to hate Christmas this year

[mrspepperspot]

Normally really look forward to Christmas but this year, if I didn't have dc, wouldn't celebrate.

The whole country is in a mess. I don't know anyone who hasn't been affected by the recession. My best friend is facing redundancy for the third time in less than a year, every time she finds a new job, the organisation folds or re-structures. My sister works for HMV and it looks like she's going to lose her job, my parents are self-employed and struggling - the recession has hit them hard. I've been told that I may not have a job to go back to after maternity leave.

It's all so bloody depressing. I've cut down on Christmas spending this year - not buying presents for anyone but the dc, bought less food and wine, but it seems inappropriate to be celebrating at all when people around me are struggling to pay their bills.

Trying to enjoy it for the dcs sake but it all feels so fake.

How old are your DCs? Christmas should be fun and magical for children, despite the depressing state of the economy. All the more reason to try and have a jolly time with them.

Bad luck to you/family/friend on the job front, although sadly you're not alone on that one

Crack open the Quality Street I'll have a purple one please

YABU. I probably won't have a job to go back to after mat leave either, DH's job is dicey, sales are down on last year. We've cut our budget right down and it's a thinner Christmas all round than it used to be. However, I strongly feel that nothing is gained by inviting misery. It doesn't take much to make Christmas happy despite what people think. It's a cliche but if everyone is healthy then you've got something to celebrate.

It's not "inappropriate" to celebrate just because there are bad things in the world, or the country, or your own circle of friends and family. You can still ceelbrate the good things in life.

Presumably you don't normally treat Christmas as an opportunity to celebrate having money and a secure job? You celebrate having friends and family to share a meal with and spend time with. And that happens just the same if you can afford to drink champagne or if it's a struggle to buy cheap cider!

I really feel you, op. If I did not have my child/family...I would have loved to spend the day in bed chopping away and watching movies. It sucks all this doom and gloom.

Go back to the true meaning of the midwinter festival, the pre-Christian tradition, and you will see that it is all about bringing light and cheer to the darkest times.

Given the origins of the celebrations, celebrating when the world is going to hell in a handbasket is exactly what you should be doing. Save the low key Christmases for when times are good.

YABU - there is not one year in your life where there wasn't millions of people struggling to get by on Christmas day. They just weren't people you cared about last year.

You might get made redundant, and that will mean that next christmas would be shitty, why give your DCs two shitty years on the run on the off chance somehting will happen? Spend less by all means (I firmly believe it's the fun times together ,not the mountain of pressies that makes it magical for DCs, and the 'fancy food' is normally for the grown ups anyway) but enjoy it, make it exciting, keep the magic for them.

I think when times are tough, it is even more important to dig deep and find the joy in a situation, however tiny. Or you may slide into depression and hopelessness and take your family with you.
I always remember the friends I have lost over the years when I put up my tree on Midwinter's Eve. The ones who would have loved to hug their children on Christmas day, but are dead. Some of them never made it out of their teens, never really got their lives started.
Life is always hard, but resilience and living for the moment are good life skills.