To be so f*cking over bloody Christmas.

[lifesabitchandthenyoudie]

Was already feeling like this, muting adverts etc; then yesterday I watched this: (Planet of the Humans by Jeff Gibbs) and I'm so done with the human race now I just want to hide in my little house and forget the world. I've been away from work and just know when I go back on Tuesday we'll already be overrun with fucking xmas music, decorations etc... I have gc and already feel angry about how much crap they have. I would buy them books but they literally don't even read or look after them. I get called scrooge because I only ever put up decorations (if I bother) in the week before, ffs! Is there anywhere on this planet that's xmas free, please?

I cycled through a village today that had a poster up for a Christmas Fair happening on - November 19! It's not exactly a Christmas fair if it's not at Christmas.

I don't mind Christmas - mainly for the time off work, but I am quite low key about it. DH and I have never bothered having a tree or anything and just get a couple of small gifts.

I think it's quite easy to ignore if you want to.

In some places you can actually get tiny bit of money back for recycling bottles (glass and plastic).
Pretty standard thing though to put them in a correct bin otherwise

Don't need to as we don't buy it in the first place .

Same!

Me three!

I love Christmas but since becoming a mum in 2014 I have vowed to simplify it. It's working well and me and DH don't let anything detract from our easy-going plans. This year, we are doing Christmas eve present opening and just stocking and Santa gift Xmas day.

I don't do a roast as I don't like it
I don't see endless relatives for weekends in the buildup - F that!
DM martyred herself for Xmas so much growing up. I think that some people are living with the festive trauma too- "Depressivites?" The fear it has to be perfect or it's pointless. What do you want to do OP? It must make you happy and not too resentful about Xmas.

One of the reasons I moved to NZ was because I hate Xmas and it's so low key here. It's the start of the summer holidays which everyone is excited about rather than the Xmas nonsense. Standard high street shops don't bother with decorations but supermarkets do. I may have seen a couple of houses with outdoor decorations and only friends with kids have a tree.
TV isn't as overbearing but best avoided

Xmas morning is spent on the beach swimming and paddleboarding and lunch is a gathering over a BBQ in the sunshine. No Jesus or Santa silliness.

Now that's 'magic' not weeping at children displaying excessive consumerism

I get very irritated by xmas traffic and not being able to find a parking space in town from mid november onwards especially when I'm just going about my normal non-Xmas related business. I worked in retail for some years and Xmas is stressful at first but then after a few years you get entertained by the drama of customers getting irate by the brandy butter selling out and the managers running round like headless chickens. I like January and February - it's peaceful, no expectations, no Xmas tat and you can look forward to spring, longer days, snowdrops and daffodils coming up.

I love Christmas; it’s one of my favourite times of the year. I’ve been shifting to become a bit more and a bit more sustainable each year. But this year, for the first time, I’m really aware of how mad it all is.

I was thinking about what I’d put in the stockings; it’s always edibles, a paperback, stationery, Lego and anything else that happens to be small, so not plastic tat and everything is ultimately useful. But then I thought to myself, why? Why am I racking my brain thinking up ideas for STUFF to buy, for no good reason. No one needs anything right now. If you told me that actually it was February, I wouldn’t run out buying anything. It’s just all a weird kind of mass insanity.

And I thought about a gift I got a few years ago for a craft, that I haven’t had time to touch. And I realised that nearly all the things I’d like to get as gifts are actually little illusions of time - time to read this book; time to knit; time to bake. But I’m conspiring in this pretence that a shiny new thing will fill the need in me for time, and peace.

And instead of taking a bit of time to breathe and relax, I’m going to spend the next couple of months running round the shops buying stuff, wrap the stuff, transport the stuff, swop the stuff in elaborate patterns around the family, then clean and cook and clean again, and probably launch into a frenzy trying to clear out in January….when if I could just sit down, and relax and maybe chat a bit, everything would be so much better.

And yes, I could just stop. But if I do, all the other people who are caught up in my mad dance will be knocked over too, and I don’t want to hurt or upset people I love.

There has to be a better way of sharing joy and love, and bringing a bit of warmth to the mid winter, and reaching out to each other.

