To think Christmas Day itself is crap?

[GingerbreadBaubles]

I'm no grinch, I love the festivities the decorations, the twinkly lights etc but I always find the 25th so bloody boring!

The same shite on the tv year after year, the cooking and getting it all ready for the same time. Is it just me that thinks it's a bit of an anti climax?

I gave up on Christmas twenty years ago when I was still living at my Mum and Dad's. They had one silly falling-out too many on Christmas Eve which just tipped me over the edge. That evening I vowed to have nothing to do with Christmas from then on and I have been as good as my word. I have lived alone in my own home for the last fourteen years and I confess to missing some aspects of Christmas. On the other hand there are parts that I need like a hole in the head. Either way it's a meaningless and glum time for me because I can't share the goods and the bads. So all in all Christmas Day is just a wasted day for me.

I am also working a twelve hour shift on Christmas Eve. Pointless because the airline I work for isn't even flying that day so from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. there's nothing for us to do. Airport is closed Christmas Day but I have to be circumspect because I'm back on duty 5 a.m. Boxing Day for what promises to be a busy twelve-hour shift. Yippee.

I'm sorry to blether on folks. I'm finding it difficult to be positive just now and I couldn't miss this opportunity to let off steam.

Yup, well xmas day is often a big anti climax for so many reasons. My dad died on xmas day when I was 21 . Im 45 now, but the feeling of sitting there watching my dad painfully slip away, like I was caught in some terrible nightmare has never left me. I buy the kids gifts ( or now they are older , give them money/ let them give wish lists). I've fought the xmas day "merriment" difficulty for 44 years. This year, I've said no big dinner, we are going for an indian. One DS is married and going to his horrible wives inlaws. The other DS wants to go to my sister for lunch, which is fine by me and DH as he'll be with his cousins...there is no animosity on either side. Its taken me all these years to take back some control, but I've finally done it, and its great... try taking back some control any of who don't like xmas.....take some of that self made pressure off yourselves - If you have adult or older children they will understand, and so will DH - in fact , I think all most men want is to sit around and watch TV anyway !!!....Boycott the big turkey lunch in favour of something different.....even if its only a little change it might make you feel better...take some time for yourselves if you can, and breathe deeply, and take stock of the good things you do have....its just one bloody day.....and it needs to be got through, although we all have our different reasons for getting through....but if you take some deep breaths, think of something nice you'll be treating yourself to in 2015, OR, if you enjoy the day, revel in it , and love it.....and keep saying to yourself "Its just one day, its just one day" :)

It's what you make it!

When I was a kid (up to about 15) I loved it so much, Between 16-23, I was bored by it and couldn't really get worked up about it. But since 24+ it's been really exciting again for some reason. Since having DC it has reignited the festive spirit.

Christmas Day is ok when you can spend it how you like. It's when you have to accommodate other's wishes that it becomes problematic...

This Christmas Day is going to be horrible because of huge bereavements in our family this year, but I've always preferred advent to the day itself, and with children Christmas Eve is more fun for me than Christmas Day.

Christmas is what you make it, but I think society in general needs to be more at peace with the fact that for many people, the reality of Christmas isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Its what you make it and if you try and live up to the perfect Christmas hype then there is scope for you to feel disappointed.

We have a very casual Christmas Day...opening presents leisurely in our jimjams having a sort of running buffet breakfast. Then have a dinner about 5-6. We may have no full oven this year so will be having steak, nice stuff but no great big grand feast. It take a lot of pressure off. I dont think we even had tele on last year

I'm now going to read what others have posted

YABU. I absolutely love everything about christmas. I have it easy though. I don't have my own house or Dcs so i guess I'm kind of looking forward to having no stress. My only stress is new years eve :(

Christmas Eve is the best. I agree to a certain extent but I think it's Boxing Day that's the most depressing, that's the real anti climax for me. Christmas Day is still fun! Presents, a massive yummy breakfast, a divine dinner, crackers, board games, chocolate... It's all happy and jovial. But Boxing Day is very 'ugh'.

I used to love it, fell out of love with it for a coupleof high stress years, then stepped back from the ridiculous pressure I was putting myself under to make it PERFECT for everyone....and now it is absolutely my favourite day. I don't cook dinner until after 3 in the afternoon so we eat after the queen, when the stocking chocolate isn't making everyone feel full!.
I make sure there's enough time for church, a walk, a few mins alone with DH and time to actually sit with the kids and see what FC brought them, rather than having to keep leaping up to put something in the oven.
We watch the Queen and Dr WHo on TV but otherwise it's poit luck if it goes on when there's something good: the day is about chatting and games in our house.

I do feel sincerely sorry for anyone who finds Christmas sad and difficult, especially those alone or bereaved. The OP was talking about it being 'boring', but that's not the same as suffering loneliness or grief. So I send my heartfelt good wishes to all those who will be unhappy on the Day.

