like all the fuckin ads with the hugging families around winter. any educationally normal adult knows everyone just gets more stressed, with travel and gifts and social obligations and everything, but you’re not even allowed to…openly feel that, it seems? it’s like there’s this happiness benchmark you have to reach, otherwise you’ll feel even shittier and sadder for not having a happy holiday season
not even allowed to
Just so you know, you can live without conforming to other people’s expectations.
Where is the unpopular opinion?
The trick is to figure out what you want your holidays to look like, and then just do that.
We’ve got a weird tradition of going to the beach every Christmas Eve, wandering along the freezing cold pier, getting cheesy chips, then heading home where my husband pours himself a glass of something luxurious and watches Zulu while I generally get in a spot of knitting or gaming or something.
This year, his mam is trying to organise a big family party on Christmas Eve. Whole family will be there…except us. We’ve got our tradition and we like it. No stress.
You should come join us in NZ - we get good hot beaches for Xmas.
Im known as a Grinch because I can’t stand the wonton consumerism, expectations and , let’s be honest, propaganda around it. As far as I’m concerned Xmas eve should have a walk of something with the kids, they can have one decent present that they actually want, Xmas day is for eating far to much easy to cook stuff and eating it with lots of people on the deck, and boxing day should be spent at that previously mentioned hot beach.
Nothing is stopping you from not giving a shit about official holidays.
My immediate family just gets together random weekends. There’s never stress or conflicting schedules. So it makes it better for us, even if there’s still inlaw shit on actual holidays.
It’s an incredibly easy thing to do, literally nothing is stopping your family from doing the same.
Well, Christmas is one of the most fake holidays there is. Mostly due to it’s timing during the year. It’s the easiest and most important time to sell things. So 99% of what you are “supposed to feel” is just a commercial trying to get you to buy that feeling.
Christmas can be that whole relaxed hangout with family thing and not have store bought presents like on TV in a small town. If you don’t live in a small town, assume almost no Christmas stuff from TV will be possible.
Also most families only have 1 or 2 important Christmas traditions, there’s just such a wide variety of them that for movies to “appeal” to a wider audience they have to do a bunch of stuff to hopefully hit upon a tradition that matters to as much of the audience as possible.
Also most families only have 1 or 2 important Christmas traditions, there’s just such a wide variety of them that for movies to “appeal” to a wider audience they have to do a bunch of stuff to hopefully hit upon a tradition that matters to as much of the audience as possible.
I never thought about that last part, but it’s so true. Movies try to check of every single holiday box, but most of us only do a few of those things. Like, I can’t remember the last time I went to a tree lighting. Maybe as a kid. But every Hallmark movie features the whole community in Town Square gathered for it like every single town stops what they’re doing to all just gather around a tree across the world.
In other countries, Japan for example, gift giving is almost automated in their society to the point of being able to pick up simple gifts nearly anywhere, fancy fruit or what have you. When you get the easy gifts out of the way you can focus on those 1-4 people that are significant to you. But that wouldn’t work in the West, gotta buy all the expensive stuff to take that red into black.
