The Grinch of allnurses.com

[traumaRUs]

Okay, not to be a Grinch, but really Christmas has become just so ridiculous. We all want this season to be happy with family get togethers, joy, peace and harmony. However, there are certain expectations of us too that we might not always be able to meet. The holidays can be stressful for many reasons. Here are some of my stressors. Can you identify with any of them? Please share what stresses you out during this season.

Christmas starts tooooooo early. At Halloween, fully two months before the actual date, we are forced to view Christmas decorations, Christmas pre-pre-pre sales, and the start of "what should you buy your kids for Christmas commercials.

Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies - ugh is all I can say. I can't do the continuous story of girl moves to the city for a great job, gets her heart broken by some guy, girl moves back home, girl meets hometown boy, falls in love, and gets a dog. Grrrr - I just can't stand all the sugar. Why not just be real? The holidays are stressful for many reasons - how about showing some real people at the holidays?

Emails after emails wanting me to spend money on "the greatest sale since the creation of sales." Any place I've ever ordered from is now sending me oodles and oodles of emails begging me to spend money with them. And what's with Black Friday, Black Friday Weekend and then Cyber Monday? So...we have day after day after day of sale notifications. When should I purchase, what should I purchase? So many choices. The positive for this (and yes there are some holiday positives even for this Negative Nancy - :)) is that I do like online shopping - efficient, quick and convenient.

The "guilt me" commercials on TV - you know the ones; where if you don't buy the latest laser gun, bicycle or video game/console for your child, you are somehow going to be perceived as a bad parent. Oh and of course these commercials are geared towards the kids so you have your kids begging for the next big thing too. And did I say the next big thing is $200+?

Office politics are high on my list some years too. Do you buy something for close co-workers, do you have some type of grab bag or something else? Is there a dollar limit? Are presents not allowed? I've worked several different places with different rules. In some places this added to the stress of the season too.

Christmas decorations - the biggest discussion at our house is when to put the decorations up. I am now (the day after Thanksgiving) looking at our decorated tree, with the outside lights twinkling. So, when is the optimal time to put up decorations? Is our house decorated too early? Or, should we have waited until two weeks before Xmas, like I wanted? And the next discussion is when to take the decorations down? I vote the day after Christmas. However other members of my family feel that they should stay up for another week or even two....another discussion.

Weird gifts - just saw a commercial saying I should gift my family with new toothbrushes. My family would probably be offended if this appeared in their stockings. Subscriptions to different apps seem to be another (at least to me) a weird present.

So, as the self-proclaimed Grinch of AN, surely I'm not alone? Come on guys help a Grinch out? What's your least favorite part of the holidays? What aspect of the holidays drives you crazy?

[NurseCard, ADN]

I have to say for myself, I generally love everything about Christmas, except for

two things:

No, make that three:

Christmas decorations on November the 1st.

Christmas music on the radio, on November the 1st.

The above mentioned Christmas movies.

After Thanksgiving, the first two are fine.

I can't think of a time in my life when I didn't love Christmas. Even when

my husband and I were first married, and didn't have kids for 7 years

after that... I still loved it SO much and looked forward to it every year!

For the longest time, I MADE everyone's Christmas gifts, but that has

gone by the wayside. I still try to make cookies and candies and

goodies though. I hope to really go crazy this year and make a

BUNCH... If I'm not too tired from working!

Now... I didn't put up a Christmas tree for about 3-4 years after we

got married... but finally decided that I missed it and so up it went.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Yay! Davey memed me!

[klone, MSN, RN]

Because I know you were all DYING to know what I decided about decorating our house - since there won't be any other able-bodied adults to help me with a tree until 12/22, when my adult kids come into town (hubs and 10yo won't be in town until literally Christmas Eve evening), I just spent $40 on a cheap-ass artificial tree on Amazon. So my family WILL have a decorated house for their Christmas festivities.

#Godblessprime

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

This made me laugh - at myself. I was all prepared to feel Grinchy about your Grinchiness, because I freaking love the holidays. However, you have some really really valid points and I got the giggles.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

I had terrific, FUN Christmases as a child. It's only well after that that I grew to dislike Christmas. Hubby's whole family was together for one of our first Christmases, and I was shocked to see everyone's gifts piled beside them, and suddenly they all grabbed their gifts and start tearing off the wrapping...everybody.... all at once! Noise, everybody talking, paper ripping and flying around. You couldn't tell who gave what to whom, and you couldn't watch the person open YOUR gift and get to see their reaction. To me, that was awful, and quite disappointing.

