Most and least favorite holiday

Out of curiosity, what is your most and least favorite holiday if you have any at all? For me, I don't have a favorite but if I had to choose one then I'd pick Thanksgiving since it doesn't over stay its welcome and I like the food. For my least favorite, it has become Christmas even though I loved it as a kid and this is due to how commercialized it is and I don't like the forced family gatherings and interactions. I can always tell when others are putting on an act when in reality they are miserable about the holidays, at least for the other holidays don't appear as commercialized other than maybe Halloween and there's not as much forced interactions with family members you may not want to interact with.

My least favorite is Thanksgiving. There just haven't been a lot of good ones after I turned 12 and then my dad died 2 days after Thanksgiving 2014. I had to work a monster 12 hour black Friday shift in 2016. In 2019 and 2021 I just stayed back at home and in the hotel. 2020 was fine but I felt guilty going to my sisters because they were saying not to travel but I had quarantined and so had my sister for 2 weeks so everyone was telling me what we were was doing was different. I still felt guilty.

Christmas is my favorite holiday. Its changed drastically since I was a kid and even in the last 10 years but I still love it.

Aww I'm sorry you went through that, I can see how that could put a damper on the holidays. For me, I just like Thanksgiving for the food and not the interactions. It sucks that you had to work on Thanksgiving, I believe most stores now close on Thanksgiving which is good. That's good that you still enjoy Christmas and it definitely changed for me too, I used to love Christmas and I do like seeing other people's decorations and a select few of the music but I don't like the other aspects of it.

When my mother was still alive, over 17 years ago, I guess my favorite was Thanksgiving because she always made it so nice and autumn is my favorite season. After she passed away, none of the holidays that I spent with MY family were pleasant, for several reasons I won't bother listing. As for least favorite, it's usually any holiday that involves gift giving. Call me a scrooge, but I dislike the pressure involved with it. I'd even give up receiving gifts not to have to buy ones for others. I see the idea of "gift" in a different way than spending money for material crap. I suppose Christmas is the worst since you need to give gifts to multiple people at one time. The holiday is a commercial and materialistic horror, nowadays. Most people don't even recognize it for what it's supposed to be.

The Skeezyks doesn't do holidays (birthdays included.) So I don't have a favorite holiday. But one I detest is the Fourth of July in the U.S. I absolutely HATE all the noise!

Yeah I'm not a big fan of the Fourth of July either. People get obnoxious with their fireworks and sometimes they do them before and after the Fourth of July which is annoying.

I agree, I like Thanksgiving more than Christmas even though I don't like family interactions. I also agree with the gift giving, I hate the sense of obligation it brings, people get offended if they don't receive something and creates a rift. They also get offended if it's not something they wanted or something they have to take back, it's the petty crap that made me dislike Christmas since I absolutely loved it when I was a kid and honestly Christmas appears to be geared more towards children anyway. I would actually probably like Christmas more again if gift giving was eliminated and there wasn't as much of a pressure to interact with family members that you don't want to interact with, also celebrating doesn't seem as sincere since I can always tell who's putting on an act and every year it seems like more and more people are miserable during the holidays.

Holidays are usually a thing of the past. All parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles have died on both my and my husband's side. We both have older siblings who are elderly, live some distance away, and don't really travel (especially past mid-afternoon). Nieces and nephews are scattered to the wind, and our own grown kids either live far away or tend to travel outside the US during the holidays. So the once-festive holidays (that I so took for granted) are now lonely. Perhaps they are good days to turn inward and focus on developing my spiritual self. I try.

All this said - I am 100% in agreement with Skeezyks regarding the hell that is the 4th of July in the US. It used to be a nice family/children themed holiday. It has become a nightmare of noise, what are illegally-crafted bombs, and the fear that my poor elderly cat will have a heart attack due to his terror of the noise. I also fear fire from the illegal fireworks - indeed, 2 homes in town did catch fire this year.

