We don't do Xmas...

[redfox]

Anyone else here not into this event? We have a super small Winter Solstice with the now young adult kids, and they get the blow out Christmas thing at their crazy mom's house. This year, we're taking them to see a holiday parody show, called Ham for the Holidays, and probably out to dinner.

I grew up with a secular, aspiring middle class xmas with lots of tension and weird consumer expectations. I grew to loathe it. Luckily, my DH feels the same. For the 25th, we usually go for a long urban walkabout & make some nice dinner, and then go back to work the 26th.

I am getting very weary of the jingles and holiday madness. I work in the heart of downtown Seattle, so I pass by starving homeless people begging unsuccessfully from those spending spending, spending. Ugh. Since I just got a long ago promised pay increase, retroactive, I will be giving out food & some small cash amounts to those who beg or sell the local street newspaper, Real Change. That's my contribution to this consumer madness.

[bae]

We do Yule, but we follow The Old Ways up here in the islands :-)

[redfox]

Lol! I remember the Lopez Old Ways. Lots of fun.

[Teacher Terry]

REdfox, my kids are grown with no grandkids so on xmas eve we have a dinner & invite family plus those that would be alone. Xmas day we go to a movie & out to dinner. When my kids were kids things were much more traditional although not overboard by any means. I knit scarves for the homeless year round, always give to some people on the street, take some people to medical appts etc and volunteer with a few organizations that I value. Gift giving is practically nil-I prefer to help my kids if they need it any time of the year. We do some white elephant gifts with stealing which is so fun. I have really changed because 15 years ago this was not me.

[try2bfrugal]

This is our first Christmas since we have been really interested in simple living. We gave away the big artificial tree and most of the decorations. The squirrels chewed through my solar string lights, so we can't put those outside unless we fix or replace them.

We used to do lots of shopping and gift giving, buy new outfits for Christmas plays and ballets, put up lots of decorations inside and out, fly on vacation or visit relatives, etc.

This year we are doing almost none of that. Instead of Christmas plays and ballets we are buying a single annual garden membership with reciprocal membership programs that will allow us to visit 900 art and history museums and gardens for free, many of them local or day trip range.

Christmas Day we have reservations at a nice waterfront restaurant with views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, and afterwards we plan to visit the Japanese Gardens at Golden Gate Park.

I am actually looking forward to Christmas this year instead of spending the month stressed out. For gifts we are giving mostly gift cards and stuff we ordered from Amazon. For the out of town gifts we will let Amazon to the wrapping and shipping.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I grew up with a secular, aspiring middle class xmas with lots of tension and weird consumer expectations. I grew to loathe it.

well we were middle class (middle class cheapskates, but solidly middle class) but there was lots of resentments about having to buy us kids gifts growing up. Partly fueled by us kids never being happy with the gifts, and that's partly because they were always educational gifts. We could never just get stupid toys which is what we wanted. And also in even larger part fueled by unspoken religious battles! Ok mom and dad were not of the same background or of exactly the same beliefs there. So all the unspoken tension would break out into complaints about getting us kids gifts, anger, raised voices, etc. (ok xmas didn't generally escalate beyond that, but that was enough).

So I find it for so many reasons my least favorite time of year. But I seem able now to completely let those long ago memories be, bury the long dead past .... and ignore the whole darn season!!! If I can't enjoy it, I can at least ignore it. I mean I've tried celebrating solstice etc. in past years, but really was never in to doing that either.

Luckily, my DH feels the same. For the 25th, we usually go for a long urban walkabout & make some nice dinner, and then go back to work the 26th.

yea I *might* pop into some half-obligatory friends of family party for an hour or so, but otherwise similar.

I am getting very weary of the jingles and holiday madness.

Well like I said I would I stocked up the week before thanksgiving (on household products and so on) deliberately in order to avoid the jingles and madness, and so the only stores I have been to are food stores (well I do have to eat and I like fresh foods).

I work in the heart of downtown Seattle, so I pass by starving homeless people begging unsuccessfully from those spending spending, spending. Ugh.

