Christmas :/ (Sour Scrooge type talk)

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So me being me, when Christmas comes around I try my best to ignore it and just wait for it to go away.

It's like I leave to go to college and then I come back later in the day and everything is Christmas-ified. There's flashing lights everywhere. Decorations, noises and new smells. It's just so in your face! Then I go out in public and I cant move a centimeter without running into someone doing christmas shopping and everything's so busy I have to wait in incessant queues just to buy stupid things I need like a pint of milk or whatever. Everywhere I look there's someone trying to sell me something and there's a million adverts everywhere about christmas. My theory is that they jam it down your throat just a little more every year because the general adult population's souls are so dead that they don't get the festive happy christmas feeling any more so they think that buying more cheap christmas novelties will sort of warm their hearts. The nasty men in suits aim this stuff at those types of adults.

Then there's my family giving me obligations to fill; "You must get your 3 siblings and also me and your dad a present for Christmas" and then my friends wanting gifts as well. DAMN I DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS!

It's like for 5 weeks (starting in November now?!) everyone is POSSESSED and real life just gets thrown out of the window. Don't get me wrong, I like the closeness I feel to other people at Christmas time and it makes me feel warm but I just hate all of the cheap crap and retail that makes it so cold and it makes it lose its meaning. I'm not a Christian but I can imagine that they'd be pretty upset that Jesus' birthday has just turned into this big retail-fest. I don't know. I hope I'm not being insensitive but none of it seems sincere any more. I think that in more recent times, for non-religious people, Christmas is definitely more of a celebration of family and friends which is very nice I think.

I just want it to be back to normal again. I feel like December is a grey area and isn't like normal time and life. It helps making my room into a Christmas free zone but the obligation and anxiety is still there.

Maybe old Tom can cheer you up.

Here's how you fight back against consumerism and Christmas expectations. It's too late to do this for this year, but plan ahead for next.

About October 15, write everybody who you are "expected" to give a present to, that you are skipping Christmas this year and instead will be donating the money to a charity. Tell them they are free to give you a gift if they wish, but it won't be reciprocated.

Then follow through with your promise. Do this for two or three years in a row. You will never feel a victim of Christmas again.

I feel much the same way about Christmas and am waiting very impatiently for everything to go back to normal. I'm struggling with the number of people everywhere, how commercial it is and with all of the different expectations. Every year it seems to get worse.

I like to celebrate Winter Solstice - it's become a day of peace in amongst the chaos of Christmas. Weather permitting, I'm going for a long walk with my camera in the countryside. Then at night I'm going to light my candles and have a couple of glasses of wine by myself. It really helps to have a day where I do the season my way.

I like the old system where kids got presents and everyone else got a Christmas card. Then people would put up a tree, iron some tablecloths and generally eat and relax. And that was it.

Capitalism eats everything. Grumble.

Christmas is a couples holiday like most holidays I hate it now. I use to love it and look forward to it. But that's slowly been destroyed year after year.

When you mentioned Old Tom I was thinking of something else

The worst thing about this time of year is all the students in my country get their results. They all seem so happy. My score was zero. That was 11 years ago. I resent them for their happiness and their success. They should all be boiled in their own Christmas pudding. Humbug!