To wonder if other countries make such a palava and have so much angst over Xmas

[EnlightenmentwasaPassingPhase]

Bloody love Xmas, me. DH, DD, Ddog and I get to spend it at home relaxing, eating, drinking and opening presents because no fucker invites us over

But the angst on here - sometimes genuine, sometimes contrived!

So, I wondered if other countries do Xmas in a more laid back way. I'd love to live somewhere where it wasn't mentioned until mid December, the shops weren't full of seasonal tat from September and there wasn't a lot of family politics about who spends the "special" day where and with whom.

It's just as much a big deal in Ireland IMO.

You're not allowed to eat the Christmas biscuits until 24th though are you Igneo - except the odd official pre Christmas party. Mother's don't let their own families eat the biscuits before it's officially Christmas...

I think it's less stretched out in Germany. In the UK schools and shops hit peak Christmas way before 24th December - in fact IMO before it's even December often!

And traditionally English families bake their Christmas cake in July...

Yes, evelyn biscuits not really eaten before Christmas eve, except for the ones given to friends or taken to pre-Christmas events at the various clubs (all sports clubs in my family) and the ones that we secretly sneaked into my parents room for where they were stashed behind the wardrobe. In my family Stollen (baked early November to give it time to mature) was eaten on the four Sundays during advent for Kaffee&Kuchen.
With "more stretched" out I mean there is less focus on the one day of Christmas than here. Most families will have some traditions for advent, a wreath with 4 candles which get lit one more every Sunday, in my family we got together with Gluehwein in the Sunday evenings for that, then there is St Nikolaus day, and Christmas lingers on after Christmas day as well. So Christmas Day isn't that one big day where everything has to go right, it's just another day in a series of events, the most important one but not quite as fraught with expectations. It might also help that presents are given on Christmas Eve, that leaves Christmas Day for sleeping in, cooking, relaxing, seeing family.

Here in NZ it is I suppose Xmas is different because it's also the beginning of the summer hols . Everyone's asking ' where are you going for Xmas?" The ideal is that you have organised a family holiday home by the beach where you have simple days playing barefoot ball games and BBQ ing . I find it a bit stressful as you have to budget for Christmas presets and your summer holiday at the same time. And I've left it too late to book anywhere.

I don't think the angst on here is typical.

And of course, given the changes to MNHQ moderation policy, it's multiplied hugely this year

(Last year, and in particular the year before, MNHQ was moving Christmas threads to the Christmas topic until late November which mean it didn't dominate. This isn't to do with size - MN was already big then - it's a deliberate change)

It's the same in Ireland as the UK. You'll get a group that are stressed to the eyeballs about it there too.

Shops are the same too (mostly because they are the same shops!).

Though maybe it's worse in Ireland - what with the Late Late You Show horror to endure ...

*Toy Show not You Show!!

There does seem to be a lot of stress over Christmas on here, particularly those who don't want to spend all day cooking, I've never spent a whole day cooking a Christmas dinner! It's no different to a Sunday dinner with Turkey and a few extra sauces.

With everything in life, it's how stressful you want to make it. I've got all presents except three, they are wrapped and in gift bags ready to distribute, DS and DH presents are wrapped and hidden. Turkey is ordered, Christmas cake is made and decorations are down and in the office, sorted through and ready to put up on 2nd December.

I start early to reduce the stress and I'm now slipping into Christmas mode and I've got a wage packet and the whole of December to enjoy without the worry of getting presents but for some reason I'm accused of "starting it earlier and missing the point of the season" all because I'm organised and not wringing my hands in December.

And New York in Manhattan is amazing, we go every December for 5 days. Absolutely love it!

You can't compare Mumsnet Christmas angst to ordinary RL though. Agree, I've never met anyone in real life who gets as worked up as some on here. Yes some people struggle to afford it, but that's usually down to managing expectations.
I've never driven through, let alone visited, one of the mythical villages where everyone sings carols around the village green, goes to midnight mass after a simple supper of roast swan and then donates all their presents to the local orphanage.

I live in Australia and Christmas hasn't been mentioned at all and neither is hearing Live Aid belting out in a supermarket..

Yy to the German observations - plus in Germany there's NYE, which has certain rituals around it and is a firework-fest (hate the latter aspect of this, actually).

I love German Advent. Every tiny town has its Weihnachtsmarkt, even if it's only a couple of stalls on one Advent weekend. There's the lighting of the wreath every Advent Sunday. One of the only times the churches are packed is when lots of people go to listen to a local choir performing part of Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium either on an Advent weekend or during the 12 days. Children do nativities in church on Christmas Eve afternoon, and they're always packed out too. Where I used to live our choir used to go round hospital wards and sing carols on Christmas Eve. Nobody does much on Christmas Day or Boxing Day (we will be going to the theatre on BD this year), and no shops would dream of opening, even if it were legal.

