Am I the only one who dreads the holidays?

This is true. Christmas was a big upgrade after my mother traded in my violent abusive drunk father for my very nice stepfather.

Now we get actual presents instead of stuff from the gas station using the money left over after he bought his Christmas booze, and nobody throws plates at dinner.

This is probably a big chunk of why our current Christmas tradition is so calm and sedate, I guess.

No, I had to cut off all contact with my bat-shit insane family and move to a different country to achieve pleasant holidays. As I said, it's just the three of us now ,husband, daughter and myself, and the phone stays unplugged for a day or two (No family has any mobile number to reach us either).

Nute You could've called me, you know. I'm good at ladders!

I guess I'll chime in with the others and say nope. I like the holidays now because I spend it away from my crazy family and hang around people that actually make it much more pleasant for me. I can sympathize, though, my mother wasn't the depressed type, but she really knew how to turn things into a three-ring circus, with herself as the main attraction!

Edit: I should say that I hang out with half-Irish people during the holidays, which makes things significantly more entertaining. It's still a three-ring circus, but EVERYBODY'S the main attraction. :D It's very hard not to enjoy yourself when you've got so many people around you cracking jokes and telling the most hilarious stories. Makes me wish they were my real family.

I absolutely dread hearing Christmas carols when it's still November. We still have a holiday (a month if you're Canadian) before December even rolls around. Why do you insist on driving songs about a fat man and his reindeer into my head?

That having been said, sitting under Christmas lights while the snow falls gently around you, a mug of hot chocolate in your hands and shopping strollers abound, is one of my favorite winter memories.

Thank you for remembering us.

When you hear "Jingle Bells" and get angry at people playing Christmas songs too soon, remember, it's actually a Thanksgiving song.

Also, when you hear "Wonderful Christmastime" and get angry at people playing Christmas songs too soon, remember, you're actually hearing the soundtrack to my future suicide note.

Feliz navidad.

That song is now stuck in your head. You are welcome.

I am an asshole, it's true.

Excuse me, sir. I did not describe that beautiful act of sexual congress between two youthful, exuberant people as "banging". If you look back in the record, I think you'll find I used the word "nailed".

I say good day to you.

I have heretofore (whoo!) been completely indifferent to the holidays, mainly because I don't give a damn about traditions. But I am really looking forward to the holidays with my little boy, and making things fun for him. I can put up with annoying songs and movies for a month.

Boy howdy, some of you folks lead a cold, joyless existence.




What's not to like?

Oh no you didn't.

Careful, don't make me post "Grandma got run over by a Reindeer!" I'LL DO IT!

You are a cold, cruel hard woman.

Then I must be equally cold and hard, because that's the only song I can tolerate over the holidays. :D

And now for something completely different:

For one thing, the song sounds like a backing track demo that was supposed to be filled in later by actual musicians. It sounds like half a song, with spaces where stuff like melodies should clearly go except everybody forgot to put them in and they said "Ah, fuck it, press it anyway." Second, how many motherfucking syllables is the word "having", motherfucker? Because I count two, not five or whatever Macca is doin' there. And finally, although I do not particularly subscribe to the John > Paul > George > Ringo theory of The Beatles, what's John Lennon's Christmas song? Yeah, that's right, "War Is" fucking "Over". A song that within TWO LINES makes everybody who hears it complicit in the hypocrisy of Christmas. Now THAT'S a Christmas song.

Fuck you, "Wonderful Christmastime".

It's not hollow and half-finished. It's light and frothy. Like a gingerbread latte. Christastime is wonderful. Paul's just trying to let you in on the secret.

Well, that's the problem right there. Rock 'n' roll is coffee.

I lol'd.

This Christmas, I am considering getting some singers together and going around caroling. Y'know, proper carols; "Oh Cthulhu", "Carol of the Great Old Ones", other good HPLHS songs. The biggest problem is that their website is half-down and the sheet music isn't available anymore, and their web admin doesn't reply to emails. :(

That also explains his thing with Hemingway.

I liked this for the cleverness of it but I don't really like it. Just so you know.

Every year I now eagerly await triggercut's holiday mix. Until the 2012 one comes out, I have the 2005 thru 2011 mixes on shuffle.

I don't "hate" the holidays, per se, but I don't really like them. Standing around, either avoiding or making awkward conversation all day... Not that great. I'm not entirely sure how to relate to my family and it shows.

I don't mind the holidays, but there are a few important steps to take to not hate the holidays.

1. I'm an agnostic Jew. I give no fucks about Christmas. My team has to provide work coverage over the holidays, and since I don't care about Christmas I often volunteer to work that day -- it makes other people happy since they can spend that time with their families, and hey, extra money in my pocket that I can then do nice things with like buy gifts. I think Christmas carols are annoying, but it's a very minor annoyance and if it makes other people happy, then cool.

