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?
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
I just relocated to a new state, and the rest of the family is not joining me until right around Christmas. I just had the thought yesterday "Dang, I still need to, like buy gifts and decorate!" SO wish I could just not, but of course, children kind of expect it. Sigh.
Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.
For the most part I despise Christmas. Why do stores feel the need to play a constant track of Christmas music, every damn song? I promise I won't forget that I am obliged to buy a bunch of crap for everybody I know and some people I don't know if you just do like every 3rd song. I absolutely hate the pressure. I never live up. Ever.
There are a few things I like at Christmas. I love my children's Christmas concerts at school. I like seeing lights on other people's houses. I like nativity scenes. I like the smell of a real Christmas tree, and I like to sit and look at it at night.
I absolutely love the idea of caroling. One day, my children "brass caroled" me and I burst into tears of joy. I would love to get carolers. I'm half tempted to post my address with a cash offer.
I make it a point to watch National Lampoon's Christmas vacation as my therapy for my Christmas stress. If I fight with my husband or have a Christmas tantrum, it is a necessity. I prescribe it to myself.
I would love to have a no presents Christmas. It's the gift giving that really gets me down. I love Thanksgiving.
I was walking into my job one day, and there was holiday music playing. It was in the elevators. In the halls. I was really started to contemplate quitting because the music was driving me crazy. I walk into a patient's room, and it was playing there, too! I really couldn't imagine a hospital piping that stuff in their rooms.
Lo and behold, Pandora decided that i wanted to hear that on my phone without earphones. Crisis averted.
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
I love Christmas and almost everything about it...except for those sappy movies on the Hallmark, Lifetime, and Ion channels. They're all the same, like Trauma said, and the saccharine nature of these things makes me want to gag.
Other than that-and the ubiquitous Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson Christmas songs on the radio-I'm content to let the season unfold. I'm on a fixed income and can't afford gifts, but I try to do something nice for everyone; I also LOVE to decorate and make Christmas cookies and fudge. I miss the holidays we had when my family lived in the big house in the woods and had plenty of everything, but Christmas has changed and it's OK. Last Christmas we even went to Disney World. This year, who knows?
I am single and my family is OS so I can avoid most of it.
My biggest issue is that I have 3 Christmas mad staff who have made me enter the ward in the Christmas decorating competition and they have gone from being sensible, excellent nurses to being crackpots. I put my foot down and said no decorating until 1st Dec. I had the 30th Nov off so they may of gone rouge but not back until Monday so que sera.
I dislike the commercialism of Christmas. I get around it by buying my gifts through the year, so I'm all set and done by the end of Sept or Oct. Then the flurry of catalogues hit, and I look them over but it takes a really good deal to move me. If it involves going to the mall in December, nothing will move me, I'm just not up for it.
I have my tree up well in advance so I can enjoy it a good long time. I've thought about leaving it up to get me through the winter, but neighbors will talk.
Family get togethers have been a lot of ego rubbing for my family, I'm less into it as I get older. Enough said. I'm planning about four nights of volunteering at the homeless shelter locally, and bringing special treats with me
I like Christmas. Decorations at home in the house, the barn , etc. Holiday baking and other foods. Outside trees and buildings decorated with the old-fashioned big lights that you can't buy anymore. Red and green saddle blankets when riding. Even house cats climbing in the tree. Lots of snow...feeding the birds (homemade suet cakes) and other wildlife. I watch allll the old shows I grew up with every year without fail...Family get together...big meals.
I like Christmas but only for a couple weeks. I agree with TraumaRUs that it starts way too early! I don't want to listen to Christmas music on Thanksgiving either, so I just change the channel. I'm happy I can shop on the www. I sure want to avoid that craziness if I like to think of the sweet baby Jesus and it makes me smile when I think of him as an 8lb., 6oz. precious baby in a golden fleecy diaper with tiny little balled up fists...
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klone, MSN, RN
14,857 Posts
I just relocated to a new state, and the rest of the family is not joining me until right around Christmas. I just had the thought yesterday "Dang, I still need to, like buy gifts and decorate!" SO wish I could just not, but of course, children kind of expect it. Sigh.