I hate Christmas. Who's with me?

jp1964

TBeckett100 wrote: »

Christmas is odd.

When you are a couple, you alternative Christmas and boxing days with the parents and in laws so nobody feels left out. We have our own child and it would be nice to actually enjoy Christmas in the house I work all year for instead of sitting 5 to a sofa watching poor taste in television.

I suspect I will have to wait until deaths to occur before we can have Christmas at home as our own family unit lol by which time ours will have flown the nest

Take this Christmas. I have four sofas and a dining table that seats 8. However, we have to go to the in laws where there is one sofa and one armchair, 8 people and a dining table that seats 4. Cold metal garden chairs will be retrieved from winter retirement.

If dinner is at 1pm, we have to ensure our arrival 1hr before the other guests to reserve the sofa space.

I just don't get this at all, if you are so unhappy going to parents/inlaws on alternate days and there is not enough space and you want to be in your own home, quite understandably in my view, just let everyone know that you are going to be at home this year, and everyone is welcome to join you!

We would always stay at home when our kids were small and in fact still do most years, they had everything they needed at home, didn't need to be uprooted after opening their presents, and they were perfectly happy as were we, the grandparents came round for Christmas dinner, and there was a Boxing Day buffet for anyone who wanted to join us, it helped that some were local, of course, because the grandparents just went home later on and we could have some time on our own, and on Boxing Day the relatives from slightly further afield came over and brought my Dad with them, we saw everyone we wanted to, and still had some time ourselves to relax and enjoy.

If you want to stay at home, just say so, if accompanied by a warm and friendly invitation for them to join you for some of the time, what is not to like? Life is too short to sit seething with resentment and having to go somewhere you clearly don't enjoy, turn it around in a positive way and enjoy yourselves in the way you want to, after all, as you say, you work hard all year, you deserve it!

jaylee3

I get what you're saying about people dragging up old posts etc faerielight, and this practice doesn't sit with me either. However, in this case, the OP in question had actually attacked several forum members and tried to make them feel guilty for having Christmas off; saying they should volunteer to help the elderly and go into A & E and take chocolates in instead of 'sitting on their behind!' How does she know what people are doing? They may not be sitting on their behind! Some people do lots for others, but don't crow about it.

And she also said that we all take the emergency services for granted, which was a bit rude, and a very unfair thing to say, as well as being incorrect. I didn't see a single person saying they do that... So maybe that's why people felt a bit annoyed and defensive, and said 'yeah but you said on an old thread.....'

The poster in question doesn't know anything about people's personal circumstances, or how many people a certain poster has to look after over Christmas (like elderly parents or grandparents or children.) In addition, many people work hard all year too, and deserve Christmas off.

I think Pol-Zeath just questioned this poster because she was confused at how she seemed to have presented herself differently in a previous thread. So I think she was just saying she was confused. I know I was.

Apart from this, the poster in question said they work with the ill and vulnerable, (in post 167) and said in another post that she has not got a thank you in 14 years from anyone, and now she has said she works in a mortuary! So which is it? Working with the ill and vulnerable, or working with the dead?

I am certainly confused, but am now past caring, so I'm not asking or questioning anything else. My head is spinning now! :rotfl:

Got to get ready for work now.

Hope you are OK today Faerielight xx

determined_new_ms

A few years ago we decided to give up celebrating Christmas, and in particular the commercial side of it. My kids were grown up, and from 18 & 19 I started reducing what I gave them for Christmas. I gave all our decs away and it was incredible liberating.

Fast forward a few years and we now have custody of our 2 1/2 year old granddaughter and I find myself being somewhere in between celebrating and not. We have a small tree we will put up 12 days before Christmas and I will do a different Christmas activity each day during the 12 days of advent with dgd. I heard a great idea from a fellow MSEr that they give their children a gift each hour throughout Christmas day which we are intending on doing so the magic is spread across the whole day. I've saved £40 which will be food and drinks for the 2 days of celebrations. We will be spending it with my daughter (who has mental health problems) and just hope for a calm and happy couple of days.

In terms of gifts for our nearest and dearest we will be making hot chocolate spoons and cards and that will be that!

Pollycat

Person_one wrote: »

Its not a 'dry comment' unless you actually explain that you work in a mortuary so of course would never expect the grieving people you see to be thinking about thanking you. Without that information its just a moan.

Georgiegirl256 wrote: »

Well I for one find your "dry comment" to be in very bad taste. You should be ashamed of yourself.

DomRavioli wrote: »

And you should be ashamed that you made a disabled woman explain her life on a forum, out of fear. How does that make you feel?

