The pressure to enjoy Christmas is too much.

[randomer]

I think the hype on top of the hype will make more people struggle with MH.
Why can't be just be left alone to enjoy whatever is available.
The pressure to have some sort of Dickensian gathering will tip those of us who don't, over the edge.

What on earth is a polar breakfast?
Interesting to note many so called traditions were invented by the Victorians.
My mother recalls her father ( in Scotland) going to work as usual on Christmas Day. It was nothing special.

Christmas Eve boxes, the bloody Elf thing, the demanding the tantruming, older ladies fretting from about August onwards about sauce boats ....what a lot of utter nonsense.
The loan sharks love it.

@niceupthedance

I hate Christmas because of the idea that everyone else in the world is happy and surrounded by people they love. Life isn't like that for a great many people, and for as many reasons.

I think it’s part of the Christmas con that everyone else is happy. I think many find it extremely stressful, like you say, for many reasons. We deliberately keep everything as low key as possible now the kids have grown and left home.

I am so much looking forward to spring, and in the shorter term the winter solstice when I know the days are not going to get any shorter or darker. January is a great month. The house looks clean and spacious again with the decorations, much as I love them, back in the loft. You can watch the days gradually lengthen and by the end of the month 5 pm sees daylight again. After that the snowdrops start to appear and the birds will begin to sing again.

I'm far more discombobulated at the idea of spending the most beautiful time of year in this restrictive world for the second year running. I've already mourned the loss of my favourite holiday bar none in 2020: Easter. I don't want to lose a second one! Christmas can do what it will.

Peace and light to all. (Lots of natural daylight) 🐤🐤🌞🌞

You choose to put pressure on yourself, nobody forces this pressure on you. If you don’t like Christmas then fair enough, choose to do whatever you wish on the day then forget about it. Nobody is pressuring anyone to have fun if they don’t want to.

@MarieIVanArkleStinks are you me? I could've written that. January is so fresh and pure and hopeful, despite the crap weather, and Easter is my absolute favourite. I really missed it this year.

Also, traditions weren’t ‘invented’ by the Victorians, they stole them from other countries.

@TheYearOfSmallThings thank you for your vom free good wishes

Mince pies,roast turkey,the notion of a family Christmas, largely invented by the Victorians. The themes in Dickens A Christmas Carol are strongly connected with "Family".

The Victorians ramped it up.

I love Christmas, precisely because I don’t listen to any of the media ideas of the perfect Christmas and we do what makes us happy.
The constant ‘we need to save Christmas’ narrative this year is pissing me right off though.
I don’t give a shit about ‘saving’ Christmas. Christmas can be celebrated in all sorts of ways. I do give a shit about my children being able to go to school, and to see their friends and family day to day, and I care about my friends whose businesses are going under, and those made redundant, and I care about those who have lost loved ones either due to Covid or as a side effect of lockdown.
Christmas can go and fucking whistle.

Where's the pressure from? Just don't engage.

I think it’s part of the Christmas con that everyone else is happy.

I don't think anyone actually thinks that though. Everybody knows that not everyone enjoys Christmas. And everybody knows that there are people who are sad, lonely, stressed or in crisis at Christmas, just as there are at any other time of year.

I don’t give a shit about ‘saving’ Christmas. Christmas can be celebrated in all sorts of ways

^This. You do what you can and what you want within the circumstances you're in. Trying to find enjoyment in difficult times by marking your usual special occasions in whatever limited way you can seems to me like a perfectly normal human thing to do. Something people have no doubt often tried to do throughout history during wars, sickness, oppression and disasters of all kinds.

For lots of people, Christmas will be a thing for them and their children to hang onto, something to cheer them up and take their mind off their troubles. Why is their mental health and happiness any less important than those who feel pressured into Christmas stuff?

I feel this year is much less pressure than usual. Normally by now, we'd be planning a day with my side of the family, a day out with the in laws and trying to cram in a trip to see relatives on other side of the country. This year, other than MIL coming round for a couple of hours on xmas day itself (lockdown permitting), we haven't had to deal with any of that. Family members all seem to be a lot more relaxed and saying 'let's see how it goes'. It's nice.

Remind yourself that the pressure only comes from within.
I spend every Xmas day alone as my children have a large local family on their dad’s side. (divorced)
I couldn’t give a fuck what other people do or don’t do for Xmas 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don't like Xmas. I'm not religious so I don't believe in it in that sense. My mother ruined Xmas for me when I was a child with her martyr act - I have never known who put the pressure on her to to pull off the perfect Xmas but she would get so wound up about it that it is forever tainted for me. I do as little for it as I can get away with, as an adult. I've pulled back on the presents in recent years as it was getting silly. We just don't need that much crap in our houses.

It is depressing, for me lockdown is sitting on my own in a tiny single room whilst everything is shut and Christmas is sitting on my own in a tiny single room whilst everything is shut. I'd be much happier without either.