Is it just me, or is Christmas really stressful?

[Pud2]

I find it such a stressful time. My parents are elderly and anxious and that's quite stressful in itself as we are all focused on making sure they not fretting about anything. . It is lovely to see my siblings and nephews and nieces etc and we all get on really well but I find that when you have other people there too, ie brother/sister in laws etc, there is always a certain amount of stress as everyone has a slightly different opinion on how things should be done!

Yes I find it stressful. I've cried on Christmas day for the last 3 or 4 years. I have a very quiet Christmas never more than 4 of us but I find parenting difficult and it is magnified when you are thrown together for a day with tired/manic/hyped up children who don't seem to care about a present before moving on to the next.

Oh yes, definitely. Feel quite shattered today both physically & mentally. The pressure to provide for everyone, get all the presents right and contend with elderly, infirm parents staying aswell as dealing with 2 teenage DD's single handedly (DH passed away last year).

S'not easy.

It definitely can be. But I guess it depends on all sorts of things, I would find it quite draining spending the whole day with extended family.

Try having them stay with you for 4 days....!!!

Fuck yes. Go look on my silent scream thread. My mother's just walked out.

This year has been good so far and I think that's because I've limited the time I've spent with certain members of my family. Other family have been really good, dp has done 50/50 and we cooked together, so it wasn't all on me to make everything perfect.

Ds didn't touch his dinner but he's recovering from a bug and for this day I refused to care, it's plated up in the fridge if he wants it tomorrow.

I'm bloody knackered. We only have MIL staying but we have a tiny house and DS2 is only 9mo and has been poorly so glued to either me or DH for most of the time. We've all been tripping over each other for days, it's driving me nuts. I've been cooking and running around all day. Now DS2 is finally asleep and I should go downstairs and call my mum and chat to MIL but I'm hiding in my room in the dark

Then we have to travel 200 miles tomorrow to see my family

Not doing it next year. It'll be just us four and I'm not going anywhere. for everyone

Phew. So glad I'm not alone! I even spent last night with really close friends (did family during the day on Christmas Eve and day) as I thought that would be less stressful. However, things were very strained between them and I have never felt more in the way. I cried myself to sleep as they tried to argue quietly upstairs. This morning, I was looking forward to giving them there presents and seeing the children's faces but they decided on no presents until after lunch so I didn't get to see them. They even forgot to give me my present so I left empty handed!!

Don't get me wrong though. I do know how lucky I am to still have both parents and close family. Just a light hearted, grrrr, kind of thread!

We drove 200 miles this morning with 1 year old ds. Has been nothing but bloody stress since we got here, with mum stressed to the gills and everyone snapping at each other. Sister spilt red wine on aunt's chair, didn't go down well. No-one spoke for a little while.
Mum just asked me if I was pregnant - I'm not - then said I looked gaunt and that I had no bust to speak of.
We will be out of here tomorrow morning...

Why are mothers so adept at hitting us where it hurts with just one comment!

Well this should cheer you up, I do one Christmas day with my Mum and then the next day I recreate Christmas day with my Dad!
Until I had kids I hated Christmas, 2 lots of stress, cooking, presents, travel, etc. Now post kids I tolerate it.

Sorry to hear that Euphemia

Thank you for starting this thread. I absolutely positively loathe Christmas with a passion. Always have. I have retreated into my office to listen to Talking Heads and surf the internet away from other people.

Glad there are fellow members of the Christmas Misery Club. I always thought everyone loved Christmas.

I thought I had my Christmas day all prepared having cleared the living room of toys, cleaned the house, got the shopping, wrapped the gifts but low and behold I hadn't planned on my one year old being off her head for the day. She has been emotionally and physically demanding all day, screaming, grabbing, snotting, scratching and generally running around like a loon. This coupled with the constant requests for interaction from my 5 year old have left me feeling worn out. I have done nothing but meet the demands of two small people all day and I have found it beyond tough.

We have in laws coming tomorrow for round 2 and I feel like crying t the thought. Our house is not big and I find the chaos sends me over the edge. My mum suggested I just ignore the chaos and relax but unfortunately I am highly sensitive to noise and chaos so find it really hard to do that especially when it's been going on since 6am.

So on that note I am with you. It does not seem to matter how stress free I try to make the event I still cannot manage the variables like my crazy children. I'm all for celebrating every 5 years myself, maybe when the kids are grown up I might.

My hatred of Christmas began as a child. My mum had this weird notion of having the perfect Christmas. Even a ball dropping off a tree caused her to go ape shit. I would get told off again and again over how much my one present cost and then the evening would usually end with a full on mum and dad fight which dad normally won.

Funniest mum and dad fight quote:

Mum: Now I know how Thelma and Louise felt!

Dad: Well go drive off a fucking cliff then.

yes very stressful. I was up late with my two poorly, hot kids, ds having spontaneous nose bleeds, creeping down to finish all the wrapping. While making dinner (which nobody really wanted) dd said she couldn't breathe, finally worked out her nose was congested, flapping around, rubbed some vapour stuff on her chest which she then somehow plastered the stuff in her eyes.

Worse ex arsetwat was here all day, as hapless as ever. And so so so much money spent on a fairly shite day.

Love the quote raltheraffe! I hope everyone manages to get through Boxing Day ok.

Well Christmas day version two has just been cancelled as DF doesn't want to come because apparently the bad weather effects his chest. I'm half relieved, but wondering what on earth to do with huge turkey number two!

The only bit of Christmas I like is Christmas trees with their pretty lights (and maybe some of the music). Fortunately DS is only 2 so as far as he is concerned Christmas IS the Christmas tree! Not sure how much longer we'll be able to get away with that though . . .

This year I nicked a motto from another MNetter who said hers was "low expectations".

Despite that it has been stressful, partly due to not knowing whether my DM would be well enough to come, but mainly because PILs are here FOR A WEEK

V sorry about shouty caps. Currently hiding in bed dreading going downstairs.

I hate christmas. Every Christmas I had as a child was utterly awful and now as an adult I just find it really stressful and upsetting as I am a natural introvert and I hate being around people. I absolutely hate all the relatives visiting and general fake cheeriness. Can't stand it. Just want to crawl in a hole.

I ruined christmas day yesterday. I was just so stressed and wound up and our youngest child 2.5 yrs old had a huge tantrum during dinner and wouldn't eat any of it and I missed my own dinner trying to calm him down (with dh). I ended up giving him a sandwich and then my dinner was completely cold and went in the bin. I was in a foul mood after that and basically couldn't be bothered to speak to anyone. I felt furious I had spent 3 hours faffing about to make a nice dinner for everyone to have it ruined by yet another tantrum and I never got to even eat it. I know ds was probably overexcited and so on but it just make me so angry.

When the dc went to bed dh kept on at me about how it wasn't that bad and how I couldn't let it go and that in itself just pissed me off. I'll let it go and calm down when I'm ready to Ffs.

So we sat in silence for 2 hours watching sod all on tv and then I burst into tears and went to bed to cry myself to sleep.

Happy fucking christmas. Totally hate it. Can't wait for the holidays to be over. I feel like taking all the decorations down today but I won't for the dc.