@PumpkinSpicedTea what do you look forward to about Christmas? And try and incorporate more of that throughout the year.
We loved the panto (still do) and as the kids grew up we took them to other live theatre shows. Children's short things first, then comedy, magicians now anything we fancy. We have Murder on the Orient Express booked for early next year. But take them to our small local, bigger localish and city theatres all year round.
Or if it's the decorations or lights revamp your permanent lighting. We have sets of fairy lights that just don't come down.
Or the sense of community look at local get togethers. We now volunteer at our local woods.
Or the food. We have a breadmaker to help cut out UPF and make simple, yet flavoursome meals a lot.
You are right you shouldn't live one Christmas to the next.
Starting feeding your body and mind well all year. Read, use housework as exercise, plant your garden to create an escape oasis, use music to change your mood, feed yourself well, book things to look forward to.
And I can't get into the "I'm an autumn person". Late summer/early autumn are my favourite times of year but I like other months.
Our eldest is going GCSEs this summer and it's a battle to get him to focus on revision enough. But I need to. Everyday I am back to school every evening now for 6 months. I don't want to do it, it's going to be frustrating. But it doesn't help anyone thinking like that. So I am going to learn a language along side him, cook whilst he's at the table, discuss characters from plays, decipher poems, work out chemical reactions and calculate trigonometry. I can think of a thousand other things I would rather do but I love him and he needs me.
So don't sweat the stuff you have to do and make small changes here and there to bring the joy of Christmas into your life all year round.