Anyone else dreading Christmas

im not sure if i dread christmas more or my birthday

I enjoy Christmas for the simple reason that it brings me and my family together and we spend time with each other, and we celebrate the birth of Jesus. The holiday itself has become so over-commercialized, though, that I dread the end of Thanksgiving because that's when all the commercials start, and all the stores play Christmas music, and while I enjoy listening every once in a while, I get really tired of hearing the same songs played again and again. I like giving gifts, and my family and I have decided to only buy a few each Christmas due to money and the fact that none of us really needs a whole lot of presents. Mom knows not to give me money because I will use it to pay bills and she wants me to use it to buy something fun, so she gets me a giftcard to a store I like. I think it's such a huge waste to get all these gifts that a lot of people will put in the back of their closet and forget about, or use as a regift. My dad, who, despite the fact that I don't care if I get presents or not, wouldn't know a proper gift for someone if it bit him in the rear end. He buys the cheapest item he can find in the dollar store, puts it into a bag without wrapping it, and expects that to be ok. If you're going to get someone something, at least put some thought into it. He does the same thing to my brothers and my stepmom. My uncle, his brother, who is a convicted pedophile on the FBI's sex offender registry, is as bad as he is. The two of them are peas in a pod. He got my mom, who is 61, a little girl's makeup set with a pink feather picture frame and glitter body lotion. The year before that it was an agenda that had all the paper inside falling out of it because the binder clips were bent. My dad got me foul-smelling cheapest of cheap body wash from the dollar store that I couldn't even regift because it smelled like bathroom cleanser. Yeah I love going around smelling like Comet. At least my mom and my aunt are thoughtful.

I hated Christmas for a few years b/c my dad died 2 days before Christmas in 2007. Now I'm ok with it, and I'm looking forward to spending time with family. I think I'm going to attempt to cook this year. Ha.

We don't really have Halloween here because "some people" thought it was immoral. Sigh. I used to like it and some people still do it. But it comes when my SAD is at its worst, or I haven't yet adapted to it or something. So I often miss it.

I don't get why Xmas has to be about family. Everyone says it's not about money or food, it's about family. That sort of disqualifies many people that might done OK celebrating alone by saying like Oh you cannot celebrate, you don't have a family. Talk about making people outcasts. No wonder people feel extra lonely.

I mean you can indeed celebrate alone if you want to. Why couldn't you??? I mean I'm not going to because I don't do Xmas, I think it's boring. But we celebrate whatever we think is Xmas, we don't celebrate family. If we did, the holiday would be called Family. Not Xmas, or Yule as it's called here.

I used to love the holidays. ALL the excitement. All of the aromas.. The Christmas lights. The cold weather and sipping hot apple cider in front of the fireplace. Seems the fireplace was the center of "our" warm feelings. Since I no longer have a fireplace, maybe the "warmth" vanished. Can't really blame it on not having a fireplace, but that is my excuse for now..

AJ is all excited. He wants to decorate the yard with lots of decorations. AM sure it will look nice.. As for the tree decorating, I guess I might decorate a tree. Maybe ,, Maybe not..Guess what is left is for me to cook.. So I will cook and hope I don't burn anything..

Guess all this means is I'm not all that excited about the upcoming holidays... There is still time for "excitement" to creep in.. So who knows how I will feel...Guess we will see when the time comes....

I normally loathe Christmas, it was always a time for my family to get together to argue...

This year I'm actually excited and kind of feeling the 'spirit', we'll see.

I just wish I could feel the excitement that I felt when I was a kid at Christmastime, my birthday, and just those times when you got all excited about doing things that you'd just think are a "nice" time nowadays, like going to an amusement park.

My brother cannot get off for Christmas so we decided to have Christmas at Thanksgiving, Chrisgiving. I was all for this as I only get to see he and the kids a few times a year, which is what the holiday is about to me not so much about the gifts though I do like finding that special something for the kids. However, it feels like a chore getting ready this time and I know it is because I am not up to par. I hate this guilty feeling that I am not sure that I want them to come now as the depression has set in and am getting over being sick. I just don't want to drag them down with me and putting on mask is not what in mind as have always been genuine with them nor do I have the energy. I'm sure I don't want them to see me this way, esp the kids. Then I wonder if seeing them won't help all of us right now, lift moods and the holiday spirits in all of us, and seeing the kids on a "Christmas" morning with Santa coming early, too precious and much fun.

Dread Christmas? ...

What? ...

With the wonderfully joyous childhood, adolescence and early adulthood my loving family gave me?

Love It ... !!!

(Insert B/S Detector Here!)

Bless you, I can relate, and I think, so can many others. Unfortunately, I'm even dreading Thanksgiving!

consider inserted!

will try some of these ideas, girl w brown hair! Always like to try to make lemonade out of lemons if I can, even tho it can be so very difficult! TY!

I too, have made some similar adjustments with immediate and extended family, and it has made things somewhat better! Very good ideas and encouragement!

Well said, and blessings on you! I have very similar issues on this, and a family member and a friend recently said to me, should I feel bad about dreading Christmas this year? I said no, unfortunately, given their similar circumstances, that may be something they will be dealing with in the future. So, we just do our best to enjoy what we can and get thru with it! Warm Wishes!

