Let's talk Christmas :-)

oldaunt said:
No thanks. I really prefer to ignore the whole mess.
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Me too! Starting from when we got yelled at for decorating the tree the wrong way and opening the presents the wrong way. Then, people who didn't eat my food or like my gift. The pressure to spend money, fight traffic, or do any number of things I didn't want to do. Taking a taxi home ($150) from another city after [long story]. Drunks and screaming children. Too much food, too much everything.

Sometimes I give in to pressure, when people convince me that "it will just be the three of us, very low key" or whatever. Usually they lie, and I always regret going.

At the beginning of December, I say, "See you in January."
 

Now that I live alone, decorating, buying gifts and cooking seem a moot point. I usually hang a wreath outside, but that's it. I may cook small portions my favorite foods. We haven't had a "family" holiday party since 2019. The cousin that hosts it is scared to death of COVID, so I'm not sure we will even have one this year. Christmas is almost like any other day to me now.
 
Ronni said:
Christmas is my most favorite holiday! 🎄🎅

I love to decorate the house. We don’t do anything outside but every room inside gets a touch of Christmas cheer, though it’s concentrated in the living room/kitchen.

Ron finds us a pretty tree then he sets it up, and strings the lights and garland and the generic ornaments. I do the personalized ones.

I shop for Ron, kids and grandkids. We usually do some kind of name-draw, and also a Dirty Santa. Christmas Eve Ron and I exchange gifts and have our own little celebration with charcuterie and mulled wine.

Our kids who have kids do their own Christmas morning with their family, then my kids and grands gather at either our house or my daughter’s house, where I make a huge Christmas breakfast. After everyone’s eaten we exchange gifts and hang out. Sometimes we all head to a Christmas Day movie if there’s nothing else going on.

Ron’s kids and grands usually spend Christmas morning with their mother so we don’t gather with them till later Christmas day or evening, or the next day. They come over to our house and we have another gift opening and a meal or snack depending on what time of day they’re here. There’s always hot chocolate and hot spiced tea.

Even as much as I love Christmas, I’m ready to put the decorations away for the year as soon as the last family member leaves the house after the last get together!! 😂
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Oh wow! that sounds like a lot of work but a lot of fun too. :) 🎄
 

NorthernLight said:
Me too! Starting from when we got yelled at for decorating the tree the wrong way and opening the presents the wrong way. Then, people who didn't eat my food or like my gift. The pressure to spend money, fight traffic, or do any number of things I didn't want to do. Taking a taxi home ($150) from another city after [long story]. Drunks and screaming children. Too much food, too much everything.

Sometimes I give in to pressure, when people convince me that "it will just be the three of us, very low key" or whatever. Usually they lie, and I always regret going.

At the beginning of December, I say, "See you in January."
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Goodness, I can understand why you avoid it! Why do some people make it so difficult and so expensive. The best Christmasses I recall have invariably been the the simple ones.
 
Lewkat said:
We don't decorate outside the house, but do so inside.

The tree, of course, is our centerpiece, and there are ornaments from generations on it. We add new ones each year.

My son plays Christmas music continuously, beginning a few days before the day itself.
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I have to admit I play Christmas music a lot over the festive period, otherwise it would slip by without me noticing..long gone are the parties and the family celebrations.. those were the days..
 
Bah Humbug!! I used to enjoy Christmas, well after my children moved away and had families. The last 2 or 3 years, I refused to spend Christmas with my daughter & family (I get scolded and was told I am a Female Scrouge. ) Daughter has cats and Flash (dog) would be besides himself (he's a border collie and likes to herd!)

Daughter and her family lives 1 1/2 hours away (ie 3 hours driving); sons & families live in the UK.

Since being widow'd, my sister and a neighbour usually bring over a hot turkey dinner at 5 PM Christmas day. (I will NOT spend Christmas with others - it is the ultimate insult to my daughter, after refusing to be with her family. )
 
I've been trying to sell all the vintage Christmas decorations I remember from my childhood. Absolutely no interest. When I told a friend that people would rather go to a big box store and buy items made in Asia, she said, "Yeah, but at least they'd be new." So I suppose that speaks for the populace - they'd rather have new than classic vintage decorations. You can buy an artificial tree in a box already decorated. Just pull it out and plug it in. Instant Christmas. They younger ones just don't seem to want to bother with the grunt work of Christmas.

Some of my fondest memories was when dad brought in the tree and set it up. He'd string the lights (those old fashioned C9s), then I put on the Shiny Brite ornaments and mom would hang the tinsel. when I moved, I threw out all those old C9 strings of lights. They just didn't look safe to use anymore.

Christmas 1954.jpg
 
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I'm doing more decorating this year than I've done in years. I just got back from a shopping excursion that found me with two "inflatables" in my cart. I eventually talked myself out of buying them, though. Maybe next year.....baby steps this year.

I've bought a new tree and a new wreath for the door, some new yard decorations, and more cardinals for the new tree.

