Poll: How do you feel about this holiday time of year?

[Lsbcal]

Just thought it would be interesting to hear how the people here feel about the holidays.

Don't worry too much about the wording of each choice. It was intended to offer 7 options from Love, to Neutral, to Hate. Hope I didn't miss your favorite option!

 

[exnavynuke]

The upsides to the holidays is I get days off at work for the holidays and it's acceptable to take 2 weeks of PTO at a time over the holidays; and traffic normally decreases for the holiday weeks making my commute slightly less terrible.

The downsides to the holidays are:
being forced to hear the same 30 or so songs over and over again for upwards of two months, making me want to strangle anyone playing them, singing along with them, or enjoying them.
Having to put up with people expressing their holiday "cheer".
Having to put up with people stressed out or upset over the holidays.
Having to put up with all the holiday themed commercials (thank you Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and my DVR for alleviating this problem significantly).
Gift giving... sure, I'll spend $20 on something you don't want so you can spend $20 on something I don't want at the White Elephant gift exchange... why not...


On the whole, I could do without the holidays. In fact, I'm looking forward to my Christmas diving off a boat in the Exuma Cays this year

 

[Car-Guy]

Voted neutral. I stay out of the stores and seem to write more checks at this time of the year.

 

[MichaelB]

I love the holidays and look forward to them. We are a very close family and the holiday season is an opportunity to get together.

Edit to add - the commercial aspect around Christmas does irritate me.

 

[Koogie]

Instead of standing in lines surrounded by stressed out unhappy people buying crap no one needs and then killing each other on the frenzied highways, why can't we just sacrifice a goat to Imhotep like they used to in the good old days instead ?

 

[MRG]

Can't vote, Android app user, don't see polls.

The holidays are OK. Better than neutral I guess.

I do remember a gal, who was a friend for many years. Every holiday time she would be very depressed. I never understood.

Of course there's the opposite; a friend who's family is famous around this time of year, she was always joyful. She often recalled Christmas past as something seen in 1940s movies.

 

[RobbieB]

I am glad to be loving the holidays again. Had a hard time for 5 years after my wife died between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Time does heal -

 

[travelover]

I feel a little guilty for not having enough "Christmas spirit". Anymore, Christmas seems to be all about gifts and spending. Even Christmas cards are largely bulk printed and not even signed, let alone containing a personal message. Even a yearly "brag" letter would be preferable to just a printed signature.

 

[frayne]

I enjoy the holidays and Christmas for the kids and grandkids and thank God for Amazon Prime.

 

[scrabbler1]

I was born Jewish but have been an atheist for the last 41 years. The holidays mean nothing to me and I find them annoying, especially the endless playing of Christmas songs on the radio and TV and their use in TV ads. Just call me Scrooge.

 

[Luck_Club]

The holidays are great when you get to experience the joy and excitement of young ones. As the kids and we have aged, it is stressful and kind of a lot of work for nothing.

For some reason this year has me in a more joyful mood than the past few years.

 

[Mdlerth]

It's Christmaaaaas!

I love everything about this season, which for me begins with Thanksgiving... as Thanksgiving! It's not just the Day Before Black Friday, but a separate, independent holiday that's worth celebrating all on its own. That it kicks off the countdown to Christmas is nice, but I don't rush through it in a mad frenzy to get to Christmas.

Of course, that inevitably brings us to the Christmas Holiday season. I love it. Yeah, radio stations go to an all-carol format, which gets a little repetitive. I don't care. I can always change the station or play my own music if I want to.

I watch lots of wonderful movies for weeks, as well as some Christmas-themed specials of ordinary TV shows. From "The Simpsons" to "Blackadder", there are some delightfully creative stories in there.

I relax my low-carb regimen for a month and exult in eggnog (I use bourbon, not rum) and banana bread and chocolate and gingerbread and The Feast of 7 Fishes. Caloric penance can wait till January.

I don't ask Santa for anything expensive; books or music or movies are about as extravagant as I ever want. But I enjoy giving unexpected surprises.

I believe the "I get so depressed by Christmas" stories are wildly overblown, and never supported by statistically valid data so I ignore them. There always have been and always will be self-appointed Grinches; I don't let them spoil it for me.

Also, I welcome learning about coinciding celebrations. I believe Christmas can get along fine with Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and any others that happen to fall at the same time. "Peace on earth, good will toward men"; maybe I'm terminally naive, but I really do believe in that.

I don't mind getting pestered for donations by every charity under the sun. I don't support them all, but every time I kick a few bucks toward a reputable one I feel optimistic about the future of humanity.

And it doesn't just collapse after the 25th. A week later we always stay up to welcome the new year with kisses and champagne and revelry.

