Why do you look forward to Christmas?

[MoonshineandMagic]

I hear (or see on here) many people talking about starting to get excited for Xmas at this time of year and I don’t really understand it.

I find Xmas quite stressful - juggling all the family, pressure to overspend, too much food and drink and then just the winter to look forward to when it’s all over. I don’t get why other people enjoy it so much - I like the break from work but other than that it’s always a bit of an anti-climax.

I’m sure some smartarse will be along to say ‘surprise - people like different things’ but I’m well aware of that. I just can’t work out why they don’t find it as stressful and depressing as I do.

I hate Christmas personally. I can't be arsed putting up he tree, sourcing presents for everyone, having to wrap it all get all the food in and then cook for everyone it's all such hard work and when you work full time it's just stress after stress

I love Easter 🐣

I enjoy spending time with my family. That's most of it.

I like the cooking too. And all our little family traditions.

I don't find it especially stressful...

I would happily forget about bloody Christmas for the rest of my life. Its expensive and stressful and causes no end of friction and arguments. Once the kids have grown up it loses all of its magic in my opinion. Yes I'm a miserable cow. 😳😂

I hate Christmas. Too much pressure to visit and see family you spend all year avoiding

Oh I just can't be arsed with the whole damn thing. I do less and less every year. I used to love it when the kids were little and all excited but I now just find myself having to do all the work with no personal reward.

Why I don't find it stressful - I share the jobs with my husband. And with the rest of my family, if we're going to be together. My sister is often in charge of mince pies. My mum does the best stuffing. We do it together and enjoy the sharing of cooking and ritual.

I suppose I give myself up to it.

Also, we've been doing it for YEARS so we know how we each work and we aren't an argumentative or acquisitive family. So there isn't pressure to spend spend spend. No one asks for ridiculous things. And in the end, as long as we're all together that's all that really matters. We could have cheese on toast and it would be ok...

I would say start getting ready as early as possible, takes the stress out of it for me. I like the break from work, spending time with family & Christmas films/tv. I think i just like the whole Xmas atmosphere!

I have quite a big family, as does DH, so that’s a big chunk of actual Christmas. Days of family time. But I like the run up too. Picking presents to buy people, taking the kids to a garden centre to see Father Christmas, I like putting the tree up and having a bit beautiful twinkly thing in the corner of my lounge, I like wrapping presents with Jingle All The Way on. It’s just quite a magical time of year, which just highlights the very different impressions the season leaves on each of us.

I am a Christian and I love the special church services. First in advent, is a particular favourite. Christmas also goes on until 2nd February with Candlemas (Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ).

The whole buy a tree, too much food and expensive presents just annoys me and I find it hollow. I don't know why anyone bothers with Christmas if it is only just for food and presents.

But I'll get shot down for my views about what is a religious holiday I suppose. 🤔

Family coming together.

Not by me - i totally agree people forget the whole reason we have Christmas.

I’m very fortunate that Christmas was always a happy time for me as a child so there’s always a warm sense of nostalgia about it - old Christmas songs, carols, fairy lights, films, food, it all reminds me of a much simpler time.

I also enjoy the autumn and winter ‘build up’ to Christmas and really like just wandering around the shops looking at all the Christmas bits and seeing the lights and trees up in the city centre.

And I enjoy having a chunk of time off to look forward to (again, appreciate that this won’t be the case for others), eat lots of nice food and spend time with the people I care about.

Apart from the 11 days off work and the office party, I really don't know!

It's just DH and me this year and it will be a nice easy day but there's certainly no magic to it. It's the one time of year that not having children really hurts.

It's bizarre isn't it. Other major religions don't have an alternative secular event for each of their major religious holidays.

I like the colder months, and the lights and decorations lead to an all over festive atmosphere which I enjoy. Christmas is lowkey in our house, and I enjoy the days between Christmas and New Year "hibernating" and recharging for January. If I didn't have kids I wouldn't bother with a tree. Much prefer the time off from work in the winter compared to the summer.

