Christmas and the holidays are supposed to be a time of joy, family togetherness and happiness….well they are SUPPOSED to be….
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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?
