why does this matter? holiday greetings

[iris lilies]

12 days of Christmas?

For you, Tradd, I would put up with 12 days if you would promise me that it's OVER on Dec. 26.

Make that weird twilight week between Christmas and New Years' Eve where nothing happens a thing of the past. No work gets done that week and it's just one more extension of Christmas hell.

[Tammy]

Ah ... Yes. I delegate most grocery shopping to my husband. I live in a vacuum.

[Dhiana]

I think people who get aerated about this topic are simply seeking validation of their view!

It may be more self defense than insisting on validation of ones own view.

The aural assault of xmas music for 2+ months/year for our entire lives. The same annoying songs. Would anyone put up with Achy Breaky Heart & "Never gonna give you up" everywhere they went for 2 months of every year?
The irritable crowds one must fight for the most mundane non-gifts items like food and tampons!

Why would any Christian insist on saying Merry Christmas to someone who wouldn't appreciate it anyway?
It says, Love thy neighbor, not, Irritate your neighbors.

It's sad to see all the stress on peoples faces in their effort to have a "Merry" Christmas.
That's not a "Merry" Christmas for anyone.
So please don't spread that stress to me!

[IshbelRobertson]

Thankfully, our 'holiday' season doesn't start until a couple of weeks before Christmas. In my family, we don't buy a tree or decorate until the week before Christmas (apart from advent wreaths and candles). Decorations come down on Twelfth night ( 6 Jan).

I know in the US 'the holidays' encompasses Halloween, thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. No wonder many of you become all 'holidayed' out!

[ApatheticNoMore]

The aural assault of xmas music for 2+ months/year for our entire lives. The same annoying songs. Would anyone put up with Achy Breaky Heart & "Never gonna give you up" everywhere they went for 2 months of every year? The irritable crowds one must fight for the most mundane non-gifts items like food and tampons!

+1000, and traffic ALWAYS gets worse too. Ok it gets somewhat worse on workdays in fall/winter anyway some kind of school year phenomena that doesn't last into spring, but it's at it's worst near xmas. It's pitch blacky darkness no matter how early you leave work (winter solstice - it can't be helped) and meanwhile everyone is driving about like a maniac in the dark. And yes the crowds at stores etc.. to buy the most basic things. At least stores try to make the non xmas music fairly bland and unobjectionable, they don't always succeed and not with everyone but at least it's not white christmas or jingle bell rock for the 10th thousands time in your life ..... Whatever enjoyment you may have taken in shopping - forget it during those months. It's why I'm already mentally toying with doing a 2 month "shopping fast" for Nov and Dec (no food is not included in the "shopping fast", nor household supplies if my stockpiles aren't sufficient). I may or may not do it, it goes without saying if I did buy any non-basics at that time of year I'd do it online! Even those grocery delivery services start to sound good, for a month or two

I know in the US 'the holidays' encompasses Halloween, thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. No wonder many of you become all 'holidayed' out!

The odd thing is we don't actually get almost any time off for them of course. No noone gets a day off for Halloween of course. Now many people do get 2 days for thanksgiving, always a Thursday and a Friday, making a nice 4 day weekend. Christmas is only 1 day off on whatever day it falls (if that's a Wednesday then you work 2 days on both ends for 1 day off midweek). Sure in the UK there's boxing day etc. and additional days in Scotland I guess but in the U.S. the whole schebang is for one day. New Years is the same 1 day off on whatever day it falls. So really we put up with a month of stress inducing madness and get one day off (to rest and recover from the insanity?). So no wonder why many get holidayed out. Yes all the retail people are working those days, I know, I usually do the store boycott on holidays proper because of that (I mean a full boycott - not even buying food). But even if you get your federal holidays off it's still exhausting.

[jp1]

For you, Tradd, I would put up with 12 days if you would promise me that it's OVER on Dec. 26.

Make that weird twilight week between Christmas and New Years' Eve where nothing happens a thing of the past. No work gets done that week and it's just one more extension of Christmas hell.

Do we have to get the gifts from the song? I'd really rather have an iPhone 6 plus instead of a partridge in a pear tree. Although maybe some lords a leaping might be an interesting gift depending on what they are wearing...

[razz]

Do we have to get the gifts from the song? I'd really rather have an iPhone 6 plus instead of a partridge in a pear tree. Although maybe some lords a leaping might be an interesting gift depending on what they are wearing...

[Songbird]

12 days of Christmas?

Just 12 days of Christmas.....I like that, I could handle that. Maybe...

I'm up with insomnia and now I have that damn song stuck in my head.

[early morning]

Is it permitted for a simple-living member to ENJOY the holidays? Personally, I love them. I like the lights, the bustle, the music. I don't do the parts I don't like - almost no shopping, and we exchange few gifts. I haven't been to a mall in years and don't enjoy them at any time. But we always try to go to a few holiday-themed events - concerts, plays, outdoor displays- religious and secular. I am not Christian or anything else that has a label, and I gladly wish people Happy Holidays, or Merry Christmas if I know they prefer it. I love to learn about other people's - and other culture's- holiday traditions. I do understand that if you don't like the holiday season, it must be very difficult, because it IS everywhere. To me, though, the holidays (and we treat them separately at our home) are a special treat, a time apart. They remind me that there is more to my life than just the mundane, daily grind, and that there is a "specialness", for want of a better word, in taking time out for a day, or even a few weeks, to feel something else, and be someone slightly different, slightly better in some way, than I was before.

[Glo]

I say Merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone. I only know Christians and Jewish.