I do also find it annoying when everyone shows up for the Christingle etc & you haven't seen their faces in church all year.

You know people celebrated December 25 long before Christianity existed? ...and winter festivals predate that?

I enjoy the family time as well as the time for reflection during Advent. Both DH and I are off work for those 2 weeks which makes life easier. It's the slower pace of life that marks it as so different from the rest of the year. I do adore Christmas leftovers too!

We celebrate the Christmas we enjoy. We choose to celebrate traditionally from Christmas Eve until Twelfth Night. I would really struggle to cope with celebrating it in the secular/modern sense during Nov and Dec. I don't know how to juggle work/school/life alongside celebrating for such an extended period of time.

Only because it means the end of the year is close and the evenings can ever so gradually get lighter again. Other than that it is a pain in the arse.

I love it. I enjoy all the cooking and decorating etc. I love buying people presents. I’m not really a proper Christian but I am a sort of aesthetic Christian in the sense that I find religious music, buildings, the beauty of the liturgy are things that affect me profoundly in a spiritual way. I love the turning of the year, the seasons and how the Church calendar intertwines with them. A country walk on a cold, crisp morning, church, giving people I love gifts and then eating delicious food and playing games- I can’t imagine a better way to spend a day. Throw in some small children in pyjamas and a log fire and I’m in heaven.

That said, I don’t like Christmas tat and excess, too much booze, people feeling pressure to spend money they don’t have, most Christmas pop music, elf on the sodding shelf etc.

I am not a Christian, but the religious aspect is the only bit that matters, and I respect that.
Everything else is just utter nonsense and an orgy of consumerism and sentimentality and I absolutely loathe Christmas as a result.

I love Christmas. I loved it as a child, & now I have children of my own it's taken on a different meaning.
I love the whole lead up through autumn - back to school, Halloween, Fireworks night & then Christmas. We do lots of activities like the pantomime, visits to Santa, Christmas lights.
I'm lucky in that my MIL does the big meal & we have a big family gathering.

I love giving, buying presents for people makes me happy.
I especially love seeing my children’s faces light up Christmas morning
I love the excitement and anticipation of santas arrival.
I love cheesy Christmas movies.
I love non cheesy Christmas movies.
Some of my favourite memories of my DF are of him with his paper Christmas hat on making breakfast Christmas mornings.
The only time we sat down as a family to eat together as a child was on Christmas (maybe an odd Sunday) and I remember being happy.
I love the school nativities, I have fond memories of my own at school.
Christmas carols make me happy.
Christmas songs in general make me happy
I love decorating my house.
I love Christmas lights, looking at other peoples decorations and lights.
I couldn’t care less about buying all the right food.
I don’t run round last minute trying to fit everything in, I spread it out through the year and relax in December soaking up the atmosphere.
I love staying home with my DH and children, I especially love seeing them happy.
We don’t go traipsing round other peoples houses or having big crowds at ours, it’s just us 5. We see other family in and around the festive season but Christmas Day we spend at home.
I use to enjoy cooking but physically can’t anymore so my DH dose it, i love eating his cooking.

I make sure no pressure is ever put on DH and myself and I think this is why we don’t get stressed.

In the immortal words of the Muppets “it is the summer of the soul in December.”

I’m a teacher, so aim to be done with presents for everyone by October half term, then at some point in December when I have a quiet evening I will sit and wrap. It also means the stressful final weeks of term don’t come home with me, and I can try to relax in the evenings.

I enjoy the sense of anticipation, the lights, the warmth in the dark and the cold, and how there is a sense of community (whether you are religious or not). I enjoy the autumn/winter build up more than the day itself.

Having said that, I have never hosted a Christmas Day for multiple children and in-laws. Ask me again in a few years and I may feel differently.

In the immortal words of the Muppets “it is the summer of the soul in December.”

Yes, exactly this.