Xmas Extravaganza

Xmas equals Fiasco, in this order... Work "extra" hours to make money or get an “extra” job. Don't pay bills so you have "extra" money. Spend less time with your children. Lie to them about a fat man in a red suit and sell the commercial image. Buy Christmas CDs and DVDs. Buy lights, ornaments, stockings, and decorations. Spend a ridiculous amount of money on a tree. Carry it into the house and for the next few weeks, water it and clean the needles that are all over your house. Buy Xmas cards and stamps. Find everyone’s address and hope you do not forget anyone. Write a hundred cards and envelopes. Then lick them all closed. Mail them out. Dress your kid up and purchase portraits. Make sure to get one for every person you know and then write on the back of all of them. Then go shopping again. Deal with crazy drivers in parking lots, who will literally smash into you because they are too busy looking for a spot or they are trying to steal a spot. Busy stores. Other peoples yelling kids. Overwhelming amounts of products and loud noises. Aggravated salespersons who are overworked and underpaid. Hell, this may even be their second job, so they can pay for their own extravaganza. crowded ales, long lines, price checks, and all that hard earned money given to the Corporation. Carry the presents to car and repeat parking lot fiasco, while actually driving nowhere. Then drive all over Gods creation cause your kid has got to have... Hell shop 24 hours a day because they will be open. Spend, yet more money on gas and sit in a parking lot on the highway. Carry gifts into house, hide, and keep kids from finding them. Take presents out and wrap. Cut paper crooked, too long or short, get it bunched up.Get tape everywhere or cannot get tape, due to lack of hand, and somehow it ends up in your hair. End result, a present that looks like your kid wrapped it. Hide presents again repeat that fiasco. Repeat the shopping fiasco, this time for dinner. Spend more money than usual because the prices have raised and you "must" have a feast. Buy alcohol everyone "must" get loaded, after all, it's Xmas. Buy your kid a Xmas suit. Buy other people presents. After all of that, you get to clean the mess all over the living room. Then you get to cook all day, drive to families house or travel to each persons' house the whole holiday. Better yet, travel to see people that you will not see agin till next year at this time. Spend yet more money on gas because those prices have too raised. What do you get for all of this chaos, debt and unpaid bills? A bunch of crap your kid doesn't need.

I'm not a scrooge, I love Christmas. It is my favorite holiday but doesn't something seems a little off here. Xmas is so commercialized it has become something that sounds little like celebration. Christmas should be so much more than all of this nonsense. Take out Christ, add an X for the Extravaganza, and call that your anxiety attack.

I wish everyone a Christmas with many warm hearts and big smiles.

I know, what it can be like, but Christmas doesn't have to be like that! I've let all of that go in the last few years. I don't have the "traditional" Christmas, my teenage daughter and I went shopping yesterday, I bought one gift for my mother, a book, and my daughter chose a couple of books for herself while we were in the bookshop. We then went to a department store and I treated myself to some make-up and perfume and told my daughter that was her gift to me, she then chose some make-up and I bought that for her, but this was stuff we would have bought anyway, so we didn't break the bank! My daughter is really good at art, so she is painting a picture for her gran, which of course my mother will appreciate more than an expensive gift, because her beloved granddaughter painted it! As for the tree, well my daughter built a bird table as part of her craft & design standard grade, but it's still in our sitting room as she wants to stain it and put felt on the roof before putting it outside, so we just chucked the tinsel and the lights round that it looks awesome though (and I still chuck seeds and raisins outside so the birds still get fed)

I haven't sent cards for years, I just told everyone about 5 years ago that I really didn't have the time or energy, not that I didn't appreciate them or wish them seasons greetings, but it was just getting out of hand, with, as you mentioned over 100 cards! Think of the waste! I started a trend at work with that, and the following year no one gave cards to colleagues...And they all thanked me for being the brave one and stepping off the treadmill, giving them all the opportunity to do the same!