I despise the "holiday season" regardless of how it's wrapped. It's merely a reminder that I'm no longer able to connect with people that matter to me because they have all "moved on" with their lives and have no use for me. It's a reminder I never mattered to them in the first place. With the exception of my husband and son, the only people to whom I ever mattered are all dead.

It would be nice to "avoid" the holidays, but I'm homebound and stuck in bed most of the time. The only "entertainment" available, besides staring at the huge crack in the ceiling above my head, is to watch TV. Watching TV, regardless of the station is a constant bombardment of stories and advertisements that trigger both emotional and physical pain - from now all the way through to Valentine's Day. I'm sincerely hoping this will be my last "holiday season."

oh i dread the holidays. my worst thing tho is thanksgiving because that's when my family gets 2gether. everyone is so fake. one of my sisters always wants to go black friday shopping and she's the only who enjoys it--but everyone (except me) gives in to her so she won't "go boom," basically. i hate going because, for one thing, i don't usually have the money, and i hate the crowds and chaos--i often end up physically sick! but the few times i have gone, i was completly ignored. i was completly broke and everyone knew it, and no one even offered to buy me coffee--it was embarrassing. but if i dont go, they all act like they're gonna commit suicide over it. i seriuosly doubt that their whole time is destroyed because im not there with them. in fact, they don't even like taking me because im hard to deal with when i go--but they just want to be able to say they took me along.

not sure if i posted in this thread (but will post in it anyway)

i hate christmas.

apart from the music and the movies, christmas can go to hell.. the social atmosphere, the presents, everything... i realy really hate it.

One thing I do hate about Christmas is that for a poor family with kids, if they still believe in Santa, they're going to wonder why they don't get the same thing rich kids do, and it's going to hurt, and they will probably feel jealous and sometimes angry. I think it's fun to believe when you're little, like so little that you wouldn't think about things like why someone else got better gifts than you did. I was always so excited when I'd wake up in the morning. I'd sneak downstairs and I'd see presents and I'd be overjoyed. But that was a long time ago. I stopped believing in Santa when I was 10. Kids now, for the most part, expect so much to be given to them. They've become spoiled and lazy. They expect mommy and daddy to buy them the latest things and become tired of them when something new comes along, and mommy and daddy just wasted a couple hundred bucks on some electronic that they're not even going to use anymore. I mean not every kid is like that, but there are so many that are. And it's not just young kids either. A lot of preteens and teenagers are just as bad, if not worse. You have to get them the latest gadget so they'll look cool in school. A lot of them are too old for Santa, but they still don't know that money doesn't grow on trees. And with all the commercial garbage on TV and online, it only makes it worse at Christmas. I grew up before the internet existed, so I didn't have that to look at. The internet has made some things easier, and some things worse. You can't even go on Facebook without having ads shoved down your throat. I'm happy to be around the ones I love, I'd be fine if I didn't get anything, just have good company and good food. But my niece, who's 5, is just as bad as these kids I'm talking about. Her papaw and mamaw buy her whatever she wants. She expects it. She has no discipline and is a nightmare to try to correct when she does something wrong. She wants lots of makeup, Bratz dolls, Justin Bieber stuff, I mean come on, when I was five I played with my Lite Brite, Easy Bake Oven, regular dolls (like Cabbage Patch), and I watched silly shows (Gummi Bears, Talespin, You Can't Do That On Television, Duck Tales, Muppet Babies, Today's Special, Count Duckula, Pinwheel, David the Gnome...). That's when TV and toys were the best. I had my Candyland game, Mousetrap, Thin Ice, oh man, those were the days. Christmases now will never be the same.

That's about the saddest thing I've ever read! I'm so sorry. What can I do to help?

Sorry, I love Christmas!!! I wish it could be Christmas all year long =) This thread makes me sad! Yall! Cheer up!

Holidays are my worst. I work retail and it takes all of my energy to not have a nervous breakdown

no. I'm alone for it unless someone insists i go eat something with their family. i usually demur and solo cook a turkey, watch tv specials play tunes and phone my family. I expect to do that. Last year i had a gall bladder op the last wk before xmas day. haha...i still did the bird and carried on...albeit slowly. i remember some good times at xmas as a young kid prior to the hammer falling. it stays with me...i'm lucky that way. this place will be here for you guys during the holidays...don't forget that.

Something I'm thankful of with Xmas is that I don't secretly want to celebrate it with friends or family. I'm quite satisfied to see those doing it doing it and leaving me alone. It's just them stressing that is hard for me. I know people feel lonely and stuff, but I don't.

I actually don't mind christmas it is the expense that is crippling plus I think this year will be real strange as it will be the first since mom died.

(((hugs))) everyone that don't like christmas, I feel really sad reading this thread

I know you mean well, but it's really annoying when you tell someone who's unhappy, "Cheer up!" Especially if they suffer from depression. If you're happy at Christmastime, good for you. Leave the rest of us to console each other. Maybe you don't have the same issues as some of us have. Great, go enjoy your holidays. But don't tell me to freakin' "Cheer up!"