I am having some trouble Christmassing. Which is not surprising, given the state of Everything, and really I am doing better than I did in 2016. But: I am having trouble. I have a to-do list that gets longer every day. I feel as if I might genuinely not be ready in time, and also that I am highly likely to feel regret that I didn’t enjoy this last holiday season enough before it was bleak, bleak, BLEAK late January, which is scheduled to last for many years. I have not started the Christmas cards. I have not been listening to Christmas music. I have not brought down the Christmas dishes, or put up any decorations except for the tree, which I was highly motivated to get up and decorated while the twins were home for Thanksgiving. I have bought very few presents. I am getting that quiet, dazed panicky feeling I get when I seem to Simply Not Be Doing something that needs to be done.
I am attempting to Work on Christmas Things at least a little each day: even if I cross a very minor and unimportant item off the to-do list, it is still OFF THE TO-DO LIST, which can lessen the oppression and also motivate further action. Today I brought out the pine-scented things: hand soap, dish soap, candle, and, this year, seasonal Dawn Power Wash:
I am a huge sucker for anything (1) Limited Edition and (2) seasonal pine. This particular example did make me feel like a housewife in a commercial, but there it is. I spritzed my counters with it, and I spritzed the cooking pan with it, and I felt something akin to Christmas joy. It is not that anything can make housecleaning fun—but there was that feeling that the Christmas season can take ordinary things and make them a little sparkly and special. …No, I know how this sounds.
Today I also bought a gift for my pelvic-floor therapist, which is a weird new gifting category this year. I am not saying I felt I MUST buy her something: I think it would be 100% okay to give her a gift card, or literally nothing. But this is one of the low-pressure-just-fun parts of Christmas I enjoy, which is one of the reasons I picked this as today’s task: as a way to stall on the higher-pressure tasks. There is an ongoing joke in therapy about blueberries, and I will tell you about it another time, but anyway I bought her some blueberry earrings that if I am lucky will be here by Christmas:
(image from etsy.com)
They are coming from BULGARIA. And when I put them in my Etsy cart along with several other options to consider, a few hours later I got an email offering me free shipping, which took like $10 off. I will give the physical therapist the earrings PLUS a gift card, because I really think the absolute best gift for most people who provide a service (housecleaners, teachers, mail carriers, hair stylists) is MONEY, and in this case the earrings are less about her gift and more about me having fun with her gift. AND: in this case, this is a $5 joke, and I spent $20 because those were The Best Blueberry Earrings and I am currently in the exceedingly fortunate position of being able to spend $20 on a $5 joke in the hopes that the item is not ONLY a joke.
I am also trying to do a few NON-Christmas Tasks each day. Putting in a load of laundry. Wiping down the counters with the Christmas Joy. Figuring out a chewable vitamin for my child with Crohn’s disease who finally mentioned that vitamins are being skipped because swallowing big pills is causing gagging/barfing. Returning the Old Navy stretch pants and the Amazon stretch jeans that were both disasters. Setting up a small regular monthly contribution to NPR: I aimed for approximately the amount I used to spend to subscribe to The Washington Post.
I have not taken any action on the holiday outfit I need for Paul’s office party in a few days; that is just going to have to be accomplished on the fly. Especially after I missed the deadline for ordering the sequin pants, I was extremely reassured by commenter Heather, who said, with what immediately hit my brain with the clarion ring of Truth: “For parties, waist-up clothing is more important than waist-down. If you are wearing a white blouse with fun pants…most people just see a white blouse.” Now, maybe sequin pants would have been an exception. But this makes me feel free to wear normal dark jeans with my sleeveless sequin top and fancy cardigan, and I’ll add a matte-gold-flowers quiet-statement necklace and some dangly earrings and a big cocktail ring, and I will be fancy enough for a brewery.
Meanwhile I have to ride the exercise bike for at least 30 minutes. And I have to do my pelvic-floor therapy exercises. And I have to clean the bathroom. And I have to go to work. And I have to make dinner. And I have to run errands and do the grocery shopping. And each day that goes by is another day I might have missed a shipping deadline. I am doubling up on things: I have to ride the exercise bike for 30 minutes to prepare for knee surgery; but fortunately I got a recumbent bicycle so I can use that same time to catch up on my phone games. I know my phone games are unimportant in the universal scheme of things, but they are important to me, and I would feel sad and dismal to lose my streaks and so forth.
