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?

Bloody autocorrect! Helpful as usual.

Object not inject.

Yanbu OP.

Though I don't hate Christmas per se, just all of the negative consumerism and other things already mentioned.

I will, I LOVE the idea of the same one coming back each year.

My (artificial) tree will be upset, but I'll have to see where else he can go?!

Hugh Grant said he hates Christmas so much he goes to a Muslim country for the whole Christmas period and escapes it all!! And he was in one of the most Christmassy films ever!

Like where?

@SaySomethingMan

I'd say that North Korea will be pretty Christmas free.

I just googled. Apparently there are about 40countries which don’t recognise Christmas as a public holiday.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they still mark the end of the year in some way though. Plenty of cultures mark the end of the year and give gifts, etc. 🤔

I love Christmas. The presents are the least important bit of our Christmas.

@SaySomethingMan - that is a lot less than I thought. I forget Christianity is the largest religion by some way

Which one because I know about at least 2 where Christmas decs are normal in shopping centres and trees in streets.
They can't say no to sparkle and lights. They reuse all the fairy lights from Ramadan and Eids😂 getting most for their money there

@CafeCremeMerci hooray!

just Thought of two more things to add to the things I hate list:
Elf on the shelf!! As if we have time for that and some parents on SM seem to go over the top like buying a massive present every day in advent. Maybe it’s my Catholic roots talking but I find that, and gift advent calendars awful and they take away from the magic of Xmas, as how is Christmas Day special if your getting massive presents every day leading up to it. It’s the shops in a conspiracy to get us to buy more stuff. Bah humbug 🙈🙈 DC have started primary school now so I wonder how much pressure I’ll get to do elf on the shelf

Oh Elf on the flipping shelf.
I refuse to get involved in that one.

DS1 came home in tears on 1st Dec, he didn't have a EotS and Billy's EotS brought him a Lego Advent calender.

I had a Lego Advent calander that I was going to give him after dinner, I just refuse to allow Lego Advent doors to be opened before school. Its hard enough getting kidsout the door.

You’d love my advent calendar reusable nativity each day a figure comes out it’s beautiful and I love it.

A counsellor friend of mine put this on her FB page the other day.

Reading this thread makes you realise we are just utterly fucked as a species.

The OP raises a really valid point and instead she is just insulted and called bitter.

This made me laugh out loud!

😆 I thought I was the only Grinch in the village! No, you're not alone. If I had my way, I'd hibernate from Oct to April & rejoin society when Xmas, Easter & winter are all done! 😆

I like Christmas as a season but like you, despair at the consumerism, so over the years we've moved towards making it a time to spend with loved ones rather than spending. As well as that, we are quite ecologically concious and I hate waste or disposable stuff so anything I do buy for Christmas is either eaten or it's biodgradable, compostable, reusable or recyclable. My decorations, some are well loved vintage but all are reusable and I add a special new bauble every year.

With us both working FT and a long commute, all DS wants to do when we are not working is just spend time with mum and dad. He's not bothered about a mountain of presents and I love that.

We do an afternoon building & decorating gingerbread house, we do an afternoon of skating and wandering around the Christmas market, woodland walks, board games, movie-duvet nights where I put the airbed into the living room and we all snuggle to watch a movie under a duvet.

My office closes over Christmas so I plan it like a holiday rather than a single day and we eat nice food that we like and just enjoy each other's company.

Participation is optional (unless it's part of your job I suppose). I like Christmas but on my terms. Tree and decs up the week before, maybe a carol service, a nice Christmas dinner, restrained present giving, some loafing around. I stay off social media and mostly away from shops, which helps with the overwhelm. Don't have kids at home though.

Very similar to us , it's so much more relaxing, we bring foliage in from our garden pine / Holly / ivy . We always have our decorations we've collected over the years but I have bought a special glass bauble to put on the tree for our beloved little dog who died in Feb .
I have a friend who literally buys all new decorations every year and throws the previous decs away . It's terrifying how much they get through each year they just don't care .

