Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel like crying at Christmas music

56 replies

Mammalamb · 19/12/2023 19:38

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

OP posts:
Original poster
Mammalamb · 19/12/2023 20:04

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 19/12/2023 20:01

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.

I don’t think it’s trauma related. I mean my gran died one December, but I felt like that before my gran died. And I’ve not had any unusual trauma in my life.

OP posts:
SilverGlitterBaubles · 19/12/2023 20:05

It's children singing Christmas songs or hymns that gets me. Just reminds me of DCs nativity's just the sweetness and innocence of them all singing their hearts out just gets me every time.

MiddleAgeAllTheRage · 19/12/2023 20:06

100% me. Makes me grieve for the ones I've lost and worry about the ones I still have and my future in general. I wish I was still 7 years old when everyone was here and life was easier and I was safe 😭

Campingandwine · 19/12/2023 20:11

Thank you. It’s not just me then! I wanted to run out of Tesco today.

Doyouthinktheyknow · 19/12/2023 20:12

Love Christmas songs and Carols but yes, they do make me nostalgic and emotional.

For me it’s memories of Christmas past when Christmas was more enjoyable.

Absolutely love a Christmas Carol. We did a Carol singing session at work with our patients, I can’t sing to save my life but singing Christmas songs with others was the most Christmassy I have felt this year, it was pure joy.

ValerieVomit · 19/12/2023 20:17

I like most Christmas songs and carols but I have two friends who say they feel like the OP. One just cries at anything to be fair, another one says it reminds them of their mum. I understand what you are saying but it doesn't affect me like that at all. I get irrationally annoyed at some really irritating Christmas songs though.

Leona Lewis One More Sleep. She has concerns if she can make it to Christmas Eve because her boyfriend isn't there. Also she can hardly breathe. What's going to happen, is she going to evaporate or have an asthma attack?

Wife2b · 19/12/2023 20:20

Auld Lang Syne gets me, I always end up blubbing on new year but not sure why.

Also somewhere in my memory from Home Alone.

the80sweregreat · 19/12/2023 20:25

I like that Leona Lewis song, but the I agree that the lyrics are feeble
Clever that's it played constantly on Christmas Eve and must be a huge money spinner for her though.

ValerieVomit · 19/12/2023 20:29

@the80sweregreat I like the melody but the lyrics are stupid. It's very Christmassy like the Kelly Clarkson one, one of the best of the new(er) ones.

the80sweregreat · 19/12/2023 20:31

The Kelly Clarkson one is similar I agree
I do like the Adriana Granda one too
Makes a change from slade and Elton etc

ErrolTheDragon · 19/12/2023 20:33

It's bloody brass bands that do it to me.
On Friday I had to go somewhere by train, at my destination station there was a band murdering 'It came upon a Midnight clear'.

Ambulance sirens can do it to me too... I've never been in one or had a loved one blue lighted so I don't know why!

the80sweregreat · 19/12/2023 20:35

Brass bands have a unique sound that starts me off for no reason

ErrolTheDragon · 19/12/2023 20:42

I'm pretty sure it's the dissonances of brass being played badly that really do it to me.Grin

ssd · 19/12/2023 20:43

Im the least religious person in the world but "Oh holy night" just ends me

the80sweregreat · 19/12/2023 20:45

Silent night is another year fest
No idea why as I am not remotely religious, but it just gets to me

the80sweregreat · 19/12/2023 20:46

Tear

Heronwatcher · 19/12/2023 21:22

YANBU. I literally can’t get through a carol most of the time and I’m constantly on the edge of full scale weeping when some little kids start singing away in a manger- it absolutely kills me, all their sweet little voices. And also thinking about/ anticipating it has made it worse over time, it’s like a bloody Pavlovian response!

the80sweregreat · 19/12/2023 21:27

I just think it's an end of the year thing myself
Looking back at the year and remembering those that didn't make it.
As you age , this is more significant

StaceysDaughter · 19/12/2023 21:32

Once in royal David’s city gets me every single time. As does fairytale of NY, it never used to, but over the last few years it just started to hit different

PonyPatter44 · 19/12/2023 21:36

The infant school nativity play, and little people singing Away In A Manger makes me cry every time.

fingerguns · 19/12/2023 21:38

In the Bleak Midwinter instantly makes me tear up and occasionally full blub. It's so hauntingly beautiful.

Holst's setting affects me more so than Darke's, which is also beautiful.

Original poster
Mammalamb · 19/12/2023 21:42

ssd · 19/12/2023 20:43

Im the least religious person in the world but "Oh holy night" just ends me

Oh gosh. Growing up in a Catholic family, the birth of the baby Jesus was a wonderful thing to us.. the joy of a new baby being born to a simple girl in Bethlehem.

this afternoon I heard it and all I could think about was those poor babies and children in the holy land suffering just now. And I could not stop blubbing. Thankfully I wfh

OP posts:
Mairzydotes · 19/12/2023 21:51

Darlene Love -Alone at Christmas from Home alone 2 makes me cry.
Good job they don't often play that in the shops.

SomeoneYouLoved · 19/12/2023 21:55

Not forgetting Frosty the Snowman.