To think there'd be a higher proportion of happy people at Christmas if everyone stopped in their own homes and did their own thing?

[AgentZigzag]

Yeah yeah, Christmas is the season to be jolly with others, sharing, partying, pleasantries etc, but I think there would be a higher proportion of people happy if we just fucked everyone else off on the 'big day' and stopped at home with our immediate families doing not much.

Of course you might enjoy spending your time with your nearest and dearest family and friends, but I'm sure if this is the case you wouldn't mind letting the norm do an about turn so everyone else can stop pretending they're having a good time with whinging/farting PIL/Mums and Dads/DSis/DB/SIL/BIL/BILs nerdy train spotting convos?

Get up with your own DC, open your pressies when you want, mong out all day in comfy clothes and your fave tipple/munchies, leisurely ply DH/DP with alcohol whilst he's cooking, snooze after dinner, bed after a couple of crappy films - what more could you want?

I'd love to hang out at home with dp and dd 9over Christmas (especially as I am 31 wks pregnant), but sadly dd goes to my exh every other Christmas and it's his year, so will not be possible.

Also live 200 odd miles from my parents, so the Christmas holiday is a good opportunity to visit so we can actually stay for longer than a few days. I hate driving 400 miles in a weekend.

DC2 is due next weekend so by Xmas, he/she will still be brand new. We're having Xmas all by ourselves for the first time ever this year.

I think it's nice for the children to see their grandparents, etc, and we all get on reasonably well but I am soooooooooooo excited about this year

Have always felt the more the merrier when it comes to Christmas. The happiest Christmases I remember as a child were the ones where the whole extended family gathered in one place - often 15 people from 2-80. It was so much fun some of my happiest childhood memories. It felt abit flat when it was just the immediate family. So forgive me if I host a big family party Christmas Eve, duty in laws to stay Christmas day then another big family get together Boxing Day. When else can you play board games? Love it

It's sociable people like you kerala who perpetuate the myth that everyone should be getting together at Christmas

Thats what we always do on Christmas Day. We visit relations before and after Christmas. It seems to work well.

We stopped "doing" christmas years ago - why all that stress and hype for one bloody day. Just be nice to your family all year and have dinners together anytime - and then you will have freedom on xmas day.

oh yes. to be at home alone with just us 4 is bliss. we agreed it before we were married and i am not letting that one go.

not sure how i will feel tho when we lose a parent on 1 side or when our dcs have flown the nest. hmm?

what a good reason to have some more dcs to hedge my bets a bit

Bit of background, I live in Australia and we used to own a farm. Xmas is when we harvest, and is a very busy time.

18 years ago we had had a bad run of breakdowns and bad weather. We were due to go to PILS for Xmas, which was a five and half hour drive at best. I had booked a motel as PILS lived in a 2 bed retirement unit, and there were others staying with PILS as well. Motel was 2 doors down. I was nearly 8 months pregnant and we had DS6 and DD 20 months.

Hubby rang his mum, said we weren't coming as we could really only take one day off, needed to catch up on lost time with harvest. First hissy fit from MIL. Okay, so we got the 6yr old and 20 month old out of bed at 5 am, let them open a couple of presents, drove to cousins house (50 kms away,and no, could not do this earlier as MIL only asked us Christmas Eve) to pick up parcels that needed to go to Mil.

By the time we got to PILS at 12.45, Mil had decided that they would not wait any longer and was already serving lunch. If we were later she would have reheated ours in microwave. Nice one.

After lunch, I decided that DD 20 months and I would book into motel and have an afternoon nap. Second hissy fit from MIL. She wanted us to stay with them. DH agreed.

Boxing day dawns, car packed ready to leave straight after lunch. DS6 was playing with his toys on the floor, MIL is vacuuming around him, and tells him to pick up his toys. It was making her unit look messy. She could not even wait a few hours until we left to vacuum her fucking floor. Her other complaints involved DD being too noisy, and too busy etc etc.

When we drove off, I told DH not to ever expect me to fucking do that again. He said good, because I don't want to either.

We have had some wonderful Christmas days at home on our own, or with family if they choose to come to us. Other times we have had the morning at home, and the afternoon with friends. The family have always been welcome to come to our home. We just choose not to go elsewhere if it means we have to travel more than an hour from home.

We have a ski boat, and some Christmas days we have taken food out to where we ski, and soaked up an afternoon of sunshine and fun with the boat. No stress!!

Forgive my long post. [Grin]

foggyfig - I could feel your stress: oowww.

Sometimes the older generation are so difficult to understand

That sounds exactly like the type of Christmas I'm talking about foggy, obligation and full on stress, no ta