Safe place for those who don't enjoy christmas (for whatever reason).

[ueberlin2030]

A safe space to express how you feel this festive season, without judgement, whether you feel this way every year or are just struggling/having a hard time this year.
If you do enjoy christmas then feel free to comment as long as it's kind and not telling us why we should enjoy christmas too.
I'm not 100% sure why I don't enjoy it, and haven't for a while, though I do have some thoughts which I'm trying to work through logically. 🙃

Thank you everyone who has posted (so far) - I'm reading every reply, and hope that at least writing down how you feel has been helpful. While I obviously don't want anyone to be sad or stressed etc, I just thought it might help to share honestly how we feel. Take care all.

I do love the tree and the twinkly lights. I think that tradition of bringing the outside in and candles/ lights is good for the soul in winter. The rest of it ( Xmas tat, selection boxes, gift sets, plastic santas, Xmas markets ) can get in the bin.
Looking forward to January. A clean start, cold clear days, beautiful pink and blue sunsets, quiet and calm.

im autistic so dont really enjoy all of the social obligations and i hate busy shops. thankfully i get to have a small christmas just me and my mum

I usually love Christmas.
But this year, I have lost my beloved gran, and the one person who supported me unconditionally humiliated me and hurt me so deep mid November that I am just crying all the time.

I love this. Bring on January!

In a strange way, it’s good to know I’m not alone. It’ll soon be Boxing Day and we can all start to go back to normal🤪

Used to love it when my DC were little, but this year has been shit. DM 91 now in a care home, two hospital admissions this year. Had to empty and sell her home of 70 years where all the family used to congregate. Utterly heartbreaking.
Finalised my divorce which had taken 3 years due to ex being and arse over finances. Have paid out £££ to solicitors.
House which was rented out and formed part of the divorce agreement to me was trashed by tenants and has needed refurbishing to get it on the market.
Drove 200m to see my DM and DC at the weekend and the gearbox broke , luckily the RAC were fab, poor guy had to put up with me crying.
So now I need to buy a new car. My mechanic has leant me a car over Christmas for nothing ..cue more crying!
Oh and the lovely man that I met this time last year and I could have seen a future relationship with, dumped me 6 weeks ago. Still talking but feck it's hard.
So once my son leave on Christmas day I am going back to bed until after New Year.
No decorations up because I don't fecking want to celebrate this year.

I hate it too. I'm single, parents have passed away. It just reminds me of how alone I am. My birthday is a few days after, which is just such a shit time of year, and I've got a big one coming up this year which I just want to forget about. Waiting for the sale of my parent's house to come through, I thought it would have happened by now, but due to complications at the buyer's end, it's not happening, so I'm broke! Hugs and considerations to all of you who don't enjoy it! X

I swear next year I'm going away somewhere hot!😂

Yep, bring on January. Fresh, sharp frosts. That deep silence you only get on a snowy day. New year at work, with new creative challenges. Looking for the first bulbs (although that's already happened - the daffodils are popping up all over).

The commercial Christmas can get in the bin.

Hi just wanted to say, my birthday is a few days after Xmas too, so I know how it feels. Tbh, sometimes it feels like I don't really have a birthday, and it feels churlish to insist pp celebrate it, as everyone has got so much going on, but it really does suck.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to YOU!!! 😁💖👑💎💃🍷

I am among my people. Hello. It's my second Christmas without my DF and I've got some kind of virus so feeling shit. The good thing is I just have to wrap the small amount of presents I have and there's no partner or kids so I can lie on the sofa and relax without worrying about other people.

Not keen on the ridiculously early start to "the season" and the way it gets shoved in your face/consumerism but at least I don't need to be involved with that side myself and can just enjoy the bits I do like. So I'm going to eat some cheese and chocolate and enjoy not being at work for a while.

I have known far too many people to die over Christmas. So I can't get too excited about it. I'm always glad when it's over and happy if not too many people peg it. Plus the days start to get longer. If I had any say in it I would move Christmas to June.

Thank you!! I remember being a child and asking my mum if I could change my birthday. Happy birthday to you too!!

