Christmas is tired already

  • Thread starter Thread starter GilesGuthrie
  • 25 comments
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What do you think of Christmas?

  • I love Christmas, and the anticipation makes it better

    Votes: 13 40.6%

  • It starts too early, but it's good when you get there

    Votes: 13 40.6%

  • I hate Christmas

    Votes: 4 12.5%

  • I have Religious beliefs that don't agree with Christmas

    Votes: 2 6.3%
  • Total voters
    32
GilesGuthrie

GilesGuthrie

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CMDRTheDarkLord
So, here we are in October, and Christmas is already starting to annoy me.

I couldn't find a number of the products that I buy in the supermarket. I buy them every week, but they were either moved or deleted in order to make way for Christmas crackers, decorations, and those ridiculous over-sized boxes of chocolates (which inevitably remain half-full until June, when someone realises that only the stinking ones are left, then a huge argument breaks out over whether it's worth keeping the tin).

It threw me into quite the glum mood as I realised that from now on the harmless, inoffensive music piped into shops would be replaced with Christmas tunes, which are always exceptional only in their tackiness and irritating hook lines. Even now, I can hear Slade's So this is Christmas in my head. If I ever meet Noddy Holder, I'll ask him to sing it, so that I can punch him in the mouth at that really annoying bit whee he screams "It's Chriiiiiisssstmaaaaaassssss".

And TV commercials, currently dominated by blatantly misleading ads for women's cosmetics (what the hell is "Nutrilium" and "Boswelox"?? Actually, the latter has been re-christened "bollocksox" in our house, such is our estimation of its power), and patronising ads for diapers ("You're 18 months old" No I'm not, and it's two-thirty in the morning, if I'm 18 months old, what am I doing up?), are replaced with countless ads for "Christmas Specials", pre- and post-Christmas sales, all with that desperate "Please buy our stuff for this faux-Religious Festival" tone, and chocolate-box snow-scene.

And everyone talks about Christmas all the time. "Have you done your shopping yet?" seeming to be the most common question. Already, for a month, my line manager has been responding to the question "How are you?" with "Oh, you know, looking forward to Christmas", and he signs all his e-mails off with the number of days left to go.

It's always involved a large amount of travelling for me too, which has been a bind. Especially because I don't live near my parents, and I don't know anyone where they live. Last year, I went mad, as I was dragged hundreds of miles from friends, the internet, mobile phone coverage and cable TV. And just as I was quashing homicidal thoughts, my parents said "Oh, next time, you should come down for longer". Gah! NoooooooO!

Then, when you actually get to the day, you find yourself compelled to spend the time with people that you probably don't get on with all that well, eating and drinking until you're fit to burst (because there's nothing else to do), and watching re-runs of Moonraker. There are heaps of James Bond films, so why do they always show Moonraker? And the present-thing is a massive anti-climax, usually because you don't get what you want, or because that present that you thought someone would love has had only a mediocre reception.

I respect the people who genuinely celebrate the religious side of Christmas, but suspect that these make up about 1% of the population. The rest of us are caught up in the rampant money-making exercise, bowing to the pressure to buy more and better, be nicer, make more effort than last year.

It's an arms race, and it starts earlier and earlier every year.

Or is it just me?
 
Originally posted by GilesGuthrie

And everyone talks about Christmas all the time. "Have you done your shopping yet?" seeming to be the most common question. Already, for a month, my line manager has been responding to the question "How are you?" with "Oh, you know, looking forward to Christmas", and he signs all his e-mails off with the number of days left to go.
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Kick his ass.

And you're right. This post is classic!
 
And as I was writing that, the invitation for my company's Christmas Party arrived in my Inbox. :rolleyes:
 
Wear an easterbunny suit and hide eggs around the place. Then proceed to wish everyone a happy 4th of July. Then kick that guy who's counting down's ass.
 
In recent years, my enjoyment of christmas has certainly gone down hill. When I was younger, I can remember teh Christmas season officially kicking off on Black Friday (the Day after THanksgiving). You never saw a christmas decoration until that time. Now it seems the eggnog has been showing up in mid october and sticking around until late February.

Last year, my wife and I were at each others throats by the time our christmas excursion wrapped up. To drop off gifts, pick up gifts, deliver more gifts, attend two office christmas parties, and finally make it home. We told eveyone last year, that we were spending Christmas at home, and not travelling.

Boy, did we get just a few sour notes about blowing off the family. Sorry to say, but I'm not up to spending 300+ miles in the car to listen to a bunch of screaming kids moaning that they didn't get the newest game. Then eating an under cooked turkey and over cooked potatoes. I can prep a better meal at home, and save myself the aggravatin of winter driving with idiots on the road.