I was writing this last night when Paul texted from upstairs, where he had gone to lie down, to say that he had a fever. Twenty minutes later he stood in front of me, telling me a story about the instructions for the covid test, a story that ENDED with the news that his test was positive. STANDING IN FRONT OF ME TELLING A LONG STORY ABOUT THE INSTRUCTIONS. SHOO, SHOO, SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I went briskly to our room and removed the things that I’ll need. William also tested positive; he said he would have thought he just had a mild cold. Henry and I are so far negative. I will not go to work, and will test again today. We will miss the holiday party I failed to buy the sequined pants for. I hope this addendum won’t redirect the entire conversation to covid: I was hoping to hear more about other people maybe having trouble Christmassing, too, and about how you’re coping and what you’ve managed to do so far.
PAUL.
Yes, yes. Extreme trouble Christmassing. But we have a snow day today so I hope to rally the troops into decorating with some snow day energy. Maybe today will be perfect for making cookies as well. I have ordered next to nothing giftwise which is my biggest panic right now. Not quite sure how to deal with not knowing what to buy for everyone on the list…
WOW that took a turn! I’m sorry about all the latter entry part but about the Christmassing – me too. I did just order holiday cards, actually buoyed by your question about labeling cards. I’m so resentful of money that I spend on cards, resentful of the whole thing, actually. My husband, who I think in almost every single way is super great, is always saying how people don’t send cards as much as they used to and I think, YOU don’t send cards and you never have! And PS you don’t really buy gifts either. For me, it’s also that it seems to have come up so quickly, I think because Thanksgiving was so late. We have just three weeks back at school and every mother effing NIGHT is filled with something, it’s exhausting. I did order cards and I have bought many gifts, though not all of them. I got my Angel Tree gifts delivered last night and I am moving on to my family. I also work on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve and I’m kind of dreading that already too. Maybe tonight I will buy some Pine Scented Something and that will help!
My husband is– unusually– Very Into Christmassing this year, which I both appreciate and can’t deal with from a timing standpoint. Appreciate, because it means he’s trying to carry us into a mood and I would like to be in that mood. But also can’t deal with because while he has the time, I don’t and neither does our daughter this week.
I have too many deadlines and some weird work crises popping up. Compounded by the fact that at the moment, I have four managers, all of whom are trying to get things locked down by December 17th. All of whom want to have meetings, one-off conversations, please-do-nows, and oh-that’s-due-tomorrows. No single ask is unreasonable, but it’s a lot to stay on top of.
And my 8-year-old’s teachers aren’t coordinating with each other on homework with the result that this week’s homework load included assignments from her lit, math, and theme teachers. Yesterday, Lit sent home things due Friday: a 15-page spelling activities packet, a 3-page reading/writing assignment, and a list of spelling words for a Friday test. Math sent home 8 pages of worksheets due next week, about half are word problems which triple the time to complete– So Much Kid Hates This being voiced when it’s word problems. Theme sent home a 2-pager due Friday, which is the capstone for a project the kids have been working on for the last month.
I have to admit to feeling like a jerk every time my husband floats hopeful decorating-the-tree thoughts and I have to shoot them down with lasers. But between work meetings, getting work actually done, and pushing my kid to get the homework done, she and I don’t have time before this weekend at the earliest.
I am going to avoid the addendum (other than to say oh nooooo) and say that I had no idea there was holiday scented Dawn. And here I was in the grocery store yesterday and I totally skipped the aisle. Then again, this could be a “not in Canada” situation. I put holiday scented soaps in all the bathrooms and to me, getting a little whiff of the clove/ cinnamon/ peppermint/ whatever after washing my hands always propels me into Fresh Holiday Spirit. All that from hand soap! Who knew?
I am so sorry about the Covid ick. Which is leading me to throw a test in my bedroom where my husband is ailing with a Man Cold.
I am attacking this holiday as a task-master. I am doing the things. Buying the gifts for kids. Buying for the cleaners and garbage/recycling crew, writing cards, installing cash. But there is no joy. It’s just…task after task. Tree will be up this weekend, maybe.
I hope to break free of this gloom soon, but it isn’t likely.
So much trouble Christmassing…
We decided to do a card after much dithering and we took pictures and wrote the text but then the project stalled and they are still not ordered.
