To think it's time to ditch all the Christmas bells and whistles and enjoy

[TheOliphantintheRoom]

In the words of a poster on another thread

the giddy, blissful excitement all focussed on the day itself with nothing to detract from it

I’m an atheist so Christmas is literally just “present day” in our house, nothing wrong with that in my opinion. Getting new shiny stuff when it’s cold and dark outside for months on end cheers us up.

No one ever says they’re sick of summer, shops stocking sun cream and flip flops for months on end, and people spending a fortune on two weeks all inclusive in Spain, just accept that Christmas is now a season and you’ll feel much happier

I love Christmas! Give me all the sparkly stuff now!

I’m a believer in the 12 days of Christmas and I love Advent. I love decorating the house with lights and lovely wintry things, and I try to light my advent candle and have a few quiet, still minutes a day to just reflect and be thankful for whatever I can. I can do without the commercialism but I do send a lot of cards (dying tradition sadly). The trees go up around the 20th and stay up until 12 th night. I am always surprised by friends and colleagues who are already DESPERATE to put up trees and get the decorations out then put them away as early as Boxing Day.
We are a churchy family and that is what makes it extra special - I will have the Christmas music on and be singing carols once December gets here. I also work in a school so cannot avoid the Nativity - the rehearsals for which started yesterday 🎄😊☃️

I'd forgotten about Secret Santa and the godawful advent beauty calendars.

Another who says Christmas is a season, we've had to change our traditions in the last few years. My children are now adults so we go up to see my son and his family, including his in-laws (who are lovely people) in early December, go home to see my dad, sister and school friends mid December. DSiL will be working over Christmas so DD will spend Christmas with him and then come up to us on Boxing day.

The worst bit of it all is that DH has to make everything perfect decoration wise. He has a chart of what goes where and he gets incredibly stressed if it doesn't go off perfectly.

I do all the cooking of the treats, cake is already made. I've got the ingredients for mince pies and fudge. Last year I made the world's biggest stollen and burnt my hand with molten marzipan.

It's all worth it.

I do need to get some stollen now I've been reminded of it! 😋

Advent calendars just annoy me. All the fiddly tiny sized products, some of which won't be used, all the plastic waste.

I'm not going in any shops now until after Christmas unless it's unavoidable. Can't stand the crowds and the crap music and buy buy buy mentality. I'll be at home wrapped in a blanket! Now who's going to volunteer to get me some stollen?!