I hate holidays

[ADHDTigger]

I hate them all. The commercialistic "happy happy, joy joy" of the holiday season gives me a rash that Desitin can't touch.

Even worse, I've managed to get ill for the holidays. Without fail and since I was around age seven.

In my family, we don't exchange gifts... unless someone goes renegade (me). Generally, we gift in support of the church's Food Shelf. Last year I insisted on giving hubby's parents, son, and brothers a framed photo of hubby with his name engraved on the frame. This year I will gift the Smithsonian with some of my dad's engineering drawings.

I loved seeing the family at Thanksgiving, but hated trying to eat the meal... at a restaurant... not close to home. Loved my brother and sister in law for picking me up so I didn't have to drive. Spent the last three days trying to recover from the buffet.

*note to self: bring a small sealable dish so that leftovers can be taken home to cats...*

I guess what I am already tired of is the hype... the commercials... the artificial insistence that we all be joyful.

What if I'm NOT?

What if I'm not ready or able to be joyful? What if I feel assaulted by the incessant insistence that I be ready to spread cheer? What if all the holiday means to me is another year of feeling indescribably alone?

I hate the holidays.

I can't be the only one.

[Abi]

I hate Xmas / New Years, and my birthdays.

Both have the feel of another wasted year.

I usually slip into a depression around Xmas; and go manic around my birthday (in June)

[ADHDTigger]

My personal h*ll starts in July or so and gets worse until mid January... if lucky.

(((hugs))) Abi. You hear exactly what I'm saying.

[Tabbycat]

I'm with you guys. Just spent Thanksgiving alone (by choice) b/c it's just too much. Christmas - I'm already tired of seeing lights, etc.

I wonder if Black Friday is the equivalent of ADD Hell?

[ADHDTigger]

OMG!!!

Black Friday is SOOO ADHD h*ll!!!

Hubby and I did the Black Friday thing once. We lightly napped after family obligations were dealt with, then dressed warmly- it was snowing- before hitting the line.

NEVER EVER EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ONES!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the grace of heaven I resisted the absolute NEED to kill several people.

It is now Monday. I *might* be okay with going to the grocery store. I ran out of toilet paper on Saturday.

I HATE holidays...

[Fortune]

I don't particularly love the holidays, either. I think for most of my adult life I've ignored them. I live with my family these days, so I get to go through the celebrations, which are loud and cause shutdowns (three of them last Christmas). I hate the expectation of being up early in the morning to watch the kids open their presents.

I won't lie and say I dislike the meals - the meals are excellent, and I do look forward to them. But I can't handle being in the same room with so many people loudly celebrating or even just conversing.

Also, I got food poisoning one Christmas Eve so bad I should have gone to the ER. I'd eaten out at a 24-hour restaurant, and it put me off chicken fried steak for nearly 10 years.

Oh, and I had a horribly painful gall bladder attack one Christmas just a few years ago. Or at least I thought it was a gall bladder attack, but no one found anything wrong with my gall bladder. Weird.

I never leave the house on Black Friday if I can at all avoid it.

[Lunacie]

My hubby and I were married the day before Valentine's Day. Which made
our separation and divorce incredibly painful. All those ads on the radio
and tv and the newspaper for lovey-dovey stuff, two-4-one deals, stuff
that takes having a significant other in your life. It chaffed like hell until
the heart attack killed him and I knew he wasn't spending our special day
with "the ****."

I prefer to spend Turkey Day alone, but this year my grandkids went with
their daddy and my daughter talked me into having dinner with her fiance's
family. Not a bad day, but I'd rather put a pizza in the oven and spend the
day alone.

My family celebrates Christmas the Sunday before the holiday - doesn't
even feel like Christmas. We've been doing this for 13 years since my mom
died. I spend Christmas Day alone, which is fine since I celebrate the
Winter Solstice (Yule) on the 21st.

[Unmanagable]

I don't care too much for them myself. I start slipping into my holiday funk around the time we have to set the clocks back and don't come out of it until March or so. I no longer get the least little feeling of excitement for any of it. It's painfully obvious so many folks just go through the motions to suit the masses, but I've never been good at the fake it til you make it gig. Ba-freakin' Humbug!

[ADHDTigger]

YODELING SCREAMING WAVING ARMS AND SH*T!!!!!!!!!


I found my peeps!!!!

I really found them!!!



I have spent so many years feeling like a freak because I hate holidays. To know that I'm not alone?

You have no idea how GOOD that feels. How CALMING.

I feel safer.

(((hugs)))

[Abi]

F: I like the food too. Shhhh :/

Also had a "gall bladder attack" in early January some years ago. Turned out to be food poisioning.

(watches SB smirking from the corner)

[stef]

I love the holidays, but I totally understand people NOT liking them;
my mom has a lot of anxiety in the first place and for many other reasons, dislikes Christmas immensely, and always has (even though she really did her best so that I had very nice holidays).

People are ALREADY asking me if I'm going back to the states for Christmas. NO, I'm not! I'll be in Chartres with the inlaws!

[shysmile]

It's not the holidays I don't like, it's the weather. Our 4-5 month long dreary days of no warmth, plant life, or being able to go for walks...
I don't like it when we get white Christmases. Every year I secretly hope it rains on Christmas, or does nothing at all. Then if it doesn't snow I get a smug sense of satisfaction that all the annoying people who give in to all the commercialized glamorized northern "winter wonderland" crap who love the weather I hate are disappointed. Yes I'm awful.

The holidays themselves I don't mind. They are just like any other day, except more decorated, and we get to eat cookies.
Especially this year I'm looking forward to the holidays, because 3 days after Christmas I'll get to see my sweetie for the first time since summer.

[ADHDTigger]

(((hugs))) Stef

Chartres sounds like a wonderful place to be for the holidays. Avoiding the States sounds like good planning on your part.

When you ARE able to get to the States, we'll attack yarn stores. The shoppers will have gone away by then...

[DogFoster]

I'm really glad to hear this isn't just me!! I don't know why I hate the holidays so much. I spent Thanksgiving and Christmas along last year. Honestly, it was great! I usually tell people I have other plans because I don't want them to feel badly for me. I have a wonderful, loving family, but they're several states away and honestly, the idea of getting dressed-up and eating myself sick with food that I don't especially enjoy just isn't appealing. Sure, I like mashed potatoes as much as the next person, but it just doesn't beat a well-made Lo Mein! My family keeps the holidays very low-key and if I lived closer I would go, but it just isn't worth dragging myself to someone else's house...I'd rather watch re-runs of 30 Rock under the covers of my tempur-pedic bed. I know, I'm a rotten one, Ms. Grinch!

[stef]

I miss the snow and the decorations & the carols; but, really NOT a good time to see my mom.
Chartres - well, it's not as "Christmas-y". I have a lot of happy memories there. it sounds charming but actually the family is in a kind of terrible apartment complex near a target type store. we never know quite what's going to happen until we get there! (where is dinner? who's coming? sometimes christmas eve is just us & my mother in law and the next day somehow there are 8 or 10 people at lunch. )

The very best part is, I bring the desserts but pretty much the only thing I have to do once we get there, for 2 days, is help set and clear the table ...