OK tell the truth...

[buldog5151bass]

I try, rather than buying things, to give people services they need. Last year for my mom, I installed a duplicate hand rail for cerebellar stairs, and for my father-in-law, who at 90 still insists on doing everything for his house, a plowing for his driveway for snow. For my mother in law, we gave her a card for a full home cooked dinner for a night she wanted. As I said earlier, I got My wife a ticket series at a local music club, so we have a winter of date nights. Especially for older people, who usually have more "stuff" than they will ever need, things like this are appreciated and really needed, never mind they get to see you more often. To me, this is also more in the spirit of the holidays than signing on to Amazon and pulling out a credit card - never mind it often helps support a local business.

 

[Lizooki]

Let me elucidate .......
We looked at the money we spent one year and my brother-in-law and I figured it would pay for an awesome family vacation for the crowd.
We suggested that next year, instead of presents, we took a week long, big family vacation somewhere we all had never been.

You would have though we were wanting to kill all puppies and kittens by the family reaction ......

 

[Oddly]

My kind of cards...

 

[pappabass]

Yeah, money thing here too. We have been going thru tough financial times. My children/spouses have very nice incomes. We do not. Seems like they ask for expensive gifts even they know we are struggling. But my wife feels obligated to buy it. Plus she will drive 50 miles 3 stores looking for a single $5 gift because one of the kids or grands asked for it.

 

[friskinator]

Let me elucidate .......
We looked at the money we spent one year and my brother-in-law and I figured it would pay for an awesome family vacation for the crowd.
We suggested that next year, instead of presents, we took a week long, big family vacation somewhere we all had never been.

You would have though we were wanting to kill all puppies and kittens by the family reaction ......

I’m not surprised. The attachment to holiday traditions is strong, even if presented with a fun alternative.

 

[MynameisMe]

After reading four pages this some of you just like to complain about everything.
I'm very thankful for my family and friends and for my life.
We also celebrate the spiritual side of this Holiday.
I like a lot of the Christmas music and have played a lot of it this year.
You want to avoid the commercial side of this season go visit some old people in a nursing home, help someone that needs it, love a friend, visit someone that is lonely.
It will lighten your life and theirs.

Edit: Sometimes it's a good idea to let things go from the past instead of holding on to them forever. It makes you very bitter.

 

[Ostie]

When I was a kid we used to have a big xmas celebration at my grandparents. My grandpa loved xmas, and so did I. Then my parents, aunts and uncles all got divorced and that was the end of that. I remember being depressed after all the gifts were opened and we had to pack up and go home. I still get a little down on xmas day. But I have Grand kids now so I pretend that I love it, but I really only love it because they love it.

 

[dr doofie]

OK, the the truth, who here just don't like Christmas? Me? I don't, find it depressing. Thinking about lost relatives, scattered families, . we will be out of town as usual, my favorite day will be the Saturday we get back home. Looks like I will spend Christmas holidays watching kids play video games and cartoons on TV. Remember when Clarke Grizwald asked his dad how he survived Christmas? He had help from jack Daniels....

Need some encouragement here....

Unfortunately I’ll just encourage you to continue to dislike the whole rodeo

 

[pappabass]

Unfortunately I’ll just encourage you to continue to dislike the whole rodeo

Sounds good to me!!

 

[socialleper]

I despise Christmas. Especially the music. The lights are ok.
I am an atheist and the massive hypocrisy of it, coupled with the painful disinformation about Christmas is grating.
Christmas music is the absolute worst. Old songs dusted off or rehashed, over and over again until you want to hang yourself with a garland. Much of it sounds like someone washing down handfuls of Prozac with a bottle of cheap whisky.
At 44 most of my family is gone. I don't really talk to my cousins and my wife's family is impartial to me.
There isn't much "reason for the season. "
I don't stop my wife from "doing" Christmas. She enjoys it. Sometimes I worry that my disinterest in things is rubbing off on her. If she gave up on Christmas or other holidays because I gave up on them, it would seem wrong.

