I hate Christmas

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I wish the government wouldn't give everyone so many bank holiday days over the Christmas period. My dad turns into a grumpy monster, my brother just lingers about being more annoying than ever, and the whole house just becomes so depressing. I'm not saying I would want to spend Christmas alone (too bad I can't afford to move out, at least before this Christmas), I would just like to spend Christmas with my mum and her sisters, rather than being stuck at home with two men with gloomy faces, taking over the TV and lolling about across the sofa, not making any conversation. It's just all so depressing, especially when you're in a family that don't get along, and the days drag on and on forever, and I get confused as to which days are bank holidays and which days are not. Actually, I get confused as to which days are week-ends and which days are not. Why can't Christmas day, boxing day, and new years day be the only bank holidays over the whole Christmas period, and that's it? Why does there have to be random bank holidays inbetween? Well, I know why, but it's more of a rant coupled with a rhetorical question.

Hopefully I will get this job I have gone for what has a good chance of me getting, and they said they are open over Christmas, so I'll be quite happy to do overtime there. But the trouble is, I still got to come back to the miserable men at home. There's nowhere else to go really, being so everyone's got their own plans over Christmas. I suppose I'd better just lock myself up in my room, which is incredibly boring. I wouldn't mind if my brother just pissed off, and my dad just acted a bit happier.

So do I. Welcome to the club.

Christmas can be a real bummer. My main problem with it is the disruption of routine. Everyone starts shopping and drinking more and having social gatherings. I try to ignore it as much as possible and am usually successful. I will not be setting foot in a mall until well into January.
It's nice to have a winter festival, but as it is the season lasts too long. Shopper's Drug Mart in Canada started playing Christmas music the day after Halloween!

The lasts too long part makes it worse and like it even less.

Put up some Christmas lights, they are a cure-all IMO.

I can't stand it either. It's all about families and couples isn't it, so it isn't a holiday that is relevant to me. And then there is the family pressure to go home and join in with it.

Like you, I'm hoping I get the job I'm being put forward for then I'll have an excuse not to go. Last time that happened, I got myself a stack of books and some food I wanted to eat for my Christmas dinner, then in the evening I watched a couple of kids' films with my housemate who was a waitress so had worked a long hard shift and just wanted to relax.

If I'm staying here this time, I'm thinking of volunteering for a shift at a homeless shelter and spending some time with other people who feel lonely and sad at Christmas time.

I'd rather be alone with my books than alone in a houseful of happy couples and pressure on me to be permanently smiling as well.

EDIT: Stupid me, I forgot to say: Good luck with that job! I'll be thinking about you.

I'm sorry that Christmas gets crappy like that for you. The only suggestion I can come up with is to see if you can find a reason to be out of the house a good bit during that time. I do have one idea, and that's to start looking now for someone who is going to be out of town over the holidays and wants to pay someone to come water their plants, get their mail, feed and walk their dog, check on their house and turn lights on and off, and things like that. I'm not sure where you would find something like that, but I know people do it, and they don't always do it just for people they know.

If you could find a temporary job like that to do, you could leave your house and while you were doing what you were paid to do, you wouldn't have to deal with other people. You could sit there and read a book, or watch television with the lights on and all, in the evening for a few hours so people passing by wouldn't know that nobody was home. You wouldn't be gone so long either that you would feel like you were missing too much at home.

Maybe if you Google "house sitters" and "your city" you might could find some idea of how to get into that.

That's the only thing I can think of other than volunteering some where on those days. I'd imagine that homeless shelters need volunteers really badly on those days, because even though they have more than they need here in the US on Thanksgiving, Christmas is hard to staff. I don't know what your shelters are like there, or if you even have them, but if you want to give that a try, you could call and find out what you need to do.

Good luck, and I hope you find a solution.

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Yeah me too. I've decided I mostly don't celebrate it any more

Remember it's usually over sooner than you think, just grit your teeth. I found the hype around the Olympics intolerable, I just ignored it and now it's over!

Christmas is a tad harder to ignore if family are pressurising you I realise

Ann2011, I love your avatar!


I used to love Christmas when I was happily married and again when there were my kids to share it with.

Share. That's the key word for me... Now I've got my lonely basement suite and long for my loved ones I'm unable to see... *sigh* Last year I didn't get my lights up until new year... just too much apathy/depression.

I think holidays are awful for anyone who's unhappy, especially anyone who's not part of a reasonably ok family. Christmas especially - it's such a major holiday here, for one thing, and it's is incredibly family orientated.

If you're happy, holidays are a bonus. If there are major things wrong in your life, holidays can't mean much. A few presents and decorations and days off are nothing if you've got major problems that need fixing. Christmas for me also brings painful nostalgia, because years ago it did used to be meaningful - happy - to me.

One year I worked on Christmas day and it was a good way to avoid it. If you can work, this might help you.

I guess people who are religious see it very differently. Perhaps it's easier to find positives in it then, even if they're not positives personal to you, at least there's a meaning and purpose and positive associated with Christmas.

The disruption to routine is a pain also. Everything shutting down means people who don't celebrate Christmas are forced to do nothing for a day.

At least it's only one day. Plan as much as you can to keep busy. When I was at uni I used to catch up on studying on Christmas Day, so at least I got something useful done. Maybe things won't be as difficult with the family as you envision? They might be in a better mood, and you can disappear off to your room if things start getting difficult.

I think disliking Christmas is incredibly common, for NTs as well.

I also don't like how they take over the radio stations and put on stupid songs.

Hey I hear ya on this one. Hopefully (and I know it's very sad to say this) I will be working at the hospital on Christmas Day, if anything, it shortens the 'family time' aspect quite a bit! I can never afford good presents and they're all pretty wealthy and expect stuff and I just make cookies or something. I'm good at it but it's sort of looked at in a weird way... like people without money are lesser.

Me too! I hate Christmas so much. At family gatherings, there are only a few people I'm actually comfortable with, so I spend most of my time at parties alone.

Other than a couple of hours with the family at lunchtime, I spend the rest of it by myself and that suits me just fine. I actually wish it could be longer so I could take it easy an extra day or two.