Anyone here who hate the holidays?

Nurses Rock Toon

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  • Specializes in CCU, Geriatrics, Critical Care, Tele.

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DSkelton711

312 Posts

Specializes in OB/GYN/Neonatal/Office/Geriatric.

I want to love the hoidays, but with people shopping til their dropping on Black Friday for stuff, while others struggle to keep themselves warm makes me more sad than happy. Rather than "stuff" or "things", I just want to be with family/loved ones and relax as much as possible.

Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.
Going to be my first holiday without my mom. Was poking around Walgreen's the other night and found a very soft blanket -- I immediately thought "mom would love this for Christmas" and then remembered that I won't be buying her anything for Christmas.

I bought the blanket for myself instead.

I had that with Father's Day this year. I always look for two cards. Got the first and was looking for the second when I realized, no FIL this year. Sad. My condolences to you.

nursefrances, BSN, RN

1 Article; 601 Posts

Specializes in Ambulatory Surgery, Ophthalmology, Tele.

I feel for those who have lost loved ones around the holidays. :hug:

I love the holidays. Yes, it is SO commercialized but that doesn't mean it has to be in my home. I have certain things I love to do each year. We decorate our tree while playing the nutcracker suite CD. I have ornaments from the year each of our children were born and they like to hang their own ornament on the tree. I also have a graduation hat ornament from nursing graduation and an ornament from my wedding that I like to hang on the tree. My Husband's dear grandma (we call her "Great", for great-grandma) passed away a couple of years ago. I have an ornament with her picture on it. We hang it on the tree and talk about all the fun times we had with her and all of her stories that she would tell us over and over each time we saw her. (Living in New York in the olden days, etc.)

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My son and I put together a lego village and we put a train set around the tree. On Christmas morning we open presents together. It is for the kids. My hubby and I don't buy for each other. If anything, I will put some candy in our stockings for us to munch on while the kids eat their candy from their stockings. I have a budget of $100-150 per kid. (I only have two kids) Since times have been tough the last few years we don't buy for the nieces and nephews (and we tell brothers and sisters not to buy for our kids). It's just too expensive and all the kids are older teens now (except for my twelve year old). I will bake and make fudge and take it to relatives we visit. One thing that bugs me is seeing people in stores buying stuff just to buy it. When I get a gift, there is thought put into it.

With all the hustle and bustle, sometimes it is easy to forget why we really celebrate the season.

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

I don't do Black Friday, never have. People behave like savages, and I don't want to bear witness.

It's not that I don't like holidays, it's just the extra stuff I have to do on top of all the stuff I already do. It can be exhausting.

I've had little old ladies come to the hospital with vague complaints of this and that. They hold court in their room for 3-4 days through XMas.

Usually they'll confide to me eventually that they just didn't want to clean their house. Or that they didn't have any gifts bought. Or that they just didn't want to host a party at their house.

We spend thousands of dollars on labs, Xrays, tele, EKGs.... just because the pt wanted to escape the holiday.

Maybe I'll be that little old lady one of these days.

RetRN77

153 Posts

Specializes in Labor/Delivery, Pediatrics, Peds ER.
I don't like the holidays much anymore. Ever since my mom passed away in 2001, Thanksgiving and Christmas have lost their meaning quite a bit. I have been dating someone for several years now who is originally from another country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving at all, so working on Thanksgiving (including Black Fri) is something I don't mind doing at all. My favorite part of the holidays has been New Years Eve, because for me it means all the holiday nonsense is over. Christmas this year may be a little different in that I will be part of their family now, so perhaps it will be as special as it was when I was a kid. Let's see!

I hope so, Paco-RN. Having to carry on without those near and dear is so difficult, as is having loved ones pass near the holidays. I so hope and pray you and others hurting at this time find a renewed reason to draw joy from the season.

Special hugs to CT Pixie.

Specializes in NICU.

