For the life of me i just dont know why i am so turned off of Christmas.. hubby put up lights this last weekend but i tried to talk him out of it, and only went out to help cus i didnt want him falling from the roof and breaking his new hip... I DONT want a Christmas tree again this year, and last year put one up begrudgingly just to please hubby.... Seems im worse every year....Ive told all the grandkids there will be NO presents, but they each get a special lunch or dinner alone- time with their Grandpa....youd think i put coal in their stocking to see how they looked at me...several kids were asking for ridiculous expesive items and im totally turned off..pcs, 300 dollar video games, atv vehicles....so greedy....
Hoping to go away for Christmas and have started to look into trips to do so..
Is it me or is Christmas harder as we age???
I had great almost Norman rockwell typeChristmases when i was young...caroling, sleding, love and spending time together like no other time of year.. Why am i turning into such a grinch????
I was sitting there getting ready to vote wishing I could vote for two. I have always loved Christmas, the feeling of it all. Watching the glow in children, I love all of that...................but..............and a big big but here lol
This year I have let it all stress me so much.............I am having a Christmas Eve party here for my side of the family and let me tell you, I am worrying way way to much. My "perfect" sister will off course be here, and I will be on edge to no end for sure.
I have now realized why the last couple of years I was so numbed out during the holidays especially..............It really is HARD. Myself I tend to ponder on things far to much this time of year, that I cannot change.
So I vote for both ............LOL
I love Christmas...............but..................I hate the stress of it.
Again great poll...................So good to see you back here.
LOLOL Crikeys....thats funny, should probably watch that again...that and its a wonderful life are great holiday movies.... My Mother is just as chipper and full of holiday cheer as she ever was so it cant be a gene thing....wish i could figure out where along the line i got so turned off of it..
KeeKee,
Good answer! lol...i would have said the same thing years ago but now i can honestly say i only have one answer, i LOATHE Christmas.. so im definately getting worse....even the commercials bother me,, buy buy buy pushing this and that,,, and then come January, there will ads all over the place for credit councellors to help you get OUT of debt....God i hate it...
probably time for the couch...i can only imagine how much worse ill be in my 50s and on...
Thanks for sharing and good luck with your snooty perfect sister..lolol..happiness is always the best revenge..lol
To me, it's about the religious aspect,family and especially about the kids..I like to give presents..don't like ot get them..giving someone a power screwdriver from Sears just seems weird I guess.
Ali...I haven't voted yet! lol..but thanks for your comments in advance!! I think you meant...Java!!
Anyway...I love love love love Christmas...although I agree it has gotten a little to commercial....I still don't care...I love giving presents and cherish the gratification I get from watching those receiving getting os excited! I also love to open presents...even if its a pair of socks! I get a real kick out of all the beautiful decorations and the pretty packages oh and the lights...I love...ooohhh so shiny!
The smells of Christmas evoke such wonderful things in my mind...sugar cookies and chocolate....whats not to love about that!
The excitement of Christmas eve is so magical....and spiritual...I love going to church on Christmas eve...omg...such a rush of peace comes over me.
I am usually so exhausted from all the craziness and the last minute stuff to do...and don't get much sleep on Christmas Eve...all the cooking for Christmas Day....oohhh how wonderful to smell that coffee brewing way before the sun gets up!
All of it...I love it.....it reminds me that I am human and there are so many amazing things in my life and we didn't have such rituals to practise..I would be so sad....brings family together...
I do help out and always give to charity or sponser a family....done that for many years...but yeah...I guess I am hooked!
It reminded me of one Christmas our parents made all of us girls go to the Vancouver Shelter to help with Christmas dinner..i swear that once i saw the children there, that were so thrilled to get a present and a hot dinner, i never again after that, had my "list" to give my parents for Christmas..and neither did my sisters...( at the time ages 3, 5, 7, 9 )
my parents didnt change that for us, or tell us no more lists..The Sears "wish book" still came each year, and each year we'd circle things and look through it with wide eyes...but we never again asked for more than one item...its just something that occured naturally for us and one of the smartest and most positive life altering things my parents ever did for us as children...
Christmas sucks. I have 2 small kids and try to make it special for them but every year it gets worse. My mom died 2 days before Christmas, now my dad is ill, plus every year it seems there is some tragic event to someone I know. Whether its an unexpected death, getting fired, etc. Plus everyone is all stressed out about the shopping they have to do and people steal and are getting robbed left and right. My friend was in Kmart parking lot with her 10 year old son and someone grabbed her purse riding in a car and it was on her shoulder and they dragged her about 10 feet, all in front of her son. Yesterday at the toy store, toys were flung everywhere, it was a "me first" atmosphere and it was just awful. Anyway, sorry to be a scrooge. Every year lately when Christmas comes I think, "uh oh, who's going to get screwed this year?" ---oh well.. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
Christmas is celebraring the birth of Jesus who we consider a saviour and a miracle. Look to the things or people in your life who you consider to be these things. If we only looked at Christmas as a time of "good cheer" - we'll ALL be let down sooner or later. My best Christmases are always the simplest ones. The problem is we share Christmas with our family and we all know that means a variety of opinions on how it should be spent. Focus on your immediate family first (husband/wife/kids) - make Christmas what you want it to be for you as a family. Let the rest of them know you love them and skip the presents. Theres nothing better than a BRING NOTHING Christmas Party - (except of course your smiles). I never remember what anyone gave me the year before but I never forget who annoyed the hell out of me. Ali - If your husband wants to put up lights - let him have his wish. After all, its Christmas and he has feelings about it too. As long as he isnt making YOU do the work, smile and bring him a hot cocoa !