What a truly bizarre comment to make about 'never being thanked' in your job and then to just drop out that you work in a mortuary.
You may have got a crystal ball but I doubt that most other posters on here have.

I actually stuck up for you waaaaay back in post #172 but have just lost all sympathy for you.

Explain your "life on a forum, out of fear"?
Oh, FHS, come on!

tea_lover

DomRavioli wrote: »

I work in a mortuary (hence the dry comment I added about never getting thanked by who came through the doors

What a weird comment! I've never had a thank you from the spreadsheets I work with but I wouldn't whinge about it on a forum then use it as an excuse to berate others for enjoying Christmas.

Pollycat

tea_lover wrote: »

What a weird comment! I've never had a thank you from the spreadsheets I work with but I wouldn't whinge about it on a forum then use it as an excuse to berate others for enjoying Christmas.

:rotfl:

I too worked with some very ungrateful spreadsheets - and just don't even start on the miserable unfestive documents I had to deal with. :cool:

GlasweJen

Now I know they don't let 16 year olds work in a mortuary or in a funeral home, definitely not in Scotland anyway. I would as one uncle is head of the mortuaries for a big health board and the other is a funeral director for a large chain. No one employs people who can't drink alcohol to deal with bodies of people that aren't always intact. Even medical students need to have their birthday by a certain date to ensure they never end up dealing with bodies or something that will disturb them before they're deemed old enough to handle it. Oh and both uncles also get thank you's and chocolates from grateful relatives who were comforted by the staff at both their work places.

As for the "making a disabled person explain" do you want equality or not? If other people's stories are held to scrutiny then don't expect for yours not to be just because you've mentioned a disability.

Pollycat

TBeckett100 wrote: »

Christmas is odd.

When you are a couple, you alternative Christmas and boxing days with the parents and in laws so nobody feels left out. We have our own child and it would be nice to actually enjoy Christmas in the house I work all year for instead of sitting 5 to a sofa watching poor taste in television.

I suspect I will have to wait until deaths to occur before we can have Christmas at home as our own family unit lol by which time ours will have flown the nest

Take this Christmas. I have four sofas and a dining table that seats 8. However, we have to go to the in laws where there is one sofa and one armchair, 8 people and a dining table that seats 4. Cold metal garden chairs will be retrieved from winter retirement.

If dinner is at 1pm, we have to ensure our arrival 1hr before the other guests to reserve the sofa space.

This sounds like my worst nightmare. :eek:

pickledonionspaceraider

TBeckett100 wrote: »

Christmas is odd.

When you are a couple, you alternative Christmas and boxing days with the parents and in laws so nobody feels left out. We have our own child and it would be nice to actually enjoy Christmas in the house I work all year for instead of sitting 5 to a sofa watching poor taste in television.

I suspect I will have to wait until deaths to occur before we can have Christmas at home as our own family unit lol by which time ours will have flown the nest

Take this Christmas. I have four sofas and a dining table that seats 8. However, we have to go to the in laws where there is one sofa and one armchair, 8 people and a dining table that seats 4. Cold metal garden chairs will be retrieved from winter retirement.

If dinner is at 1pm, we have to ensure our arrival 1hr before the other guests to reserve the sofa space.

THIS type of christmas is exactly what made me start disliking Christmas. It is fake forced jollity in the worst possible way

When I met my OH our first few Christmases were spent like this until I put my foot down - no way on earth would I go back to spending a Christmas like that - it makes no one happy - and the Christmas memories you are making for your own children are not great

TBeckett, I think you need to stick your foot down
You need to get out of this rut fast.as who exactly is this making happy?

There is no way I would spend another goddam xmas like you say, five to a settee forced to watch some sh1te on tele for absolute hours on end with people who are virtual strangers most of the year - even now it sets my hair on edge thinking about it

DomRavioli

GlasweJen wrote: »

Now I know they don't let 16 year olds work in a mortuary or in a funeral home, definitely not in Scotland anyway. I would as one uncle is head of the mortuaries for a big health board and the other is a funeral director for a large chain. No one employs people who can't drink alcohol to deal with bodies of people that aren't always intact. Even medical students need to have their birthday by a certain date to ensure they never end up dealing with bodies or something that will disturb them before they're deemed old enough to handle it. Oh and both uncles also get thank you's and chocolates from grateful relatives who were comforted by the staff at both their work places.

As for the "making a disabled person explain" do you want equality or not? If other people's stories are held to scrutiny then don't expect for yours not to be just because you've mentioned a disability.

If anyone else wants to cross examine me, please feel free to PM me. I have nothing to hide.