would you cancel Christmas if you could?

[ffsfindmeausername]

It always surprises me each year when engaging in conversation with people about Christmas at how many people say they really dislike Christmas, myself included if I'm honest. Everyone seems to say the same things that it's so stressful,expensive, pressure to make everything magical etc. Lots seem to say they wish Christmas didn't exist! I also feel this way and I actually dread Christmas coming around each year and feel huge relief once January comes around.
How many actually feel this way and if there was a national vote to cancel Christmas then would you vote yes?

I love Christmas

but I definitely think we could half a lot of the Christmas ‘stuff’ that we do

time expense and plastic tat is not Christmas.

twinkly lights , cosy days , family and a tin of chocolates is in my opinion.

if you don’t partake in everything you are grinch , if you do partake you are poor (time and money wise) stressed out and ready for it to be over .

and ffs keep the tree in the bloody loft untill December

Christmas Queen here.

I love it.

Love everyone together and all of our traditions. Fills me with joy.
I think people make a rod for their own back-just do as much or as little as you want. It's not a competition and doesn't have to be insta ready.

House is full of laughter and food and drink and it's my absolute favourite time of year.

I love Christmas, I really do, but we've overstretched ourselves on house renovations this year, and the thought of Christmas and the expense is weighing on me so much. I'd cancel for this year,yes.

Yes. From the age of about five or six, Christmas has meant travelling hundreds of miles. New Year meant travelling hundreds of miles too, in a different direction, until my mid-twenties. After a month of gigs because December is a really busy time of year for amateur musicians, I'm burned out by the 25th and have had enough.

I'd love to spend Christmas Day alone with selffellatingcatofhate but my family moan if I don't go to see them.

Yes, me too

My thoughts too!

But I've never had to cook Christmas lunch at all for a dozen, tolerate hideous house guests and I don't have a useless husband who leaves everything to me.

I find it quite boring and could quite happily live without it. I avoid the shops in December and don't have any small children or extended family to cater for, so it's less stressful now at least. I also work on Christmas Day after going to church, so it goes quite quickly. We don't have a TV either so we can avoid the commercialism.

I don’t think there has existed a human culture that does not have some sort of celebration/festival in midwinter (those cultures that experience a midwinter)?
Humans need it somehow. Cancelling would probably do something weird to us.

I like Christmas with the caveat that it’s AT Christmas. I am not remotely feeling Christmassy right now. I do enjoy it around mid December onwards. I like the music and the memories it brings, I like the smells from making cranberry jam and bread sauce etc. I like a real tree and spending time with my DH as we are both off over Christmas. All the early crap and commercialism is not of interest to me.

100% yes. I hate Christmas. The overconsumption and fakery make me want to 🤮

No. I have no trouble ignoring it/not participating if I feel like that. Cancelling a major religious holiday feels disturbingly dictatorial and repressive, and cancelling a long-standing tradition or arrangement that many people consider beneficial and important to their culture is never to go over well no matter how many people vote for it (see: Brexit).

I have had a pretty hard year and I could do without Christmas this year tbh. I am looking forward to January as mentally it will feel like a fresh start. I have some special plans for 2025 too so it feels like the gateway to something exciting. Although all years have good and bad things happen I suppose.

I do think Christmas starts too early when the shops push it on us from September though. Putting the tree up in November is insane behaviour. There are 12 days of Christmas and not a single one of them is in November. perhaps that is why I feel like I can’t be bothered with it right now - it’s bloody miles away? Hopefully I feel more festive when the time comes!

yes

I love the few minutes where my DC get their gifts & give us theirs (assisted buying, of course), but other than that I loathe it. One year DH invited his parents (who I dislike intensely) to the gift opening and it ruined that, too.

I hate that it's so full on & busy, and has become so commercial & expensive. I hate the no gifts rule for adults is ignored so I look cheap while they exchange (DM has already bought despite agreeing).

I would love it, I think, if we did the simple beach holiday that I did with my parents a few times. So simple. It's too expensive so we can't afford it, though.

It's a huge relief when it's all over, which sucks, because I get two weeks off work as businesses close here for those weeks. I'd rather have a holiday!!

No, but I'd make it a law that it cannot start in August before November and all this ridiculous OTT competitive, Instagramable pressure must stop. So basically I'd only allow it to be like it was in the 80s/90s.

No I love love love Christmas.

Not in a million years. We love Christmas, we massively look forward to it.

I loved it when the kids were small, not as much now. It's so expensive!

No, I love it.

I however firmly believe its for kids... it was magical as a child and magical are a parent of children.

Adolescent years sucked in the in between (and adult christmas is just people sat around moaning. It was like a normal day but more tense and miserable) being broke and a lonely loose end didn't help.

Once the kids are grown and have their own families we will not burden them by dragging them to ours or expecting them to host us so instead me & DH will probably just go on holiday then instead which sounds fun too (bit of winter sun or something).

We do not do the stuff that makes us (and seemingly everyone else according to MN) miserable though.

We are quite introverted so its just nuclear family. No worrying about grumpy uncle ted upsetting everyone or whose hosting the awkward SIL no one can stand. No cooking for 20 different people with different requirements and whose sleeping where. No buying for 40 kids of friends when you barely know the kids all with writers cramp from the 200 cards sent out to every past neighbor and co-worker and old school friend etc...

I think more people would enjoy it if they just stopped martyring themselves to what they think is expected because no one actually ends up happy in those situations.

Yes vote from me. If it was just me I'd go away every year to a place that doesn't celebrate Christmas and forget the whole thing. One day ....

I really detest Christmas. It's left to me to sort out every single year. To improve things now my kids are adults I'm trying to just keep the build up limited and manageable. The actual day is not too bad and I enjoy a walk on Boxing Day. I prefer January too.

No but I would ban Christmas from all shops and everywhere else until December.
You can still buy everything in the shops but just no big stands of chocolate, no decorations up at the beginning of November, no Christmas adverts on tv etc etc just happy to keep it all to December.
I really enjoy Christmas and love spending it with the family but it just takes over.

No, i love Christmas! DP gets at least 2 weeks off work, I'm generally off for most of that time, kids off school, finished Uni. It's the only time of the year when we can really relax with each other, forget what day of the week it is, eat and drink well, get pressies - I love it!!

I'd keep Christmas dinner, work night out, chocolates, bank holidays, mulled wine, carols, mince pies.
I'd cancel presents, secret santa, the elf, santa, crackers, markets, stockings, the tree... all the consumerism and stress.

I'm not a huge fan

Think I would enjoy it more if it was on alternate years only or every 4 years like the Olympics