Does anyone else really hate this time of year ?

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

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

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.

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.

Eazybee and BBbevan, thank you for saying that.

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

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!!

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 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!

Friday that was uncalled for.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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 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 am another who loves all things Christmas. This year however is tempered because my mum is so frail now, that we can’t see her being here next year, so am feeling sort of flat this year. But she will have the best we can do for her, which will not actually be to have everyone visit her as she can’t cope with it, but plans to pop in throughout the day from morning with gifts to lunch time with her lunch to late afternoon for tea and cake. She will sleep in between.

I love Chritmas, I had a horrible childhood with no gifts or love, so I love to make a fuss of people now at Chritmas and give what I never had, but my husband is the same as the OP, he hates it all, and he's so Bah Humbug about it all, not wanting gifts for himself or to give any, unintersted even in a Christmas card if one arrives, and going around moaning all the time, he really does spoil it for everyone ..I'm not permitted to even have decorations up unless I do all the work myself.

I belong very reluctantly and very hesitantly in the bah humbug group I try very hard to enjoy it and make sure I don’t spoil it for anyone else but I find absolutely nothing to get excited about and look forward to it all being over and I can dream about the lighter nights and the start of a distant spring
I don’t know how you can avoid the commercialisation unless you don’t own a radio or tv and never go out and have no grandkids ?

Me too, Luckygirl. Our Christmas is different now all the DGCs are in their late teens or early twenties. Adult Christmases mean less work and no more terribly early wake-up calls but I remember those days with fondness.

We don't buy into all the commercialism - we can't afford to but the cards, carols, food and drink, silly games and just being with the family is something I would hate to miss.

I struggle with the commercialism of Christmas but was helped today because I bought presents at the Oxfam shop. So although it seemed like a lot of money it was going to a good cause.
And it has meant that today I have cleaned the skirting boards in the sitting room for the first time ever as we have visitors coming.
I think you have to make a positive choice to live Christmas well by still eating healthily and making it a good time for other people. Well that's what I am trying to do, anyway.

People have been complaining about the the commercialisation of Christmas since modern Christmas begun. Remember Scrooge, complaining because Bob Cratchit wanted Christmas day off and his diatribe against feasting and food to his nephew, followed by describing it as humbug? Well, a Christmas Carol was written in 1843.

Christmas is only commercial if you want to see it. I only shop once a week, I am a light television watcher and I have so many other things to do, that I really do not take much notice or see much of any commercial Christmas. Also anything that has no relevance to my Christmas, gets ignored.

We all shape Christmas to suit ourselves and those who do not like it see all the negative sides and those who enjoy it see only the things they enjoy.

I write that as someone who loves Christmas and celebrates it with my family every year with lights and decorations and presents and stockings.

I believe Hitler, William the Conqueror and Crazy Horse existed. I don’t follow their philosophy.