Have a Christmas rant? This is the place for you!

[rszdtrvl]

I don't feel like putting our tree up.
And I don't feel like making a big old turkey dinner for Christmas.

Our tree : It is big. Not super big - only 6 foot, but it is so round. I want a smaller one. As it is, I have no idea where we will put it in our house. The house is a 3 bedroom, 1000 square feet house. Our front room/living area already has a lot in it. I am tempted to just try to trade our tree for a smaller 4 foot one or something with someone. It is a nice tree, just too big for us.

As for Christmas : We already had a Happy Christmasgiving on Thanksgiving. My brother and his family were up from Minnesota and we celebrated both Christmas and Thanksgiving with them at the same time.
I am tempted to just make Lasagne and Spaghetti and have garlic bread, salad, a couple other sides, and pie for Christmas dinner. We already had our big Christmas thing, and as long as you spend it with family, it shouldn't really matter what the meal is.

Not feeling super festive. Too much has been going on. Nothing bad. But the holidays are always so busy.

 

[avgeek81]

My rant is small...but I am stressed because I've been so concentrated on finals that I haven't been able to get in the Christmas spirit. I also got FH some nice presents, but now he is all stressed out because he's afraid I "got him more" and that it's a competition....when it isn't. I got the presents because I love you dork and had the money this year because I had the misfortune of losing my Nana which resulted in an inheritance....I'm not trying to outshine you! GRR!!! It's Christmas not a "who loves who more" competition! He's been so hung up on "matching" me....I want him to enjoy the season not worry about that....and I try to tell him but he doesn't listen /endrant

My friend got his SO a new computer but since her birthday is in Jan he is going to give it to her then so she cant compare what she got him. He, like you can afford it and doesnt want it to be a big deal

 

[lyncecelia]

My friend got his SO a new computer but since her birthday is in Jan he is going to give it to her then so she cant compare what she got him. He, like you can afford it and doesnt want it to be a big deal

See...I don't have that advantage...our birthdays are 5 days apart as well (November 10th for him and November 15th for me) so if I wanted to give it for a birthday he'd still be comparing..... Most years he has a lot more money than I do though, so I don't get what the big deal is....heck even with my inheritance he still has more money than me this year....I just don't want it to be a competition....

 

[ebtbmom]

My family is not big into exchanging gifts. I ask my mom what she'd like to do and we decide to do simple 15$ stockings, I thought for each other. Then she calls last night to tell me that she told my brothers SO about the stocking idea. Um what, I was only planning on buying for her and my dad and now I have to buy for brother, SO, and her three kids? I need to fix this!

I would like to announce that I have resolved my Christmas rant! I called my brother today to invite them over Christmas morning for brunch and asked if they wanted to exchange gifts, he agreed that he'd rather not! Yeah pressure is gone, Christmas is saved! Good luck to everyone.

 

[minkydog]

I would like to announce that I have resolved my Christmas rant! I called my brother today to invite them over Christmas morning for brunch and asked if they wanted to exchange gifts, he agreed that he'd rather not! Yeah pressure is gone, Christmas is saved! Good luck to everyone.

Best decision my family ever made was to end Christmas gift exchanges between our siblings. There are 5 of us, with 5 spouses and a total of 8 kids. We live from one coast to the other, in 5 different states. It is exceedingly rare for us to see each other during the holidays, so drawing names just didn't make any sense. The last time we mailed gifts was about 22 years ago. I remember it clearly--I had just dropped off my shipping, to the tune of $140! I was so upset I had to go lie down. What I could have done with $140! So after Christmas I called my sibs and we struck a deal--no more gifts, except for the kids. And the kids age out after HS graduation. Instead of making gifts to each other (and face it, we're all grown ups who can go buy whatever we need) we give to various charities in honor of our sibs. Works for me!


I love doing it this way. We still call and keep up with each other all the time, but without the stress of the shopping, wrapping and shipping. I just wish my DSil would go for it.

 

[melissarose]

Christmas stresses me out to no end and I actually hate it. Everyone calls me a grinch but I have so many issues at Xmas, divorced parents, family scattered about, annoying retail job so I can never get time off, my mom always on my back about when I can come, friends birthdays, get togethers and other pressures and such and I just seriously hate Christmas. I just thought I could share on this Christmas rant thread lol

 

[momof1princess]

as far as i know, our Christmas dilemma is solved, and DMIL will have her church Christmas gathering on the 22nd, and my family will get together on the 23rd. i can't understand why everyone wanted to do the 23rd.

 

[Robbi]

I have asked the kids and dh for lists for months now, but nothing. I like to get shopping done well ahead of time and hate the crowds. They will give me lists a few days before.