Really really dislike it, I hate the disruption, the fact almost everything is closed, always having to be the one that works right up to the wire as we're the only ones without kids, loathe the even crappier than usual driving and the beyond sh*t public transport.

Not to mention the rampant materialism and gluttony.

Hasn't helped this year that we had a new boss who rammed it down our throats since May and then didn't bloody well even turn up to the Christmas lunch on the date they'd made us organise for THEIR convenience.

Bring on Halloween.

I totally agree @Lottapianos .
This year I have decided to pretty much ignore all the hype and hysteria, DH couldn’t care less about Christmas (not that he does anything!) so I thought ‘Sod it!’ So, no decorations, roast beef for dinner, no faffing with turkey and eating leftovers for weeks. DH wrote a few cards, apart from the immediate family I haven’t bought any presents and I am enjoying sitting back and doing sfa.
I simply don’t feel the need to spend money, time and effort just for the two of us 🤷🏼‍♀️

My birthday is a few days before Christmas and it’s been overshadowed and a non-event for many years. I don’t hate the season or the solstice just the rampant commercialisation.

I have a lovely family and everyone else enjoys it, but I bloody hate it.

It makes me anxious for some reason. Not sure if it's the change of routine or what but I'm glad it's nearly done.

By Saturday, my tree will be down and my house back to normal!

@overthinkersanonnymus my record was tree up Christmas Eve, down Boxing Day!

I'm not a fan either, haven't been for years. I have anxiety, GAD and health anxiety and it's always worse over Christmas. The thought of the busy hospitals, skeleton staff, the pressure to have fun!! The plans to see people and do things....i have young DC's so I obviously partake for them and get "excited". I only have them every other Christmas though as their Dad and I are no longer together so that's probably another reason why I don't like it! As it's hard to enjoy this year knowing next year they'll be with their Dad.

Anyway, I can't wait for it all to be over and relax and get back to "normal"

Sending best wishes to everyone else who doesn't enjoy this time of year either

I hate it. I just want it over with and for things to be normal again. I've never enjoyed it. I now get bad anxiety and have dissociation which feels frightening to me. I like to listen to the radio, but everything is about Christmas. I want to escape and I can't. It just feels empty, bleak and lonely at this time of year. I wish I could just go to bed and wake up on January 1st. Every year I know it's coming and every year I work hard at avoiding the shops and crowds, but I still feel bad.

Can I join please?

First Christmas since xh left - although he told me he wasn't happy 2 weeks before and spent all Christmas day texting OW so last year was absolutely miserable.

Really trying to get into the festive spirit and absolutely failing - I used to adore Christmas and feel like he's absolutely ruined it for me.

Sending love to everyone having a difficult time.

Don't like it. My daughter loves it (14) and would have Christmas every day. Lights,tree etc. I enjoy watching her enjoy it. Didn't see much Christmas cheer in the shops this am. I do like the fact I finished work on Friday and not back in until 2/1

I always like the build up but feel melancholic 23-26 Dec.

I enjoy the socialising before Christmas, dinners, brunches, wine. I’m a Strictly fan so enjoy the weekends leading up to the final. I like decorations, lights and fir trees. I even like some Christmas music.

But now Christmas has arrived, I feel flat and subdued. And worried. Worried about what, I do not know. It’s been the same since I was in my mid-twenties in the 1990s.

I am looking forward to Gavin & Stacey and some Boxing Day televised sport. That’s it.

Thankyou. I really appreciate it. I'm trying to be hopeful and think there will be better days ahead although very difficult right now x

Family Christmas is a tense affair with my mother holding court with her unfunny quips and one liners that are designed to make you feel like crap.
Don't have much cash so run up has been stressful financially. Spent my Asda rewards tonight on some nice food for us because were summoned tomorrow to mothers and Christmas day to my sisters, before I go to work.

And then despite being cheerful, festive, polite and bending over backwards to accommodate people I can't tell you the number of Christmas's, and possibly lives, I've apparently ruined by being fully booked the next 3 days, or because we're busy and people have to wait a few minutes or because we don't have on the menu what they like.

I'm really fed up with being personally insulted, humiliated, taken the piss out of and shouted at in all honesty. I'm dreading Christmas day.

Exactly this!