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[Solifuge]

I've always liked them, but I also enjoy spending time with my family, dysfunctional though they may be. I also love the weather this time of year, and I link the two together, since holidays mean I get to spend time out enjoying it.

I've never been fond of the rabid commercialism that comes with Christmas in particular, though. I've seen impoverished families scrambling to work long hours of overtime just to be able to give nice gifts to everyone, and give off the impression of successfulness. When it goes from "a chance to spend time with friends and family" and turns into "a competition to see who is the 'most giving' family or person", there's an undercurrent of ugliness to the whole thing.

I've also never had much money to spend on gifts, and when younger my feeble attempts to browse dollar stores at length for nice things to gift others were generally unappreciated, so gift-giving has soured a bit for me. It still feels like an obligation. I'd like to be left out of the gift-exchange part of the holiday, but my folks insist. I don't know how I'm going to manage much this year, save for making things, and ordering books cheep from Amazon.

[Euld]

The holidays are always very stressful for me.  One way or another, my mom will find something to get upset about and ruin an otherwise good evening.  And I hate the amount of work involved, especially Christmas.  Lights, trees, decorations, cooking, cleaning, buying presents, wrapping presents, cleaning up after unwrapping presents, cleaning up from the tree, taking down decorations, cleaning after the big Christmas meal and so on.  I'm the kinda guy who would just put up a fake tree, decorate with lights and only a handful of unbreakable ornaments, and instead of wrapping presents, would just sneak them under the tree and put a Christmas blanket over 'em without looking at the presents.  Although labels on each one to show which goes to who would help.

[Neonivek]

I like doing some of the work, for example I wrap all the presents I buy (and I save up for Christmas starting in Spring) even though they never look very nice. Though honestly I can't imagine the outdoor lights being something I'd ever want to do year after year.

Actually Euld I am almost the opposite. I want to do more but I cannot.

Personally given one of the people I am buying a present for, I just want to show it to them now and ask "Do you want this?" because they are very picky and I'd rather just return it several days in advance. (Mind you, the things don't cost too much... but really this person is sort of a jerk to buy things for. Ever had someone who actually made you feel BAD for buying them a present or worse making one?)

Actually I'd rather make all the presents this year but the Christmas blues is kicking in so bad I don't know if I will have the energy to ever do so.

[freeformschooler]

I don't know what you guys are talking about. Recklessly spending money on impulse towards Wal-mart's giant, protected pocket is great fun! And every year, I get to sit down at a table and pretend to enjoy the company of people I don't know. Fun, fun.

In all seriousness, I used to enjoy the holidays when I was a kid. Now they're a nuisance, except for seeing relatives I hardly ever see.
New year's eve is fun because I celebrate all of the wonderful technological advancements that have been made in the year.

Since I've converted to Pineapplism and the birth of The First Fruit was on March 12th, I celebrate the only real major holiday (Pineapplemas) on March 12th.

[SolarShado]

New year's eve is fun because I celebrate curse at all of the wonderful technological advancements that have been made in the year when they refuse to function as advertised.

fix't

[freeformschooler]

New year's eve is fun because I celebrate curse at all of the wonderful technological advancements that have been made in the year when they refuse to function as advertised.

fix't

If you would pay $1200 for this DIY addon pack, the problems will be fixed!*

*results may vary

[AntiAntiMatter]

I love the holidays. I'm all for a free excuse to get out of work/school. And the free junk you get for Christmas/Hannukah/whatever (well, not really free, since you have to buy free junk for people you know, but still) is nice.

[Karlito]

I've mostly stopped celebrating Christmas, or at least the parts that involve celebrating the "birth" of some long dead guy or giving/receiving gifts. I realized about a year ago that most of the stuff people give me just ends up being used for a month or two at most and then closeted indefinitely, and I already have too much junk, so I've been trying very hard to just get people to stop giving me stuff.

Decorating is still kind of fun though.

