To feel like crying at Christmas music

[Mammalamb]

Every bloody year I can’t bear to hear it. It makes me want to cry.

i get ridiculously emotional: it’s like this horrible sadness and nostalgia for my childhood and the past… and a reminder of how quickly time marches on.

then I remember lots of sad things (not happened to me… but think of people being lonely at Christmas or missing a loved one)

Please tell me I’m not alone on this.

i tell my family and friends I hate the music as it’s just bloody cringe and annoying

ps I’m not the Sistine Chapel woman

I cry at Christmas music when I'm in the supermarket. I've no idea why it makes me emotional.

Christmas songs and hymns always make me emotional. It's the time of year I think

Yes, you’ve articulated very well how it makes me feel.

It's all horrible sad fake nostalgia, designed to play on the emotions

Can do, you are not alone

It makes me want to cry that I've got to hear it, as pp said fake nostalgia

It's not all fake though , sometimes a song can just make you think or remember
That and photos , it's all we have sometimes

It's definitely the passage of time OP - nostalgia for a childhood and young adulthood that's over. Of Christmas gone by. I'm divorced this Christmas which also makes me feel sad listening to Xmas songs it's bringing up a lot of memories - singing "all I want for Xmas" down the phone to my then boyfriend but now ex husband, Xmas in New York when we were in New York one December, driving to family on Xmas day playing Xmas songs, arguing over what should be all time best Xmas song. So many Xmas songs are about family and love. With keeping Xmas traditions going for the kids it's like nothing and everything has changed.

Christ, I'm the same. Seem to get worse as I get older. I managed not to do any Chapel-screaming, but last time I heard a choir in a cathedral I had a silent blub. I think for me it's because my emotions are so close to the surface since I lost my son and there's something quite powerful and haunting in some of the old carols.

I was driving home tonight and the radio was playing some HORRENDOUS Coldplay cover of 2000 Miles by the Pretenders.

No idea why, but I started crying. Not because it is such a dreadful cover, but I thought of how utterly wonderful Christmas is and how we will look back on this time with fond memories and sadness when loved ones will have died. 🥺

I am exactly like this. I used to love Christmas music so much I listened to it in the summer, if nobody was around.

Now I'm older and Christmas is gradually more about who is missing or whether it might be the last for others. I'm divorced and might not have DS with me and the music is a reminder of a season I feel I need to get through rather than savour. I grit my teeth and smile as I imagine my own parents muct have done some years. This time next week it will be over.

Auld lang syne....every flipping time!

I once cried at the Salvation Army playing away in a manger at a train station.
Don't know what came over me at all. Felt a right clown but couldn't stop the tears.
(I too am not the Sistine chapel lady)

Auld lang syne is a tear fest for me too
It is about remembering people and that is hard

I am with you OP. It’s the most reflective time of year and the last 12 months have brought huge change.

I cry at a very specific version of "Silent Night", performed by a trio of my late dad's favourite opera singers.

He loved it, even though we're Jewish. It was one of the last songs he listened to before he died.

I'm tearing up just writing this!

Doesn't make me feel exactly sad when I hear old Christmas songs, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, (and very nostalgic,) as it reminds me of all the wonderful Christmases when I was a child/teen/young adult - (1970s and 1980s,) and when my 2 kids were children/teens (1990s/noughties.) Brings back some wonderful cosy memories.

Same with Christmas Carols. Reminds of the lovely school assemblies I had in my C of E junior school.

Sorry you feel sad @Mammalamb but I don't feel sadness exactly, as much as a yearning for Christmases to be as they used to be. They are nice now, but don't have the magic they had when I was a child, and when my kids were young.

Nothing fake about nostalgia either - as a couple of posters have said. What a weird thing to say! Nostalgia is real.

Also OP, it sounds like you have this...

Hiraeth....

A Welsh word that has no direct English translation. The University of Wales likens it to a homesickness type feeling, tinged with grief and sadness over the lost or departed - and is a mixture of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, and/or an earnest desire for the past.

I’m so sorry for the loss of your son. I can’t imagine a worse loss xx

I like proper Christmas carols and a few Christmas songs, but can't stand the awful mawkish ones that are supposed to tug on your heartstrings. They don't remotely make me sad, I just think they're shit!

It's totally understandable to get emotional about these things if you are thinking about losses or trauma, but it sounds like in your case, OP, you're just a bit oversensitive. Those of us who have happy enough memories of childhood and past Christmases to feel real nostalgia should be thankful and enjoy it.

Christmas Carols take me back to when I used to go to church with my grandparents. We used to do a nativity every year at Sunday School and, even 55+ years later, I still remember the words to them all. It makes me teary even though my grandparents died over forty years ago.

If I ever see children singing Away in a Manger I'm gone. Totally.

Last year at the bells.

MIL passed last year, and we usually spend it with her and FIL.
FIL was over with us and as soon as I heard auld lang syne I couldn’t stop the tears

I'm watching a music video compilation on You Tube. Band Aid 30 with Sinead O'Connor then Last Christmas then one by Whitney...I'm now missing my Dad and wishing he'd met my children. The music is cursed!

For some people it’s very real nostalgia.

I find it emotional too. The two Christmas songs that get me are John Lennon War is Over especially when the children’s choir sings and Driving Home for Christmas by Chris Rea as it reminds me of my family driving home from various parts of the country for a big Christmas get together which sadly we don’t/can’t do any more. Those songs are everywhere so I have to watch I don’t get caught out!

Totally understand. I'm so sorry you lost your son.

I lost my best friend of 26 years and although it's nowhere near the level of losing a child, I really do get it when it comes to old carols etc. You sense a different emotional power in them, then before you realise it you're a blubbing mess!