And the Gift giving hoopla. Last year we spent just under $1000 on gifts for the family, and did not receive one "thank you" card. So this year, we decided we're having a nice portrait taken, popping it into a frame and sending that out. We'll include an annual letter about the years events and consider it done. I do think that the gift giving is been grossly over blown and someone needs to keep it in check. I certainly have enough widgits and knick-knacks floating around the house so I don't need anything more. If I want the latest video game, I'll pick it up myself.

Yes I sound like a sourpuss, but the real meaning of christmas has long been forgotten. It's about love, reflection, and togetherness. I'll sit quietly with my wife that I love, reflect on the past year, and snuggle under a blanket and watch a good movie. Giles, I suggest you do the same. Sure, the family will be ticked off at you, but at least you get to enjoy the day. The family will get used to it. Mine did.

When asked by some cheery caffeinated co-worker "Have you done your christmas shopping yet?" I respond with a blank stare and a deadpan "Yes." which tends to kill that conversation quickly.

AO
 
My family has set a threshold. We will not put up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. Infact, so much so, that it has become a family tradition to do Christmas decorations in the afternoon after we've recovered from Thanksgiving lunch/dinner.
 
My favorite time of the year is Christmas, which I am calling Winter Festival, or Yule, from now on. But since it correlates with the Christian holy day, and I was raised with it, I use the terms interchangeably depending on the situation.

I find it difficult to be enthusiastic about it until Thanksgiving arrives. To me, it's the gateway to winter and the special things about it.

The week of December 25 - January 1 holds special memories for me from childhood all the way up through the present. And this year will be our first holiday season with our son, and I'm looking forward to that, especially raising him to understand that his family does not celebrate Christmas, and why this is significant. We will do all the non-Christian things typically associated with Christmas like put up and trim a real tree, exchange gifts, spend extra time with family, and celebrate life during the darkest time of year. We will watch all the vintage animated specials and fight crowds at the mall, and we'll listen to carols about Rudolph and Santa and snow. We will borrow from the bastardized tradition our parents accepted, and from something much older, in our opinion, more true.

And until I say the words, Winter Festival, nobody will even know the difference. When they say Merry Christmas, I'll smile and return the wish.

They start selling Christmas too early and I think it cheapens the entire thing for everyone, which is part of the reason I dissociate myself from it. I don't think most people care or are even attuned to the possibility that it could be about something more fundemental, so they could start in August and it wouldn't make a bit of difference. But I don't pay attention until that Thursday in November, when for the next month or so, life is a little better, inspite of it all.
 
One thing I saw in an american ad pretty well sums up my feelings..

SEMI Annual Christmas sale :rolleyes:
 
I love christmas.. but it starts waaay to early.. i mean, christmas is fun and all that.. But it looses some of its charm when it starts in september.. Christmas is traditions, and family. And buying christmas presents is one of the most fun thing i know about.. (but that migth be because im a shopoholic..)
 
I have mixed emotions about Christmas. I love the gift giving/receiving and all that but it's also very stressfull. I hate hearing my parents have some of their worst fights during a time that's supposed to be happy. Every year my mom gets pissed (I mean royally pissed) about having to put up our (fake) tree. Last year she took all her anger out on me when I tried to help her put up the lights (apparently I wasn't doing it right. I had no idea there was a right or wrong way). Also every year my mom gives my dad a gift that my dad doesn't particularly like, but the problem is my dad is very honest. He told her what he thought about it in what he considered a nice way but my mom took it badly and, guess what, she screamed and cried about how he never likes anything she gives him and he doesn't appreciate her. My dad just needs to learn how to put on a front and tell her he likes everything she buys for him and when he learns that everything will go a lot better.

But once that's all over and I go to my room and play my new game or whatever it is I got it's all good.
 
i'm muslim, so don't celebrate christmas...but still...i don't mind because i get days off with u guys!!!

bsides...eid is just as good for us i guess
 
I'm a big fan of Christmas and all, but I really don't want to hear about it until December. Christmas has given way to commercialism, thats all there is to it. Sad really.
 
Originally posted by Raptor65
Every year my mom gets pissed (I mean royally pissed) about having to put up our (fake) tree. Last year she took all her anger out on me when I tried to help her put up the lights (apparently I wasn't doing it right. I had no idea there was a right or wrong way).
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OMG, the tree thing! :eek: :lol:

As children, my sister and I were always press-ganged into helping put up the tree by my Mother. She would always criticise where I put the decorations, but never criticise where my sister put them. When I pointed out that she was just moving everything I put on the tree, so there wasn't any point in me doing it, she would freak out, and start shouting at me.