Wife and son want to hear Christmas music. I don’t mind, but I’m not really enjoying it as much as usual, so on the 14-hour trip home from Thanksgiving at mother-in-law’s we listened to it about 2/3 of the time and when it was my turn I put on podcasts.
No decoration. I might just let younger child do it when they get home from school. I did have the passing thought “maybe we should get a wreath” yesterday and wife was encouraging.
Hardly any presents bought, though I am mailing the few we bought over T-giving weekend today. My niece is the recipient of all of them. She’s 11 and would be the most disappointed in late gifts, I think.
I’m sorry covid has breached the perimeter. Such a bummer.
I had a mastectomy last week, so I am supposed to be resting, and I am resting, but I still feel guilty about not doing more of the small things I could be doing. I knew it was coming, so I spent the six weeks prior going crazy with Christmas shopping and wrapping, and mega insanely stocking the pantry, and deep cleaning the house, but that somehow all feels like it wasn’t enough, or wasn’t what I should have been doing. Now Christmas is less than three weeks away and everything feels so wrong and hard.
I’m sorry Maeby – I am undergoing chemo right now so I completely understand how everything feels wrong and hard. Good for you for getting so much done ahead of time. And you know all those people who say “let me know how I can help?” – this is how they can help – give them any random Christmas errands you may have forgotten about. I have found this very helpful.
Wishing you both all the best, Maeby and MelisC <3
I feel you on the Christmassing struggles. We are going to a Christmas light parade on Saturday in a cute historical city, so maybe that will kick us into gear. I am still undecided about Christmas cards. Last year I didn’t get around to it and then felt bad, BUT we made cute Valentine picture cards and sent them out instead. It was silly and fun and and easy to throw together. Maybe I’ll do that again.
What I need are some ideas for stocking stuffers. In my family, we have 9 kids stockings and 8 adult stockings to fill. We all buy multiple things for everyone and the stockings always get filled but, it’s hard to get creative sometimes. Two years ago I gave every kid a kazoo and regretted it, but the kids loved it.
Yesssss the stocking stuffers!! I think in previous years I’ve done more recreational shopping, so I’ve happened upon a fair number of little things for stockings, but this year I have, like, candy, and that’s it. And I don’t even know where to start. I don’t want to buy things just to buy things, but I want SOMETHING in the stockings besides candy, and they already have a million gloves and socks.
Do you know Anne Helen Peterson’s substack and podcast, Culture Study? I think you’d love her work generally but the reason I’m specifically recommending it here is that she also does a Tuesday / Friday conversation just for subscribers and the most recent one was “gift concierge.” It’s just a lot of smart, interesting, mostly women-identified people who post what they’re having trouble with and others recommending cool things. I hate buying junk just for the sake of it and was also having trouble Christmassing for that and other reasons, but that thread gave me my first real injection of Maybe Christmas Could be Fun for this season.
If you do online grocery shopping and your grocery platform enables it: select/search International Foods, sort by price, and find The Interesting Stuff. I do an advent present calendar ($60 is my budget for 25 Tiny Gifts in total) and this is one of my tricks for interesting things that also make a little extra budget wiggle room for some of the other presents to be a bit more expensive; this year: an individual packet of ketchup potato sticks for 75 cents! Watermelon-chili lollipops! really nice looking little packet of cookies! Cassava chips! (I allllmost bought the pumpkin soup mix but did not.)
Used copies of books loved in childhood, or movies not on “their” streaming services: also a winner among my people. Nice pens, sometimes? Sample tubes of interestingly-flavored toothpaste? Mini puzzles? [there are these 150 piece puzzles that end up the size of a postcard and they are challenging but fun; they are more challenging if they do not have Areas of Reasonably Distinct Color, incidentally, so do not get the Starry Night one…] Little lego sets? Microwaveable heat packs you can put in your pockets? Themed spoons?
Outside gloves and socks, there are Umbrellas. (or maybe it is just us who lose/break an umbrella about every other year?) Also winter hats, depending (rate of loss of winter hats: 1 per 8 years or so around here) and scarves (… not actually sure on this; rate of scarf gifting exceeds rate of loss, anyway).
BUT ALSO I normally enjoy the hunt, for basically 25 stocking stuffers, way more, and while Finding The Things has been a distraction sometimes from general malaise and stress, it is… different… this year. (although also there are a number of personal complicating circumstances/griefs and additional logistical messes thrown on top of things; fortunately not covid, however.)
