Christmas 2023??

Crafters are definitely thinking about Christmas!!

After god knows how many awful Christmas holidays me and husband now just want to be left alone. We started last year by declaring in August that we would be on our own over Christmas, just so everyone knew and understood. Did that stop them, did it hell. My sister stepped in and invited my mother to her house, a tactical move on her part so that my mum would feel she had to accept. So far so good...or so we thought. A rather horrible set of circumstances meant that DS and GDD arrived for Christmas with a dog and a cat!. Mother, sensing she was missing out deliberately (I have no proof but I know) missed her train on Christmas Eve taking her to my sisters. Once more, sister came to the rescue and drove 2 hours to come and collect her. Then DD1 and DD2 both announced they would be arriving on the 27-31. On the 26 (a day I still consider to be Christmas and part of our 'we want to be alone ' period) DS and D GD plus dog and cat are still in residence and lo and behold mother rocks up at 11 am having spent approximately 18 hours at my sisters house. No idea she was coming and she wasn't invited. So that's 3 humans and 2 animals so far. On the 27 2 more arrive. They all eventually leave on the 30...
I'm going to try again this year..

Ps..Before I am labelled a bad mother and daughter I am absolutely not....I spend all year caring for my family and just wanted to have the Christmas we wanted for the first time ever.

I don't usually think about Christmas until around Black Friday but recently a lot of retail web sites have had good sales. I've found some lovely organic cotton clothing for toddlers at very competitive prices, so GGD will be the lucky recipient. I'll think about teenagers and adults later.

@Nansypansy

My eldest granddaughter passed away very unexpectedly in her sleep on Christmas morning. She was 28. It was truly devastating

So sorry for your loss.

My grandmother died a few weeks before christmas in 1979. She was in her 90s and reconciled with "meeting her maker" (her words) but her death affected me far more than did the deaths of my own parents in the late 1990s - early 2000s. None of the family celebrated that year but I have never done so since. As a family occasion it is meaningless to me and I avoid it at all costs.

Now it is just a business opportunity.