Does anyone else get sad at Christmas for no apparent reason?

[theskater]

Does anyone else get really sad at this time of the year? I have a strong strong instinct to curl up in a hole (with a pile of books and a box of tissues) and just stay there. I feel mean because of this, because I should be making truffles and gleefully making dates for Christmas drinks out and at home and planning great food and being very inspired about presents... but I'm not feeling that.
It'll pass, I guess. I don't want to get too heavy about it, but it's a fact and I don't really want to pretend it's not happening. Nor do I want to spread the darkness. I'd like to understand it better.
Anyone relate to that?

Yes , always feel anxious

Oh yes absolutely. I think it's a combination of the cold and dark, end of year exhaustion and the ghastly consumerist banality that the media surrounds Christmas with.

On the plus side, I usually feel pretty cheery in January when everyone is moaning!

Yes, feel sad as parents are no longer around and family is soo small now. Good friend died and that makes me sad. Sister died at early age and that saddens me every year as she died in December and my mum died on NYD. Have to make a real effort to be jolly and cheerful on Christmas Day though.

Varya, I am so sorry. Life is not all jolly, is it? and Mooncup Goddess, your 'oh yes absolutely' just made me feel like a 'normal' person. Thank you. I feel grief is squished in our misguided celebrations. Wandering around a graveyard, visiting loved ones or just being quiet seems respectful to me, rather than miserable. My 16 year old DD thinks it's all tinsel and giggling over sparking stuff. My husband and I want to run away to a hut. Thank you for quick replies. It's warmed my chilled soul and I will send you both love over the rest of winter!

Yes, family has gotten smaller this year and I will be spending some time as I do every year on Christmas Eve with my best friend, sadly this year it will be in the cemetery as she passed away suddenly in the summer.

I always feel sad at the turn of the year for similar reasons but this year is even harder.

Hugs to all us maudlin souls

Yes,though I am worse at NY.

I should be looking forward to 'out with the old,in with the new' but NY is something I dread.

I have no reason to feel this way, no one has passed away at this time of year,so I don't know what's going on.

Perhaps I'm just a maungy cow.

I don't like NY either and there is no reason behind it that I can work out. Odd.

Yes.

And it's odd as I love my family home at Christmas.
I think it's because my mother hated Christmas and it was a time of tension.

yes, although I have LOADS of reasons. and NY too!

Me too! I want to love Christmas, but find the reality saddening. All the hype, enforced cheerfulness and sociability when I'm exhausted and just want some quiet time. All that running round and prep and it always falls flat by after lunch (which I'm too exhausted to enjoy).

Hate New Year's Eve even more! All that expectation on having a wonderful time. Everyone else seems to have great parties and a wonderful time (Facebook take on everyone else's perfect life?) All I get is maudlin that another year has passed; I miss lost loved ones, I look back at my regrets of the past year, I worry about the year ahead being just more of the same.

Strange really, because I'm very blessed and happy with my life at present, even if it hasn't followed the path I expected. What worries me is it that I won't be happy if it is like this in 10 years time.

I also want to love Christmas, my dds are at the perfect age for it, but christmas growing up was just tension and anxiety and not much joy or love, so I'm finding it hard to build enthusiasm.

Yes indeed. I am lucky enough not to have lost anyone I care about, but still...it can be a grim time of the year.

Enormous expectations that everyone will have a great time, and the pressure, so very often, being on women to be the ones to fulfil that. We met a lady at a Christmas event today who said "Yes...I dread Christmas- of course, DH and DS love it, but then I'm the one to make it for them-they do hardly anything". Which sums it up for many, I think.

Add to that the crazed consumerism (or its alternative- "You don't have to buy anything! You can make your own Christmas!" Yep, sure...as long as you have six weeks with no other commitments at all to do it all in), the expectation that you shut yourself in the house with relatives that you have nothing whatsoever in common with, the way that claustrophobia is ramped up by the entire public transport network closing down....it's basically a recipe for ennui, angst and tension.

Yes, but there is a reason.

It brings it home to me that I don't really enjoy spending time with my family - though I love being with my own children.

The passing of the years don't seem to be making things any better and it makes me very sad.

Also hate the consumerism and the greed.

I miss family members and friends who are no longer here too. I've got Christmas cards to write and feel sad at the number of people who have passed away since last year.