Yeah holidays aren't the same as they used to be and I think that's the case with everyone as they get older. Some people pass away while others find different traditions which is perfectly fine if that's what they want to do. I agree that the Fourth of July is one obnoxious holiday due to the fireworks people set off even before and after that holiday. People have gotten extremely inconsiderate about fireworks since they don't care and I have a fear of houses catching fire since I see that on the news every year and I have witnessed a firework malfunction up close once too.

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Originally Posted by rdgrad15 Yeah holidays aren't the same as they used to be and I think that's the case with everyone as they get older. Some people pass away while others find different traditions which is perfectly fine if that's what they want to do. I agree that the Fourth of July is one obnoxious holiday due to the fireworks people set off even before and after that holiday. People have gotten extremely inconsiderate about fireworks since they don't care and I have a fear of houses catching fire since I see that on the news every year and I have witnessed a firework malfunction up close once too.

Yes, I suppose holidays do change for everyone as the years pass. I hadn't thought of it before, really. I guess I'm not alone in that.

Not too many years ago I saw a house burn to the ground on the 4th. It was horrible to witness. Every year I used to put a sprinkler on the roof of a house I rented in a neighborhood that was especially crazy on the 4th.

Yeah it’s always sad seeing news footage of houses burning down knowing full well it didn’t have to happen if only people were more careful. Having a sprinkler is a good idea.

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Originally Posted by *Beth* Holidays are usually a thing of the past. All parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles have died on both my and my husband's side. We both have older siblings who are elderly, live some distance away, and don't really travel (especially past mid-afternoon). Nieces and nephews are scattered to the wind, and our own grown kids either live far away or tend to travel outside the US during the holidays. So the once-festive holidays (that I so took for granted) are now lonely. All this said - I am 100% in agreement with Skeezyks regarding the hell that is the 4th of July in the US. It used to be a nice family/children themed holiday. It has become a nightmare of noise, what are illegally-crafted bombs, and the fear that my poor elderly cat will have a heart attack due to his terror of the noise. I also fear fire from the illegal fireworks - indeed, 2 homes in town did catch fire this year.

Beth, I feel the same about the holidays. There's no one left to celebrate with. They've all passed away.

Christmas used to be my most and least favorite holiday. Most because I got into decorating, baking, etc. Least because of the stress. The forced happiness. The media harping about the great, close, happy families. A friend of mine and I used to define a "good" holiday as one where no one got in a fight.

Now holidays are just lonely.

Agree 1000% with those who hate July 4th. I enjoy watching the fireworks, but hate the rest of it. My poor dog HATES loud noises. He is a basketball on the 4th. My neighbor's shoot guns and fireworks most of the night. Last 4th they were were at it until 4AM!

I agree with you that a good holiday is one where no one fights and Christmas is no longer my favorite holiday. I used to love Christmas as a kid due to the gifts and seeing the decorations up. I still do like seeing other people's lights but I don't like decorating myself. You'd be surprised how many arguments I've seen over decorations especially when they don't work. It is so petty and trivial and there's so many other things to be more concerned about. I've also seen people get offended when they didn't receive anything or not what they wanted.

Also the forced happiness and commercialism as well as unnecessary stress and witnessing arguments are what made me dislike the holidays and that goes for other holidays as well. I agree they are just lonely now and it really shows among others and it becomes extremely obvious that the happiness is forced when the holidays end and people fully admit to being so glad it's all over and genuinely seem happier and calmer when January rolls around.

I try really hard to keep all the old traditions going, especially around that king of all the holidays, Christmas. But money has been tight for so long, it's been a real challenge---on top of losing so many beloved relatives.

I would have to say, Thanksgiving is still at the top of my favorites list, however. The rest don't signify as much for me anymore.

My husband is a nice man but he is a bit clueless about celebrating without being almost completely inebriated throughout. He can't ever let his hair down, or be warm, enthusiastic, or romantic, without a lot of beer in him. And that is a huge turnoff. I think that's part of what I deal with, as well. He's also clueless about birthdays. I was never really into big birthday parties and stuff, but now they've almost completely fallen by the wayside.

