Who else doesn't care about Christmas?

[Redscooter]

When I was a kid I loved it. My 3 sisters and I had loads of gifts from Father Christmas and from our parents on the 25th. Then on Boxing Day our Nana and Grandad would rock up with an absolute load more. When my own 2 children were small I loved it too. Now I've largely lost interest.

I still love to see my grown up children and my grandson at Christmas time. I enjoy a nice lunch, I enjoy a little bit too much to drink and watching some telly.

But Christmas lights and decorations, panic buying in supermarkets stuffed with enormous arrays of tins containing mediocre chocolates, giving and receiving cards and gifts - just leaves me cold. I can't wait for the 27th to come round!
I absolutely approve of other people thinking that Christmas is a really great time (this is their choice) however very few of them seem to think that it's acceptable for me not to agree with them.

I love December and the run up to the 24th but on my own steam.

I do not get drawn in endless shopping and living in a different country to my relatives mean I am not restricted to do what my own family wants to do. I also restrict present giving to just parents and little children, I buy for 6 people including DD and DH.

It is all about how you enjoy it. I love the baking, carols, watching cheesy movies, doing crafts with DD when she was younger, decorating the house as I hate the dark of winter.

I do not like the endless bombardment of adverts and shopping for the sake of buying, reading about people bullied into shopping for people they don’t like or dreading spending time with relatives they do not get along with for the sake of tradition.

I simply cannot wait for it to be over and get back to normal. Cba with it all.

It's just another day with a bit of effort I'm putting on for dd but that's about it. It will be over in a flash.

Hi loveliesbleeding1 - what was your Grandma's point of view?

Hmm I can see where your coming from
I also used to love Christmas as a child I would get so excited I couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve . When my dc were young it was also great fun , hectic but great fun . The last couple of years I've enjoyed Christmas but I don't get the whole excitement any more. I'm actually looking forward to January lots planned in the new year . Kinda glad when all over with .

I can see myself not bothering much unless family want to come to me. At the moment its a huge production... It's a stage set in my house.. I can see ml myself being in beaches in Thailand etc when old and free of course I'd go all out for my dc or grandchild

Spoilt by being "a thing"since October.
IT used to be something completely different in the heart of winter..preparing for shops all shut, roads quiet, lights on and just having fun with family and friends.Seige mentality but challenging but worthwhile.

Now it's shopping for two months... pointlessly as nothing closes anymore and everywhere is busy again for Boxing Day.. Overeating and drinking weeks before anything like Christmas and now Christmas bring judged by the fashion police ..only huge ,wild wreaths and warm white lights allowed now.
Actually pretty horrid.
I went to Spain and was amazed at what a lovely Christmas they do. No stress, panic buying, busy roads etc. I'm trying to instill going to Europe for Christmas week as our tradition.now

It's just another day with a bit of effort I'm putting on for dd but that's about it. It will be over in a flash.

You could say the same for life.

Its a poor excuse for picking a mans pocket every 25th of December

I'm with you on this OP

fleshmarketclose
So January is the time to start sowing the seed that you're considering doing something different for your birthday...so you don't get bulldozed...

OP I agree. It feels like going through the motions. It's always women tearing through my town centre looking harassed. What are the blokes doing? Then on Christmas Day, the kids look at the Dad grateful and the Dad smiles proudly...when it's usually the Mum who's made the fucking event happen.
I do tree, lights on 1st December but dunno why.....if I dont put the lights on, nobody else does.
Next year, i won't bother.

I've found that being a magic maker, with all the work and energy that is required, is incompatible with experiencing the magic for the most part. And my in laws suck the joy out of the season for me.
I dislike the tyranny of it - I like to get organised well in advance and spread the time and cost and effort throughout the year but it's something I have to keep to myself as it's practically sinful to mention the C-word after December, yet pushed down our throats from October onwards.