Perhaps I haven't fully made my position clear. So I'll conclude with "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

 

[CRLLS]

I used to enjoy holiday shopping in stores. Today we get wish lists with links to Amazon (or whatever). I have to admit, having things drop-shipped with gift wrapping to my DS's family saves a lot of shipping costs. Even still, I just spent $150 for shipping 2 boxes! When I do go to stores, I find they don't have what we are looking for. "Try our online store" is their reply.

I will miss not having family around opening gifts on Christmas morning. Last year we had DS1 and his wife, DS2 and his family, including his mother-in-law. it was busy but fun. This year we will be going to DS1's family Xmas eve and morning. It just doesn't feel like Christmas.

All that aside, I still do like the holidays.

 

[W2R]

I voted, "Wish for the holidays to disappear".

I have a loved one who suffers from Christmas blues due to difficult past experiences. I hate to see him going through this.

I don't really celebrate the holidays myself. I would bake warm Christmas cookies to serve with eggnog but all of that is too fattening. Putting up a tree seems slightly idiotic when one lives alone and doesn't entertain and has no tree, decorations, lights, or ornaments.

We can't even go for our afternoon pleasure drives this week, because THE DRUNKS ARE OUT. It's insane. At any given moment, you can see 3-4 people less than a half a block away in traffic who are doing crazy, illegal, reckless things while driving like driving 90 degrees from the flow of traffic or backing up at a rapid pace, in a busy, fast moving urban street.

~~~> <~~~​

I was born Jewish but have been an atheist for the last 41 years. The holidays mean nothing to me and I find them annoying, especially the endless playing of Christmas songs on the radio and TV and their use in TV ads. Just call me Scrooge.

Try not to listen to radio or TV! From one Scrooge to another (even though I was brought up Presbyterian), TV has become pretty gruesome. Instead, I go to youtube and listen to non-seasonal podcasts or something like that. Actually the ONLY Christmas songs I have heard this year, was when playing some that were on the thread on this forum about Christmas music. I liked them because I could start and stop them as desired, and play only the ones I like.

 

[RunningBum]

I love them. I love the lights and do it up at my house even though I'm not on a thru street and it's mostly for me. I look forward to seeing most of the family. I took some of the stress out of travelling by booking first class flights, and have global entry to shorten the security lines. I really dislike malls at this time of year so I just avoid them and do what little shopping I do online. Ski season has started. I enjoy a month of Christmas music, mostly listening to my own mp3s. Really, very little I don't like about this time of year. As a kid I thought it was because I'd get presents, but either that wasn't really it, or the feeling has carried on without getting "stuff".

 

[redduck]

... why can't we just sacrifice a goat to Imhotep like they used to in the good old days instead ?

Uh, oh...you mean we no longer can do the sacrifice for the holidays? How's a family to bond?

 

[SheitlQueen]

I am also Jewish, and they are not my holidays, so I'm neutral on them. I do get tired of the over playing of Christmas music, but I do enjoy the decorations. If other people find meaning in their holidays, it's okay by me.

 

[athena53]

Neutral overall. I'm a practicing Christian and have watched Christmas turn into a retail free-for-all, make-or-break season, touting the latest "hot" gifts, people buying things others don't want/need, the sterile exchange of gift cards, the forced merriment of "holiday" music in the stores, the piles of cheap crap made in China, where actual Christians are forced to worship secretly in "house churches" if they don't want a Communist Party member watching over them.

I do like other people's decorations even if they are made in China. I love may annual ritual of writing a long letter to each Christmas card recipient and enclosing a page of pictures from the past year. It is truly giving and every year I get that message from someone. I visited my Uncle who has Alzheimer's and barely recognizes his wife back when I was in my old home town recently. He remembered my letters. And I appreciate my family, which believes that adults who have money should not bother buying gifts for other adults who have money, and should instead focus on getting together, enjoying good food and wine and conversation.

 

[Lsbcal]

....
Also, I welcome learning about coinciding celebrations. I believe Christmas can get along fine with Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and any others that happen to fall at the same time. "Peace on earth, good will toward men"; maybe I'm terminally naive, but I really do believe in that.
...

Let's not leave out Festivus (for the rest of us).

 

[travelover]

..........where actual Christians are forced to worship secretly in "house churches" if they don't want a Communist Party member watching over them............

Oh, I forgot the about the annual Yuletide Communist Party watching festivities.

 

[audreyh1]

I’d be happy to ignore the holidays except that’s when family gets together from far away and the kids are so much fun.

 

[Gumby]

I wish the calendar would just jump from October 15 to January 15. I could easily do without everything in between.

 

[FIREd]

Kinda like the holidays. I look forward to the festive atmosphere, traditions, and family gatherings. But I also feel more stressed around the holidays - traveling to see family, hosting holiday dinners, getting the house decorated, finding the “perfect” gifts, etc..,

 

[redduck]

I wish the calendar would just jump from October 15 to January 15. I could easily do without everything in between.

But when would you sacrifice a goat?

 

[RobbieB]

This year my house looks better than it's ever looked for the holidays;

It's good to feel alive again -