Does anyone else really hate this time of year ?

I quite enjoy Christmas itself and the quiet lull between Christmas and New Year (especially now I don't have a VAT return to complete for DH and 2 lots of Annual Accounts to complete for groups) but then I am usually plunged into gloom through January, February and into March. I do wish that instead of cramming all the school concerts, lunches and nights out into December, when we are exhausted with all the shopping, wrapping, cleaning etc., that some of these were held in the dull period after New Year when we could do with a bit of cheering up.

I love Christmas too but I do see the rampant commercialisation that goes on as well.
I try to give a special helping hand to others at Christmas and don't get caught up in the
'buy the latest toy/expensive gift ' scenario.
We can all do something to help at Christmas and enjoy ourselves as well.

I love Christmas. The family all together, carols etc. But I do dislike the awful commercialism. Mind you in a few weeks we will be starting on Easter. Will it never end.
One year a friend said her DGS just ripped open each present, gave the contents a cursory glance and shouted "Next" She was so upset. His parents just laughed. Very sad

whitewave i wish you all and especially your mum, a christmas to remember filled with love and peace.

Friday, you don't have to share other people's beliefs, but you don't need to insult them either.
Poor.

I don't think it has much to do with being negative. I'm not one for shopping at the best of times, so Christmas is just more of the same. Everyone is different, everyone likes and dislikes different things. I do not like Christmas. It doesn't stop anyone else enjoying theirs.

I'm between two camps. I hate the commercialisation, especially the cynical playing of Christmas songs in the shops way before Christmas. I think it very sad that many children are given too many gifts and, as BB mentions above, they just rip off the paper and move on to the next one. My DD limits her two to just a few presents on 25/12, the rest she puts away, bringing one out every now and again if they have been good. On the other hand, I do like that feeling of 'goodwill to all men' that sometimes pervades at this time of year. Such a pity it does not appear at other times as well.

silver thank you that’s exactly what we are aiming for

Friday that was uncalled for.

I do dislike the over-commercialism, but then nobody is obliged to go mad buying loads of tat, and as for TV ads, we don't have to watch them, or if we do, we don't have to be daft enough to believe that everyone else enjoys a 'perfect' Christmas.
Personally I love carols and am happy to hear them any time - there was a good old Sally Army band playing at Paddington Station while we were seeing a friend off yesterday.

I often think how dreary December would be without the Christmas lights etc. Christmas did after all take over the old pagan Midwinter Day jollities. I have lived in a Mediterranean country and it's not nearly such a big thing there, but presumably that's because Midwinter Day was never such a big thing in warmer countries as in chilly Northern Europe. All the greenery, holly and ivy, etc. are surely leftovers from pagan traditions - as is the Yule Log AFAIK - (they still call Christmas Jul in Sweden) and nothing to do with the birth of Christ at all.

I can't altogether blame the moaners for disliking it all, but at the same time they do make me think of the witch in Narnia, who made it always winter and never Christmas!

If Christmas didn't exist, I'd have no excuse to buy my annual bottle of advocaat and drink snowballs.

Christmas is what you make of it, I think. I like the bright lights etc at this time of year but I let the commercialism go over my head.

I am another one who always ends up feeling sad at Christmas. The music in the shops drives me mad as does the false jollity and the commercialisation. I remember happy Christmases as a child and with my own children ...miss my parents and others. I enjoy it when the GC are opening presents but overall I just make sure I don't spoil things for every one else, provide lovely food, create a happy atmosphere with little treats and surprises and continue to tread on eggshells!! Oh well , roll on Spring and the Daffodils!!

I don't understand people moaning about the commercialism, you don't have to take part in it!

Eazybee and BBbevan, thank you for saying that.

I take on board as much of the hype as I want to. Flick through the adverts I don't like, shop online so don't even get to hear the festive music on a loop, but really enjoy the things I do take part in that make my Christmas. These include candlelit Carol services, decorating the house, the lights everywhere, wrapping presents, getting cards from old friends, reading the same old Christmas books to the DGS and watching the same old films, spending more time with the family, the sense of goodwill. All very corny, but I'm afraid I can't believe that 50% of people would be happy to have all this abolished. What a long, dark, miserable Winter it would be.

The thing I like least is the commercial pressure on people with not much money to spend money they can't afford at Christmas. There is a slow escalation of "must haves" e.g. nobody had Xmas jumpers years ago, did they...
People get into debt and this country has a serious problem with ever-rising unsecured debt. Some of the lending will be at exploitative interest rates. And the poorest people in the UK are getting steadily worse off at benefits are steadily trimmed and the Brexit-fuelled inflation is gathering pace (caused by the sharp drop in the value of the pound). And to top it all, the sick woman who went on TV to talk about how she had scrimped and saved to "give her kids a good Christmas" (instead of getting into debt) gets demonised by the bloody Sun.

Why are those who do not like the commercialisation of Christmas called moaners?

And may I assure Witzend those who do not like Christmas are not like witches , they are members of this forum who have been asked a question and are replying. What some do not understand/know is the suicide rate rises , Samaritans phone lines are in much need at this happy, jolly, colourful time of year . And if I could fill my home with daffodils in wouldn't have a twig of holly in it.

So could we have less judgemental mocking and more respect for each posters opinions.

And again, Christmas is 25th December. Pagen Mid Winter Festival is 21st December

Jess, I didn't hear that woman but I can understand some who are living on the breadline on very low wages feeling irritated by a couple on benefits who can afford to save £50 a week for Christmas presents

Thank you Eazybee and BB and Auntyflo x x x

Me too, Eazybee, BBevan, Auntieflo and Annie

Anniebach, I said that I myself do not like the over commercialisation of Christmas!
Just that alone does not make anyone a moaner - not to me, anyway.

My problem is that I have plenty of opportunities to socialise and eat and drink and relax, and see family from afar, for the other 11 months, and December just interferes with it all. This year we don't have an opportunity to see family on Christmas day itself, which will make it flat, so I just plod through the month from one eatingfest with crackers to the next, and roll on January

Witzend you did say - the moaners , it would have been kinder to say 'those' would it not? ?

Friday was responding in the same tone as the original comment. Was the reference to the Morning Star not meant as an insult? (personally I think that it is considerably better than the Daily Mail or Sun, but the comment was not meant that way). I think people should read the whole thread because accusing people. It is better to rise above it, but it is surely understandable when people don't.

I enjoy Christmas but there are people who seem to want to prove that their Christmas is better, or more 'proper' than other people's even to the point of unkindness at times and that seems to be against the whole ethos of Christmas.

JessM I agree. I used to have a number of Clients who ran restaurants and they all found it a more difficult season commercial because of the void times when people were away, offices closed etc. which the few days before Christmas did not make up for. I know their are businesses who get most of their profits in the run up to Christmas but there are many for whom it is not a benefit.

I love Christmas and we do it very traditionally. But each year in the autumn I think it would be handy to have it every other year. Then I get swept up in writing cards, wrapping presents while listening to carols, decorating the tree, cooking and so on. I am able to ignore the majority of the commercialisation aspect. Sorry about your mum, Whitewave. I have a sister in a nursing home, whom we'll visit with presents on 21st. We already went and decorated her room on 1st (She is so far away - her choice - that we normally can visit only once a month).