2. I don't do huge family gatherings, ever. I refuse. I'm not going to the big Thanksgiving thing my cousin is doing, and it's not because I don't like my family. My cousin and his wife are lovely and I enjoy talking to them, but they will mostly spend the evening talking to my parents. This means a few things. One, if I don't want to talk about what they're talking about, my remaining conversations are usually north of 80 years old, and while they are also quite nice people there isn't much to talk about. Two, if I do want to talk about what they're talking about, it's usually because politics came up, and it will probably result in my getting angry about the complete nonsense my Republican father believes. (He's a sharp guy generally, but he goes nuts over politics. He believed Jack Welch's BLS conspiracy theory, if that gives you some idea.) I also don't really like the food, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the food. My cousin's wife makes all the food for Thanksgiving, and she's quite good at it, but I just don't like Thanksgiving food very much. So there's very little upside from where I'm standing. I'd rather see those people in a context I enjoy more.

3. You guys are fucking crazy about gifts. How many fucking gifts do you have to buy for one person? Christ, it's insane what some of you do. Keep it relatively small scale and it is both less stressful and less financially devastating.

4. No last-minute gift shopping, ever. Don't even go to those fucking places on December 23rd. Stay home. You should have finished all of your shopping long before then. Even when shopping early, do it online if at all possible. No in-person Black Friday shopping, either. Not ever. I don't care how good the deals are.

5. I get on well with my family when I do see them, and none of them are alcoholic nutjobs. If you don't get along with your family, or they're alcoholic nutjobs, don't fucking go! I know you think you have to, but you really, really don't. You can make a conscious decision to remove toxic people from your life to the maximum extent possible, and then you don't have to stress so much.

I LOVE the holidays! Thanksgiving might be my favorite. How can you go wrong with stuffing and gravy? The best part is, we have a relatively small thanksgiving with my mom and local sister, then we go to my uncle's for dessert where EVERYONE brings something and my family is huge, and then the next day we have our own half-priced thanksgiving thanks to turkey breasts being cast aside at the supermarket so it's like Thanksgiving all week with the leftovers!

And then Christmas! I used to love Christmas for getting presents but now I love it for giving them. I adore wrapping presents so everything looks nice. I totally am one of those people that goes to the Container Store and gets the matching set of wrapping paper. Target's been pretty good about having nice sets the last couple of years too. All the lights go up and MAN IT IS AN AWESOME TIME OF YEAR! I never even realized that Christmas was a religious holiday until I was probably 12 and a weird lady at school asked my mom to make a birthday cake for Jesus. And then it clicked. Before then it was just Santa's day!

I also get a week off of work for free. A+ to academic calendars, yo.

OR:

Go crazy go nuts. Every year I make a list for my wife and a list for my daughter, usually based on notes I've been making all year. Then I go out and get it, whatever it costs, preferably in person. Some years it's more, some years it's less. I've been known to spend upwards of 40 hours out there. I do laps around malls with a big grin on my face. On the night of December 23rd, I wrap it all, till about 4 or 5 a.m. (accompanied by adult beverages and candle light and the Music of the Season). On boxing day, I regale the ladies with my tales of heroic hunting prowess.

This is the best thing.

You are a weirdo.

THIS IS KNOWN.

I'm not sure if Ingmar is used to the Orgy of Presents that is my family's Christmas. It should be extra hilarious this year, as we have a NEW BABY to completely spoil.

To clarify, I love giving gifts and it is really important to me to get exactly the right gift. But I don't understand people who are dropping like $4000 on 30 presents for their 5 year old.

Just to clarify, that is beyond the scope of even my activities.

More or less.

A few years ago I started baking everyone on my list cookies in addition to getting them a gift. It lets me go with a smaller gift per person because they're also getting something homemade. The exception is my husband - we go slightly nuts on presents for each other. But only slightly.

Welp, not traveling to see my family for T'giving - work has interfered. I'll miss them, but the drive sucks and is stressy.

I don't get to see my side of the family for T-day this year at all, which sucks. Maybe I'll get to see them for Xmas. The problem is that my mom is much poorer than Quat's mom, and my mom doesn't want Quat's mom to see her (my mom's) house. So if I want to spend a holiday with both sides, my entire side has to drive down to where we are to be at Quat's mom's house, and that can't happen because my sister's car has died and there's not enough room in my mom's car for everyone to ride together. And we can't go to my mom's without Quat's mom, because then she'd be alone for the holiday. Sigh. I wish my mom wasn't so uptight about it. It would make the holidays a shitload easier.

I empathize because this is obviously making you unhappy, but under no circumstances would I ever, ever cross the streams. Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right.

Hannukah - stuck in the middle with Jews.