Yes... if you look at the Christian celebration, then the season of advent is penitential which means no actual celebration till Xmas day and then the 12 days. I have many catholic friends who won't put the tree up till Xmas Eve. Of course, Xmas is just a winter celebration now for many. Everything is so over done everywhere and I get that the OP gets called a Scrooge but she is right! I'd rather have less and appreciate than give myself a headache and stress over delivering some amazing celebration. It's even harder when you have children as of course they compare to others

This sounds great. More details please

Water sports and beach BBQ that sounds fantastic 🙂

10 years ago Dec 1st was ridiculously early to put decorations up. Now it's the norm and the early ones have started now.

My decorations will go up around the 20th - earlier than christmas eve which is what my grandparents did.

I'm sick of it. It's too commercialised, it goes on for too long. It's all about presents and gluttony now.

I feel so old and miserable saying that. I used to absolutely adore Christmas when my dc were small.

It's helpful to hear others embracing a low key build up to a short, enjoyable festive time.

My mum moaned & went crazy about Christmas during my childhood whilst glorifying the simplicity of her own childhood years. I hold her responsible for both Brexit and the planets demise.

Consequently I gatekeep Christmas for my kids as much as I can. And as teens they are enjoying the nostalgia of the repetition of old decorations, advent calendar, etc. The tree goes up the weekend before and then I love it so much we're all sad to see it go in the New Year.
We're away this year so we might have to bring in something vaguely 6ft from the garden when we get back. That will amuse us more than any idealised magazine vision.

The year the kids received multiple chocolate advent calendars has remained burnt in my brain. What kid is going to eat normal breakfast after six chocolates a day. They were dismantled after the epic day 3 tantrum. The packaging and waste was hideous.

@TenTonTessa Oh my god the excessive advent calendars are bloody stupid aren't they? We have cut those down massively.

On boxing Day we try to sleep as much as possible as that is the night our neighbours and their whole family have their annual beat the shit out of eachother day! By 3.am they have appeared to have drank ASDA dry and do what can only be described as cage fighting in the street! This from a neighbour who spends most of Nov saying "Ooh Christmas ,I can't wait it's such a lovely time , you must pop in for a drink ? " . Fuck that we'll never get out alive ! 😂

I totally agree. I love Christmas, it’s just the frenzy I hate. The population seems to explode and everyone’s ‘me me me’ in the shops.

Also agree about Jan/Feb. Love it.

I feel exactly like this. My dc don’t get much at all in comparison to their friends, but I still would like to reduce it further, as I hate buying things for the sake of it.

But they’d feel a bit disappointed.

I love Christmas but I do feel its being aggressively...Christmassy this year. Its like it went from halloween immediately into full Christmas!
I like to throw myself I to it in December otherwise I peak too soon.

@lifesabitchandthenyoudie I am going to Sri Lanka, where I have been many times since 1998. There will be a modicum of Christmas, but more like Christmas in Austria (traditional, non-commercial) then Christmas UK - secular and tinsel.
@Headabovetheparakeet The so-called climate crisis started with the Industrial Revolution. I very much doubt that the vast majority of "concerned" people can change anything as most of the damage appears to come from global economics. Of course nobody addresses one of the biggest elephants in the room, the Internet. I live in a country where recycling etc. has been standard practice for the past 30+ years. I try to do my bit by buying local, seasonal, organic food not packaged, supermarket crap or asparagus in December with more air miles than Prince Andrew :-)
Perhaps this is my personal contribution to overseas aid?

Absolutely spot on. It's all become utter madness, but it's so hard to opt out like you say.

😂 'tis the truth you speak

Agree
You sound as if you don't even like them let alone love them. Just awful.

Nobody has to do anything they don't want for Christmas - just don't be a martyr. No one is holding a gun to your head!
My favourite things about Christmas are fairy lights, candles everywhere, fire burning, Christmas carols and eating nice food and drink and just being together with my two eldest home from uni. Playing silly games on Christmas Day and watching our favourite Christmas films that we watch every year and know all the words to! These are the things they remember - not the presents.

you need to calm down a bit OP - you sound irrationally angry about it all! Same with getting annoyed with your dgc's and their expectations - if they're materialistic that's their parents fault. Weve told ours now they're older they can choose a couple of things this year but they've never moaned about what they've received or compared themselves to others. I dont even think kids talk about what they got for Christmas by the time they get back to school in the new year - it's all forgotten!

But where are the Easter eggs???? It's never to early to stockpile those.