We spend Christmas at our home up North, where there’s still a chance of snow.

There’ll be carols in the cathedral, mulled wine, a wood burning stove, presents, good food, and family, all close by.

It’ll hopefully be magical.

Many of you are much more articulate than me, and my brain isn't working very well currently, but I want to try to put across something... @Ski4130 I am totally with not judging someone for their actions, personally - especially if it's from a place of need; I would actually smile at the lights as they do brighten up a dark evening. My lights, tree etc are about 25 years old, fwiw, and I do like them.... I judge the society that is creating this excess, this frenzy to 'have a wonderful time' and you can only do it by spending money on new stuff. This, clearly, creates mental health difficulties in some just as much as a dark winter. The same with the obsession with having a 'lovely family christmas' if you're alone and struggling. It's lovely to hear of others who have a much more realistic and truly lovely time, it's how I try to manage it too and how I wish the whole of society lived, in general. The very idea of colour-coordinating your decorations, of renewing them each year, of mountains of 'gifts' including the ridiculous 'eoas' and the eve stockings full of tat, etc. etc. is what makes me cross.

Thanks for the debate though; I have largely found it interesting and enlightening, and somewhat grounding. I'm used to being called a grinch and it doesn't bother me any more. Thanks for watching the video, to those who did.

@lifesabitchandthenyoudie wholly agree. As I've mentioned previously a big draw for moving to NZ was the low key xmas!

For example prime time TV main channel adverts tonight consisted of one xmas themed ad and that was a suggestion to buy a voucher for the planting of native trees rather than 'another thing for him (a tired looking Santa) to make'. Most of the ads were for for outdoor furniture, holidays, DIY, insurance etc. it could have been any time of year! It won't change much in the next few weeks.

My friends kids don't get much in terms of presents. I was taken aback about how there would be a small pile of 5 or 6 gifts for a child compared to the towering mounds I see in the UK. No one talks about 'magic'. It's too fucking hot for that!

Our xmas day is already being planned between a group of friends. Every year we have a big gathering of friends, their children and their families, their grandparents, parents, the 'orphans' - those who are without close family or whose family are in other countries, in a friends garden starting at 2pm. BBQ, bubbles, music, sunshine, pools. Hot tub and fire pit in the evening. The morning will be spent with the dogs and kids on the beach. There may be bubbles there too.

City centre has no lights or tree. High street shops play normal music. No decorations. There may be a 'Santa parade' around 20th December. The supermarket near us plays four normal songs for every Slade and has a 2 ft Xmas tree in the entrance as decoration. That happened this week and it felt far to early for even that. There's half an aisle of 'posh chocs' but no expensive boxes of canapés (unless 100 sausage rolls for $10 can be called canapés). Padding round the supermarket to Xmas songs in Sandy feet and shirts and bikini top feels ridiculous.

No fucking amusing jumpers. Some twat might wear a Santa hat on the beach on Xmas morning.

Never had an Xmas card. Had plenty of jars of olives, boxes of avocados, home made gin/wine/limoncello or a bunch of hydrangeas grown in the givers garden as an Xmas offering. One friend always delivers star shaped biscuits.

On December 26th it's all over and we just get back to garden and beach drinks with friends until mid January (Nz and Aus offices and businesses shut down for a month)

As an Xmas hater for all the reasons you mention it's utter bliss.

Yeah I do get you OP. I’m bored of the monotony of it. Stuff yourselves with food, give and receive presents that you don’t need.

I’d quite like to bugger off on holiday with my family. But I have a small child and I do it all to see the smile on their face. They do love Xmas. If it wasn’t for them I don’t think I’d bother. I’d rather be swimming in Tenerife or similar.

Is there anywhere you could go to avoid it? You could try Pakistan, or Somalia, neither of them are big on Christmas

my sister teaches in Taiwan and schools open etc on xmas day, she says it's a totally normal day.