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?

[klone, MSN, RN]

No, no - let the airing of grievances begin!

[No Stars In My Eyes]

One of the things I really dislike about Christmas is that I find all kinds of gifts in all the catalogs, perfect for this or that one of the folks I would like to give stuff to, but I CAN'T AFFORD ANY OF THEM! (BIG boo-boo-lip!)

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

I love Christmas. It brings back really lovely childhood memories. My parents owned a construction company when I was growing up and my dad never planned any projects from mid December to mid January because of the unpredictable weather. So my dad was home almost all of the time (he worked 70 hour weeks most of the year), and Christmas break was full of fun. Dad would take us sledding, we'd play board games, I'd bake cookies with mom, we'd dance around the kitchen to Christmas music, and I got to see all of my cousins on Christmas day.

But you want to know my least favorite part of Christmas? My in-laws. They have a specific way of just putting me in the Grinchiest mood about Christmas. They change Christmas plans at least 10 times causing me to scramble and beg my own family to switch things around (despite the fact that their plans have been set in stone for months). If I push back on my in-laws 10th change, I'm met with guilt tripping, someone cries, someone starts a fight in a group text message. Also THEY MAKE INSTANT POTATOES. ON CHRISTMAS. It's only my 2nd Christmas in this family, and I'm already over it. It feels good to vent here because I can't vent anywhere else.

[Farawyn]

Starting Christmas too early is a HUGE no-no.

The Kid's Bday is in early December, and I don't even think about it until then.

Other than that, I'm sort of the Opposite of The Grinch...sorry!!!

[llg, PhD, RN]

It started waaaaay to early this year. I don't think it should start until after Thanksgiving. Then I am OK with most of it.

My family doesn't get big into the gift-giving, so that's only mildly painful. Mostly, we just buy gifts for "the kids" -- who are now teenagers. We get together, share a meal, play some games, keep it low key and enjoy the time together.

What I really hate about it at work is all the "pot lucks." As someone with a Professional Development job, I am a part of lots of different groups and committees. Each one wants to have some sort of party -- and each group wants to do a pot luck. For people who only belong to 1 group, maybe that's OK -- but some of us are members of lots of groups and it gets to be too much. I don't cook much and certainly don't want to have to be bringing in food a couple of times per week to feed my co-workers! And since everyone is eating instead of meeting, no work gets done. If we're not going to accomplish anything at the meeting, I'd much rather just skip it!

[No Stars In My Eyes]

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." }

[Neats, BSN]

We do Jewish Celebration

[No Stars In My Eyes]

I have worked most Holidays by choice. Since I didn't have kids, I wanted co-workers to be able to do their family-thing and not be stuck at work. That's because most of my Christmases during my 20's and 30's were spent away from home. Didn't particularly want to spend all Holidays at home alone, so working helped out all of us.

Besides which, I'd get Holiday and W/E pay. :)

I have done private duty a lot and have had an eclectic panoply of Christmases and the Jewish Holidays as well. I've attended many Church services from many denominations, so I'm quite ecumenical!

[Davey Do]

I'm sort of the Opposite of The Grinch...sorry!!!

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[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

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.

Guess I'm too practical---My hubby and 2 sons find in their stocking I needlepointed yearly: toothbrush, 2 Ace pocket combs, razor blades, shaving cream, Tangerine ( continuing tradition from my Mom from days when citrus not available in the winter), Milk Chocolate coins, Wawa gift card (local convenience/gas store), Gamer download card, Pez container, plus Hershey candies and fun gag gift. Told last year no more Christmas socks/Tie --sigh.

I agree holiday items out too early: Halloween items were in my stores mid August; Christmas beginning October. Hobby Lobby advertising December 2nd: 50% off all Christmas items. If you don't look for tissue paper by next week, won't find it as gift wrap usually gone week before Christmas --instead of being 50% off AFTER Christmas through New Years.

Takes me 10hrs to decorate Christmas tree after lights applied. I've been banned from purchasing further Hallmark light and motion ornaments along with more glass ornaments as it takes 6 light strands to power Hallmark light and motion ornaments boys have; "You have enough ornaments for 6 trees Mom". Hogwash, I can always find room for one more.

:)

[NurseCard, ADN]

"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?"

Yeah, I can't watch those. Can't do it. I get irritated this time of year because

Lifetime shows those corny Christmas movies, instead of the suspense movies

with the predictable storylines and the bad acting that I have come to know and

love.

My kids get so mad at me when I watch Lifetime movies, because they typically

have a lot of murder in them. My son calls them "murder shows". Last night

I had the TV on Lifetime and my daughter was like, "We are NOT watching

Lifetime, mom!". I was like, oh c'mon, it's a Christmas movie!....

A Christmas movie... with MURDER!!!

[Davey Do]

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...

Let the Grinchmas begin!

No, no - let the airing of grievances begin!

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