How the hell do people find the time or money for all the festive activities?

[JCWildWest]

Bit tongue in cheek and I know social media isn’t reality but….

My social media feeds are full of people on festive days out visiting Santa and reindeers and light displays and ice skating and Christmas markets. Afternoon teas, mulled wines, nights out, meals out, wreath making, carol singing, pantos, it goes on and on! And I’m just talking single people with bags of time, it’s families and all sorts.

Whilst me I’m frazzled, I’ve barely got time to have a shower, between work and general household crap. We are a blended household and there always seems to be a state of chaos and not knowing who is coming or going to organise anything. I don’t think I’ve got Christmas sorted, I’ve only just posted the Christmas cards. I’m working flat out until the big day.

And even if I did have the time or the energy everything is booked up and costs as much as a weekly shop to cart the mob out for a trip.

I tried to get festive at the weekend and made some gingerbread men with the music on and a mulled wine. But I’m just not feeling it.

Sorry to be so bah humbug but I really can’t be arsed!

Wow that is crazy! (Hyde park) the world has gone mad quite frankly.

You do you, and let other people do them.

We did a couple of things - a light trail booked and paid for by my parents, a panto trip. Both booked ages ago. Everything else has been low cost/free - hot choc at the park, watching the Xmas light switch on, a reindeer trail at an attraction we have passes to, an Xmas market.
Most of the things we’ve been up to are muddy park visits.

People who object to others posting their happy times on Social Media, what do you think it should be used for?

I'm frantically "keeping busy" to distract myself from what would otherwise be a pretty dark time for me. I know no one wants to hear about that

So if we can't post happy or sad stuff, it will all be very quiet.

We booked 3 things.

A Santa visit, a light trail and a fairy walk we do every year. Due to bereavements we left it really late this year.

Due to Covid we swerved our usual theatre trip too.

We also had rainbows Christingle, Rainbows Christmas fair and school nativity, which were all cheap/free.

I think we spent £100 all in for 4 this year. I pay into a savings account and specifically allocate money to December entertainment.

We usually do cinema and bowling between Christmas and the new year. Which is another £100, but we won 4 cinema passes from rainbows, so that’s made it a bit cheaper!

For the first year ever all my presents are wrapped, we’ve done gingerbread houses, played board games, I’ve made all the get-ahead Jamie recipes for the freezer, mince pies, xmas gin, sorted the cake, played charades, made paper snowflakes, etc etc etc.

I’m afraid the ‘how’ was covid isolation and a happy lack of symptoms Not recommended but not awful.

We book stuff earlier on in the year to spread the cost, for instance we booked Christmas at Kew in June when the tickets were released. As for having time to do these kinds of things, most of the things people post on social media are places you'd just go for a couple of hours, so it's not like people are spending every waking hour in December doing christmas things :)

For me Christmas is about catching up with friends and family - my Christmas Events are looking forward to meals and get together soon - it's the one time of the year people don't seem to mind playing daft games like charades / quizzes etc which I love. This year I got FOMO and booked a family evening of walking around illuminated gardens and took my daughter and her friends ice skating. When kids were little I booked the pantomime trip. Mostly I put aside money every month so buying Christmas food and presents doesn't leave me feeling panicked and like I'm being an idiot spending more than I can afford ( been there done that )
It's just there ready to enjoy. It's a consumer shopping festival these days.

They do it because they are playing for status. "Look at me and my wonderful life - look what high status I have".
These women are competing with each other on who is the best mother, best host, the best looking and the best dressed, can buy the best things and take their children to expensive places. SM has made people narcissists and braggarts and some of them don't even realise they are doing it - putting on a fake play for the world, desperate to impress.

I'm really not. I post about what my family and I have done, sometimes with pictures, just because it's something interesting and more out of the ordinary than just sitting in the settee. It's like any conversation in real life: I wouldn't tell people about how long I lounged around doing bugger all but I would talk about how much we enjoyed the panto. It's really not bragging.

A combination of:

Inter generational wealth and practical familial support.

Going in debt and prioritising holiday celebrations over financial stability and the mundane.

@Tianatiers

Tbh I feel like I’ve done most of the festive events around where I live due to the number of photos of them all I’ve seen on social media, all from the comfort of my living room. I do, however, wish that people would just enjoy the experience rather than wasting time taking and posing for endless photos to go on social media.

They would not bother posting their pictures if they knew people would not be looking at them, would they.

A friend of mine has posted a list of utter insanity that she and her family have done this December. She’s a very high earner but how the hell they have the time is beyond me.

My children, DH and I have been playing sickness dominoes and had around 5 PCR tests between us. I’ve not had both children at school together for more than two consecutive days since November.

They can all fuck off.

I’ve currently got my second bout of bronchitis this winter and I’m trying to feign interest in whatever the fuck a ‘mech’ is as DS is bleating on about them.

Fucking YouTube.