Christmas dinner at my house is a very informal affair, I told my family years ago that I would rather just spend the time with my daughter, they are welcome to visit, and there will always be food, but I refuse to get stressed out with food shopping in the very circumstances you describe, so I buy a roasting joint and frozen veggies, roasties etc at the beginning of December and shove them in the freezer til they're needed! My daughter is a vegan, so she has veggie sausages instead of meat, but other than that we eat the same stuff. My mum is bringing a friend with her this year as all of her family are away and she has never spent Christmas on her own and being in her late 60's was quite anxious about that, so I told her to just come to us, but not to expect a formal Christmas dinner, just good food and good company, no need for presents (just bring some extra wine

Right now, I'm supposed to be cleaning the house, well it needs done anyway, but I have all day, so I do a bit, then have a rest (and a browse of ATS) but I'm not going to huge efforts, just hoovering, dusting etc, my visitors can take it as they find it...It will be warm and clean and that's all that matters.

I know how difficult the whole thing can be, but if you start letting little bits go, and just make it easier on yourself, your kids will appreciate it more, because they'd rather have happy, unstressed parents who will spend time with them, rather than expensive gifts and a whirlwind of activities!

Hope you and your family have a lovely time.

I read the OP in entirety despite the difficulty of too few paragraphs.

You make good points, but remember it's all in the attitude. It's about the Christmas Spirit. You either get it or you don't.
Some of us put a different spin on all those tasks, you see.

My own waxes and wanes, but it seems to have improved now that it's all done. It was worth it.

This is not my Christmas, just what I hear from loved ones. I would never spend my holiday in such chaos. I'm merely stating the onsurdity in it. I have two boys, a baby and toddler. I went to 3 stores and bought all their presents for less than 100 each, including their Christmas outfits and pajama's. Toys R Us is the biggest corporate scam, so I stay away from there, but I find most things in thrift stores. I am told that “I can’t by my kids second hand things.” I say for toys they will play with for a short time and quickly lose interest in, I’ll pay 5 dollars rather than 50. Since thrift stores are nonprofit and go to a cause, I don’t mind spending my money there. I usually shop at the one that profits for Big Brothers, Big Sisters, since I interned there, out of college.

I only buy for my niece and nephew, one gift each. I don't mail cards, I give them as gifts, and throw in some pics I ordered from Walgreens, which are not written on. I order them online so choose them at my leisure, and have them delivered to my door. They are perfect and cost me less than 30 bucks for everyone and that's 4 grandmothers, 3 great grandmothers, and a slew of aunts and uncles. Everyone wants pictures and I give them, once a year. My husband is a photographer, so we have tons that are never put into physical form.

I used to make dinner for just me and my boys, mother-in-law and my little sisters. Nothing over the top, but I love to cook and they love to help. There is a 13 year gap between us, so just being out on their own, they have many questions about dishes. Cooking is special to me, food is a very precious thing, more so than gold. It also involves time together. My son is getting a play kitchen because he is constantly mimicking me in mine. Since I trip over his feet, I figure he can have his own. The look on his face tomorrow morning will be worth more to me than anything I could have imagined before his birth. My mother resides in a nursing home and gets one day a year out. She can’t come to my house because of the stairs, so I am forced to leave the comfort of my home, and go to my grandmothers. We all make a dish and spend a few hours with one another.

I love a real tree, big, beautiful, and brightly lit. This year I have an artificial one because the baby will eat the needles, since he also loves food and interprets anything on the floor as such. Christmas Eve starts with baking cookies with my 2 year old, who I lie to and tell if he leaves them for Santa (who he calls Claus), then in return he will leave presents. Tonight I will go to he in-laws for dinner and presents. Since I see them once a year, it is nice to expose the kids to their family. Then it’s home to a glass of champagne and organizing the presents under the tree. Tomorrow after the presents are all opened, I will make us a nice breakfast, and their grandmother will come to give them presents.

The wrapping bit is about me. I can’t wrap and that part is frustrating but Christmas for me is about spending time with my loved ones and good food. For the kids it is about presents, but it is for them to also appreciate family. When they are older they will volunteer Christmas morning, to see that they are fortunate to have all they do, and to help others who aren’t. I currently go to food pantries to collect food for people who can’t get to them. Once a week a group of us split it up and deliver it to those in need.

I wish you, your daughter and your mother a Very Merry Christmas.