Why is everyone so obsessed?

[zbw565]

I don’t celebrate Christmas but I really don’t understand the appeal. Is it because most people celebrated it as children so it’s nostalgic? You got toys and spends some time with family member you rarely see otherwise?

I don’t get how you can do things with zero meaning behind any of it except “it’s tradition”. Yes but what’s the significance of any of it? All I see is pure commercialism.

The majority of people who celebrate are not religious at all. Some agnostic, some atheists. Yet they still insist on celebrating Christmas. They will put a tree up and tinsel and lights and make up some story about Santa - what’s the significance of any of it? Aren’t these pagan rituals? What do they have to do with Jesus? Just doing it because the adverts on tv tell you it’s time to?

I could just never live my life this way. Doing things like a sheep with no idea why I am even doing it. When I read some posts some people honestly seem to revolve their whole lives around it. I have no idea how much money they end up spending.

How people just rinse and repeat the same crap every year. No wonder most people are miserable and depressed.

Of course after Christmas we are told we have to get excited about New Year, then Valentine’s Day, then Easter, then summer holidays, then Halloween, bonfire night and Christmas again. They’ve added some more gems along the way - Mother’s Day, st Patrick’s day- you get the jist. It’s all load of commercial crap and I can’t stand this time table the west has made up that we all seem to be obsessed with living our lives by with zero meaning behind any of it.

rant over

Christmas is for everyone and all the other festivals OP mentions. It’s the punctuation of life, no obligation to take part. Without these, what would life be? Who honestly refused to take part in secret Santa? I was going to, but Elfster outsmarted me 🎅🤷‍♀️😅

What’s interesting with this is the OP says they don’t celebrate Christmas- and importantly no other celebrations either, but is clearly annoyed and baffled by those who do.

this does read like someone who’s ND and struggling to understand normal people’s response to events that involve behaving differently. They don’t do different, including fun different. No celebrations or holidays, no summer holidays, no events. It’s not just Christmas but then Christmas is the most “in your face” of the joyful events.

OP, most people enjoy spending time with the people they care about. They enjoy eating nice treat food (that they can’t eat all year round without being the size of a house), they like to make their homes look bright when it’s the darkest time of year. They like an excuse to have a party. If you don’t like get togethers or parties or eating different food or changing the way your home looks or being given gifts or worrying about buying the right gifts or any of it- then I can see it would just come across as not a nice way to spend your time.

I think if people are lonely, they’ll be lonely irrelevant of whether it’s Christmas or not. Nobody is forced to celebrate it, so just let those that enjoy it have their fun, and those that don’t needn’t get their knicks in a twist over it! Life’s way too short!

This is the thing. I don't celebrate many festivals, but that doesn't mean I can't understand why people do. I'm not religious, but I understand why people go to church at Christmas. Easter I didn't celebrate for yonks, but other people doing so didn't upset or anger me. Now I do as the DC love it; it's great fun!

This "shoved down your throat" argument is daft. I never felt pressured when Easter eggs were in shops, people were having parties (it's big in our village). I just...let them get on with it! Now I'm the one throwing the parties and making ridiculous hats and baskets. 😂

Some people just love a chance to be grumps.

Couldn’t have said it better.

I would much rather live life celebrating these "zero meaning commercial crap" holidays than to live a mundane life with little to look forward to!

OP you seem unnecessarily angry about it. If you don't want to participate then don't but there is no need to insult those that enjoy it.

You sound like a joyless robot. What your post shows is not that people are 'sheep who don't know why they are doing it', but that you don't understand why people celebrate it.

Human beings throughout history have gained pleasure, excitement, shared experience and value from ritual and cultural ceremony and tradition, from marking the passing of the seasons and the turning of the year, through music, light, food and gift giving. If anything, it is weird not to do these things, because they are things that humans have pretty much always done. Many of us may have outgrown the need for deities, but we have not outgrown the need for shared cultural events.

I love Christmas. It brings me only enjoyment and fun with family. I'm an atheist, but I enjoy the Christian and pagan aspects of the festival because they are part of my cultural heritage and they are nice! I feel sorry for you tbh.

I don’t enjoy Christmas either, and I find the change in routine to be quite challenging. It’s nice when children are small, but this year we decided to opt-out and go on holiday instead. I’d rather have a week of good weather than get sucked into all the Christmas stuff that I don’t want to be a part of at the moment.

I dont do xmas either not done it for years so freeing.
Dont do any other holidays either.

I find it cosy, sitting inside with the Christmad lights. Being off work, spending time with husband and kids, relaxing, watching Netflix, eating good food, and seeing the excitement in my kids when they can open their presents.

Because people happy and enjoy so do I.

