To friggin hate Christmas?

[Iliveinazoo]

I'm sorry that this isn't in the Christmas topic, seems little point moaning about Christmas there.

It's not actually Christmas that I hate, but all of the commercialised enforced buying.

I love decorating the tree, the fairy lights, having delicious food, excited children, Christmas television, a few days off, Christmas parties.

What I hate is the fact that it's October, I'm trying to enjoy Autumn, and every day I'm getting texts from grown adults asking me what I want for Christmas, and putting their orders in for what they want, sending me links to stuff I can buy them and I'm supposed to think of something for them to buy me back.

It's such bullshit, most of us have far too much 'stuff' already.

I know I sound like a right Scrooge but I do see a lot of it as being so wasteful, every Christmas we end up with piles of packaging and plastic that we don't even want or need.

Regift all the wine and weird hamper food back to them next year. They'll get the message.

Then there's the relatives that spend ££££ and expect the same back

I really don't understand the expectation for expensive gifts between adults. If you're the type of person who likes expensive shopping, just buy stuff for yourself. Don't impose your preferences on others.

It's not being generous to give another adult an expensive thing because all you are really getting them is the obligation to return the favour and it all a waste of time and effort and it could all be hugely stressful if the recipients can't afford to reciprocate.

Call a truce OP. Either instigate secret santa or token gifts only. Be firm. If they're so offended that they fall out with you, they don't respect or love you do they?

Well I came in here to say YABVVVVU... but yeah, I hate all the commercial crap too. And also now with the kids the damage limitation on the influx of tat. It's so depressing seeing all the stuff that gets thrown out/never used. Don't even get me started on thank you letters...

I hate it. All that build up and excess, for just one day. The epitome of consumerism - people break themselves financially and then the sales start on Boxing Day! Many start on Xmas Eve now.

YANBU at all. I hate Christmas, it’s my least favourite time of year.

I hate the obscene greed, the disgusting waste and the grotesque consumerism.

I hate the enforced socialising with family members who only see one another once a year because they dislike one another.

I hate the awful music and crap TV.

I hate the dreadful works Christmas ‘do’ when people who go out once a year make complete fools of themselves.

Abolish Christmas.

Maybe you should be lucky you have a home and a family rather than moaning about it

Your family sounds stressful. I love Christmas literally more than anything, and come from a family where Christmas is the motherfucking bees knees, but we never start thinking about it before the last week of November.

Maybe you should be lucky you have a home and a family rather than moaning about it

FFS. There's always one.

People are waking up to the fact that mindless consumerism is killing the planet. It's also obscene that people in poor parts of the world slog their guts out for shitty wages to make all this cheap crap that nobody really wants and ends up cluttering up houses and charity shops or in the bin. It's perfectly possible to have a lovely family time at Christmas without all the excess.

I hate it so much. Tried in vain to get my family to sign up to a no unnecessary presents pact but they won’t.
Siblings are all grown up and independent. None of us have kids. Parents like to spoil us but expect lavish presents back. None of us need any more stuff....
Has anyone successfully broken the trend?

We just had a grown up discussion and everyone agreed not to exchange presents, wasn't difficult, no one was offended ... but then we have a normal, boringly OK relationship with parents & siblings. None of the angst you read about here on Mumsnet .

""I mean a quarter of the year seems to be spent preparing for Christmas, and it's one day.""

It's a season.

""but we never start thinking about it before the last week of November""

The Christmas rotas in our Family's jobs (mainly Social Care) were done last week. If we left it until the end of November, we couldn't do the meetups that we want to. Likewise, the best Christmas events are getting sold out.

We focus on meeting up and doing things. I also do at least two Christmas Markets, but they are becoming a disappointment.

I've wanted to do no Adult presents for years, but my eldest DD and Sister don't. Ironically they get people the least, it's all about them.

I and my middle DD have put our foot down this year. We do a meal out and a Christmas Fairground, then a special dinner together, usually Christmas Eve, so don't see the need for gifts. My Sister loves to shop and is a hoarder, so it is about her pushing her issues onto us.

I love Christmas but like you am fighting back. No plastic stuff. No crap. Just lots of time together. Presents are panto tickets, home made chutneys and jams and time spent together. No one is objecting.

Why not start telling people what you want? What you don't want (as in more time together, less stuff to own). More and more people are doing this!

I love Christmas, but I'm the sort of person who never decorates or has a mince pie before 1 December and tree down January 5th. I really dislike when the supermarkets and shops start putting out Christmas fare in September it's way to early.

I love Christmas. It's one of my favourite times.

Instead of tat we either go for a big meal with everyone together or panto tickets, so a big loud family day out.

We don't do the excessive food, we have some lovely simple things, we just put out lots of our favourite foods and nibble through the day. The day itself is board games, play with DD (and whoever else pops over) and just chilled family time.

It's only since I opted out of the madness that I've come to really love it though. The tree decoration, the panto, the ice skating, making token gifts for grandparents etc.

Someone should start a MN campaign to cut out all the commercialism.

My family do a secret santa for adults and we all buy for the kids. I tried to implement this with dp's family but they don't want to do it. One person is particularly hard to buy for, barely eats anything so can't give consumables, wouldn't eat homemade jam/fudge etc either. Doesn't wear perfume. Toiletries are a crap gift. Doesn't want tat for the house. I might stick to a bottle of drink.

The consumerism really has got worse, hasn’t it? I am not religious, although I like some of the things associated with the season. The time off, the mince pies, the tree. Everything else is a chore - the present buying, card sending, false jollity. We now only buy small presents, cards have been kept to a minimum (4 only), don’t go to work events. I am going to a pantomime at the Palladium and the Christmas market in Bath (an indulgent weekend) and those will be my highlights.

