Does anyone feel like not celebrating this year?

[workerbee]

Me!

My dad passed away in April, and I'm really struggling to get through the holidays this year.  I feel a tremendous pressure to "keep up appearances" and am facing a busy weekend of visiting with extended family (my husband's), when I feel like doing nothing more than crawling into bed and waking up on January 2!

[Nannerdoman]

I haven't felt like celebrating since 2002, when my father died the day after Thanksgiving.

2003 was First Year Without Daddy.  I don't really remember 2004.

In 2005 my mom went into the hospital on Christmas Day and died January 19, 2006.  2006 was First Year With No Parents At All.

This year:  my sister broke her ankle a month ago and still has two months of recovery yet to go.  She's worried about being able to keep her job.  I will probably need surgery in January or February.  And my roommate just phoned to tell me she's been laid off from her job.

Nope--just not feeling festive.

[Sabbyfrog2]

I haven't felt like celebrating since 2002, when my father died the day after Thanksgiving.

2003 was First Year Without Daddy.  I don't really remember 2004.

In 2005 my mom went into the hospital on Christmas Day and died January 19, 2006.  2006 was First Year With No Parents At All.

This year:  my sister broke her ankle a month ago and still has two months of recovery yet to go.  She's worried about being able to keep her job.  I will probably need surgery in January or February.  And my roommate just phoned to tell me she's been laid off from her job.

Nope--just not feeling festive.

(((HUGS))) I am sorry.

[Keiera]

This year I actually want  to celebrate!  But only because I quit my retail job (Bath and Body Works) right before Thanksgiving.  If I had stayed, it would have been my 4th year with the company, and another Christmas season spent in a grumpy, annoyed mood at the thought of the commercialization of Christmas.  I refused to listen to Christmas songs while working there, and last year went so far as to demand that no one buy me anything (boyfriend still got me a photo album filled with pics of the two of us together, I was thrilled), as I was completely broke (I'm a college student, I had to save my extra money from working the holidays for books and tuition, on 6.25 an hour) and just did not want to do the holidays anymore.  Retail sucked the life out of my holiday spirit...  especially with all of the boyfriends/husbands and whatnot that would come visit me and flirt with me in 30 seconds it took me to show them a giftset and they said they'd take it (usually the first one I would show them would be good enough).  I just mentally could not do it another year (that, and all of my co-workers whom I loved and had been with me for years left, and the new boss they hired was not cut out for the job.  I'm kind of sad that I'm not there to see it crash and burn from a distance, as I am spending the holidays with my boyfriend out of town).  I start my co-op job on Jan the 4th making double what I made retail, with a guaranteed 40 hours a week.  I figured I could live without the extra 300 bucks from B&BW if it would mean I could actually enjoy Christmas and get to spend some time with the people I love. 

And you know what, it was totally worth it!!

[snoopygirl]

  I do not feel like celebrating which is a shame because usually Christmas is my favorite holiday. I miss my family and the way they celebrate Christmas. Nobody here is festive. I miss my mom's lights and baking cookies with her as well as spending time with the other members of my family being together. Being together with husband's family is just too stressful. Plus to be with them I have to deep clean my flat ( when I would normally just do little things like clean the bathroom and vaccum) because his MIL wants to use our stove to cook. So I don't feel festive when I know  I will spend the next few days scrubbing every square inch of my kitchen so she doesn't scream at us on Christmas. She is not a festive person and just brings everybody down becuase she views Christmas as a chore. ( well then don't do the big Christmas dinner yourself and yell at BIL when he wants to help more helpers means more time to relax).
   I also have a lot going on in my life right now which is not good. It makes it hard to be cheerful. My one guinea pig died two weeks ago and my other one had to go to the vet for an infection. She started having breathing troubles and I had a panic attack because that is how my other one died. So my two ( the older one and the baby) are both on medicine and I am worried about them. They are my babies ( espeically the baby who thinks I am the greatest person in the world) so if anything happened to them I would get upset. I also have problems finding a job. The one I was sure I would get ( a retail job doing the same thing I have done the past two years so I have had plenty of experience) I found out I didn't get. So Merry Christmas. Ugh. Money is an issue because while hubby and I can make do I still don't have access to my money which I promised to my MIL for rent next month. Hoepfully it will get sorted by then. I can't open up my own bank account here ( still) and money is a bit tight. More so since we had to buy for everybody in his family. Christmas shopping was stressful this year and usually I enjoy it but they make it into a chore. Oh well we have money to do our food shopping this week and we have a roof over our heads. That is the important things. But still I wish it would improve. Here's hoping 2008 does.

[Shores]

Usually Christmas is MY time of the year. I love every bit of it. But this year... not so much. Everything is so rushed, DF is working all the time, our tiny studio apartment is feeling smaller and smaller and dirtier and dirtier. No matter how much I clean, its just cluttered and annoying. We haven't watched any Xmas movies (a big tradition for me) or even played much music. Shopping has been hell on our minds, bodies and wallets.

Plus, Christmas = only 4 days until I have to leave my home and DF for 3 months, so instead of counting down to a joyous occasion, I'm counting down to a sad and stressful one. I really just want to skip ahead to April 1, please.

