I still enjoy Christmas but there is a bittersweet element now due to loss, experience and outgrowing the magic. The values of cherishing family, friends and community are still important but I don’t make myself a wreck for the season.

I do what feels good and reasonable. That varies each year with my situation. It’s normal and not something to worry about. I’m a real person. I don’t exist in an advert so I don’t try to live like that.

As long as I can sit at the table with my loved ones and share the traditional meals then it is enough. I don’t need gifts or lavish parties. I also only give gifts when it feels right to me.

My country is small and we have Boxing Day so I don’t suffer the travel stress that Americans do. Maybe I would give up on Christmas if I had to deal with that. (Boxing Day should be a human right… ha ha)

Unlike another poster, I like that most stores are closed. I like the idea of everyone having time off together. I do get the poster’s sentiment though. I once felt that way. It can be really inconvenient if an unexpected need pops up.

I don’t like how commercialised Christmas has become but I mostly don’t let that influence me. A pet peeve of mine is Christmas advertising starting months early. It makes the season stale so I avoid the ads as much as I can and I don’t start listening to Christmas music until the weekend before the big day.

Stress.

Stress about all the money spent on a midnight feast that we’re too sleepy and tired to enjoy (our Christmas meal here is at 12mn, it cannot start earlier), the gifts and decorations, and the electricity of all the RGB lights strung around to make our family to be “with the community spirit”. Stress about not having the energy to be able to smile and be cheerful all the time, or else you’d be the subject of dinner conversations, how you’re not “making an effort to spread the holiday spirit”. And worst of all, the stress of not being able to sleep and rest due to all the merrymaking, singing, and overall noisemaking (fireworks tend to be fired at random here, and increasing in frequency as it draws closer to the end of December).

I used to look forward to the food, the seasonal food, and the feasting. But now that I’ve got to prepare all that food, taste it, make adjustments based on who is going to be coming for the Christmas dinner, it’s just draining.

What is supposed to be a season to be merry, to be hopeful, and all that good cheer, has become the very cause of all the sorry hopelessness and drear.

Time off work with holiday pay, If you’re lucky.

Otherwise it’s a capitalism thing to buy stuff to make companies money.

No, I hate Christmas with a passion. Despite having pagan roots, the modern version is a BS Christo-capitalist holiday. All it does is remind me (and others like me) how much our families hate us and how much this country sucks. This year is especially bad, since we’re a month out from a fascist takeover that threatens to genocide us.

Fake Christmas cheer is sickening

I won’t lie, usually Christmas is my favorite time of year. Something about the music, getting to see all my family, and trying to find inventive ways to make friends and family happy through gifts always cheers me up. Never really had the money to go all out, but the spirit was there.

This year I just do not care. Usually I listen to dozens of hours of Christmas music and this year it is less than 2 hours so far. I’m not looking forward to giving or receiving gifts; it just feels so formulaic and rabidly consumerist. My usual comfort movies hold no interest for me. I’d skip it if I could. And all of that was before my grandmother died this past Saturday.

christmas to me means moving on to become a better and happier person, spending time with family that visits town, realizing i still have time left to turn my life around. good feelings but also very nostalgic, thank you for the question!!!

It means that I will be harassed for not being happy enough and wrong for not wanting to participate.

I work in education. Christmas time is so much better with kids. It feels empty without some 9-y-o bouncing off the walls and telling you all the things he wants for Christmas.

Do not measure your life by the holidays, any of them. No one is a failure because a holiday is not perfect. And being alone is not always a bad thing. Be thankful that you are not in a toxic or violent relationship. And single people are not losers. Every individual gets to decide how, when and if they participate in social rituals, and holidays are one of them. It’s ok to hate them or love them. But it’s never ok to make others, or yourself, feel bad for having and making your own choices about social rituals. I personally left holidays in the past many years ago. I’m done, I’m full thanks. And I won’t feel bad because someone wants or expects me to participate. And I won’t make others feel bad because they don’t hold my views. We are all Human, and we all get to decide whats best for our self.

No. My mom has always worked holidays, and so have I (once I was old enough). We would celebrate around it, but pulled back as I got older. I’m at a job that’s just closed this holiday, and it’s just a day off for me. 🤷🏿‍♀️

Nope. Just like valentines, fathers/mother’s day, or any of the other “hallmark holidays”. July 4th (US) too. And Thanksgiving, like ugh. “we stole land and murdered the people who were there, let’s celebrate” is just vomit-worthy.

Birthdays aren’t much for me but I make it a point to say hi when it’s a friend’s. “one year closer to death!”, as me and a friend say.

I’ve not-jokingly told people to wait until Feb 15th/Dec 26th/etc if they are hell-bent on buying me something. Thrifty and affectionate? Be still my heart.

No. Society has shown me that I mean nothing. I’m tired of trying be fit in with whatever this all is.

Divorced parents. A latter childhood of “equal time” over the holidays. Hoopla so forced and weird, it was a caricature of itself.

No, I really avoid a lot of the hoopla I Christmas and everything else. And I like quiet celebrations at home. My best Christmas was my first year H1Bing in Jersey and my gf came to visit all the way from home. No money, with her tuition and schooling so high, we sat around and watched TV and journeyed over the PATH to see the sights. It was magical (because she is).

Growing up, I always dreaded holidays. I mean, sure the time off from school was great, that’s a given. But getting excited about Xmas just wasn’t my thing. Several years ago I finally realized why: The excitement is manufactured. It’s just an ever-increasing buildup frenzy of the holiday. Gotta do your shopping, and more shopping, and more shopping. Then you gotta cook and clean. Then go visit family that you really don’t care to see.

Finally, the big day! Open presents! Then…. Nothing. Just another day, except it’s more boring because your friends have to do stuff with their families.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad others get enjoyment out of it. Great for them. Just don’t expect me to to excited too.

Sure, it’s how I get my nieces and nephews who live on the other side of the country to remember who I am. I’m a good gift giver.