I like the fact that minute by minute each day the days are getting longer around that time. When NY is over I am looking ahead to spring!

iliveinazoo Go on, I dare you. Send a group text saying you are scalibg back Christmas this year. You will not be sending anything out nor will you be expecting anything.

Seriously, who will be offended? The relative who sends you the inedible hamper? The relatives who want to swap £££ gifts? The neice and nephew seem to ignore you anyway, so you'll not notice a change there. Thank them for their past generosity and thought but say you want a simpler Christmas and link a couple of sites like Martin Lewis.

I think my peak Christmas commercialisation moment was trying to meet up with a friend who works in retail. Obviously December is going to be tricky to get time off but now fucking November is too because of all the shopping and Black Friday.

Feel so sorry for retail staff this time of year. Some must like the prolonged season of christmas music and bustle, but I bet most can’t wait for it to be gone. I hate the music in the shops when they stick that music on. Slade, Wizard, Mariah gggrrr

The environmental cost of Christmas must be horrific. All that paper and cards and crackers that just get binned to say nothing of the production and transportation of crap to the shops.

It really gets me down. I’ve pretty much opted out of most of it. I would be quite happy if it just died a death. I think in the future our descendants will look back and think we are insane.

I hate it too.

I hate that November and the start of December has ceased to exist and as soon as Halloween is over, it's a full-on buying tat frenzy.

I hate the same-ness of it all, I have had 46 Christmasses now, all fairly the same and changing things is impossible - suggested to the kids we might have beef this year and you'd think I suggested murdering them.

I hate the shitty "music" on the radio which again is the same songs on repeat that i've been hearing every year since about 1980. Thank christ for podcasts.

I hate the fact that Christmas isn't about spending time with people, it's about how much plastic tat you can possibly fit into one house. Endless "is this enough" threads when posters are concerned that 28 presents might not be enough for a 4 year old. Crap like Christmas Eve boxes, Elf on his fucking shelf and I recently read that people are doing "1st December boxes" now.

More than anything, I hate the dark. It's not cosy, it's dark, cold and miserable. That period between the clocks going back and the shortest day is just totally depressing, days getting shorter and shorter and in Scotland it's dark until after 9am and dark again by 4pm.

I volunteer in a charity shop and every January we are DELUGED with unwanted gifts and Christmas tat which people are throwing out. Lots gets binned. Such a waste.

But voice the opinion that you'd rather opt out of Christmas entirely and you're a scrooge or a grinch or a bah humbug according to the "making memories for the kiddies with my Elf and hot chocolate hun" brigade.

Ugh. Hate it. Every 5 years would be often enough.

I like Christmas and I like making it special for my son (4 years).

However, I don't like that the Christmas stuff is in the shops from September! I went back to work for the first day after the summer holidays and the co op near my school has Christmas puddings and Christmas chocolates! The Tesco near me had the big tubs of celebrations etc in August!

I know some people say 'oh I like to spread the cost' but if you need to spread the cost over 4 months then I would suggest they are buying too much!

I like to make sure we have done halloween/bonfire and DS birthday (27th nov) before I start even thinking about Christmas.

I like to make donations to some form of charity e.g. homeless and food bank (I do anyway but do extra near christmas) to help those who are not as fortunate. Sadly, I think many folk forget that there are people who struggle to celebrate

There is no 'enforced' buying. Stop buying in to it and create your own Christmas. Stop being advertised to. Turn your TV off and make it about 'nice festive things we can do' rather than 'what do I need to buy?!'.

If you buy in to the marketing crap then you only have yourself to blame.

You have to put your foot down here. People cannot demand you buy them a present otherwise it's not a present is it!

We do secret Santa in our family; the budget is 50 so everyone gets something nice and it's transformed Christmas. We spend our money meeting up for dinners and drinks and spending real quality time together during our time off.

A text saying something like "As a family we are trying to cut back at the moment and as such will not be able to buy presents this year however we are looking forward to spending time with you all" maybe add in an invitation to an evening at yours? Just get some buffet food in and some wine, much cheaper!

If they don't like it what could they say? No sorry I want a present?!

I totally agree OP. We now take our main holiday at Christmas, thus avoiding all the fuss and crap that goes with it. We do a cheap(ish) camping in Europe effort in the summer and head south for the sun in December.

DS is old enough to enjoy bodyboarding/ lazing/ taking wildlife photos instead of tearing through mounds of paper. We eat less, or at least more healthily than we do at home and get far more fresh air. It’s easier to eat a salad not mince pies when it’s not freezing and raining outside! I can’t say that I miss out by not being available to watch the Christmas ‘special’ of Dr Who or whatever.

TBF, I teach in a very religious school and so I am a bit Christmased out by the 20th December. I do a good show of excitement for the children, just as I did for DS in younger years. By the day itself I’ll have held a party, gone to church twice, watched a Christmas concert, a nativity, a Christmas film, seen Father Christmas, listened to 25 Christmas lists, put up 2 trees and done a reading for the lessons and carols service in the hall. No wonder I can’t face doing it all over again.

It's impossible to avoid "the marketing crap" unless you don't set foot in a shop between September and the end of December.

Then you say to friends that actually you're not sending cards, or putting up any decorations apart from a token tree, or doing the nonsense like elves, special 1st december breakfasts or santa trains and you get the head tilt and the sad face and the "oh but you have to make it magical for the kiddies" look.

What would be really magical for the kiddies is not filling their planet with plastic crap.