I need to rant about Christmas

[Grinchmas123]

I just need to have a pointless vent about Christmas. Apologies got typos. On my mobile.

As someone who loves Christmas as its my favourite season I must have bumped my head because today I cannot understand it.

The amount of money spent on pointless shit is ridiculous. Also so is the feelings of obligation to visit people/relatives. It causes so much fucking stress for a lot of people it's unreal.

My top bug bears are:

1. Present buying. When I was a child then whenever family visited you would recieve a present and smile and say thank you. It could be a crap box of chocolates from an aunt despite you not liking chocolate or a jumper from a grandparent you'd never dream of wearing.

Presents were a nice gesture and you just smiled and gracefully accepted. Anything genuinely wanted was a bonus to recieve.

Nowadays people actually text eachother saying "little Jimmy wants xyz this year" or "can you give money instead as their saving to buy xyz".
I think its so grabby!!
First of all for all you know, aunt Ethel could be planning to buy little Jimmy a £3 toy from the second hand shop and now you've asked for money she'll have to give at least £15 or whatever to not look stingy. Second of all I understand the argument of not wanting "waste" and asking for something wanted but if you felt like that and weren't grabby then why not just say "please don't give us any gifts this year, if you really must then donate to charity". That way Aunt Ethel can give her £3 to dogs trust or whatever without embarrassment.

Another annoying present bug bear of mine is money limits. So people may say "we spent £50 on eachother". Well then you might as well use your own £50 to buy yourself something you want.
It makes no sense. A couple both have £50 each to spend on eachother. She wants perfume and he wants fishing gear. Well then take your own £50 and buy it for yourself as you know what it is and exactly how much it costs! Why go through the pretence!

That's another part of the rant.. the pretence.. its like Oscar performances. People will nowadays outright ask for something they want for Christmas. So the buyer will go and buy it and wrap it up. The other person will then open it and act all happy/suprised. But you knew what you were getting? You asked for it? Why even wrap it up? Infact just go buy it yourself.

1. Rant about obligation. The amount of people who dread having to visit in-laws, parents, extended family etc around Christmas. Spending little time off travelling, buying unwanted gifts and then sitting awkwardly at your husbands aunties kitchen table making small talk.

It's easy to say 'well don't go', but the guilt trips that go with it means that for a lot of people they then spend their time off sat at-home feeling guilty on Christmas for not playing along.

Also if you have parent/sibling etc with no one then you can't exactly feel happy to leave them on their own during Christmas while you cosy up with your own family. So you either end up hosting or visiting.

1. Birthdays. This is slightly off topic. But I have 5 relatives Birthdays including my best friends the week before Christmas. They all get me lovely birthday presents so it's only right I do it in return. But spending £25 x5 = £125. That's before I've bought for anyones actual Christmas presents including theirs.

1. The costs. This is my final part of the rant.

Just popping into the pound shop to buy wrapping paper, gift tags/bags and cellotape can cost part part of a tenner. The you've got your actual presents and all the food/drink. A way to avoid it is to spread the cost by buying in the sales throughout the year. But then you just end up having to think about Christmas the entire 12 months of the year. It ends up a burden of looking through sales in July instead of having it as 1 month of the year. What a joke for a holiday.

Needless to say if you have made it this far thank you for listening.

I am feeling very grinchy today after faffing about getting last bits at 7 months pregnant.

Next year I will be telling EVERYONE to just donate to charity and not get me a thing. Me and dp will have it just us and baby and not buy a single thing for anyone else including the kids, nor expect a thing in return. I already feel excitement just thinking about it! Feels very indulgent!

Yabvu and so are other posters re the birthdays though. It's not your friends' fault you are overdoing/overspending on Xmas is it?

Why don't you just have a simple Christmas the way you want it? Christmas is whatever you make it.

We keep Christmas to ourselves as that's how I was brought up- Christmas Day with your own family doing what you want to do. For us it's opening a few presents, pancakes for breakfast, a walk on the beach, Christmas movies and a small Christmas dinner at a normal dinner time. It's lovely.

On Christmas Eve we always have a meal booked out at a restaurant with my parents and Boxing Day is with his parents who like to cook a Christmas dinner at home.

We both have no brothers and sisters which does simplify things but of course there are endless aunts and uncles and cousins, but this extended family don't get a look in. They've all got their own families to be getting on with.

A few days before Christmas I drop off a few presents to the closest of these people (all women in my family). It's only ever a wee minding. Last year was little paper bags with cute soaps, the year before was a mini Prosecco and bar of chocolate each, this year it's little paper boxes shaped like gingerbread houses. Each one has a small candle and some chocolate coins inside. Stick a shiny red bow on and people love little gifts like this. I stick with things that can be eaten/used up, rather than daft tat. I send a grand total of 5 Christmas cards every year to those people who really care about the gesture and would be hurt without one- older generation. No one else is interested.

The only "big" presents I buy are for my partner, my mum and dad. This year my partner is getting tickets for a gig next year, mother wants an oil diffuser (£25) and dad just wants his favourite beers and snacks. I've one gran and every year she's over the moon when I buy her a small pile of books from the charity shop. Our little boy is only a few months old and his first present is a projector that makes twinkly lights on the ceiling.

All of this took a few days to organise. I'll wrap everything in recyclable brown parcel paper. I don't traipse around shops or spend ridiculous sums of money.

Why not try making things simpler this year?

@Horsemad i've PM'd you :)

I’m sat in the car park lamenting how shit every single shop is and how I don’t actually want any of this crap.

Fuck it. I’m going home and everyone can fuck themselves. Where is the fun in any of this? It’s all utter shite.

You are Christmassing all wrong.