I'm really starting to lose it at people on the spending issue. I guess my main concern is environmental really. I hate waste! That's just it: I hate waste! Like even though I will not be drawn into their madness at all, some family members seem to be buying everything in sight lately. And not even for gifts! But the advertising is really affecting them, and so mass piles of stuff (boxes blocking entrances and so on), and this has all happened week after week since black friday but not so much before then - and that's why I blame advertising (a wave of complete shopping insanity!). Completely stupid stuff too: automatic wine corks! Which surprise, surprise don't even work well (hey whadya know made in China). So I start snapping at them, over my very personal distress at the madness and the waste (and I know I don't recycle and reuse everything and I'm not a perfect person but ..). And they think I'm losing it for snapping. And I think they've been entirely brainwashed by advertising (due to the near perfect timing of this bout of one of the most virulent strains of affluenza I've ever seen), see, see, t.v. rots your brain .... see! T.V. makes people dumb, it's all brainwashing, we're brainwashed all day long, everything in the society is brainwashing, the entire society is brainwashing, everything is framed in a way to brainwash, humans are going to spend themselves into extinction in my lifetime, people are probably brainwashed to consume because of the petrodollar and the collapse of Brenton Woods and ... ... and I'm off in paranoid corner somewhere. And it may really be that I just deeply resent being exposed to the madness despite going to so much personal bother to avoid it (like the stocking up). So meanwhile am snapping at people for spending money on the automatic wine cork and so on, and they think I'm just emotionally unbalanced, and my heart just hurts from the degree of waste. Sigh. (But it's their money? well that's not really true either, but it is true it's not MY money).

[sweetana3]

So far this has been a fairly uneventful season. Well, it is so cold and icy that we have a perfect excuse for not going out.

On Christmas Eve, the Childrens Museum is free so we are taking Mom to see it for the first time.
I got a "pickle dish" at a garage sale for a friend's cat they named Pickles. She will see the funny side.
Gave her son a Catopoly game and hope we all can play and enjoy some social time. I have had this game for a long time but we never played with it.
Husband started to shovel everyone's sidewalks all the way to their front door for the 8 houses around us. He does it for exercise but the residents and mailman love it.

Gave a bunch of exercise partners in one class a surprise gift of homemade neck coolers. Loved the surprised look on their faces.
Made my yearly fudge for Mom's Christmas dinner at the apartment.

My brother loves pugs although he does not have one so sent him a box of inexpensive but funny pug related items and some handmade pillowcases.
Sent a big box of books to my stepsisters and a big box of westerns to an uncle. They use them and pass them on which then benefits others. We are lucky to have so many local resources for used books.

No decorations, no parties, no tree but still a fun time.

[goldensmom]

We do not celebrate “X”-mas either but we do celebrate the Birth of Christ. We strive for simple reverence which has become much easier since I retired and am not bombarded by pressure from co-workers to participate in every this and that. We do some decorating because I think it's pretty. I have not been in a mall for years nor a Walmart-ish type store for any reason so I avoid most commercialism surrounding the secular side of Christmas. Whatever others do is I think is great for them. I wish people a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, Have a Good Thursday, etc. and appreciate any well wish of whatever from others.

[rodeosweetheart]

We do not celebrate “X”-mas either but we do celebrate the Birth of Christ. We strive for simple reverence which has become much easier since I retired and am not bombarded by pressure from co-workers to participate in every this and that. We do some decorating because I think it's pretty. I have not been in a mall for years nor a Walmart-ish type store for any reason so I avoid most commercialism surrounding the secular side of Christmas. Whatever others do is I think is great for them. I wish people a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, Have a Good Thursday, etc. and appreciate any well wish of whatever from others.

+ 1
And can I say Redfox, I am SO HAPPY you got your retroactive money, and that is an awesome thing, to be able to give to others right now.

We did go to 3 big box stores yesterday because my computer broke and I need a back up for work. I look around at all the stuff and think, there are not possibly enough people around here to buy even a 1/4 of this stuff, so where does it all go?

I put up my blue lights and my candleholders now that we are back in a wintry climate. Down south did not do much, and neither did anyone else. I think it is more prevalent to do a big Christmas up north here b ecause it is so dreary and people need to feel something beautiful and light and warm, the winter solstice angle.

[cdttmm]

My significant other and I do not "do" Christmas and if it were up to us we would spend the day watching movies on Netflix, snowshoeing, or cross-country skiing. However, our families both still do Christmas. So I fly to MN for a few days to see my mom and my brothers. It's the only time during the year that I typically go to visit them and it's convenient for all of them so I comply. My mom still insists on giving us gifts, although they are inexpensive and more for fun. My brothers and I do not exchange gifts with one another. My significant other goes to visit his family and they celebrate together with a big meal, a gift exchange, and usually a lot of family bickering. Both of our families celebrate on Christmas Eve, so on the 25th, he and I both travel back to our happy home and recover together. Then, since neither of us typically has to do much for work between Christmas and New Year's, we snowshoe, cross-country ski, snowboard, watch movies, and chill out.