I've lost loved ones...but I still love the holidays. Yes, Christmas is commercialized and it's terrible but why let that ruin your spirit? It doesn't have to be for you if you don't let it. I am a Christmas fanatic...everything about it...the decorations, baking, traditions, and most of all - spending time with family. There are just so many traditions and memories and I get so excited about every little thing. Never really buy much...I handmake all my gifts and do lots of baking and crafting....no running to Walmart for this or that for me! I already have Christmas music and candles going...cozied up with some hot chocolate as I type this! Hubby and I are going to Toronto for the annual Christmas parade tomorrow...it's honestly one of our favourite and most anticipated days of the year. We're both like little kids...and when we have kids...I'll make sure it's as special for them too, because my mother hates Christmas and I really have to try and pump her up for it!

Nursing2102

276 Posts

I agree, the holidays are very hard for those who have lost loved ones. It's still important to make the best of it with all the family and loved ones who are still with us.

I never really celebrated holidays as a kid (poor). And when our family tried to spend them together, at least one fist fight always broke out, and it usually escalated to the point where it was more than 2 of us fighting. Police were usually involved. As an adult, they are not much more to me than any other day (kind of like how Birthdays stop mattering once you leave home and go out on your own). The only real days I look forward to are my daughter's Birthdays. That is my excuse to pry them from their mother and take them on a few days vacation and spend more time with them-They're "Daddy's Girls :) "

On the upside, I always happily volunteer to work holidays and sponge the extra pay that comes with it !!

Specializes in ICU.

I dont care for the holidays. Im not religious/christian so its meaningless in that sense to me. Thanksgiving/black friday is rediculous in what society has made it. That being said, my boyfriend and I dont have family where we live so holidays are either us, or with friends and I wouldnt have it any other way! We usually get together with friends and have a merry old time and its fun! I love new years, its always a fun time, so I dont mind working thanksgiving and christmas for the people that really want it off with kids.

Specializes in ICU.

Oh and the Muppets Christmas Carol, love that movie! Thats what makes it "feel" like the holidays!

Ntheboat2

366 Posts

I loved the holidays when I was a kid.

Not so much now, because of this ridiculous Black Friday nonsense. Every year, some poor retail worker gets trampled to death because some moron decided that a new iPad was clearly more valuable than a Walmart cashier's life.

Honestly? Does anyone need a Kindle Fire THAT badly? Who needs ten flat-screen LED TV's? Do people really have so much time and money on their hands? I don't think anyone here on AN is like that, but it appalls me that some grown adults are prepared to fight other grown adults for a Squinkies playset.

It's disgusting how greedy people get and how little regard some have for a human life in the name of doorbuster sales. "No big deal-- I just trampled the Walmart greeter, but it's ok! At least I got all my Christmas shopping done!" :yeah:

I feel bad for all the retail workers who have to be away from their families just so others can have a chance to buy cheap items as if the world were ending. I refuse to perpetuate this ridiculous behavior. I will never, ever go to a Black Friday sale.

I saw this on Facebook and laughed my butt off...

"Black Friday: because only in America people trample

others for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have"

I hate the holidays. I don't see many of my relatives and in laws all year long, but I'm supposed to show up on Christmas bearing gifts? I'd rather just keep my money and let everyone else keep theirs! I don't need socks, candles, ornaments, etc.

The holidays are just a financial strain to me personally.

Ntheboat2

366 Posts

I never really celebrated holidays as a kid (poor). And when our family tried to spend them together, at least one fist fight always broke out, and it usually escalated to the point where it was more than 2 of us fighting. Police were usually involved. As an adult, they are not much more to me than any other day (kind of like how Birthdays stop mattering once you leave home and go out on your own). The only real days I look forward to are my daughter's Birthdays. That is my excuse to pry them from their mother and take them on a few days vacation and spend more time with them-They're "Daddy's Girls :) "

On the upside, I always happily volunteer to work holidays and sponge the extra pay that comes with it !!

You're not alone. Every holiday, especially Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve, was just an excuse for my drunk/drug addict relatives to party even harder. My brother and my uncle were the worst and it was pretty much a given that there was going to be blood and cops.

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