Always feel sort of forlorn at Christmas

[Chrisrear]

Does anyone else ever? Obviously, this year even more so, I adore Christmas but it often brings up a strange, sad feeling 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes, Christmas though I do like it always sends me a bit loopy and emotional.

Probably because I'm late 30's, no kids and single with a small family. Heightens the fact I'm alone somewhat. Sitting here with a glass of fizz alone trying to put a positive spin on it all.

@DecemberSun

The Welsh have a word for it.

How poignant and evocative. Sums up the feeling perfectly.

Agree with pp...love that the Welsh have a word for it...

I used to adore Christmas as a child. Couldn't sleep, huge excitement for every second of the day, sadness when we took the tree down.

Gradually the magic fades, I don't have kids and DPs son is in his late teens. My parents split when I was 24 after 30 years of marriage so it's not as simple as everyone just getting together and enjoying the day anymore.

Now I feel like I go through the motions for the sake of other people, but I always feel a major sadness at this time of year as I see other people being so happy, and me remembering when it used to be like that for me.

I'm so glad I saw this thread! I feel the same, even though I've always loved Christmas.

I'm so sorry DownstairsMixUp, the first Christmas after the loss of a loved one is so hard. And perhaps even harder this year. . .

Yes, me too. I’m fortunate to have family to share the day with, but I can’t help but think of all those for whom it won’t be a happy day, and especially children who won’t be having a good Christmas, and it always makes me sad.

My mother has never hidden her dislike of Christmas, it is a resonating theme from my childhood. When she's gone it will frankly be a relief not to have to counsel her through her November/December depression.

I enjoy Christmas apart from this. Teens aren't as excited, no. But you (one) just need to get over this. In time, hopefully, there will be grandchildren to share the excitement with.

Love to all who feel a little gloomy tonight.

@CrotchBurn

Totally.

Nostalgia for times gone by.

A creeping sense that these happy family celebrations will one day fade away as people pass

Its subconscious but has always been a part of Christmas for me.

Me too ,this is just how i feel .

I miss my mum so much at Christmas, it was her favourite time of year.

Oh I love the Welsh language, they have such beautiful ways of expressing things.

I know what you mean OP. I started to feel this in my early 20s, just missing how simple and magical things were when I was wee. I’m 35 now and am probably pretty lucky that having a livewire 3 year old means I don’t have the time for reflection that I used to.

My mum’s dad died just before Christmas when I was small and she gets along fine mostly but feels incredibly sad if she hears Adeste Fideles as she could hear the Sally Army playing it on the street when she got a phone call to say he didn’t have long left and she should go to the hospital.

ParkheadParadise
I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope you have as good a Christmas as is possible x

Yes @Chrisrear

Very much so.

Lost and empty. For what it might have been for what it never was.

I don't know, I often have a strange sad feeling. I probably think about the passage of time, the frailty of life and my own and my loved ones' mortality on a daily basis. I'm a bit of a secret misery though. I do focus on it more at Xmas time but it's not an unfamiliar feeling to me.

I have suffered from depression and anxiety for 25 years though and it taints my overall thinking.

I think it's very usual and normal to 'have a moment' - it's such an emotional time on so many levels. You are not alone.

I only have a teen at home and it's not the same. He's great company when you get him off his tablet but there is nothing like the anticipation and excitement you get when children still believe in Father Christmas. Roll on next year when we will have a little one visiting.

to absent friends

@ParkheadParadise I'm so sorry

I long for Christmas past, to be able to share and be with people no longer here. I do like Christmas but when there’s somebody ‘missing’, it’s never quite the same. We’ll have a lovely day tomorrow but there will be a few minutes at some point when I’ll shed a tear (probably in the shower so nobody sees).
I’m also a recovering alcoholic (three years sober now though) and Christmas is now the only time I could really do with a couple of stiff drinks (I won’t though).

Yes it's very hard my lovely sister died four years ago and she adored Christmas, we spent it with her every year. My mum is very poorly with dementia too. The heart has been ripped from our family. I miss them sitting on my sofa giggling over a gin and tonic.

@binnhill

My dad died a week before Christmas when I was a child. My mum died 2 days after Christmas couple years ago. So, yes Christmas is sad for me.

😥 Sorry for your losses

@ParkheadParadise xx

Yup, same here OP, especially this year where all the usual seasonal hubbub just keeps reminding me of what we don’t have anymore & how much simple happiness was simply taken for granted.

Why would we not have, no-one could have predicted the current shit show but still!

DecemberSun hit the nail on the head for me with that Welsh word. Actually had a surprise fit of that in the middle of the supermarket tonight, nearly cried, most odd!

Yup my Dad died on Christmas Day and I miss him just pitching up.

This year I'm newly divorced single mum broken and bankrupted by narc ex who tried to ruin Christmas by refusing to pay the children's school fees just days before they broke up then went over board by being Santa Disney dad.

Merry bloody Christmas I'm on the