[momto3daughters]

Me, This year has been a year of getting from one bad thing happening in ourlives to the next. Washer dying, refrigerator dying, car break down, Husband having surgery, bil having 3 surgeries and being diagnosed with cancer and dying, wrecking my van with all three kids in the car, and two more car break downs. Im sick of the year and just in a crappy what nexxt mood. I want it to stop and its so hard to actually get into the spirit.

I didnt even put up my tree, my kids did this year. Buying presents was hard financially and its just a hard to do this year.

[DorrieBelle]

Add me to the 'Bah, humbug !' list. I've never been big on Christmas - it was always a huge windup and a major disappointment, even when I was a kid. For some reason, if I had a request for a gift, 'Santa' had objections to it and would get something else that wasn't even remotely attached to the idea of the original wish. Every. Single. Year. Of course, I had to buy precisely, exactly what was on my parents' wish lists, and woe betide me if I get the ExcellPlus car cover instead of the NePlusUltra car cover. (sigh)

I got over it and myself, and tried, really tried, to get into the spirit of the holidays. I sang carols like a shrieking eel presented with appetizers, baked cookies by the metric ton, decorated like a lemur-based Martha Stewart clone, and donated toys every chance I got (that was the best part, for me). And I just couldn't shake my shameful secret : I still didn't like or enjoy Christmas. But you couldn't tell by lookin' at me, I had the 'acting happy' part down pat.

This year, I'm gonna be me. I'm tired of pretending and maintaining the facade of endless family joy and holiday merriment. We're scrounging-for-change broke, very few parents in Dearest Son's class contributed to the holiday party, so I spent about $20. of our grocery cash to ensure they had a decent one, and my in-laws are being evicted but they're happy because they don't have to worry about where to live, since their son (my Beloved Hubby) will surely take care of them ! I've been making gifts like an assembly line from Hades, so I haven't had much time to myself, and now no one wants to have Christmas, because of M&FIL's house foreclosure. Yet I'm happy because I won't have to lie and pretend - just wrap what I've already made, get the few presents we bought for Dearest Son ready - if only I could sew Lego ! - and finish decorating that &^%$ tree. I'm scared because having M&FIL living with us will have me walking naked down the middle of the street, barefoot and humming to myself inside a week, but I've come to expect crap for Christmas, so it's not that bad. Things have been known to get worse.

So, yeah. I don't feel like celebrating this year. Or any year since 1974, if you want the truth about it. Anybody who wants to try to change my mind can line up here, but you'd have more success talking to a wall of reindeer-based grafitti.

DB, eagerly awaiting Dec. 26 the way Dearest Son's anticipating the day before.

[Rei-chan]

I'm jumping on this bandwagon.

Originally, I was all about this Christmas.  Bia was ok after her OD, and I got to tell my job to shove it, we are closing on our house in a little over a week, and I was getting along with my Dad for the first time in a long time.  Things were good. 

Then out of nowhere, Deeb had liver problems, then had to have 3 bladder stones removed, and is now in a "cone collar" for the next 10 days (and quite ticked about this I might add), and here comes the stepmonster (which I posted about HERE, so now all of that is in the toilet.

Hopefully, DH will be cool with us staying here, rather than driving all over creation to his family.  I'm just not up for it. 

Ideally, I will spend Christmas playing Final Fantasy 12.  It's a real tension breaker to scream at boss monsters as you are destroying them.

Next year, however, we will be in the new house, and will be hosting for my inlaws, who are fantastic.  I WILL HAVE A GOOD HOLIDAY NEXT YEAR DARN IT!!!!

[TychaBrahe]

It's not just you.  I was supposed to be laid off on the 31st, but I'm being kept on until Jan 18th.  The reason they are keeping me on is because of a massive program upgrade we're in the middle of, which will require me to work at least 3-5 hours per evening about half of the nights between now and then.  I'm being evicted on Jan 20th, which means I will spend this weekend, Monday (a holiday for me) and Tuesday moving into a storage unit until I can figure out what I want to do, because I'm in negotiations for a new job requiring a move from Los Angeles to Chicago. 

Hanukkah came early this year, so for me, the holiday feels over, even though I'm trying to make Christmas for my "niece" and "nephew" (no relation, but the children of the woman who is evicting me, who is also evicting them.  I was going to cook a full dinner for them and a few friends, but it looks like the landlady is planning to entertain, and there isn't room here for two dinner parties.  I guess we'll follow another old Jewish tradition: Chinese food on Christmas.

Also, from late August until the end of November, I was collecting holiday cards for the troops.  I read about 30,000 cards and still have stacks of them from all over the country that didn't get here in time to go over. 

So, yeah, I'm sick of the holiday.

[mama1980]

Add me to the long list of not enjoying Christmas this year.

I've always had problems with the Christmas season and gift giving as my birthday is Christmas Eve. Until I married DH when he made sure that I got to go out for dinner, had a separate birthday present and card. He even gave me a surprise birthday party when I turned 40. Of course it was 2 weeks early but that way it really was a suprise.
He passed away Sept 2006 so this will be my second birthday/Christmas without him. I miss him so much!
Last year I was able to take some time off and be with DSS and his family. This year none of the kids are able to come here or I to them. So I'll probably stay up LATE on my birthday and sleep Christmas day away.