And we have done zero decorating. (but also, yes, as someone else pointed out, Thanksgiving was late this year, so there is that) But also spouse has upcoming travel for a funeral. It’s just gonna be a weird year, and that’s maybe okay? And sometimes we can celebrate the good things even when the world is in flames; we have demonstrated this before; so probably it will be able to happen again? (esp. if we don’t let Specific Malicious Politicians hijack our amygdala too much, which is *very tricky* when their actions will likely have consequences for us, but still, somehow, maybe…?)
Anyway. Chapstick? Beef jerky? Cookie butter? Nuts? Good luck!
So far in the stocking stuffer category for things I’m buying, someone recommended this first-aid kit — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0747N5KDM?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title — as pretty good, which I decided to take as adequate for my kid who as an older teenager is now backpacking without adults involved and probably has a first aid kit consisting of 2 bandaids, so this has to be an improvement over that.
I’d also have gotten a headlamp, but he already has one.
I also bought said kid a hat (the tobaggan style that has flaps to cover the ears) with the branding the college he’ll be attending in a year. Oh! And a 3-pack of nail clippers, because my goodness can that kid not keep track of nail clippers.
I got a little kid I shop for this book light — https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B2J9D4PZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1 — which I’m a bit skeptical of, but it was requested. I have a similar light and don’t like it for reading but do use it when walking the dog at night draped around my neck in lieu of a headlamp. Could be a stocking stuffer!
I was planning to get seat belt cutters/window breakers for adults. For kids, I got a big pack of vinyl stickers for water bottles and laptops and will divide them up so everybody gets some. For my teenage niece, I was thinking of a personal safety alarm.
My dad got us the seat belt cutters/window breakers one year and wrapped them from “Safety Santa!” It was such a big hit that now “Safety Santa” gets us gifts every year! One year it was a crowbar to bust out my second story window in case of a fire lol. Another year a little emergency tire pump. It’s become one of the unexpected joyful traditions of Christmas!
We’re doing Adagio tea samples for 75¢, fancy sparkly waters and hop waters, honey sticks, the good pancake mix…
Welp at least maybe COVID will be out of your house by Christmas? Small victories.
It all just snuck up on me this year. I was so focused on the thing that happened in early November that I forgot about all the rest of it. I looked at the (pumpkin and fall leaves) wreath on my front door last night and thought, oh yeah, I need to decorate for Christmas. Oops. I finished my shopping yesterday, now just need to make sure it all arrives and get it wrapped. And put up the tree and the wreath and the decorations and the stockings, and I as I type this I realize I have no stocking stuffers so I guess I’m not finished shopping after all. Oops.
We are having trouble over here Christmasing. Mainly because one by one we are falling to the flu. Child 3 fell the day after thanksgiving. Child 1 fell two days later. Yesterday me and Child 2 fell. My husband has everyone locked in their rooms and is nervously dropping off tea and water and saltines.
We hosted thanksgiving for 30 people and have no christmas decorations, advent calendar. NOTHING. It’s terrible. We leave for my in laws on the 20th and I’m starting to feel like what is the point of decorating but everyone says that makes me a monster. We buy a real tree (have no fake back up) so how is this even going to work?
Husband keeps saying he will go down and get stockings from the basement but hasn’t and how is St. Nick going to deliver? UGH
ALSO PAUL. YOU. ARE. KILLING. US. Tell your darn story by text. Pfffft.
My brother is taking his kids to his in-laws, and so if we want to see them it has to be the 28th or 29th, and I am worried that it will be hard to make Christmas day feel special without cousins.
My ten year old still believes in Santa. I suspect that she doesn’t really, but she wants to pretend. And her Christmas list is full of clothes and doll furniture for her toy unicorn, which it feels like she is going to grow out of in 5 seconds. Or should I be worried that she hasn’t already? I think she is having a little bit of trouble at school with friends who aren’t into unicorns anymore. So thinking about gifts has this weird melancholy end of the little kid era feeling. My 12 year old is just going to be disappointed no matter what I do, and I love and accept that about her at this point, but it isn’t exactly motivating.
We are the people whose income hasn’t kept up with inflation, we had to take out a bunch of loans this last summer after our septic tank went out, I have a new boss and a new direct report and a new administration coming in that wants to destroy my line of work in particular and other things that make it hard to come home at the end of the day excited to decorate.
So yeah…still waiting for the Christmas spirit to hit here.