Christmas, here I come!
 
debodun said:
I've been trying to sell all the vintage Christmas decorations I remember from my childhood. Absolutely no interest. When I told a friend that people would rather go to a big box store and buy items made in Asia, she said, "Yeah, but at least they'd be new." So I suppose that speaks for the populace - they'd rather have new than classic vintage decorations. You can buy an artificial tree in a box already decorated. Just pull it out and plug it in. Instant Christmas. They younger ones just don't seem to want to bother with the grunt work of Christmas.

Some of my fondest memories was when dad brought in the tree and set it up. He'd string the lights (those old fashioned C9s), then I put on the Shiny Brite ornaments and mom would hang the tinsel. when I moved, I threw out all those old C9 strings of lights. They just didn't look safe to use anymore.

View attachment 249250
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@debodun You were soooo cute!
 
It won't be Christmas to me until I see the first Hershey's commercial with the kisses being bells🔔. Know the one I mean? Then it's Christmas!

I thought it was just me reminiscing about back in the day when families got all dressed up, went to church, had a big dinner together with aunts, uncles, cousins, and it was a very big deal. It sounds like many of us did that kind of Christmas:)🤶🎅🎄.

Maybe one of the reasons is that in the "olden days" more people were born, lived, and died all in the same small town. Seems like pretty much since the end of WWII, people moved around a lot and established themselves in towns and cities where they were during the war or where they went to college/university and are now so far-flung that getting together is nearly impossible (and incredibly expensive!). Not to mention that the aunts, uncles, cousins, don't have the closeness as we had when we all lived within spittin' distance of one another.
 
BC Flash said:
Hopeful1: Do you have pictures of your quilts,

I use to quilt but the last few years, I ran out of recipients.
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This is the beginning of my Christmas tree quilt and the fabric I will be using.
Maybe someday I will post pictures over in the hobbies section of the forum 😊
 

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hollydolly said:
Christmas has always in adulthood been my favourite time of year.. I never had anything as a child... so as an adult I've always made a big deal of Christmas, especially when DD was little... However now I'm on my own, husband has gone.. the energy bills have gone sky high.. the food has risen steeply in price, not to mention Fuel.. so it's not going to be fun for me.. and millions of others this year ..and potentially for several years to come..
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Things are bad here too Hols. Meat prices have risen again and gasoline is nearing $5. per gallon where I live. It's going to spoil a lot of people's Christmas. :(
 
chic said:
Things are bad here too Hols. Meat prices have risen again and gasoline is nearing $5. per gallon where I live. It's going to spoil a lot of people's Christmas. :(
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yep our Fuel ( gas ).. is at £7.33 per gallon.. and that's for the cheapest unleaded..super unleaded and diesel are higher still ..which of course not only affects us all at the pumps.. and this Christmas will prevent a lot of people travelling to visit family.. it a;so affects everything else.. diesel for delivery vehicles , and all the oil it costs to make food wrappers etc.. which increases the price of food again further..
 
-Oy- said:
I love Christmas! But Christmas should be 2-3 weeks including New Year - not 2-3 months!
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Back when we were all much younger 😉 the Christmas lights in our town were lit on Thanksgiving night. The stores stayed open until 9pm the last full week before Christmas, and that's when people did their Christmas shopping.

Those who made Christmas gifts, got busy doing that in the evening after supper, usually starting Thanksgiving weekend.

These days? Stores are open, many of them 24/7/365, and it's rare that anybody makes gifts anymore.

My mother's tatting shuttle, knitting needles, embroidery hooks and sewing machine were all well used in the month before Christmas. The same was true for my grandmothers and aunts.
 
NorthernLight said:
Me too! Starting from when we got yelled at for decorating the tree the wrong way and opening the presents the wrong way. Then, people who didn't eat my food or like my gift. The pressure to spend money, fight traffic, or do any number of things I didn't want to do. Taking a taxi home ($150) from another city after [long story]. Drunks and screaming children. Too much food, too much everything.
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I'm with you and feel the same way about the "too much" of everything and nobody in my extended family ever liked my gifts. For many years it was a dreaded time of high stress.

But now that it's just the three of us we relax and enjoy our quiet Christmas. We have a meal of our favorite traditional foods and we each buy one gift for each other person and watch our dog go nuts with the paper.

On the other hand, I love to decorate my otherwise rather dull living room. It comes into it's own with some twinkling lights and red accents. I decorated it Monday in defense of the time change and the dark evenings.
 
chic said:
Things are bad here too Hols. Meat prices have risen again and gasoline is nearing $5. per gallon where I live. It's going to spoil a lot of people's Christmas. :(
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Wow !!!! When I was out this morning, I noticed just about every gas station I passed was $3.09. Tomorrow, I have to fill up at Costco so it should definitely be cheaper.
 
After doing decorating, shopping, prep, cooking and cleanup for decades, I have finally moved pass Christmas. For the past several years, I have not sent out a Christmas greeting card.
I wonder if it has anything to do with all the diatribe about "There's a War on Christmas?"
Happy Holidays! ;)
 
Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. I love the decorations and picking out gifts, wrapping them and enjoy watching my family unwrap them. Even though I'm not religious, I love Christmas music. The whole holiday is just wonderful for me!
 

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