Too bad, so sad. At that point, you get what you get and you don't pitch a fit.

Every year our eldest son never has anything he wants for Christmas. He's in his late 30s now and I guess he buys what he wants. Some of his gifts end up staying at our house- a globe bar, shirts, cologne, etc. So this year he's getting cash equivalent to what I'm spending on his brother and sister.
Son #2 is an entirely different story. He tells me in May or June what he wants or Christmas.

My Christmas rant is my job. I am a contract attorney. I've read a lot of DIS threads this year about having to pay for your own company party, or how big the bonus is.

-no Christmas bonus
-no Christmas party, paid for by us or otherwise
-we can have Christmas eve and day off, but we won't get paid for either, so if I want to earn any money Christmas week I need to be back at work on Wednesday, and maybe work Saturday to make up for missing 2 days


I am kind of surprised they even heat the building for us.

Do you work for the Scrooge and Marley law firm?
Sorry your bosses are inconsiderate.

Hugs to all of you who have lost family and friends. The holidays are hard. Remember the good times. At Christmas, we sit down and share stories about people we love who have passed away. We laugh and we cry and sometimes we laugh until we cry but they're there with us when we keep their memories alive.

 

[TheIncredibles!]

My rant is about people that feel the need to tell others all about the "reason for the season". The reason for the season is different for everybody and there's nothing wrong with that. You celebrate your way and let others celebrate their way and let it be.

Christmas for all in my life is about the kids and the excitement of Santa, being with people you love, having a great time together, exchanging gifts showing you care with some great gags in there too, having a great meal and just overall having a great family day. That's what it is for us so that is how we celebrate. Everybody else should celebrate in a way that is meaningful to them and stop worrying about others.

 

[SaraJayne]

I would like to announce that I have resolved my Christmas rant! I called my brother today to invite them over Christmas morning for brunch and asked if they wanted to exchange gifts, he agreed that he'd rather not! Yeah pressure is gone, Christmas is saved! Good luck to everyone.

That's great.

 

[joviroxx]

Ok, after 16 years, my DH has NEVER helped me pick out a gift for him mother. She is so hard to shop for. I don't think he even knows what we've ever given her. I asked him, this year, to PLEASE handle this gift or at least pick something out. Well, Im dont shopping. Guess which gift is still missing? Ugh.... I'm going to have to take care of it, aren't I?

 

[SaraJayne]

My rant is about people that feel the need to tell others all about the "reason for the season". The reason for the season is different for everybody and there's nothing wrong with that. You celebrate your way and let others celebrate their way and let it be.

Christmas for all in my life is about the kids and the excitement of Santa, being with people you love, having a great time together, exchanging gifts showing you care with some great gags in there too, having a great meal and just overall having a great family day. That's what it is for us so that is how we celebrate. Everybody else should celebrate in a way that is meaningful to them and stop worrying about others.

A rant I'd agree with.

 

[chiefmickeymouse]

I feel so petty after reading some of these other rants, but the only thing that has really bothered me so far this Christmas season:

Trying to find Christmas cards that actually say "Merry Christmas" on the front! I dug through an entire lot the other day that all said "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" !!

Yep! I go through this every year. Cards that say "Merry Christmas" become scarcer every year.

 

[jrmasm]

My rant is about people that feel the need to tell others all about the "reason for the season". The reason for the season is different for everybody and there's nothing wrong with that. You celebrate your way and let others celebrate their way and let it be.

Christmas for all in my life is about the kids and the excitement of Santa, being with people you love, having a great time together, exchanging gifts showing you care with some great gags in there too, having a great meal and just overall having a great family day. That's what it is for us so that is how we celebrate. Everybody else should celebrate in a way that is meaningful to them and stop worrying about others.

I could not agree more.

 

[Maggie Lizer]

Yep! I go through this every year. Cards that say "Merry Christmas" become scarcer every year.

Funny, but I was looking for some generic Seasons Greetings cards to send to my Jewish friends and all I could find was Merry Christmas ones. After we pulled down our tree and decorations, though, I found a box I had picked up last year so I am good.