I have been feeling so far behind on Christmas! Your timing is perfect, as always. It’s not just general malaise, I also caught a bad cold over Thanksgiving and have been sitting around not feeling like doing anything.
We are an Advent family, and my daughter made us put our Advent things out while she was home over Thanksgiving, so that’s done. I doubt I would have done it otherwise. I have bought presents for extended family but not wrapped or sent them. I finished buying presents for the kids yesterday. Still not done for my husband. No stocking stuffers. My daughter wants to design our Christmas card, but she’s not done with final exams yet, so that task isn’t even remotely close. (I did manage to get a family photo to include.)
Also… I lost my job in the spring and have had no luck finding anything yet, and I have a job interview this morning! I’d be a lot more excited if I didn’t have this cold, lol.
p.s. your advice on puzzles was very helpful! I bought two of those Eurographics puzzles for different people on my list. Someone else suggested Liberty puzzles and those also look really nice!
I just started using the Finch app and it is cheering me greatly. It is kind of like a Tamagotchi (except your virtual pet can never die), and you earn points for doing self-care things, which you can then use to buy things for your pet and send him/her on adventures. I’ve also used the app to set small achievable goals (“drops in the bucket”), to help me through the Christmassing and all of the ugggghhh. https://finchcare.com/
PS I love the blueberry earrings! You always find such cute things to gift!
We are dealing with two life threatening illnesses in our family, one from each side, that arrived in the same week, so I just have no emotional room for Christmas. I did panic order everyone’s gifts that very week so at minimum there would be presents. It sure cut out my normal seasonal waffling. But there are no decorations up, and Christmas music is making me feel stabby. I think this is a year that we just get by with the barest of bare minimums. It’s all I can do.
I’m so, so sorry. Good on you for getting gifts, but oof. I’m so sorry.
Thankfully, our Christmas will be small and relaxed. I’ve had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit for several years. Several loved ones have passed away, and things just aren’t the same without them. I know a lot of people deal with holiday sadness, and we’ve dealt with it by simplifying. Just a few decorations and presents are enough.
Christmas-ing is very hard work this year. Whatever I get done is going to have to be Good Enough™️.
I’ve read that some gummy vitamins don’t have the full amount of vitamins in them. However there is a brand of daily multivitamin pill that is smaller and has you take 2 per day. I’ve seen it everywhere but can’t think of the name.
Eh, never mind. It’s Centrum for women 50+. There’s also a women’s petite pill but I’m not sure that’s going to be acceptable. Hopefully there’s a chewable that will do the job. I’d reach for that ahead of a pill splitter.
I have not been Christmasing well at all. I really need to decide on gifts before it is too late. I’m usually done shopping by now. I just don’t want to this year. *toddler foot stomp here*
I’m working on cards now, but having trouble figuring out what to say. I don’t feel like “wishing you peace and joy in the new year” or something similar is.. like… reasonable. What are we putting on cards that is pleasant enough for fun xmas photo cards but also cognizant of These Particular Non-Cheery Times??
I went with ‘Wishing you peace and hope in 2025’. I didn’t feel like wishing anyone joy because I don’t feel much joy. And I certainly do want peace. And I want to get to a place where I have hope. We’ll see.
Oh that is pretty good. I can imagine writing that.
I think this is what is stopping me, too—particularly because I know there are some on my cards list who haven’t even processed what has happened, and would be utterly mystified by the message I’d like to write.
Oh lordy. You are not alone. I write about greeting cards / relationships and composed this year’s list of suggestions the day after the election, while feeling battered.
At this point in our time/malaise, I propose “Let us be the first to wish you a happy New Year!”
Other ideas are:
May you and yours enjoy all the warmth and light the season brings.
May your home be filled with joy & light.
Wishing you and yours all the light of the season.
Good luck, Swistle.
Ours say “We wish you love, peace, and resilience.”
As soon as I saw the Dawn I walked into the kitchen and got out the Mrs Meyers pine dish soap I bought like three weeks ago, so thank you for that. You know what (part of) the problem is? Thanksgiving was SO LATE this year we didn’t have time to regroup.
I am so far behind on Christmassing that I have had to start putting it on my calendar as scheduled to do list items. Tomorrow I am going to the shops to try to knock out as many other people presents as possible. My mom and my sister and the neighbors and such like that. I have some presents but I don’t have ENOUGH presents and there are SO many people.
