Christmas dread

Fa la la la Blahhhr.. so here we are, post-Thanksgiving, and there are only two things left for me to do: lose the poundage accumulated in the last two months and begin whimpering about the holiday season. 

 

 Am I the only blogger out there who loathes Christmas?  Not your Christmas:  I love your Christmas, the gorgeous decor, the dreams of santa, the starry nights, the winter wonderlands  (sampled here, just click on the picture and it will take you there, that's the new and lazy thing to do.) No, I only loathe my Christmas.  I've always had huge childlike childish expectations around Christmas, and it's usually fallen very short, mostly due to my bad attitude. 

 
 

For example, it is usually around Christmas that I remember I'm supposed to be Jewish, and begin resenting both religions. 

 I hate store-bought spirit forced down my throat every time I step out of the house.  

I hate the 80 degree weather L.A. Christmas weather and roses in bloom when it supposed to be snowing.  

 

I hate the thought of destroying a wee little tree just as much as I detest plastic ones. Unless of course they are in your houses where they become a source of lust and envy, 

 

I dread the consumption, the accumulation, the gift-giving of cluttering junk while my husband becomes possessed with the frantic desire to give give and give some more (we all cope however we can.) 

The poundage issue invariably becomes a larger one, as food becomes my drug of choice.

I'm not going to link to my previous lamentations about Christmas, but if you're curious, just check the archives, pick any December.

I wonder, how is that time of the year for you?

Comments

[Anne]

So glad to hear someone bad mouthing their Christmas! Like you, I hate my Christmas but lust and envy all the Christmasy Christmas decors of others. The 80 degree dryness definitely have something to do with it. It's all depressingly un-Christmas. I feel the same about all the accumulation of un-necessaries. No one needs more stuff.
I'm gonna check back through out the season so we can bitch together.

[suzie chaney]

Hmmm, tricksy one this. I love/loathe christmas in equal measure......I hate it for all the reasons you mention (other than the weather one;) Oh yes, everyone's elses decorations are always the best ones!

[anne]

I dread christmas too!! Everyone starts asking what you doing for christmas!! I am still unsure what I am doing, who is coming, we always end with a family row too!! Also my house is not big enough for everyone to stay.

[TheYoupiTouch]

comme les gosses: j'adore Noel !!

[my favorite and my best]

the christmases we all seem to long for are the ones we see in movies. where either a gentle snow falls outside the window on christmas morn' as your little one comes scampering through the house in footed pajamas or a beloved family member who was thought to be stranded due to inclement weather comes through the door just in time for a perfect glazed ham dinner.
i think this is all anyone wants...the perfect christmas but i don't think it exisits. at least not in that way.
my suggestion is to take yourself out of the equation and do something for someone in need. who perhaps doesn't have family, or food or a tree on christmas.
you will more than likely feel less depressed or maudlin or sad or bitter or jaded when you realize all that you DO have.
just sayin. and please don't read this as preachy. i certainly am riding my own wallowing self pity train.

[AGirlNamedMe]

I love Christmas.

Not the Hallmarky perfect Christmas, though. Those don't exist and even if they did, that would not be my style.

Chaos is more my style. I like getting up early and being the one in the house to wake everyone else with my bad singing.

I like burning the cinnamon rolls. I like realizing that I forgot to wrap at least one gift. I love tearing into presents with total disregard for the attached card.

Me and Christmas? We get along just fine.

xox

[rochambeau]

Dear Corine,
You are not the only one. My father used to say most poople are sad at the holidays for different reasons.

In the past years, I find ways to make fun out of the chaos. A lot of the dread is the pressure that people put on themselves to conform to other people's standards of what the holidays should be.

This year on Xmas, we are inviting all the people we know that don't have family over for a "white elephant" exchange. My mom and I have found the most ridiculous gifts that has put a new spin on the holidays. We discovered a reclining Venus statue in plaster painted gold. We found her for $5 at a garage sale. We are laughing just thinking about who ever opens her. Then at the dollar store a gigantic cubic zerconia ring in a special box that is an ornament that looking like a disco ball!
My husb and I don't give each other gifts. I give cookies to friends.

Well here's to you, May you do the holidays YOUR way this year!
xox
Constance

[Susan]

Criminy, Corine. Now, I feel like bleep.

BTW, I posted that wall Xmas tree (from Amsterdam, I think) last year & ended up doing just that because I couldn't afford a tree, much less food (yes, really). So, this year things are better & I'm not complaining about squat. Frankly, I'm tired of both sides of the extreme. Except I'm tolerant of people I like on both ends of the extreme.

xoxo & I'll not link to my site so maybe you won't unfriend me on FB.

[tiffany]

This is the first year that I've really "done" Christmas as my bf's entire family is coming to visit and our house is basecamp. I think it should be really interesting to see how it all goes as well as how I handle everything. We're still debating the tree, but with limited funds and a new puppy, a grand tree may not be on the menu for this year. We shall see! Good luck to you!

[Angie Muresan]

Corine, sorry but I couldn't help laughing out loud at this. I love Christmas. Not the consumerism aspect of it... that sucks, but the magic of the winter festivities. We live in the Pacific Northwest, on the edge of a large forrest in the middle of the city. My back yard is filled with pine trees of very shape and size and I love putting up my twinkly lights on as many of them as I can. We spend our days trekking the trails in the woods and our nights baking cookies, drinking hot chocolate, caroling, and reading by candle light. I have a potted real tree in every room of the house.
And I am Jewish too, by birth, yet do not allow the guilt in.

[Stef]

Love the holidays but always feel I am coming up short. I try to limit my magazine readings so I dont get overwhelmed by all of the crafts and the lack of time/skill I have to make everything super pretty!

[Di Overton]

Bah Humbug! ;)

[silvina]

so sad for me: i miss my family and friends in argentina, they always have a sunny and hot xmas (38 degrees! so hot cause it´s summer there) and in spain where i live is snowing...i miss a lot of people!
thanks a lot to "my favorite and my best" for your advice!

[Dayna]

I hate the same things you do.
The gift giving holiays are over for us and have been for the past 4 years.
We will celebrate being
together and with friends going on outings and eating out.
(hope to see you this month)

[Jan]

I'm loving that a few people are expressing their loathing of Christmas.
Good to know I am not alone.
We are still a minority though.

[pat griffith]

now that my kids are grown and no grand kids I decorate as I wish making the things that make me happy but we have a very low key holiday, my daughter is married lives far away my son is here but works and hangs with his friends . so Mr.G and I have a nice meal and exchange small gifts, nothing big or expensive. I would rather get a love letter with fond memories.