Are People Really Extra Busy During the Holidays?

[TromboneAl]

I've often heard people say they are swamped with activities during the holidays—as if they don't have a spare minute and can't catch their breaths.

I suppose if you're working, throwing a big Christmas party, shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, sending out hundreds of cards, attending a lot of gatherings, I guess it's possible.

For Lena and me, not so much.

Are you extra busy during the holidays?

 

[easysurfer]

Since retiring, I'm tuned things down a lot over the holidays. Not a total recluse, but enjoy the peace and quiet.

Christmas cards seem to be a lost art as seems most folks prefer the immediate gratification of social media.

 

[braumeister]

 

[Dawg52]

Nope. I have a Christmas gathering at a local watering hole next week. But I would probably be hanging out there with a couple of friends anyway. As far as shopping goes, I did most of it online. Not much work there. I did send out a handful of cards, but mostly to far away relatives and a couple of old friends.

 

[RobbieB]

Busier than usual but far from stressed -

 

[scrabbler1]

Nope. Christmas is not my holiday, being born Jewish but switching to atheism when I was 13, 41 years ago. For many of my working years, I took some extra days off around this time because I could combine that with company holidays to get a lot of consecutive days off.

 

[bclover]

LOL. yep but I tend to love it.

so this month, lets see.
last Friday I had a retirement party
Yesterday morning, church toy drive volunteer. afternoon get Christmas tree, yesterday evening Christmas cabaret unit 2 in the morning.,
today church,grocery shopping afterward, sort of relaxing rest of day but need to bake a few goodies.

I work p/t at a bakery and as you can imagine this is their super busy season so I'll probably do a full week

Friday night: Pennsylvania Ballet Nutcracker
Saturday up to NYC to see Alladin on Broadway.
Christmas eve wrap, and church
Christmas. drive to brothers house for dinner in DC
Friday afterward. Stomp on broadway

in between I still have to go to gym, regular life stuff

Now as I said I love the holidays so all of this is strictly my preference.

 

[aaronc879]

I have no kids and don't buy a single present for anyone during Christmas. I never did throw parties but now I don't even attend parties. I also get time off from work over the holidays so I would say things are a little less busy this time of year.

 

[Marita40]

Not me. I celebrate Advent, a time of quiet and waiting. I really refuse to partake of the craziness that others think is obligatory at this time. Yesterday I did all my Christmas shopping in the space of an hour. People were elbowing others in the store and the traffic and parking was exhausting. I've never understood why people regard all the running around and enforced "cheer" as some badge of honor.

 

[aja8888]

Are you extra busy during the holidays?

No, I designed it that way.

 

[Philliefan33]

When we both were working and the kids were young, it was a very busy time of year. Besides all the Christmas festivities (and corresponding chores and errands), both girls played basketball and I coached until they were in HS. We always had tournaments over Thanksgiving weekend and between Christmas & New Year’s Eve.

Things are much quieter now.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

No way.

We did have a flurry of buying a tree, decorating it, and decorating around the house a bit, but not so much busy as enjoyable. Without a job to go to, we bought the tree on a Thursday afternoon and there was no pressure to get it all done on a weekend. We don’t do presents anymore so that takes away the trips to the mall (shudder).

 

[Dash man]

We’ve been delivering poinsettias to some shut ins from our church, helped out with an Advent Penance service, enjoyed some church fundraising events, delivered a meal for twenty to a shelter, contributed funds to several worthy charities, and the most time consuming thing has been fixing up the Jersey Shore home we bought to prepare it for the summer rental marketing that kicks off in January. Christmas shopping was for my grandson. Helping DW recover from knee replacement surgery has also taken time, but she is recovering quickly.

 

[Walt34]

DW is busier, but I'm not. She puts all the cards along a banister, puts up a 4 foot tree, sends out all the cards, and buys and wraps all the presents for the grandnieces and grandnephews. I have a couple glasses of wine and take photos at the dinner that SIL and BIL put on, and then put together a photo book that I order and give to family. This is the cover shot for the photo book I did last year.

 

[pacergal]

Busier than usual but far from stressed -

+1, I enjoy the holidays, so no stress.
Today is baking day, the house smells wonderful! Then church and gifts for their toy drive. House and tree were decorated last week, shopping done. Only thing left is wrapping gifts, but that is fun for me.
Then time with family and cooking a meal! Enjoying every minute.

 

[ABQ2015]

Not super busy but definitely more busy than usual. Put up tree and decorated house, a few outside lights, several shopping trips. Sent out cards and wrote up one page letters to add to many of the cards. Went to the Nutcracker Ballet and an outside lighting display. Will shop this week for some food items to take for Christmas. Will spend two days on road traveling out of state and 4-5 days with family. I did not buy many presents this year which saved a lot of time from previous years.

I'm an introvert and don't get invited to many parties which is too bad because I like parties. One of my neighbors plans a Christmas get together but I'll be on my trip. However my out of state DB and SIL will be having a large party so will attend that.

