Is it just my circle, or has it been a challenge getting into the Christmas/holiday spirit the last couple of years?
Sure, the first year (or two) of COVID were wretched, but most of those barriers have since cleared — yet I’m still struggling. I’ve noticed the same with a number of people within my family and neighbourhood.
How are others feeling? Are you struggling, yet succeeding? If so, how are you breaking through?
I’ve never been much of a Christmas person. But 2020-2022 were the most Christmasy I’ve ever felt (probably because we were at home and decided to embrace with a tree and roast dinner etc it rather than our usual travelling holiday).
Now that we’re fully back to our old lifestyle, I don’t even notice that it’s Christmas/end of year until someone brings it up.
Well for me yeah for years and I felt guilty not being happy and enjoying the holidays with my family. Covid unrelated. Antidepressants helped me enjoy it atleast a bit.
there are a lot of factors for me but i feel it, and i think a big part is climate change. i live in new england and it was 60 degreees and raining the other day, pretty hard to get into the holiday spirit when it’s spring outside.
Also, before the goblinos start, yes there are many places where christmas happens in summer, summer type weather, etc, but that is not how it was for me growing up and most of my adult life.
It’s obnoxious from start (last week Oct) to finish (1st week Jan). Shit music, saturation marketing, shit social obligations, travel and/or houseguests, waste of money, house is cluttered, etc. it’s draining.
bunch of sad people in here it seems like, to me it’s as simple as needing to actually make things feel christmas-y, you can’t just sit around doing the same exact stuff you always do and expect an atmosphere to magically materialize from nothing.
decorate things to high hell, play christmas music, eat christmas-y food, go to christmas markets, spend time just chilling with people.
i don’t agree that christmas is consumerist, you can just… not make it consumerist? like it’s not rocket science.
I’m so incredibly lucky, covid showed me that I don’t have to work in a cube farm, I can do my job from anywhere. It crammed my whole family into each other’s business, now I know my kids better than I did before. I grew meals in a crappy suburban garden.
I lost a lot too, connections to extended family and friends. A lot of relationships died because I was afraid. People like me were dying and I didn’t trust that extended family to give enough of a shit about me to wear a shitty little mask from Amazon in public. (Which turned out to be right, they lied and ended up with covid) I lost some people who were very important to me, not even to COVID, just regular old cancer.
For me, the last few years have thrown what’s important into sharp relief.
I can’t control anything that’s going on outside my house, or even most things inside my house. But I can have Christmas trees up year round if I want to.
The trees and lights make the people I love happy too, which makes me happy.
My big dumb dogs make me happy.
That crunchy snow noise makes me happy.
The tip of my nose freezing in the wind while the rest of me is warm makes me happy.
There’s so much awful out in the world and I can’t really do anything about it. So I cling to all the things I’ve found that make me happy and I try to suck all the juice out of each and every one.
When you find the things that give you some warmth, grab them and hold on. Put your energy into the things that give you energy.
im not that into it. Im sorta a nod and smile and enjoy how other folks are into it. I do like leaving little gifts for my condo neighbors but its gotten skimpier and skimpier as prices have been higher to where now they just get a tin of butter cookies. I would love to get back to where I was changing things up with chocolate or inexpensive wine. sigh.
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