I despise having to buy presents for people I don't particularly like (e.g. 25 year old "children" who have vastly more spare cash than I do), or buy to a formula. The first time I shopped with dh for his family, I wanted to get a particular book for one niece and a craft set for the other and was astonished to discover that we could get neither - both gifts had to cost a specified amount and be the same size and type to avoid arguments, ill feeling, favouritism etc. Giving the girls thoughtful gifts that matched their interests was entirely beside the point!
I've enjoyed the santa years with my dc but I'm relieved that the burden of protecting them from loose lipped inlaws is lifted (thanks to my mil who slipped up as was always inevitable).

I've always jealously guarded December, getting as much out of the way as possible, so that I can enjoy quiet lovely times with my dc. But its hard work to keep the stress outside the door. Everything is harder this time of year. Just getting in the weekly groceries is a marathon of traffic jams and parking and packed shops and queues. And even if you order it all online, there will still be something you have to venture our for - like a centurion costume for a school play with one weeks notice, or a secret santa gift for school tomorrow.
I get so tired of having to think so much. I get the dc their christmas gifts, then think up things for everyone else to buy (which is better than dealing with inappropriate and wasteful tat), and in many cases buy and wrap them too, and I think up thoughtful gifts for others and who reciprocate by asking me to think up suggestions of things for them to give to me, and buy and wrap them too.
However, I refuse to give up completely on Christmas. I've given up on most of my expectations. and accepted that its basically a ton of work and obligations, but I jealously guard two events every year. One is a carol service that I go to, that is absolutely sublime. An hour of me time, that I throw myself into enjoying. And the other is the solstice. We mark it as a family, but it's not something that is on the radar of our wider family so its just us, without any interference. And for me. that shift from darkness to light, from despair to hope is what Christmas is about.
So I'm in this peculiar position - of genuinely liking Christmas and enjoying it vicariously through the dc and enjoying making memories with the dc, but feeling that I have to swim hard against the current to actually have an enjoyable Christmas. I have the utmost sympathy for anyone who hates it.

We keep it fairly low key.
We don’t really celebrate Christmas as we re from a culture that doesn’t, so we pick and choose the bits we do.
We do a stocking for the kids and don’t buy any other gifts.
We get together as an extended family at a relatives and everyone brings a couple of dishes.
We join in with the fun stuff in schools and in the community, enjoy the lights, watch the films, do some baking and just amble through it.
I couldn’t cope with any more!

redscooter Granny didn’t celebrate because of her religious beliefs.

Thank you all for contributing - Alanamakree and Charles11 particularly.

Sounds like I'm not the only one. I think I'll stop my growing tendency to get bitter and twisted about the thing, and continue to dodge and weave past the bits I don't like, whilst having a gentle amble through the bits that I do.

I'm the type that gets excited in October however when xmas actually comes round I hate the pressure and expectations put on it so I tend to start ignoring it

But if you enjoy seeing your grandchild, drink too much, have a nice lunch, then surely you like it a bit, certainly you don’t sound like you hate it.
I don’t think anyone enjoys it as much as an adult as they did as children, mainly because you have to do the hard work and spending in order to make it magical for the children.

I love Xmas but I have young children so the magic is palpable. Buy prior to them I had a DH who worked Xmas day and I'd go to my mum's and it felt very "going through the motions".

But as much as I love Xmas I do despise the fact that it seems to encroach upon our lives earlier and earlier each year. People putting up their decorations in November really just drive me spare because it's not Christmas, it's not even Christmas month, it's fucking november

I don't really enjoy shopping and find that part hard work. I enjoy meeting up with family, going to Carol services, festive drinks with friends and colleagues. Unfortunately, with 2 teenagers, they also have parties they want lifts to, and the calendar can get a bit too full.
If I'm honest, I don't always enjoy the day itself, as I'm not very good at sitting around all day, I get a bit restless. This year its just the 4 of us, so im just doing a nice roast chicken and some sort of stuffed squash for veggie DD. Wont take ages to cook, so may be able to go out in the morning for a walk or even to church.

I'm single, atheist and have no kids.

The constant ads on TV and radio, the wall to wall Christmas music and the pressure to join in the jollities is grating.