I actually loathe it, as awful as that may sound to some of you. I’m not Christian, so I don’t celebrate the religious aspect of it. I don’t exchange gifts with anyone (I prefer it that way), so it’s not like I’m celebrating the secular aspect of it, either. I still tell people “merry Christmas,” which I’ll probably do on here tomorrow, as well as on fb, but that’s because I genuinely want them to enjoy it, even if I can’t. I also can’t stand Xmas music, and I get bombarded with that for a month leading up to this holiday. I’m always so relieved when that is over.
As a result of all of this, Xmas for me is all just an inconvenience, and a bit of an annoyance. Don’t get me wrong, though, I am glad others are able to derive joy from this holiday. I just wonder if anyone else here feels the same way about this holiday as I do.
One time I was in jail on Christmas. That was the most joyless holiday I’ve ever had. I still like X mas, though. I’m not religious either, but I like the idea of a single day when everyone lays aside all their ill will and joins in fellowship. To be honest, I’m not especially fond of turkey dinners, but that is the only aspect of Christmas that I don’t like.
I love turkey, but my sister and brother-in-law don’t typically do that. Usually they have a very nice ham, which makes the day a bit better, though this year they’re just doing a big breakfast.
And yeah, being in jail would make for one awful Xmas. I’ve never been to jail, certainly hope I never go.
Not sure if dislike is the right word, get tired of answering questions about it, people just look at you weird, they all come out with you see family, you get lots of gifts, you have a big meal etc, make you feel bad over and over when you have none of them.
Not that I mind being home alone and if no one asked me those questions, I would be fine with it.
I hear ya. I lost my mom to breast cancer in 2006, and I lost my dad to a heart attack in 2013, so now my sister and her family are the only family I have left.
I usually love xmas, but this one I’ve just not really been feeling myself. I’ve been absolutely exhausted, struggling to get out of bed. Because of this I’ve been very irritable as well.
Today in mass I felt absolutely nothing. No warmth or closeness to God. It’s been a rather sad and superficial christmas for me.
I have never really liked Christmas since I hit 16 years old. All I see in Christmas is forced happiness and tension between others, it’s just always sucked. I find that it’s better to treat it as any other normal day.
I think the primary reason people dislike Christmas is that society has taken the birthday of the least-materialistic person to ever walk the face of the earth and turned it into the most-materialistic holiday.
If Jesus comes back to earth tomorrow he would cry. He would spend his birthday with the homeless, sick children, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting prisoners, people with AIDS, prostitutes, the mentally ill, etc. He cared about and helped the most stigmatized people of his day. Frankly, people that society didn’t give a **** about. Remember that he frequently voiced his disapproval of hypocrisy.
Thus if you’re down and out, have nothing, hopeless, then tomorrow is YOUR day.
If Jesus is existing now he can spend Chrismas with me caring about me because I am a Schizophrenic and show me the hypocrisy and not stress me out in any way.
I agree @kindness. Now im a buddhist not a christian but i can appreciate jesus and what this holiday is meant to be. Kindness and caring toward your fellow man. I completely hate the materialistic aspect of what christmas has been transformed into. Shopping and buying and sales and things.
Although christmas has been transformed a few times throughout history to herd society in a direction by whoever is the cotrolling power of the times. I may be misremembering but im pretty sure jesus was born in august according to the constallations stated in the bible during his birth and was moved to december by the church in i think the dark ages to help with the conversion of pagans by the romans and match christmas with a pagan holiday, the name of which escapes me right now. I know that is where the christmas tree tradition comes from is from the pagan side as the tree was the symbol for their holiday which was in december.
Now it has transformed it into a buy stuff holiday to keep the economy from completely failing. I believe the entire retail sector of the economy operates at a loss with their books in the red throughout the year and would collapse if it were not for the gift buying during this time to get their numbers back into the black and be able to exist for another year, only to repeat every year. The economy is stimulated every year by all the spending thus allowing it to function.
Now whether the transformation over time has been deliberate or just a natural progression of society i guess can be debated.
I also find it funny that the santa clause, be good and get presents be bad and get nothing or coal, is a direct reflection of christian religions in itself (heaven & hell) seeming almost to be planting the seeds of the concept into children making it easier to convert them as they progress.
Or im just a delusional nut with crazy theories that doesnt care for Christmas. I like the idea of christmas, i just despise the traditions that have taken it over. Being a buddhist i dont care for materialistic ideals and society’s quest for “things”.
Im just rambling…this is one of my delusional theories that an unknown force is herding the human race in some sort of direction for some reason, or its all just chaos and coincidence. Who knows.
The holiday is far too materialistic for me. I’m an atheist, so it doesn’t really matter either way to me, but I hate that I can’t even go to the store in December for fear of getting trampled or waiting in three hour long check out lines.
I reflect probably more than most on Christ’s birth. I really hate all the gift exchanges I really don’t know anyone in need, my wife is all about getting stuff for family I feel the need to give to the less fortunate, but it doesn’t go over well with my wife. So. I try to look past all this materialism but to be honest it’s kind of noziating. I’m always glad when it’s over. We gordge ourselves on sweets and exchange gifts that we really don’t need. Yeah I guess I’m kind of a Scrooge.
I can’t say I hate Christmas but I don’t get overly enthused about it . This will be the first Christmas period since 2010 that I won’t have been completely on my own as I am going to my sister’s tomorrow.
Being on your own over the Christmas period can be lonely and depressing ,but on the other hand just thinking about leaving my flat for a few days and going to my sister’s is really pushing my anxiety buttons.
For the last few years I have made a point of booking a couple of places at ‘Crisis at Christmas’