I love those blueberry earrings and I hope she loves them.
If I didn’t have family who travels for it, I would do Canadian Thanksgiving in October and skip American Thanksgiving completely. Poorly timed and ESPECIALLY poorly timed this year.
The whole not having a job thing is making Christmassing really hard this year; that’s for sure. But also, I completely resent having to buy anything non-Christmas related during the month of December (I’ve always felt this way though to be honest). WHY should we run out of toilet paper/toothpaste/face cream, etc. in December?
My kids coach decided to have a secret Santa. Coach told the kids but not the adults on Sunday (kids are 10, not exactly reliable). Come to find out yesterday that the secret Santa Party is this Sunday! And each kid filled out a like/dislike form, making this harder. I am cursing this coach bc who does he think will buy the gift and drive the could to the party?
I’m somewhat in denial about the politics but was feeling pretty overwhelmed about christmasing.
I sat down today and laid everything out on one page of my notebook of organization.
I also wrapped a couple of gifts (I usually bulk wrap on the 23rd) but the act of wrapping was helpful and now I feel ahead instead of behind.
I also made a target order and decided that I was done with online orders so literally anything else that will be purchased will be procured locally, even if at a big box store, I just don’t need any shipping timing anxiety.
Good grief, Paul (the talking!).
And I love those earrings. They are charming.
Christmassing … I am doing OK but we don’t do too much (don’t, for example, send many if any cards. I think this is a no card year.). But we do wrangle the 3 grandkids (my one and my sibling’s 2) and get them to create a Shutterfly calendar for their grandmother and this is always a lot harder than you’d think, and we haven’t even gotten started this year.
I am just not feeling Christmassy AT ALL this year. I haven’t decorated yet; the boxes have all been fetched from the storage locker, but they have been sitting, unopened, staring at me for a week. I have some presents, but not even close to all presents. I have zero stocking stuffers and also zero ideas for stocking stuffers. I have to mail gifts to my mom but Canada Post is on strike and I’m not willing to spend a month’s rent on Fedex or UPS. Work is beyond stressful right now and I’m just thoroughly MEH about the whole thing this year. I need to jolly myself up for my kids who are depending on me to Have A Holiday (because their dad’s house is not a fun place right now) and just…uhhhhggggghhhh.
When I realized that Thanksgiving was late this year, I made a plan to start getting the Christmas stuff up in early November, especially the outside lights. All our Christmas stuff is in the basement and hauling it up the stairs annoys me. But! if I started early, then I could bring up a box or 2 of just the stuff I wanted to work on and maybe it wouldn’t be so annoying. And then November rolled around and I got a really bad case of the I Don’t Wannas combined with tweaking my knee so that going up and down stairs was difficult.
While I was still stuck in Don’t Wanna, my knee was feeling much better by Thanksgiving week so I planned to get the tree up then so my kid back from college could help decorate it. Did not happen. The tree is still in the basement.
I’m really angry at myself for not getting the outside lights up. One of my favorite things about this holiday season is the Christmas lights, even my own, and I’m sad that our house doesn’t have lights. I’m hoping to get them up this weekend because I know it will make me feel a little more Christmassy.
I’m also having a difficult time getting the regular stuff done too. Dusting is my least favorite chore so, of course, I need to dust anywhere I want to put Christmas decorations. I’m using the “get one thing done” and “drops in the bucket” method of motivation/doing things. It’s helping.
Having sickness in the house is bad; covid, flu, whatever.
I’m in Canada where the postal strike has messed up my “sending cards to people in my online group, who are around the world”. They should’ve been in the mail on Dec 1. But they’re on my crafting table, still.
But the tree is up, and the cheery winter birch trees have tinsel on them. And I’ve sent each of my adult kids their monetary gifts – I gave up buying and mailing stuff about 10 years ago. I sometimes say what I’d like them to get with the money, otherwise it’s up to them (Need it to make rent? Knock yourself out). We haven’t seen any of them at Christmas for five years, and won’t be this year, either – they are just too far away.
I’ve just been diagnosed with a heart problem, so I’m not supposed to be eating delicious holiday treats this year, but I feel that I may as well wait to deprive myself until January, when everything will be so much worse anyway.
Those blueberry earrings are adorable! Hope they make it on time!