Then one year, I was about 17, I think. Mum had bought a massive tree, to go in the conservatory, which had a sloping roof. This thing must have been 9 or 10 feet tall, but its base couldn't support it properly, and so it had to be tied to stop it falling over.

Mum asked me to help her tie the tree. Now, anyone with even a basic grasp of physics knows that the further from the pivot point that you tie your guy rope, the less force the guy has to exert. And at the time, I was studying Advanced Level physics.

But no, Mum wanted the tree tied a foot from the ground. I told her it wouldn't work, and she said she was my mother and knew best. I said something along the lines of "Oh well, off you go then".

The tree fell down 20 minutes later. When Dad got home he took one look at it, said "Oh, for ****'s sake", and tied the tree 6 inches from the top. Since then my help has been neither offered nor requested.

Now I have my own house, and my own tree, I rule. The wife isn't all that bothered about putting the decorations up, but I actually like it (in spite of my general hatred of Christmas, I love a nice Christmas tree, with baubles and lights and tinsel and stuff). So she just leaves me to it, and either likes the result, or has the good grace to say she does.
 
Personally I love Christmas. The problem with it though is that people have screwed it up. I love the old traditions I grew up with. I love that our family focuses on what it is really all about. I love the plays at Church. I love the Christian Christmas songs.I love going out with my son and finding that just right real tree. I love using the trim from the tree to make a wreath to hang over the fireplace. I love the giving. I love just spending time with the people that mean the most to me.

What I hate about it?
People who complain about it. People(corporations/companies) who use it just for profit and have no idea(or should I say don't care) what it's really about.
 
Chistmas in America...the resurection of the retail-sales sector of the economy!

My wife and I have vowed to either get the same gift year after year (give her dad a tin of Almond Roca, and he's thrilled!), or just get Best Buy gift certificates. I've heard it from family, they think I don't care, but we all have jobs, and nobody drops hints anymore about what they want anyhow (except for non-existant discounts on Lexuses).

Like Der Alta said, I really don't need anymore silly items cluttering up my house. I don't have the room, and I'm past the age of even needing most of what I get. The things I'd really like are too expensive for anyone else to buy for me, anyhow...I'm not that shallow to bother asking for a $200 hard-drive, a $500 telescope, or anything else over twenty bucks. I'd rather save and earn it myself, honestly. I value it more.

It's more fun doing favors for Christmas/Chanukah; invite family and friends over for a dinner at my house, or watch the kids at a pre-determined date in the future. I'm quite happy to let others storm the malls, clog parking lots, and look for soon-forgotten items while I stay at home and keep more of my money and sanity. With all that said, I'm rather glad GT4 will not be available until 2004...

There are some things that are nice about the holidays, though: The nostalgia aspect of late December always comes into play. Living in Florida has it's advantages, and so a lot of our extended family visits. The weather is wonderful, and back when I didn't work there was so much to do. We get together and talk about old times, young times, and other times. My wife and i trim a rel tree, and just sit abck and listen to music, and watch the lights flicker. We play with a dreidel and nosh on ladkhes and chocolates. We open the photo albums and laugh at it all. There's always someone making a home-cooked dinner at their house.

So there are plenty of things to look forward to...
 
Then one year, I was about 17, I think. Mum had bought a massive tree, to go in the conservatory, which had a sloping roof. This thing must have been 9 or 10 feet tall, but its base couldn't support it properly, and so it had to be tied to stop it falling over.
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Don't take this the wrong way but, man, your mom must have been pretty stupid to tie the tree a foot from the bottom!

That's like basic middle school science!

BTW- I'm just a stupid lazy american so tell me what a "conservatory" is. It sounds fancy and sophisticated.

(I hope it means like the living room or something so I can go around and say in my rich Britsh voice, "hmm yes, I'm watching the television in the conservatory. By the way Jeeves would you bring around the JagUar to the GARahge, I believe there is supposed to be a slight mist tonight."):lol:
 
This upcoming Christmas may be my best yet, as i'll be going to SC to spend time w/ my grandparents.:) The New Year's Celebration should also be fun.;)
 
All the ads, etc. don't really bother me, I let those slide.
What grabs my attention is the speed with which the season gets here, not the comercial stuff but the dates themselves. Before we know it, it'll be December. I'm just glad I don't have a great deal of close friends 'cause my pockets ain't looking too deep this year to buy anybody anything. :indiff:
 

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