. Just wanted to give everyone an idea of a very nonstressful Christmas that I have every year and hope you can make yours happy and nonstressful too.

Kelley
 
RE: All right, Amadeus, you asked for it

Okay, now I'm laughing to tears. I can just picture you aiming your Fudd-like "pop-gun" at the poor old guy and then plyo-jacking him into submission while he's off kilter. Maybe you could substitute him for your step when you do IMAX. "Oh ho the Mistletoe hung where you can see, Somebody waits for you, KICK him once for me." ROTFL ;-)

OOOOh, Christmas Nasty!
 
Christmas

We love Christmas...We celebrate Jesus, the reason for the season, not the materialistic aspect of what it has become to others. Therefor, we look forward to this wonderful time of year. At our home we only purchase one gift for the children. They know Santa Clause does not exist and that the gifts come from mom and dad in honor and in representation of God's gift to us. Accordingly, we are not overwhelmed by the season because we do not cater to it like "the commercials would have us celebrate." We are low key and relaxed. We love Christmas music as it relaxes us, too.

Hmmmm, as a matter of fact, we are so relaxed this season that my hubby and I have not gotten anything for each other and we did not put any lights out, either! :)

BTW, this year we baked choc. chip cookies and golden poundcake for our families. That was the extent of our stress...and we am staying home on the 24th and 25th. :)

However, we do understand some people's frustration with the consumeramma...and the whole shopping fiasco...I don't like the malls at this time of the year in particular either.

Blessings from our home to yours, Runathon
 
Ooh, you guys have warmed the cockles of my Scrooge-like heart! January is my favorite month, because, at last, the holidays are over!

This year I didn't put up a tree or lights, and some members of my family just can't believe or understand it. Sigh.
 
I pretty much count down the days to the New Year and breathe a sigh of relief when it arrives. Yes, this is coming from someone with the first name of Noel!

What a relief to read that others feel the same amibivalence that I do. My guilt has been lifted. Thanks!
 
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