Sure, the first year (or two) of COVID were wretched, but most of those barriers have since cleared — yet I’m still struggling. I’ve noticed the same with a number of people within my family and neighbourhood.
How are others feeling? Are you struggling, yet succeeding? If so, how are you breaking through?
I would say the first year or two of covid, where we didnt have gatherings, were the best christmases I ever had.
Cause its my family and the stress, irritation, and anger that comes along with dealing with them are what always ruin christmas for me.
I’ve never been much of a Christmas person. But 2020-2022 were the most Christmasy I’ve ever felt (probably because we were at home and decided to embrace with a tree and roast dinner etc it rather than our usual travelling holiday).
Now that we’re fully back to our old lifestyle, I don’t even notice that it’s Christmas/end of year until someone brings it up.
Seeing kids being butchered in Gaza or grieving their dead parents is definitely a bummer for me.
Was just talking about this with a coworker yesterday. They’d noticed that in their neighborhood, the amount of decorations out were even less than the year before. No one left the area, just not putting stuff up anymore.
This is something I’ve felt more and more every year for all the holidays in the areas of the US I frequent. Halloween, Xmas, Easter, etc.
The stores are all decorated earlier than ever, but neighborhoods are barren.
I understand money is tight for many, but Christmas lights are pretty cheap and most people have old sets, it’s not like they’re consumable and need to be replaced every year. I wonder if people are just over it, don’t have the time, lack the spirit, or what.
I say all this as someone who hasn’t decorated for any holidays lately myself.
Because what is the point? I only bother with decorations because I have kids. After they grow up I won’t bother. Also yeah I don’t particularly want to get into it because it feels like I am taking the Christian’s side. They are sitting there putting women in jail for having miscarriages maybe I don’t want to associate with them even slightly.
I’m guessing it has become more of a financial burden to be honest.
Choosing the right gifts, decorations, food. Etc.
This year has been bad in my area. The cost of living crisis, lots of illness sweeping through, general stress, it’s all meant that no one has really had the Christmas spirit this year. And I’m not talking gifts or anything like that. I’m talking about having hot chocolate, wearing pjs, admiring other people’s decorations.
We’ve all commented that we haven’t been feeling it, and no one can pinpoint why exactly, but I think there’s just too many bad/stressful things going on for people to have the emotional resources left to be positive
Same but my kids still love it so whatever. Ever since merry Christmas became something that has been made sound like a threat I stopped enjoying it.
there are a lot of factors for me but i feel it, and i think a big part is climate change. i live in new england and it was 60 degreees and raining the other day, pretty hard to get into the holiday spirit when it’s spring outside.
Also, before the goblinos start, yes there are many places where christmas happens in summer, summer type weather, etc, but that is not how it was for me growing up and most of my adult life.
definitely. i’m usually dreading the part right after opening gifts. – the whole day feels stagnant and dead, everything is shut, there’s nothing to do but wait for how shitty jan and feb will be. brutal dead awful months
Seriously fuck winter
I wonder if this is true for others but I’m just not close to my family. I think most people have smaller social circles today than they did 10 years ago.
Without close family, there’s a lot less to Christmas.
Definitely just you and your circle
It could be just down to getting older.
It used to feel like MONTHS of winter before Christmas was here, now, it feels like Halloween was two weeks ago.
I was forced to realise before covid, that my family is dysfunctional and delusional. This obviously extends to family events such as Xmas.
I lost interest many years ago in the whole theatrics of it, it’s a capitalist holiday and nothing more. My family touts that “it’s about the thought and the people” when in actuality it’s always been about the gifts (and by extension, money spent).
With that said, covid caused a pause in a lot of said family relations, and that was the straw that broke the (camel’s) back. Most of my family is now rarely in contact, and Xmas as a family event finally bit the dust.
I’m on top of the world, and there’s still money in my wallet, as well as less familial bullshit.
So yeah, I’ll take it as a win.
I have had great thanksgivings since 2011, with the obvious lonely exception of 2020. Here is my trick
I make a whole bunch of yummy food and invite people to my house that I like spending time with who also live pretty close by.
Covid took so much from so many people.
I’m so incredibly lucky, covid showed me that I don’t have to work in a cube farm, I can do my job from anywhere. It crammed my whole family into each other’s business, now I know my kids better than I did before. I grew meals in a crappy suburban garden.
I lost a lot too, connections to extended family and friends. A lot of relationships died because I was afraid. People like me were dying and I didn’t trust that extended family to give enough of a shit about me to wear a shitty little mask from Amazon in public. (Which turned out to be right, they lied and ended up with covid) I lost some people who were very important to me, not even to COVID, just regular old cancer.
For me, the last few years have thrown what’s important into sharp relief.
I can’t control anything that’s going on outside my house, or even most things inside my house. But I can have Christmas trees up year round if I want to.
The trees and lights make the people I love happy too, which makes me happy.
My big dumb dogs make me happy.
That crunchy snow noise makes me happy.
The tip of my nose freezing in the wind while the rest of me is warm makes me happy.
There’s so much awful out in the world and I can’t really do anything about it. So I cling to all the things I’ve found that make me happy and I try to suck all the juice out of each and every one.
When you find the things that give you some warmth, grab them and hold on. Put your energy into the things that give you energy.
I guess “getting into Christmas” probably means something different to everyone. For me it’s about reliving good memories of friends and family. Some of my favorite memories are decorating cookies with my kids, mixing batches fudge, sipping eggnog and coffee over pie and ice cream, or dancing with my kids to Christmas music.
So for Christmas I play Christmas music, setup a tree, make cookies and fudge, and send the treats and little mementos to friends and family around the country. This year I sent Christmas muffins, fudge, drawings my daughter made, little $1 bottles of peppermint schnapps with Cocoa packets, and other things like Santa socks that I divied up from a cheap multipack. That was the presents I sent out to all our friends and family.
But if I didn’t have those memories or enjoy baking, I doubt I would do much for it. So I suppose, ask yourself what getting into Christmas means to you, or take the time to define what you want it to mean to you, and then do the thing. If it’s taking a little bit of extra time to show family you are thinking of them, then a little home assembled Cocoa kit and a card might do it. You don’t need to go crazy with decorations or buying presents to get into Christmas, unless that is what you want it to mean to you.