 

[Krisfield]

Downunder, Christmas holidays are in the summer, so even if you hate Christmas, it's still a great time of the year. Peace

 

[dr doofie]

I despise Christmas. Especially the music. The lights are ok.
I am an atheist and the massive hypocrisy of it, coupled with the painful disinformation about Christmas is grating.
Christmas music is the absolute worst. Old songs dusted off or rehashed, over and over again until you want to hang yourself with a garland. Much of it sounds like someone washing down handfuls of Prozac with a bottle of cheap whisky.
At 44 most of my family is gone. I don't really talk to my cousins and my wife's family is impartial to me.
There isn't much "reason for the season. "
I don't stop my wife from "doing" Christmas. She enjoys it. Sometimes I worry that my disinterest in things is rubbing off on her. If she gave up on Christmas or other holidays because I gave up on them, it would seem wrong.

Social I am leaning towards you on this one, and yeah it’s the unpopular opinion...
ironically I can provide a different perspective in that I’m a Christian but agree with you on all the other aspects. Besides Christ was taken out of Christmas long long ago, as the bumper stickers will attest to. And JRA is right, His birth was in the spring, but I digress...
I have one living relative left, my 90 year old aunt who raised me from 3 on. This year I purposely chose to work C eve and C day just in case someone came up with a “why don’t you come over...”
Now my aunt decided to come over instead of going to her daughter’s, so she’s gonna sit in my house and wait for me to get home..
it’s good your wife still has some genuine Yuletide spirit left; I often envy the folks who do, even if it is phony... is it phony when you know it’s phony? Who knows.
Well that’s it anyways

 

[dr doofie]

I freakin LOVE it.

My deceased sister's birthday is December 18th.

I discovered my first wife was cheating on me with my drummer in late December.

I don't care. I love it. I have my own religious reasons as part of it. But, mostly, it's about KIDS! I love hanging out with kids at Christmas. You wanna see pure joy? Take a kid to see Christmas lights, or a Christmas parade, or just to a mall to see Christmas decorations. They get so excited and enjoy all of it in the simplest and purest way.

I do this because it makes my kids, and other kids, smile and laugh and scream.
View attachment 3633662 View attachment 3633663 View attachment 3633664

Hey Two
Whatever chemical our Creator squirted into our brains to help us be optimistic, selfless, and full of wonder, you must have butted in front of me in line and taken my share AND yours...
joking brother
Merry Christmas

 

[dr doofie]

My kind of cards...

View attachment 3635327

Dammit I don’t think they sell stuff like that over here
I was born on the wrong side of the pond...

 

[Michael Jewels]

The truth?

I absolutely love Christmas, and everything to to do with the holiday.

As Edgar Allan Poe once wrote, "Ah distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December."

December is indeed very bleak and dark; the vanguard of winter.

December would completely stink in my book, except for the lights of Christmas, which I think is mostly a pagan tradition, as is decorating pine trees. (Or any kind of tree) Take back the night.

Then, there's the getting together with friends and family, which is done for no other reason, than the fact it's Christmas or the end of the year. Take your choice.

Then, there are all the new additions to my extended family, which is nothing but smiles.

My mother died a few days before Christmas about 30 years ago, but instead of holding onto that sad memory, and letting it forever ruin all future Christmas seasons, I body-slammed it the first year, packed its bags, and it never showed its face again.

It's not what happens, but how you react to it.

For those who are sad at this time of year, I hope you one day slay the dragon of gloom that overshadows you.

To everyone else: Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and nothing but good vibes to you no matter what your faith is or is not.

Mike

 

[GIBrat51]

I like the days off. I dislike the music.

^This^, pretty much. I spent too many Christmas's working my butt off - oftentimes, in places none of us wanted to be. It's been "just another day" for so long, it doesn't mean anything anymore. It's one saving grace is that, if you ignore it as much as possible? It always goes away...

 

[socialleper]

Social I am leaning towards you on this one, and yeah it’s the unpopular opinion...
ironically I can provide a different perspective in that I’m a Christian but agree with you on all the other aspects. Besides Christ was taken out of Christmas long long ago, as the bumper stickers will attest to. And JRA is right, His birth was in the spring, but I digress...
I have one living relative left, my 90 year old aunt who raised me from 3 on. This year I purposely chose to work C eve and C day just in case someone came up with a “why don’t you come over...”
Now my aunt decided to come over instead of going to her daughter’s, so she’s gonna sit in my house and wait for me to get home..
it’s good your wife still has some genuine Yuletide spirit left; I often envy the folks who do, even if it is phony... is it phony when you know it’s phony? Who knows.
Well that’s it anyways