[Aqizzar]

The only thing that I particularly hate about Christmas, compared to other holidays, is picking out gifts.  I can't think of anything that either isn't crap, or they already have, or wouldn't be "nice" enough, or wouldn't measure up to what I gave last time, or...

Speaking of, oh shit, I need at least a Secret Santa gift for [censored] who I know almost nothing about, my Mother (who hates every gift she gets but hates getting nothing even more), my Father who I buy gifts for all the time (and I'm afraid my Mother might be jealous for), and my at least one Grandmother (who's actually pretty easy to shop for, but I've run out of books to get her).

[Psyco Jelly]

I usually just get some toys for the kids and something for each person I know closely. I don't spend more than $50 on everyone total, but I make sure that what I do get is meaningful. I usually don't get much interesting for Christmas, and the important stuff I know in advance that I'm getting.

But other than the mandatory stimulation of the economy (I don't buy from Wal-mart), it's usually a quiet time that me and my close family spend together, at home.

And my grandparents would go berserk if they knew I'm not a Christian, so there's always that façade. Pretty much any holiday spent with them is a little uncomfortable.

[Little]

And my grandparents would go berserk if they knew I'm not a Christian, so there's always that façade. Pretty much any holiday spent with them is a little uncomfortable.

QFT. I have an extremely religious aunt and grandfather.

[GlyphGryph]

Yeah, I was the one to ruin the moment a couple years ago by being the only one to not want to do the religious thing someone suggested. I got a lot of support though - apparently about half the family wanted nothing to do with it anyways, and another third didn't give a damn, and no one had said anything because they all assumed it was important to everyone else.

So that was win, at least.

The only problem with the two holidays I like (Halloween and New Years) is that they simply provide excuses to do the stuff I normally do anyways rather than being something special. But I like it that way, in a way, because they are a lot more about what YOU make them.

[Tsarwash]

Here's my rant.

I cannot stand Christmas. To start with, I am not Christian in any way, so I do not see why every year I get pressured into celebrating a religious holiday that I don't recognise as such. I don't get pressure into celebrating Jewish or Muslim holidays, and I do not see why this one should be any different. The whole modern idea behind the holiday seems wrong to me, giving presents to people who already have many more possessions than they need or can value adequately. Getting children to believe in make-believe characters is wrong in my mind and preparation to getting them to believe in a make-believe character in the sky who shall judge all of your actions come your judgement day. I don't like the actuality of the day itself, with people generally overindulging with food and booze and for some, drugs, until you need to rest. I don't actually like my family that much so I don't really look forward to spending lots of time with them. Just because I happen to be closely related to these people shouldn't mean that I am obliged to share holidays with them. I'm closer to my friends because we have made mutual decisions to spend time together. And I hate the fact that all the shops and businesses decide to take a week off from work. The whole county decides to grind to a halt for a week, for a festival that only a small minority of people actually genuinely celebrate.

And that's without getting into the specific bullshit issues about Christmas such as putting a dead tree in the corner of your living room for a fortnight, being forced to listen to the same terrible and irritating songs EVERY year, and all the rest of the artificial traditions that have built up over the last few centuries.

I understand the need for a Christmas style celebration in countries in Europe or northern parts of America or Canada, where the nights close in and the weather gets cold and shitty, but the commercial sector and traditionalists have made it intolerable for the majority of our population. Christmas is such a mental phenomenom that even some Muslim countries near to or south of the equator celebrate it, which just seems frankly mental. It's like we have build up such an aura about the damn thing that the rest of the world is joining in, because they don't like the idea of there being a big party that they are not invited to. Cromwell had the right idea.

[AntiAntiMatter]

Cromwell had the right idea.

Which one?

[Tsarwash]

I'm pretty sure that he helped to ban Christmas. But then again, I think that public dancing was illegal under his reign as well, so he was clearly a fuckwit. He managed to be so unpopular that ten years later, the public wanted another king.