So, that takes an awful lot of the fun out of just about every celebration. If you can't do it sober and completely conscious, with other people's enjoyment taking priority, then why bother? And I'm tired of being the only one who really does all the cheerleading, and all the actual labor involved.

Oh wow I’m sorry you dealt with that and that would definitely put a damper on the holidays. I agree that the holidays and even birthdays don’t mean much to me anymore either. Times have changed and I’ve gotten older so the hype has gone down so I don’t feel so joyous anymore. Also loosing people including friends also make the holidays more sad and I agree I actually prefer Thanksgiving and even Halloween more than Christmas since there’s not as much of an obligation to be around others.

Well the first hurdle is tomorrow....No turkey for me even though I like it. It reminds me too much of what I've lost. I'm having fish.

I was thinking about how when I was a kid, how upset it made me when we "couldn't afford" a Christmas tree anymore at one point. My parents were always penny pinching and one year they said it's just too costly. They said it's a waste of money to spend it on something we throw out on New Year's. At the time, it was important and I thought isn't that what we're supposed to do???

Okay now I get it. But I'm 61 now. Big difference from 11, LOL.

At first, people are happy in January.....until the bills come.

People certainly drive faster and are so impatient now, more than the rest of the year.

Aw I'm sorry about that and I can see how having turkey can bring up painful memories. Also as a kid I used to think we were supposed to waste money on Christmas but not anymore. You're parents were actually right in that aspect because it really is a waste of money for something you only have up for a month and may even throw out if it's a live tree. And yeah the happiness in January doesn't last long and people procrastinating to get taxes done doesn't help matters either.

My favorite holiday is Halloween 🎃 but I don’t do much any more.

My two least favorite holiday is split between July 4th and New Year’s Eve. They are both excuses to get stinking drunk, fight, shoot guns and fireworks and drive. I stay home both holidays and have done so for years.

I think my favorite holiday is split between Thanksgiving for the food even though I dislike family interactions and halloween since I do like candy even though I rarely eat candy myself and I never do anything during these holidays as well. I agree those two holidays involving fireworks are super annoying and people use it as an excuse to be inconsiderate. I think the Fourth of July may be worse since the fireworks tend to go on for at least a couple days longer than New Years. I dislike New Years not just because of the fireworks but also the ridiculous hype over a new year acting like that will change things when in reality nothing will change other than the number in the year itself.

I hate all holidays now, with the exception of Halloween and St. Patrick's Day, even if those aren't official holidays with stuff being closed or closing early! I like the spooky stuff associated with Halloween, including the music like "Monster Mash" and I like Irish music and the color green.

I no longer have any family and no friends, so nobody to "celebrate" with. As I've gotten older I've been fed up with the overly commercialized hype and forced family/friend gatherings. The endless holiday music playing, the TV commercials with smiling families, etc. And the gift giving got to be an obligation after awhile. I sure don't miss those office "parties", where you had to pretend you were having fun around people you can't stand all day and have to see/work with.

Anyway, it seem that at least in the US, they are days of forced cheerfulness, commercialization, and NOISE. It's like July 4th and New Year's Eve are excuses to make a lot of noise, get drunk, etc. I find the fireworks unbearable and it seems nobody thinks about people that might need to sleep since they don't have New Year's off? They fire guns into the air too, even with all the gun violence. Do they think the bullet just keeps going up and up, into oblivion? NO, it comes down at some point. And will hurt someone.

It's like an excuse for people to be idiots now. And the holidays are a 2 month stretch at the end of the year, when the days are short/dark and tax season is just around the corner.

Each year I see the same footage of people lining up at the airport to "see family and friends." Not everyone is doing that!

And that's another thing: Holidays are not automatic days off anymore. Many businesses force people to work 24/7, holidays too.

Plus there's COVID. We are still losing people, but the media doesn't mention it anymore. Because it's supposed to be "over" and "it's the holidays" it's time to be cheerful!! There's a lot of grieving people out there too yet we are expected to put on a smiley face...no matter what. The holidays are excruciating for people who are alone. Everyone expects you to have plans, to have family, etc.

American culture has got to be among the most insensitive and clueless culture on earth.