We actually keep a British Christmas to a degree, in that we have presents on Christmas Day and a film the night before, but Christmas Eve is always busy with various musical and church commitments.

@Ifailed, your username is very apt then

In Greece it is celebrated with lights, family, food etc but nowhere near the hysteria that happens over here.

My Greek family are completely baffled when I tell them that the Christmas markets/shopping start in November over here

Worra is right. I refuse to even acknowledge Christmas is coming until Dec 1st. The teee and all decorations are gone the day after Boxing Day. If everyone were like me, it wouldn't be so mad. Too many people buy into the madness then complain.

We're Australia. The shops have stuff but no-one is talking about it.
We don't have the family angst though, as everyone is in the UK, so we love it. We get to spend Christmas Day with whoever we want!
It does get really hectic in December but that is more about the end of the school year and start of the big summer holidays, than it is about Christmas. But combining both means there are lots of events.

I don’t know anyone who gets really stressy over Christmas in RL.

My brother and his partner live in Germany and I love Christmas there. None of the frantic last minute gift buying though supermarkets can be busy and slow going. Everything stops on Christmas Eve and the
Christmas markets finish before then. The streets are lovely and quiet. I much prefer being over there and how it’s celebrated

I'm surprised that people are saying that the USA is worse than the UK at Christmas. It must have changed very significantly since I spent two Christmases there in the late 1980s.

At that time, I was surprised to see most people had discarded their Christmas trees on 26th December and put them out with the trash for collection. Most people were back at work. There was no such thing as boxing day, Christmas was the 25th only and then everything went back to normal.

When we went to NYC the weekend before Christmas, it was quite a disappointment. There were no Christmas decorations, just a few of the larger stores had Christmas trees up and there were very few lights, only a few laser lights that I think Macys had installed. The only thing that showed it was Christmas was the numerous people dressed as father Christmas - one on every street corner it seemed (like the song!) - ringing handbells and collecting for charity.

The other thing that was very different from the UK was the television schedules. There was no indication that it was Christmas, no Christmas specials, no Christmas stuff between programmes or anything like that. Christmas Day TV was the same as the same day on the previous week.

The schools didn't go overboard either. As US schools are secular, there was no nativity play or anything like that.

DH and I try to make a low key thing of it ourselves, we'd rather stay home drink Bailey's all day and not bother with presents, but our families (both 100s of miles away) get all angsty about it, lots if discussion about who is going to who,buying what for who etc. We've resorted to going away most years just to be able to opt out. We can't this year and I'm already bracing myself for the hooha about Christmas day, which we really want to spend just by ourselves when I know one or both sets of parents will want to cone to us or expect us to go to them.

Lived in 2 Southern Hemisphere countries over the years.....Xmas is summer holiday time: lots going on, people outside so no need to focus on buying stuff. People go on their big holidays....lots more nicer things to do.

Back here in UK: cold and dark, nothing else to do, Xmas frenzy.

Yes in Brazil it is pretty low key, although our local supermarket has put the tree up already.

I grew up in Canada, Christmas is a big thing there too!
We have lights on streets and most houses decorate for Christmas with lights, usually by xmas there is snow.
There is a shop in my home city that has a window Christmas display and we used to make a special trip to visit it every Christmas, so much so that I took my DH to see it the first Christmas he spent in Canada. ( montrealgazette.com/business/local-business/ogilvys-christmas-window-gets-a-canadian-makeover)

We also have boxing day off like the UK does and it is a big shopping day.

When I first moved to the UK I found the TV schedules for Christmas really strange, I don't ever remember really watching TV on Christmas day apart from videos I may have received as a present. We did always watch the cartoon version of the Grinch.

One thing I notice about the UK (I've lived in 4 other countries) is that we are encouraged to SPEND SPEND SPEND. One of the things that bugs me the most here is when the press start moaning that sales are down 0.2& on last Nov or whatever even though lots of money was still spent. I feel that we are encouraged manipulated into spending every penny we have and go into debt. Just look at how JL spent £7m on their Christmas ad. That wasn't to make us feel warm and snuggly. It was to get us to go out and spend till we drop in their store. If their sales are not as much as last year, then that ad will be deemed as unsuccessful.

The angst comes from having to spend £ and time and meet high expectations coming at us form all angles.

I am from Sweden and even though I haven't lived there for 20+ years I think they are quite angsty about Xmas too! For instance the running around different family members for Xmas eve which is the day we celebrate! You also have the added angst of actually having to produce a 'real' santa who comes and gives the presents to the kids. Usually it's a family member who happens to have to go and get a paper (even though all shops are closed), or just go out and check that the reindeers haven't got stuck somewhere and then re-appearing dressed up as santa

The food on Xmas eve is also slightly ott as there are about a million dishes that have to be served in specific order so the one cooking definitely have a stressful time!