I think Christmas is crap too. ☹️. I guess you rationale depends on the reasoning. My dad died on Christmas Day when I was 22, my gran died Boxing Day the year after. This year, my nephew (37, 1 DS Of 2) has just been diagnosed with terminal brain tumour, so I know Christmas this year won’t be up to much. (Unsurprisingly)I’ve struggled to make Christmas better every year for many years but it doesn’t matter how much I try I simply can’t. My DS is 14, not interested in much outside his room !. I’ve tried anti depressants , CBT, have a therapist. Nothing really works, it gets to About this time of year each year, and I want to crawl off and hide. My sister has 3 grown up children, she makes A tremendous point of going overboard every year at Christmas, I think to somehow try and compensate for our dads death. Incedentally she is 15 years older than me. Nowadays I just accept it. DS loves Xmas , and I’ve always tried to minimise the dislike I have for his sake. I’m now pagan, so feel, at least I don’t have pretend so much about how I feel !!!

Christmas seems to 'celebrated' throughout, and even before, December... so if you're one of those people who do Christmas parties in late November, and have the tree up by 1st December, you'll probably be sick of it when it actually arrives.

My guess is that people who find Christmas boring do so because they are trying to invent a secular celebration based on a Christian festival. It’s never going to be as magical or special if the raison d’etre is twinkling lights and piles of presents.
Christmas isn’t a day is a whole season. Christmas Day itself is the culmination of the preparations when all your efforts come to fruition. It can, however, only be special if you make it so. Try helping at a community lunch, Crisis or similar. Try building some family traditions and put something meaningful into the day.
I’ve got to say, I absolutely love the whole of Christmastide when there is a rare opportunity for time with friends and family doing lovely things.

YABU. I love Christmas Day.

I think the trouble with Christmas is the expectation that everyone should be happy and joyful when in reality for lots of people it's a lonely miserable time....

Christmas used to be a terribly depressing time for me, I could never put a finger on why but it was. But since meeting my husband and having children I’ve taken to seeing it a different light. I’ve you strip everything away it’s just some time to appreciate loved ones, celebrate and say thanks (I’m atheist so it’s as simple as that for me). My husband came from a poor family and would have quite a sad Christmas in comparison to me, I want to make his Christmas everything they weren’t as a child, I think for me it’s remembering that my mood and the effort I make impacts on the whole family, these are my children’s memories so I need to make them good ones. I highly recommend a book called The book book of Hygge, it’s put me right in the mood this year!

YANBU It's a lot of hard work. Cleaning up, cooking, trying to give attention to DS whilst cooking. Our in law's come over every Xmas day and DH has to fetch them and take them home, an hour each way. By the time we've had dinner and chatted a bit I'm desperate to get house back to ourselves and relax. It's meh

I love Christmas, but I know what you mean...I think the day, lovely though it is, isn't the best bit.. It's the anticipation and the Christmas season, warming up the winter. I'm not Christian, but I do play a lot of carols and I go to church services over the festive period, as well as Yule bonfires etc.

Pretty much every religion /belief has a midwinter festival of sorts, and they all run along the same lines...human beings staying hopeful, celebrating the light in the darkness, the cycle of the year but also of the human spirit.

To me, the whole season is about love, hope, loving other people but also yourself, being kind to yourself during bad times and holding out for the good, resting and hunkering down with the earth and recharging the batteries. A period of renewal, spiritual /emotional hibernation and self care of sorts. I make sure we all get a chance to do seasonal things that are really lovely, hot chocolate at a Christmas market, hearing "Silent Night" in an old moonlit church, whatever. Keeping stress and spending to a minimum. I find that the years I've done this, I haven't felt the day itself to be such an anticlimax.

Sorry for anyone for whom it's a let-down. I've always paced presents (small) from a Christmas Eve one to the nut/tangerine stocking to presents late on Christmas Day or even later on Boxing Day for visiting family. I understand a turkey stretches with all the veg and sauces but quite happy doing a large joint of beef and eating it whenever it's ready (small children aside). Yes to Midnight Mass and/or Christmas Day Matins.

I've always thought if I was on my own I'd sign up for serving/prepping at one of the volunteer stations across the country but then I read this www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2013/dec/13/homeless-volunteering-christmas-rough-sleeping

So I'd probably just keep visiting the elderly ladies I visit.

I’m with you ssd 😳

I cant stand Christmas. It is expensive and crap and my family always spoil it with their selfishness.

We spend the day itself with just the two of us, and it's bliss.

We can do what we want, when we want. We usually take the dog out on the downs for an hour or so, having prepped all the veg, then take our time cooking a massive meal, drink lots, pig out and snooze away the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Boxing Day we generally have some of DP's family for a feast of leftovers, which I love almost as much as the Christmas dinner.

YANBU - love christmas time (1 December onwards, go for it), I love giving and receiving presents in the morning, then round to mums for the wider family present swapping. From then on, it's just a long, hard slog in the kitchen and drudgery. My sister feels the same.

I wondered how i'd managed to forget that I'd posted, then realised that it's from 2014.

My Grandchildren make Christmas for me, now and this year is the first year that me and my youngest Adult DD (who still lives with me) are doing an adult Christmas, small stockings for each other only and cooking/cocktail making together.

I've always loved it since leaving my Parents house and could have it how I wanted it, without arguments etc.

I used to love it and now feel really sad that I don't anymore. It's just hard work and expense! I feel stressed trying to make it lovely for the kids, esp now all but one is past the believing in Father Christmas stage. Everything costs so much money - when they were little you could get a lot of impressive looking gifts for relatively little money. Now it's all ps4 games at £45.

I still love my tree and the fairy lights and carols, but for the lasy few years I've just not been feeling the joy - it's just one more thing to get through.