In my family, first we'd all get our stockings and bring them to the table and begin digging in one little present at a time, watching other's just as much as opening our own stuff. Lots of laughter and fun. We'd put in the stockings a lot of funny or practical, just interesting or frequently peculiar little presents. Even flashlight batteries were wrapped; my dad used to wrap quarters, and one year I gave every person a different pair of animal magnets; my dad got two scotty-dogs, one black and one white; if you put them face to face they would spin around until the dogs were nose to tail. He laughed and laughed until tears ran down his cheeks and kept chuckling for long after. It was amazing to me, because he laughed like I've never seen him laugh before! But whatever, it was always fascinating. We loved to find odd little things that no one would ever expect, so every Christmas, the stockings were kind of a 'contest' as to who could find the most bizarre or weird things to give.

After the stockings were empty, we would eat breakfast and then get dressed before going in to the living-room tree with all the gifts under it. We had one of us hand out presents one-by-one, trying to make sure everyone got their turn to open a gift before going back to the first person, who would then get their second present. There were usually 7 of us there, and we all watched to see who it was from and then what it was. It made the present opening last several lazy hours, and everyone got to enjoy everyone else's gifts in addition to their own. You ended up feeling you had a lot more Christmas than if you just opened your presents in a rush. Never saw any person or family who did Christmas like we did, and felt very let down by that.

{ As POTUS would so eloquently say, "Sad." }

This is similar to how we do things and my family (Mom and brothers) kind of does things more like your in-laws. Both can be fun but I raised my kids for the way your family does it. I am SO wrapping quarters this year! lol!

[No Stars In My Eyes]

n.d.y.

Your post made me feel happy that someone somewhere knows how to enjoy a relaxed (and goofy) Christmas!

[dec2007]

I haven't read the whole thread, so forgive me if this is repetitive. It has taken me a long time, but I have learned to (mostly) opt out of the holiday madness. The gifts I feel I MUST buy (grandchildren , for instance) I buy on Amazon and utilize their gift wrap and direct delivery services, and I aim to finish this by Dec. 3rd or 4th. That leaves the rest of the month free to emerse myself in my spiritual celebrations and personal Christmas joys. I avoid shopping, even for groceries, as much as possible in December. If I do have to get grocery suppliesco try to go at night when the aggressive holiday shoppers are seldom present.

[SpankedInPittsburgh, DNP, RN]

I punched out of Christmas years ago after way too many Cecil B DeMille, over-choreographed, bankruptcy inducing stress fests when raising my kids with my ex. These days I go to the islands that week and try to skip the BS entirely. I'm not overly religious so I don't really miss the spiritual aspect either. When I first started doing this I figured I could get a great deal at an all-inclusive on the beach. I was very wrong. The places are jammed packed with similarly-minded "grinches" who would rather dine on doggie-doo then putting up another stupid tree and trying for the forced Norman Rockwell experience.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

You all are great. I love the suggestion of going to the islands especially as I slog thru snow and ice to get to work - grrr.

My husband is the happiest little XMas elf around. I love this man dearly but whew we have very different ideas about XMas. Just so folks don't think I run around scowling at everyone during November and December, I do enjoy the family get togethers and I especially enjoy spending time with my sons and grandkids.

[scuba nurse, BSN, MSN, RN]

The thing I have noticed this year, is the amount of toys, games...etc...that have to do with POOP and the toilet! or boogers! REALLY?? You cant come up with any better games that poop or snot games?? And why does that fascinate people? AND WHO BUYS this stuff??? Crazy!

[NightNerd, MSN, RN]

Weirdly, I find myself enjoying the holidays more as I age. Maybe it's finally being good and done with school, which means I actually have time and energy to really dig into the festivities. I've never been great at gift giving, but I get better every year and have had some winners recently. I also do enjoy the decorations, although I don't go berserk. My boyfriend and I have a healthy level of nonchalance about the holidays, which means we're both content with whatever holiday cheer we end up displaying.

The only thing I'm super Grinch-like about is Christmas music. It's absolutely wretched. I went to Kohl's, Target, and DSW yesterday and thought I was going to have to tear my eardrums out. Not a fan.

[No Stars In My Eyes]

Oh, my fellow Grinches and Grinchettes--

My MiL (aka Nannie, who has dementia) is a Christmas-Crazed person, and today was the day that the tree got put up. FORTUNATELY I had to go to a Dr's appt and miss the decorating event. YAAAAYYYYYY!