Does anyone else really hate this time of year ?

www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?tag=gransnetforum-21&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=9781509833603 - this book makes it fairly clear that 'commercialisation', over-indulging and sentimental attitudes have always been a big part of what we today call Christmas - the excuse for these activities has never really been important. As has already been pointed out, and I am sure Anniebach is perfectly well aware, December 25th is NOT regarded as the most likely birth date for Jesus based on the Gospels but it suited the Church to merge the festival with what already existed.

Some years ago I had a very bad Christmas when I was suffering from depression. So, now I just try to go with the flow and enjoy it. I think that in these later years of our lives we need to try to make the most of every day.

mostlyharmless It would be a very long winter without something in the middle. As it is it often feels a long time between Christmas and March.

I have taken to hand making my own gifts, and now this year have been busy making my own Christmas cards.

I dislike the way it has become a 'holiday' and the emphasis is on spending money whereas goodwill and the meaning of Christmas has now taken a back seat.

I enjoy giving gifts because my thought, care and love has been used in producing them, which gives me pleasure.

The phrases that cause me anger when a lot of people are on the poverty line are ONLY £249.99. SPECIAL PRICE £199.99. etc etc. For some people that amount of money is all they have for Christmas not just one gift. Bah Humbug

I loathe it all too - it's so over the top now. However I can't stand the Christian stuff either. We always keep our Christmas low key - we make the best of it but most certainly don't go over the top.

It appears to have turned into another marketing opportunity for businesses, along with Halloween.
Christmas is and should be a religious festival for Christians.
May be it would be better to have a Winter festival at the end of January, with no religious overtones at all?

sad to see a bit of bickering going on in the 'season of goodwill' Friday - the oil used for cleaning the feet of Jesus was extremely expensive and used for the anointing of the dead, so was a symbol of his forthcoming death as Anniebach said. We choose to celebrate the birth of Jesus on the 25th December as has been rightly pointed out there was already a pagan festival at that time of year anyway. I do love Christmas but like many on this site get a bit fed up with it starting at the end of October!

I detest this time of year every year. If it was a few carols and a nice meal that would be fine but the endless chirpnesss, the fake bonhomie, the EXPENSE of it all. Just all please clear off, have your Christmas away from nevand come back in mid January. I would get the peace and quiet I crave mid winter.

What OP and some others don’t seem to accept is that Christmas is what you make it.
What really saddens me though is that there are those on this thread and elsewhere ( Rolande, anniebach and myself for starters) who have lost loved ones and would have given anything for them still to be around for what you dismiss glibly as
Does anyone else really hate this time of year
Be grateful for what you have got.
Oh and get over yourselves

Oh for goodness sake.... forget the WORD Christmas and think of it as ‘a winter festival’ for letting your hair down and spoiling family members.We mostly work bloody hard the rest of the year so please the moaning Minnie’s
there, allow a time when we can eat drink and yes be ‘merry’ . Call it what you want...it’s an excuse to binge. From a devout atheist!

I'm totally with lucky girl. Enjoy Christmas in all it's shapes and forms. I've spent it with immediate family, a wider family, strangers and on my own and enjoyed each one in its own special way. Methinks there's no formula required other than a happy heart.

Bah humbug me- would rather have a foreign holiday any day! Too much stress, pressure, financial outlay and biting my tongue around certain family members to kick back and enjoy - and it always seems to be me and DH doing the hosting !

I would love Christmas more if my DGC lived here in the UK, and my lovely daughters were here too, to fetch Christmas joy in to my home
Instead I have a man a lot older that me, he is 77 and I am 62 and he moans all the time about Christmas and how much time and money it takes to send presents abroad to the my lovely families in the US and Australia.
It made me cry today, because his moaning is getting me down

You can have someone in your life and still be lonely at Christmas as I am

I am more anoyed by the comercialised jollity than Christmas itself.
However you interpret the Christmas story from some 2000 ago there was philosopher, teacher, call him a Buddhist or Hindu etc etc who was trying to pass on wisdom of peace and preaching this philosophy as away to live.
Don't worry about the myths and imagery, they are the way things were taught then. This philosphy of a way of living Is still relevant.

I can’t think of one good reason why Christmas should be only a religious festival for Christians. What on earth? It can be whatever anyone wants it to be. No one owns it and no one in the UK is prevented from celebrating or not however they want ( as long as it’s lawful). Like others on this thread,I am perfectly capable of screening out any commercial aspects and am certainly never pressured into buying anything. What I particularly like about Christmas and the Christmas period is the pause it gives from everyday life to stop and think and remember and consider others. Not that this should just happen then of course but life sometimes gets in the way of being perfect ?. A chance to say thank you with a gift/card. I find it perfectly possible not to wear a hair shirt regarding enjoying myself with good food and drink. For those of you facing your first Christmas without a loved one, I hope there will be some joy with the sorrow.

Jeannie I can’t help but ask why you are with this man. You are only 62 - you have years ahead of you and so migh5 he.

I love Christmas too, but I do hate the commercialism that
seems to get bigger every year.

I had a little weep for all the dear departed while baking Christmas goodies this morning and listening to carols. Since my mother died years ago, I find it wise to hear the first carols on my own, so I can get all weepy and sentimental and get it over for this year, so I understand only too well why other people perhaps get depressed.

Well said Maw. Trying to gather myself to go to the carol service tonight. DH led the service each year since we moved here except last year when he was undergoing chemo. Tonight I shall walk past his grave.
However you spend Christmas I hope you see love not hate.

First time I have ever posted!!! I love Christmas as does my SO. For years as a fosterparent for lots of children as well as our own making Christmas merry was a busy and joyous time, family grown up now and lots of GC but I still love it. I am a Christian but the traditions of kindness and sharing hospitality are universal. I am 70 now and full of aches and pains but a little more slowly we still do Christmas dinner for some of the family, taking GC to see Great Granny on Christ
mas morning in her care home as this year she is too poorly to come to us. We sit around our table remembering past Christmasses, those who are no longer alive but still loved.
And after the big day l love the quiet of Boxing Day and sitting reading by the fire with no cooking to do for a day or two! Happy Christmas to you all x

I think if you are unhappy in your life for whatever reason the hype about Christmas- happy families , expensive presents, get togethers - can just accentuate your loneliness and/or unhappiness . I make a huge effort for my children and grandchildren but inside I’m crying.

We sit around our table remembering past Christmasses, those who are no longer alive but still loved

How beautifully written raggy. And when we do this, I feel lucky that I have people I loved and who loved me to remember.

I absolutely love Christmas, but I boycott any shops that play Christmas songs/carols before December, and I tell the Manager. One particularly large shop near where I live actually took me seriously and stopped playing the music! What a result. However, I understand why some people find it a difficult time of year, and I think we should all be aware of this instead of shopping, shopping, shopping.

I hope you post again ?