From the Editorial Page of The New York Sun, written by Francis P. Church, September 21, 1897
We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:
"Dear Editor--I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in The Sun, it's so.' "Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon 115 West Ninety-fifth Street
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Dear God,
Thank You for children and for the magic of Christmas.
This night, we ride with Santa Claus for we believe with all our hearts that Love has come to dwell within us.
May peace, joy and hope spring from our thoughts, words and deeds.
May the light of this holy night illumine our hearts and our world.
Amen
~*~*~*~*~*~
I believe in the power of Christmas to transform the world, Ali, and I can't tell you enough how wonderful it is to see you posting again. I've missed you and love you.
OH Sammy............Amen! i love to pray with you.......
thank you for another beautiful........love filled post.
i was thinking that Christmas is what you make it.........
you can make it a wonderful...beautiful..........time to make memories...
especially for the childern..........
i think that we should do all that we can to make it the most wonderful time of the year for childern growing up...........reguradless of how we fell about christmas..........
if my parents did not like christmas.......i would of never knew it..... beacause they always made it a fun time of the year..........
and now i have all these memories that will lve in my heart forever........
i hope you all that time to make some memories............. this christmas season.......... make some cookies.........
sit by tree and look the lights...........
play some christmas music in the back ground........ turn off all th lights and tv and sing along........
think of all the things your greatful for...........
I love Christmas. It's the birthday of Jesus, so that makes it most special. Of course its hectic and, at times, stressful, but so is everyday life. There is just something about staying up all night on Christmas eve, putting together a tricycle, a sit and spin, or a kitchen set, and then barely having enough time to sit it under the tree and stumble to bed, before the girls wake up. Nothing beats those smiles and squeals. I would not trade it for anything in this world. My husband and I talk about our life before kids. I can't even remember how I spent my Christmas holidays before the kids. We've decided that we must have been really boring people. LOL, now though, its lights on the house, decorations in the yard, wreaths on the doors, Christmas cookies, mistletoe and multiple trees in the house. My girls love it and I love that they love it. As they get older, they won't find it quite as exciting as they do now, so I'm going to celebrate with them as long as I can.
I love the lights and decorations all around the neiighborhood. They're ever so cheery. I also enjoy having a reason to change the decor and I also change things around at the change of seasons. It's refreshing not to look at same old, same old. It also gives me a good chance to get rid of unwelcome clutter. I think the winter would seem long and dreary without that time to look forward to. I also love enjoying the holidays with my kids and their mates.
Having said that, I also hate the stress of buying presents and pretending to like what I don't so I guess I'm torn both ways....but I mostly like it. It also brings back many happy memories.
I would like it much more if it happened every 5 years instead of every year. I'm not kidding. I am annoyed to no end when I see all the stuff in the stores before Halloween. I even saw some things out around September this year. It's like ENOUGH ALREADY! Then to have it followed by Valentine's day makes life hard from right after my Sept. b-day until March. Then I have to contend with people who leave lights up beyond Feb. or March. It's rampant around here.
It is way to commercialized! Some people are greedy and want, want, want. Others are giving to the point of financial trouble. Maybe it's in their heart, or are they driven by guilt? A guilty need to satisfy the greedy ones, to buy an extra portion of love.
Black Friday is insane! Not that I wasn't tempted to run to wherever for those super low priced plasma TVs...LOL
Commercialization, greed, people giving beyond their means and the long amount of time that store displays and decorations stay up ALL annoy me.
However, I do catch the spirit some years but not other years. Hence my wishing for it every 5 years. But since it is a birthday celebration, that won't work. So, I wish it was just more special. I wish it to begin no sooner than Thanksgiving and end by New Years Day. I wish every family who could afford a meal and one gift could give to someone who couldn't. Even a few dollars, anything at all.
One of my favorite memories...One year my dad learned on Christmas Eve that a single lady from his AA group had no presents for her 2 children. She told nobody, not sure how he learned this. I was quite young. My parents frantically ran out to the stores and bought a few gifts for her children.
My sister and I were allowed to wrap them. After dark, we drove to her apartment building and mom parked out of view in an alley. Sis and I were instructed to tip toe to her apartment door and quietly lay down the gifts, ring the doorbell and run before the door could be answered.
I wanted to know why my parents didn't want her to know that they were the ones doing this. She explained that we were helping Santa and that the best way to give is to do so anonymously.
Dad waited at the entrance to the apartment holding the door for us to make our escape. We pulled it off without being seen. It was an amazing experience and lesson.
It bothers me when people give gifts, money or time and then make sure everyone knows it. I question motives. Do they do it because it feels good, or because they want to be acknowledged for doing it?
I'm not at all in the spirit this year. I'm facing some major challenges and Christmas just seems to be one more thing to contend with. I'll feel better when I get together with my most cherished family members.
When the spirit does get me, it is magical, so I understand why some people love it so much and how things can get carried away. I really shouldn't care if people have their lights out from September through May, if that makes them happy. I just hope they are enjoying it and not sitting around trying to get motivated to take it down.
Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope the spirit catches you if it hasn't already.