She is definitely into more of the Santa, trees, secular type of Christmas. I don't think she was ever to a midnight service. Or any service for that matter. But she does love to decorate. Putting up lights is a pain in my backside. "Us" putting up lights is me putting up lights while she is safely on the ground telling me what is wrong.
The music really drives me up a wall. It just isn't good, and it is really a dozen versions of a dozen cheesy songs that burrow their way into your subconscious. Some of it is so maudlin that is screams soundtrack to a suicide.
I also don't like how it takes over EVERYTHING. From mid October on, it is just a warm up to Christmas.
I guess one other thing that stands out for me is that I spent most of my 20s and half of my 30s working in retail. Nothing will ruin Christmas for you like working at a GC through the holidays. People are just Richards on any holiday. And Black Friday can F itself in the A.

 

[dr doofie]

She is definitely into more of the Santa, trees, secular type of Christmas. I don't think she was ever to a midnight service. Or any service for that matter. But she does love to decorate. Putting up lights is a pain in my backside. "Us" putting up lights is me putting up lights while she is safely on the ground telling me what is wrong.
The music really drives me up a wall. It just isn't good, and it is really a dozen versions of a dozen cheesy songs that burrow their way into your subconscious. Some of it is so maudlin that is screams soundtrack to a suicide.
I also don't like how it takes over EVERYTHING. From mid October on, it is just a warm up to Christmas.
I guess one other thing that stands out for me is that I spent most of my 20s and half of my 30s working in retail. Nothing will ruin Christmas for you like working at a GC through the holidays. People are just Richards on any holiday. And Black Friday can F itself in the A.

Yes yes and yes.
Worked and working retail my whole life. Every 2nd rate artist feels compelled to subject us to their rendition of whatever **** holiday krapfest they can dish up. The true classics, ok, maybe... give them to me on a pipe organ, well played, because the lyrics of those are truly inspired. Don’t serve them up on the tip of Kenny G’s tiny brass bulb...
Now they’re all circling inside my skull.

 

[FilterFunk]

The truth?

I absolutely love Christmas, and everything to to do with the holiday.

As Edgar Allan Poe once wrote, "Ah distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December."

December is indeed very bleak and dark; the vanguard of winter.

December would completely stink in my book, except for the lights of Christmas, which I think is mostly a pagan tradition, as is decorating pine trees. (Or any kind of tree) Take back the night.

Then, there's the getting together with friends and family, which is done for no other reason, than the fact it's Christmas or the end of the year. Take your choice.

Then, there are all the new additions to my extended family, which is nothing but smiles.

My mother died a few days before Christmas about 30 years ago, but instead of holding onto that sad memory, and letting it forever ruin all future Christmas seasons, I body-slammed it the first year, packed its bags, and it never showed its face again.

It's not what happens, but how you react to it.

For those who are sad at this time of year, I hope you one day slay the dragon of gloom that overshadows you.

To everyone else: Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and nothing but good vibes to you no matter what your faith is or is not.

Mike

^This is one of my all-time favorite TB posts.

If you've been an adult for any appreciable length of time, then you've been through some things. They may or may not have happened during the holiday season, but at some point they probably have impacted the season for you. Nobody's immune.

Personally, I decided long ago to concentrate on the things I love about Christmas - what Christmas actually is most of all, but also some of the secular trappings...the decorations (especially the lights!), the non-religious music (I listen to what I want, when I want - I don't spend much time in stores, so hearing the same handful of songs over and over again is simply not an issue for me), and the movies and specials (I watch what I want, when I want). And I simply refuse to let gift-giving get out of hand (and yes, I have plenty of family, friends, co-workers, etc., but I'm still able to manage gift-giving). I don't care about a popularity contest; I give to those closest to me.

I've also noticed - and this is in my own experience over the decades, and unrelated to TB - that the people who complain the most about Christmas (and the holidays in general) are also the people who tend to complain the most year-round. The holiday season just gives them more license to be crabby!

 

[Killed_by_Death]

It's because we're misanthropes & the worst in huMAN natURE comes out during the holidays.
Yeah, folks are smiling & saying Merry Christmas to your face, but out there in traffic they're just fighting to get ahead of you, same goes on in the shopping centers, it's a small battle.

I don't need to slay any dragons, already destroyed many of them.

Should have kept my nose out of this thread.
Happy Holidays!