Does anyone else just not really like Christmas?

[Plantmum2047]

I don't hate Christmas, I'm just not a fan 😂 I'll likely spend it with one parent and/or my sibling and their family and we're close so the actual day will be nice enough (bar usual family disagreements/mild tension) but I really dislike:

• everywhere being so busy
• the way people flood the supermarkets buying a ridiculous amount of food and like it's the last time they'll ever get to shop ever
• how tacky a LOT of the events/decorations are
• the amount of money and plastic completely wasted
• the massive divide between the rich and poor which seems even more evident while people freeze on the streets and the rich spend and spend
• the stress of trying to find good presents for families and friends, stuff they actually want/need as opposed to wasting money on rubbish

I'm not a scrooge (promise 😂) I just find the whole thing a bit unnecessary!

I have hated it for as long as I have been an adult. Stressful, overindulgent and completely over-hyped.

Meant to post this in Chat, not parenting.
What's enjoyable about Christmas jumpers?! Maybe it's just me but I don't get it at all 😂

I love Christmas, it’s cosy nice family time.
But I dislike all the elements of it you’ve listed too.

Yes exactly! What's to like about greedy people pushing and shoving each other for a box of mince pies 😂

@TeaPleaseNoLemon do you not eat crisps all year round?!

I like December and the excitement of my kids but Christmas Day is always a mad busy one for us, hosting for almost 20, it’s just a lot. I don’t particularly enjoy the day itself as I don’t feel I get the time to spend with my kids just lazing about, it’s like a military operation 😂 and then we are up and out on Boxing Day to my in-laws for a repeat of Christmas Day…
But overall, I enjoy it.
I don’t buy into the themed days out, never ever took my kids to see an overpriced Santa in a busy queue, Ice skating etc, just so bloody busy and with 3dc and a dh who would have been working I didn’t ever fancy doing that stuff on my own. Seemed like a bit of a ball ache really so just never started it.

No, I find it wonderful. The lights, music, parties, getting to spend time with the family, buying presents for people, it’s all lovely.

I would like Christmas much more if I had more family. DD is an adult, my parents are dead and my sister lives hundreds of miles away. And DH is deeply unsociable, so our Christmases are always quiet and boring.

I find that once the DC have grown up there is no magic.

I have a couple of Christmas dos lined up but no parties.

This. Ever since I worked Christmas ‘season’ in a pub and reinforced by several years in retail. Dh feels the same since his stint in high end retail. We no longer partake in it in any shape or form.

Good for you!

My mother. Hates Christmas and nearly everything about it. Loves to let people know - same moans every year. 91 years and counting!

When I worked in retail I hated Christmas with a passion 😂
Now I have left that life behind I enjoy Christmas. Well most of it. There are parts of it I don't enjoy that much (crowded shops etc) and parts I have zero interest in (Christmas dinner).
The thing I have learned about Christmas is to focus on the parts you like and and ignore other people's opinions (ie if you like really cheesy tree decorations but your mother thinks they are 'tacky' just go "ok whatever Mum and head on down to Paperchase anyway). The parts you don't like either simply don't do or get someone else to do (ie my husband cooks a Christmas dinner).
Find the parts you enjoy....and just do that.

I love Christmas. Yes, I love the lights and the music and the presents, I won’t deny that, but what I really love (for fear of sounding cringy) is the feeling. It’s like the 1 day of the year when everyone tries to be nice to each other, and I love spending time with friends and family.

P.S. Christmas jumpers are awesome!

It's just another day, you don't have to follow the consumerist version peddled by those making money out of it.

I like some aspects (buying presents for people mainly), Christmas lights in town and Carol concerts.
.But I get stressed and tense about the day itself. I feel a lot of pressure to make it “fun” and enjoyable for everyone. I’m constantly worried that it’s boring in our house, but that in every other home people are having a blast!

I dislike it and largely ignore it. I send some cards and do a Waitrose food shop but that's all.

I like having time of work, eating some nice food and cracking open a bottle of something, and going to see some Christmas light show, but I hate the rest - the weather, the consumerism and commercialism, the crowds at the shops, the stress.

I feel the same

love seeing how excited DC is though

I hate it

• fucking decorations taking up way too much space
• traffic in my city goes crazy
• the fake jollity
• the god dam fucking same songs on the radio for the last 30 years (pogues, Mariah, slade etc etc)
• the equivalent of a £3 chicken costs £23

I'd happily spend nov & Dec in Oman and pretend it's not happening

I forgot about the music as well 🙈 in tk max yesterday and playing Christmas music on repeat and a giant queue. I left 😂

I’m with you OP, I’ve always hated it! The best ones I’ve had were when I was living abroad and it was just a normal day, but warm!

the god dam fucking same songs on the radio for the last 30 years (pogues, Mariah, slade etc etc)

God, yes. Being an old gimmer I have heard Merry Christmas Everyone every Christmas since 1973 - 49 bloody years, plus load of others. I don't listen to the radio in December.

I don't hate it but I do find it all very over the top. It's so commercialised and all about outdoing each other these days. It's a shame.

Worst bit of it though...families with their matching Christmas PJ's!! My god why would anyone do that!!!! 🤣

I usually enjoy the three days of it (Christmas Eve, Day and Boxing Day) because I like my family, I like eating cheese with wild abandon, carols are mostly pleasant to have on in the background and any excuse to have lots of fairy lights and candles during the darkest time of the year will always get my vote.

The rest of it really can quite frankly get in the bin. Jumpers, Elf on the shelf, Secret Santa, work Christmas parties, ghastly Christmas markets, the dreadful music, gopping mulled wine, mawkish adverts, people losing their heads about which family member is eating a roast dinner with whom. Hideous just hideous all of it.

I am getting all my Christmas shopping done this week so I do not have to expose myself to a moment of gratuitous Christmas bullshit more than necessary. I plan on becoming a hermit during November and December and emerging from my advent-is-shite cocoon on Dec 24th to enjoy it for three days only.