 

[mpeirce]

More busy but not bad.

We have some family coming to stay with us starting later this week so we're getting the house ready. DW is precooking a number of Christmas dinner items. Today was fudge making day. YUM

Picked up some Nocino today. It's a Italian liqueur made from Walnuts that we tried last Christmas. Decided it was good enough to get more this year.

I've been enjoying the Holiday Classics Radio channel on iTunes this afternoon too - though I did start the day by listening to the A Charlie Brown Christmas album.

 

[Curmudgeon]

Before I retired, yes. Megacorp liked to set arbitrary project deadlines near the end of the year. Add to that more parties/socialization, plus Christmas prep (baking, shopping, decorating) and yeah I was a bit stressed.

Now, not so much. Just doing Christmas preparations (which I enjoy), with plenty of time to do so.

 

[W2R]

I've often heard people say they are swamped with activities during the holidays—as if they don't have a spare minute and can't catch their breaths.

I suppose if you're working, throwing a big Christmas party, shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, sending out hundreds of cards, attending a lot of gatherings, I guess it's possible.

For Lena and me, not so much.

Are you extra busy during the holidays?

No, but I don't DO Christmas. I stopped doing gift exchanges with everyone twenty years ago, except for my DD, so I don't do any Christmas shopping. I don't put up a tree, send out cards, or decorate the house. I don't cook Christmas dinner. I am an agnostic introvert so I don't spend time at church, and I don't go to Christmas parties. I stocked up on food so that I don't have to go to grocery stores when they are busy, and I am not going to other stores right now, either. I don't listen to TV or radio so I miss all the Christmas content. (I have never seen the Charlie Brown Christmas Special or whatever it is that everyone thinks is so wonderful.)

Switching to a Christmas'y avatar is about it, and that doesn't really wear me out. Also I listened to a few of the songs on the Favorite Christmas Songs thread (or whatever it was called) recently and that was nice. Some of the most beautiful music ever composed and performed, is Christmas music.

We do spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with his extended family. I don't do anything for that, either.

One of the reasons I do so little at Christmastime, is to cut both of us some slack so that we don't get the holiday blues. Another reason is to avoid the commercialization of Christmas. And finally, there is something to be said for relaxing and enjoying the season.

 

[Throwdownmyaceinthehole]

No not busy at all due to the weather. In fact this is the first time that I've had nothing to do for weeks on end. I even made homemade marshmallows yesterday. That's pitiful. I've decided that next year I'll take a part time job Nov Dec.

 

[Ronstar]

I am exponentially busier. Been working 10-12 hours a day for the last month. Multiple home remodeling projects are now fighting for attention with the usual Christmas gifts that I make. I have a bathroom remodel, entertainment center cabinet doors and a cutting board left to finish in 6 days. And I'm sure something else will pop up. Christmas shopping is done, but I have a couple social functions, and doctor and dentist appointments left to hurdle also.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Megacorp liked to set arbitrary project deadlines near the end of the year.

I used to get multiple project deadlines that fell at the end of the year or a week or so after. Each project manager would say, “no one wants to work the week after Christmas so let’s move up the deadline to the week before so we get it done.” Since I was something of a specialist who worked on all the projects, I would have to work overtime just to meet the arbitrary dates.

 

[audreyh1]

Gosh I am. We fly to Dad's every Xmas and stay for at least 2 weeks. He's pretty old and has now moved to assisted living nearby. We have a big family get together including family flying in from Europe. I'm often "master of ceremonies" being the eldest. Plus I have lots to take care of for Dad while I'm there. So yes, I'm usually swamped starting a week before Xmas preparing for the trip.

 

[aja8888]

While not personally busy around Christmas, DW and I are driving to Santa Clara, CA to visit her family out there between 12/27 and 1/4 or so. It's our first trip away from home since DW got sick 13 months ago.

 

[Katsmeow]

Yes, I am busier than usual. I think for 2 reasons.

We don't give a lot of presents but I do have my mom visit me at Thanksgiving and Christmas so there is taking her home after Thankgiving then going and getting her for Christmas and having her as a house guest (she lives a couple of hundred miles away). Also, there are adult kids as well.

Stores are more crowded. Sometimes stuff is sold out that you want. Traffic near stores gets heavier and it is harder to park. All of that adds to the end of year stuff.

We don't go to a lot of Christmas functions so that isn't an issue. We do decorate at home so there is time involved in setting up the tree and decorating (we have a service do the outside lights). So that adds to time.

But, the big thing is not Christmas related. It is end of year related. There are a number of things that we have to decide if we want to do them before the end of the year. If we do, then do it. For other things, we know we want to do it before the end of the year and so need to do that. I tend to schedule medical and dental stuff at this time of year as well. So all of that takes time (I had a medical and dental appointment last week, same again this week and another medical the day after Christmas).