Huddsballetmum Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Is is only me, or does anyone else spend October and November in fear of the stress of Christmas. I hate shopping, do most of mine online, and the thought of spending hours planning, buying, writing, wrapping and then cooking and eating just fills me with dread. I seem to be okay once I get into the processes - round about the 10th December if I'm honest - but the build up just turns my stomach and it seems to get earlier and earlier every year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAB Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 I feel much the same. I particularly hate it when more and more goods disappear from the shelves in shops to be replaced by Christmas tat and earlier every year. Solution: escape. The Canaries are lovely in December. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacqueline Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Is it possible for you to just not do Christmas this year? Or at least scale it right down so it isn't such an ordeal. I agree it does start much too early and the pressure to have the perfect Christmas - whatever that is - gets really irritating. They start advertising in October for things you can have delivered in time for Christmas as though that is a big achievement, but all part of the pressure to spend, spend, spend! Like January doesn't exist. We have a small family and no young children, so a lot of the build up passes us by now. I remember when we used to make things like the cake and puds, chutneys and that sort of thing around October and that kind of tradition, with all the lovely spicy smells started the anticipation. Now I just buy everything and mostly online, as I can't be doing with tat filled shops. For me, there is still a little magic in December,with the candles, carols and some shops that really make an effort to decorate imaginatively. When it starts to go dark on Christmas Eve, I can even remember the excitement of awaiting Father Christmas. Apart from that, I treat myself to the December edition of Homes and Gardens to see what a 'perfect festivity' looks like, we give and receive token gifts, stopped sending cards ages ago and just enjoy the time off work. We have had some truly horrendous Christmastimes, with people falling out and general unfortunate events, usually when the maximum effort has gone into preparations, so almost inviting disaster. We just take it as it comes now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahw Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Yes Huddsballetmum I feel exactly the same. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 I can be a bit of a misery guts but, strangely, I enjoy buying Christmas and stocking presents and the build-up to Christmas, although I find Christmas Day itself an anti-climax. I don't have a huge number of presents to buy though and, since I have discovered craft fairs (eg Crafty Fox, Renegade), I have found buying presents from small designers a pleasurable experience. I enjoy seeing (tasteful) Christmas lights and shop displays. I also enjoy carol services and concerts. St John's Smith Square has good value concerts by visiting choirs which feature interesting music and, in some cases, congregational carols. We've been to a couple each year for the last few years. The worst thing about Christmas, for me, is being cooped up together for two or three days. I don't like staying with other people and neither do I like having other people to stay. It would be so much more relaxing if you could just have Christmas Day lunch together but that can only happen if people don't live too far away from each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anon2 Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 I find the extended family lunch on Christmas Day difficult. My sister always insists as it is Christmas it should be late, normally planning for starting around 3.30pm but inevitably it is later. No matter what I've fed my troops before hand they are ready to kill someone by the time we sit down and start the fun of passing around the vegetables and trying to be polite to each other. My husband likes an after lunch walk preferably at the coast which doesn't help the tension. It is always a relief when it is my sister's turn to have Christmas as her in-laws. I am working Christmas night this year and my husband and dd were a bit too quick with their excuses when it was suggested by my mother that my sister did lunch so I didn't have anything to do before work. Evidently I won't have anything to do as the pair of them will have it all in hand! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa O`Brien Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 In - laws. Well I was never married to Sean`s late father,but nearly every Christmas we used to go to his mothers in County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland. She is old,irritable,rude and short tempered. She is also a devout Catholic and expects everyone around her to be and act the same. I`m glad we just phone each other every week,and I no longer have to endure such torture. Since Sean`s father died 8 years ago every Christmas it`s just been the two of us. I wouldn`t want it any other way. He still goes off to Mayo for a couple of days around 27th and stays with his aunt and uncle,and visits the grandmother,of course. I make my excuses every year. It`s handy having Social Phobic Disorder. Gets you out of a lot of socialising situations you don`t want to be involved in. And after a couple of years people get the message and leave you alone. Bliss.!!!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacqueline Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 A few years ago, we went to a carol service at Lincoln Cathedral. It was all rather lovely in such a spectacular setting, with the candles and full choir. We are not religious people but can still appreciate the beauty of the occasion. Peace and goodwill and so on. All was going well, until a baby started whimpering, moving on to crying and then a full blown screaming paddy. There was audible huffing and puffing from the congregation at the disruption until a very clear voice rang out to "Shut that bloody child up". All quite ironic, given that we were there ostensibly, to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahw Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Tee hee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huddsballetmum Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 I want to make this year special as I think it may be my Dad's last Christmas. I enjoy the cooking and the camaraderie of Christmas Day, its just the 3 month build up I hate and it seems to get me down. I would love to disappear abroad, but that is just not possible this year. Luckily I don't have anything to do with my out-laws at Christmas so I can avoid that nightmare. It has made me feel so much better to know I am not the only one though - thanks! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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