Anyone just not doing Christmas?

[AnnieSnap]

Just wondering if anyone else without young kids, or family visiting on ‘the day’, just not doing it. We’ll visit one adult daughter’s family on Boxing Day, taking and receiving gifts. My other adult daughter will be visiting from many miles away with young grandchildren a day or so after that (again there will be gifts). Aside from that, we’ve deciding we won’t be putting up a tree, or eating a traditional Christmas dinner. I looked at a pretty Christmas candle in M&S today. I like to light candles around the house in winter, but I decided not to buy it to avoid unnecessarily feeding the Christmas corporate monster! Both DH and me get irritated by how successful big corporations are at convincing people to part with money on tat for any occasion they can create - grandparents day anyone?

Bah humbug!

I would do that if I could, though my DDs (in their twenties now) still like coming to us for Christmas so I do keep going still.

We go out for Christmas dinner and do enjoy that, but otherwise I am quite the Christmas humbug.

Oh yeah, me! I feel a tiny tiny bit sad because I have a son but he lives primarily with his dad due to my poor health and they do Christmas properly for the kids. My child loves that so it means I just treat it like another day watching TV and slobbering about 😆

There's nothing wrong with you at all to want to treat it like any other day. Don't be bullied into caring about it.

It sounds distinctly ‘Bah, humbug’. If you’re giving presents to several sets of people, then surely you’re ‘feeding the corporate monster’, unless they’re all home made? Our tree comes from a local farm, and our ‘traditional’ Christmas dinner isn’t traditional as we’re vegetarian, and is inexpensive.

I mean, obviously don’t put up a tree or having Christmas dinner if you’re not feeling it, but neither of those are exactly egregious examples of corporate greed.

I do feel really bah humbug this year too

Not sure why

I usually love Christmas

Yep, just another day for me.

No way , I love my Christmas tree . I’d be wary of having no decorations / a tree @AnnieSnap , you don’t want to be labelled the miserable grandparents .

It’s fine, we’ll all be going out together.

Personally , I feel you can celebrate Christmas without buying lots of tat . Two of my dc have autism so we can’t not celebrate, but we also can’t do too much as they get overwhelmed.

Christmas. When people spend more than they can afford, on things that nobody could possibly want, for people that they don’t even like.

😉😁😁.

It’s perfectly possible to do Christmas without feeding the corporate monster if you don’t want to- the joy for me comes from using my gaudy plastic tree and decorations year after year, baking the special treats for my children’s youth etc. but if you don’t enjoy it then that’s fine too, but I don’t think it needs justifying as a political stance, there is no shame in being a humbug x

You can have a full on Christmas without "feeding the corporate machine"

if you already have decorations why wouldn't you put up a tree ? I've been using the same ones for years and we just buy a tree from a local farmer. I also use foraged greenery. We don't buy many gifts and I don't buy any odd Christmas themed food the supermarkets put out in Christmas ranges. I make loads of festive food myself and make food gifts for friends. We don't spend a great deal.

you've got to eat something so if you like a traditional roast then I can't see how buying food to make one is feeding the machine 🫤. I buy a really nice turkey crown from a local farm that sell their meat direct on the farm so actually I'm helping to keep a traditional family business going.
if your only reason for not doing anything is a political point about excess consumerism then I'm right there with you but it doesn't mean you can't celebrate it with lovely decorations and food.

We gave up Christmas years ago when DS and DiL said they wanted to spend the day with just their DC. We rent an apartment at the seaside and have lovely walks on the prom, do a bit of shopping and generally relax. One year we had pizza for Christmas Dinner and spent the day watching re-runs of Criminal Minds.

I can see how someone might run out of steam with Christmas. I'm sure you could cobble together a lovely Christmas outside of the consumerist reach of corporations though, if that is your main gripe.

I don't think you can totally blame the 'corporate monster'.

Just look around at Mumsnet and you can easily see mums egging each other on to come up with the 'perfect' Christmas, which will inevitably lead to disappointment.

No disappointment here thanks. And I like this bit of MN that isn't bogged down with doom and gloom and makes some space to discuss jollying up the darkest stretch of winter.

We put a tree up, buy each other gifts. The only day dh and me get off is Christmas day. We open presents, pizza for dinner, in bed for 9 as I'm up early.
We'd make more of an effort if we got boxing day off as well- at least we could have a drink and a later night!

I'd love to not bother and spend the whole day in bed chilling out, eating crap, drinking and watching tv.

However, I have a young child so I have to get into the spirit for him.

I also have parents who expect a fuss made at Xmas, want their Xmas dinner and lots of joviality...

It will be me and DP and our dog at Christmas, has been for several years now. All parents deceased, he has adult children and the youngest grandson is 17.
They will come for a meal and do presents sometime over Christmas.

However, we have two trees, I make a wreath, there will be lights and decorations dotted around the house. I love smell of Christmas trees and the soft lights around the house.
We will have a nice meal, swap gifts and enjoy the day. No pressure to please other people, neither of us are bothered for turkey so we can eat what we like and we will be happy and grateful for all that we have.
Everything done is for us to enjoy.

I'd rather not do it at all this year as mother died in April and its been a shit year. We have always spent Christmas day with her. Just all feels a bit pointless
Dcs are adults.

I have a couple of friends to buy for.
On the actual day I hope I'll be left alone to engage with it as little as possible.

You can’t buy a candle so you don’t feed the corp monster but buy candles the rest of the year, does that not strike you as odd? You clearly wanted the candle. Is your husband driving this?

But you are still doing Christmas, just not spending Christmas Day with the big roast etc.

You're still meeting up with your family and exchanging gifts.

Apart from the obvious religious angle. Christmas should be whatever you want it to be.

I love the run up to Christmas as I work in a school. My adult children will spend the actual day with their families and my youngest is severely disabled so won’t understand it, and the caring aspect means it’s like any other day.

I still like Christmas though.

Do it your way.
This year me and OH are going out to dinner, and then visiting family down the road for the 'family quiz', it's far better than it sounds.
We will do little presents, but don't do family presents. He is a gardener and 'does' all of the family's gardens throughout the year.
I will do cards as I like them, not sure about a tree.
With Ex Christmas was a huge deal - and a HUGE PAIN. Do it your way OP.

We didn't do Christmas one year recently when in the middle of building work and the dining room wasn't in use so we couldn't host as usual. Coincided with adult DS and his GF visiting her family overseas. Had a lovely relaxing break for just DH and me, and DH cooked a selection of curries on Christmas Day. Meant we had a proper break from work instead of the usual shopping, decorating, hosting and clearing up.

But surely if you are old enough to have adult children you already have decorations you have had for years?
DH and I bought our Christmas tree 37 years ago and still put it up despite the fact that it doesn’t stand straight.
I mentioned to my adult children that I might buy a new one in the sales and they were aghast, the wonky threadbare tree is part of the charm as far as they are concerned.
Also think if corporations weren’t producing this tat would lots of people lose their jobs?