The fireworks are over. The crowds have found their way home, and we are returning to the mundane day to day stuff we call life.
Hello, welcome to my Blog, this is Kris.
I hope you made it through the holidays. If you have followed my blog, you know that the holidays are my least favorite time of the year. I hate all that fake happiness and good cheer. We are so pressured to be joyful. If we are not happy during the rest of the year, Christmas won’t make that much difference.
I grew up in a very poor family filled with drunken relatives, so the holidays never went well. Even into adulthood I felt that left over feeling of dread and sadness that would envelope me after the shit hit the fan. Holidays did not represent good times.
Now a good therapist would say create your own good times, and I try too, but there is still that emptiness inside that says it isn’t real.
It is like that commercial where the lady carries a happy face card on a stick and waves it in front of herself at family gatherings. No one sees how she really feels.
I call my episodes Christmas affective disorder. Or to be plain “I hate Christmas disorder.”
To me there is really no purpose to Christmas. According to many brainiacs it was not when Christ was born so why the fake celebration? They say it is a time to share with family, but the cost is ridiculous. We need food, gifts, decorations, clothes, trees, and all the other hoopla that goes with it. By the end I am exhausted and feel empty inside. I know my daughter-in-law gets overwhelmed trying to do Christmas with her family, her husband’s family, (me and mine), and then her own family. I mean why do we create such stress for ourselves. Who thought this up?
I looked up how this whole Christmas thing got started and found some interesting facts. Below is one fact.
For many centuries, gift-giving took place on December 6 around Saint Nicholas Day or in early January after New Year’s Eve. The popularity of this custom grew after the positive reception of the 1823 poem The Night Before Christmas and the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.
Another fact. “In 1800s New York, the overlapping interests of middle-class families and the wealthy produced a cultural practice that’s still in place today. Check out this web site to read the whole article. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/12/why-people-give-christmas-gifts/421908/
Fact three, it was really pushed through, promoted, encouraged, all on the tail of commercialism. Big businesses promoted the family theme to “make money.” ( that’s’ my quote).
You can research the rest of the details if you are so inclined. I am not. Suffice it to say that big business invented this great money spending holiday, and it took off like wildfire.
Well, I have had enough. I am not going to participate again. I will not go into debt buying gifts that end up in a pile somewhere. I am done.
What you say? Yes, I am done with this Christmas crap. I am going to talk to my family and from now on we will only share a meal together which we do a hundred times a year, and perhaps some quality time. Just like we do throughout the whole year without any obligation to purchase gifts. Birthdays are the exception.
I bring this up because I know that I am not alone with my Christmas Affective disorder, disorder. There are many that suffer for months until it is finally over. And I am here to tell you that it is okay to give up Christmas and Thanksgiving. We won’t even go into that holiday. You do not have to follow anyone else’s trends. Do what you want or do nothing. It really is up to you.
Turn off the television, forget all the adds for the latest electronics and toys. Most adults would rather buy their own things then end up with some item that they would never have bought for themselves.
The idea of making time for your family should be something to reach for throughout the year, not just for two months. We can love each other, and nurture that love in many little ways all year round.
I get the whole family theme behind the holidays, but it does not need to be tied into monetary things, or obligations. It should be something you give from your heart.
I love my family; I love my grandchildren. I think that is the important aspect of all these holiday themes. Family and love. I shower them with love and gifts all year long because I love creating happy memories with them.
What I say to you is create happy memories! If you do not have any family spend time with a friend but do something together. Play cards, watch movies, play sports, talk, go on an adventure. It does not need to be tied into a holiday theme. It can just be a moment of sharing. Those are what really feel the best anyway. I cannot tell you how often I have relived and laughed at the silly things my granddaughters and I have done together. “There” that is the secret behind all the holiday themes, togetherness.
So, for today know that you are not alone. You are never alone. You are in someone’s thoughts somewhere. And for today, have a great day, you and I deserve it. Oh, and have a Happy New Year.