I don’t mind Christmas but I do think it’s become a bit of a circus.

it starts far too early, people buying loads of gifts just for the sake of it, elf on the shelf is another crap thing etc

A lot of it is down to happy memories of childhood Christmases.

I've a big family and we weren't very well off. Paying the bills and keeping us all fed and clothed was a really big struggle for my parents. But somehow they managed to give us a really good Christmas every year. Santa always delivered - we'd get a toy or game each, an annual, a selection box and a tube of smarties or jelly tots. There was nice food to eat (lots of cakes, biscuits, crisps and chocolate) and minerals (soft drinks). My Mam was a terrible cook but somehow the Christmas dinner was always delicious. We had a holiday from school, so lots of time to enjoy our new toys and play games and read our annuals etc. There were lovely films and TV programmes to watch - and this was a time before videos, DVDs, streaming services etc. I adored my Dad (still do!) and it was lovely having him off work and getting to spend more time with him than usual.

Aside from all the nice things listed above, there was the magic of Santa. I was a firm believer and continued to believe until I was around 12 or so. There were lots of signs and hints along the way that he wasn't real, but I buried my head in the sand and continued to believe until my sister eventually took matters into her own hand and told me the truth. Who doesn't want to believe in Santa and elves and flying reindeer?

There were lots of little rituals, such as the day we put up the Christmas tree and the day we went to Clery's (department store in Dublin) to visit Santa and the day we'd do a little Christmas concert or have a mass at school.

We were fairly self-sufficient and didn't meet up with family or friends much. We'd visit my Granny but she lived nearby, so it was just a quick visit. One or two of my aunts might be there. Granny would come to us for tea one evening after Christmas.

What's the significance? Nothing really. Just memories of happy times. But the year would be very bleak without it.

Curious, are you spending Xmas alone OP?

It's part of our heritage, whatever name you want to give it, to celebrate the return of the light after the solstice. I think it's a tradition going back hundreds of years even if it hasn't always had the name 'Christmas'. In our fast paced society it is good for us to have a reason to slow down and reconnect with family. It doesn't have to be expensive and commercial, it is how individual families make it their own celebration. It's also quite nice to have a collective reason to celebrate in society as a whole. Pretty much all societies have something.

I bloody love christmas. I love everything about it, the twinkling lights, the decorations, the food and drink, the presents, meeting up with friends for drinks, christmas days out etc.

of course there is a lot of consumerism but you can spend what you want.

if i want to dig deeper beyond just making things sparkly in the darkest time of the year or the nostalgia or the collective joy.

i had a crap childhood and was in care for some time before being adopted. No matter where i was or who i was living with, Christmas always happened. Maybe not the best christmas at home but out in the world there was twinkly lights and visits from santa at school and taking part in the nativity etc. so for me christmas is really important to me sense of belonging. Obviously once i had kids i wanted to make it magical for them and now they are teens we have certain traditions and things we do.

going forward people always get together at christmas so i hope no matter where they are in the world they will always want to come home at christmas.

Annual festivals aren’t a “western” thing. I can’t think of any culture that doesn’t have some kind of annual festivals. We know prehistoric people did back to at least the Neolithic but probably earlier. Its a very human universal thing to do.

Haha, love it!

I’m a Christian so it has a special significance in that this is the time of year when we celebrate the incarnation of our Lord - the breaking into history of the God who created it all before history began, the astonishing audacity of coming, not as a military or political leader but a humble baby, born in humble circumstances.

Honestly, I’m so enthused I could go on all day 🤣

Have a look at the Christian Mumsnetters board thread - Unwrapping the Myths of Christmas for some mini bite-sized thoughts on the season.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/christian-mumsnetters/5227753-unwrapping-the-myths-of-christmas?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

We get a week with no guilt for doing nothing, eating whatever we want, staying in and resting, just doing nice stuff 'just because it's Christmas'. I love panto too.

I don't love the stress in the run up to it and as a family unit we have cut most of that out by not bothering seeing people a fat tending events just because we think we 'should', going out for Christmas dinner and being lazy and selfish for a week!

I love the traditions and nostalgia of Christmas. But agree about all the commercialism of Christmas and other events. None of it is needed.

You do you and don't worry about what anyone else wishes to celebrate.
Each to their own.

I dunno. I think that it can be easy to feel that most people are having a social media perfect christmas with the loving family, friends and so on and it can make lonliness worse.....I don't think that people shouldn't clebrate though.

Not religious, don't have much of a family so many of the family and Christmas traditions just pass me by. BUT there's a reason why we've celebrated with light and fire and food at the darkest point of the year, well before Christianity existed. The spirit of Christmas to me this year is seeing bright Christmas lights in the yard of a neighbour who's wife - my friend - died earlier this year. She started putting up lights in their yard during that lockdown Christmas and carried on doing it ever since - and he's carrying that tradition on...