 

[Jaya]

One Christmas back in the 50's, my mom had scrimped and saved all year to give us a good Christmas (and when I say "scrimped", I mean she had SCRIMPED). She and Dad went shopping one night and had bought some nice presents for everyone. When they came out of their last stop, they found out that someone had broken into the car and stolen everything. They scraped together a little more money and went for "quantity" rather than "quality". I didn't know the story until a few years later but I can't remember feeling stinted that year.....it seemed like the tree was heaped with presents. I didn't feel bad that the doll I got was a cheap one instead of the Madame Alexander doll that Mom had originally saved for, put on layaway and paid for all year. My sister didn't mourn that her dollhouse was cardboard instead of wood. The babies were just as happy with their stuffed animals as they would have been with Steiff bears. One year we had three five-year-olds in the house for Christmas Day. Between the three of them, they received enough stuff to stock a medium-sized Toys R Us. What did they play with all Christmas afternoon? Yep, a large cardboard box.....not the dolls, nor the games, nor the latest crazes.....just a cardboard box. It became a race-car that they could push each other up and down the hall. It was a playhouse to be decorated with marking pens. They took turns sitting in it while the other two beat on the sides. A fight ensued that night on who got to take the box home with them. I swore that the next year all they were getting was cardboard boxes.

 

[Andtototoo]

A Catholic here who works in the church

Sometimes the priests are just out of touch with reality, aren't they? Like the ones who say this is Advent and wait until Christmas Day to enjoy the season-WTH. Many of the things to enjoy will be gone Christmas afternoon!

A few years ago we switched denominations and churches. Although there are many aspects of that denomination I still miss, one huge benefit to our new denomination is that the pastor does not treat Advent as a penitential time of preparation, by which I mean all of the hymns were these funereal dirges and there were NO Christmas decorations allowed up until after the end of Advent 4.

It really made the Christmas season somber and sad and I thought it was truly dispiriting. I also thought it was a serious miscalculation since so many people try out churches during that season and would get turned off by the way this church acted, as one disgusted visitor wrote in the book, 'As if someone had died instead of someone being born.' Moreover, I thought it was spectacularly unhelpful for those people who suffer during the holidays.

The church we attend now really decorates the place and we sing at least 6 Christmas songs per service (usually only one or two lines each, but we sing them). It is fun and uplifting to attend those services.

 

[threecrazykids]

Oh, I have a brand new rant. I just plugged the tree in (usually have it off during the day) and the middle string of lights (right in the middle of the tree) does not work.

Are you freaking kidding me???? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME???

Screw it. The damn things can stay un-lit.

This sounds exactly like our stupid Christmas tree debacle. We put up our prelit tree we've had for about 8 years and it decided this year to have one portion of a strand light up...nothing else. Tried for about an hour to figure out what the problem was, to no avail at which my husband all but lost his mind and shoved it into the box and drug it directly to the curb.

We drag up our tree we had at our old house that is just a poor miserable tree that is NOT prelit.

Get all the lights on it, and we are good to go.

The very next night I'm sitting on the couch with my laptop admiring the sad-but-trying-so-hard Christmas tree and out goes the entire center of lights on the tree.

When my husband came home he walks in and takes a look at the tree and gives me that look of "is there something you need to tell me?" And all I could do was bust up laughing. I was laughing so hard I had tears flowing down my cheeks.

After about 20 mins we figured it out, and they are all lit now and I may hang on to this poor little sad tree just for the sake of the laughs.

 

[kawing123]

I have a rant,

I live about three hours from my parents and my other three siblings live out of state. They rarely visit. This xmas one of them is coming bringing a huge dog and they all thought they were going to converge on my house before even asking. Well, I have a no dog policy so they have been trying to come up with something. But we may just all meet for dinner during the holiday week at a restaurant. They make arrangements and have discussions assuming my house is an open door and when they think they have them all finalized then they call and tell me the plans, for which I never had any part of. So, my no dog policy holds, and xmas is not even here, the kids are not home from college and one has a bday two weeks after and I get a call demanding to tell them my plans for the bday. When I say xmas is not even here, there not home from school, I have not even thought about it and I have not intention of thinking about it. My point is if you want to invite yourself over to someones house for a bday party they may never have, and insist you need to know now. Call the bday person up, take them out and buy them a cake. I am not making plans a month away for a adult bday that will prob be so simple. From the same people who never through me a party nor gave me extravagant gifts ever. We want to cut back in xmas gift giving to a really nice tea or coffee cup and a fairly moderate amount of cash as the kids get bigger. You think it was cruelty by their reaction (grandparents) yet I never get anything more than a moderate monetary gift as if they have this golden double standard set mind of thinking. Just so annoying that we all inclucing the kids have to listen to their illogical demanding way of presenting reality in our own house

 

[Misty89]

i am much more scroogey ( is that a word?) this year then ever before. I really do not like this time of year - ever.
I want to tell everyone i am not participating this year. i am sick an tired of my " obligations" to visit and spend time with my family - whom i have nothing in common with, sick of listening to complaining about so-n-so, sick of it all. i want so badly to tell them all off and stay home alone with my Husband and children and grandchild.
i am definately going to travel on Christmas when i dont "have" to atttend the festivites.