Thanks for the opportunity to vent. Its a super busy time at work, which requires evening and weekend work. I’m stressed and unmotivated to do the Xmas shopping and preparations. We’re heading to my Dad’s house for our usual trip for the holidays. Its the home where I grew up. Its extra emotional this time since Dad is moving soon and it’s our last year of the tradition of Xmas there.
He couldn’t have texted with the result? Anyway.
I too, am having trouble Christmassing. I had no trouble with Thanksgiving, and I was cheerily making Christmas plans like I would be on top of things. But now it’s Dec 5th and. . . Blah. I do have half my holiday cards. I did get holiday themed stamps today to go with them. I did put out the Christmas placemats. But I did not get the tree as planned and we’re going out of town this weekend. And I haven’t started addressing the cards. BUT – I already a present for BOTH my husband’s birthday AND Christmas! Usually I feel on top of things if I enter December with one of those. This is the first time in 19 years I have started the month with both. That is the biggest stressor every year, so I count that for my motivation dropping elsewhere. You are definitely not alone. I hope you remain COVID free. I know it’s moot now, but I thought your holiday outfit for a brewery sounded solid. Chalk it up for next year.
P.S. – Those blueberry earrings ARE darling!
I hope your family gets well soon. My life is full without dealing with holidays. I enjoy simple everyday things, so celebrating a season is more approachable for me than a particular holiday. There are too many expectations and little joy if I try to “make all the magic” happen. I let my kids prioritize how we celebrate the yuletide season each December. They wanted to see A Christmas Carol musical and set up decorations right after Thanksgiving. I’ll order and send holiday cards at some point only because I love receiving them, but I don’t really care if they arrive after Christmas. (We have a distant relative who sends us a Happy Chinese New Year card every January and I love it and look forward to receiving it. We don’t celebrate Chinese New Year.) I still need to order several presents, but have learned how to streamline them–Netflix renewal for my parents, gift cards for kids’ teachers, restaurant gift card for sister (I’ll ask for her favorites), homemade granola and caramel popcorn for people we’ll see in person, and have my kids write wish lists that I coordinate with my parents. My husband buys himself stuff all the time on Amazon, so I don’t feel the need to get him anything in particular. I don’t enjoy the pressure of shopping for presents and I’m tired of the consumerism expectation. We won’t get through all the holiday books and puzzles and that’s okay; we’ll stick with our favorites. Every year at some point in early to mid-December I get to a point where I just wish it were January already and my life is back to normal.
Sorry about the Covid, tell them radical rest!
I think I went in the opposite direction- my election anxiety/existential terror has taken the form of AGGRESSIVELY overprelaring for Christmas.
I do know that the state of things is not helping with feeling cheery, but I also believe that the late Thanksgiving and abrupt transition to December has caused whiplash. I mentioned to my sister the other day that my brain was having trouble making the switch, that I was looking at a Santa on a shelf as I sat on the couch, and my brain seemed to think it was weird that there would be a Santa up there in early fall. Remember your do one little thing trick and just keep plugging along. And then tell yourself every day. “I’m doing my best.”
I bought my Christmas cards in early November and I was so pleased with myself, since usually I wait until the last minute and the stores are all sold out of the good ones and I have to make do with whatever I find, but they’ve sat, unopened, on my kitchen island since then. I have a major certification exam coming up on Monday, so I’ve been aggressively not thinking about Christmas until that’s over and I no longer have to study, but as a result, I haven’t done *anything* to prepare and it’s all going to hit me on Tuesday.
I feel like I am ahead of the game on Christmas, and the reason is that buying gifts, making lists, etc. is something I can control, whereas the rest of the world is completely out of my control. Black Friday being the Entire Week Before Thanksgiving helped quite a bit with that. It will be a strange holiday, as it will be the first after losing two of my sisters (one in July and the other in October). My mantra has been “there is no right way to do things, just the way that feels best to each person” so I am trying to go with the flow.
I’m having a baby around December 27 (!!!) so had hoped to get Christmas gifts done by Thanksgiving to have time to get baby stuff done in December and be ready if he came early. But then we all got sick (stomach virus….soooooo bad) the week of Thanksgiving so presents were pushed to the back burner and now I’ve overthought this and it’s been dragging on since mid-November and still not done. Now I feel ready to skip over many Christmas things in lieu of newborn things so some usual seasonal festivities/activities aren’t making the cut this year.
PAUL! I hope the covid spread does not. And for all the rest of y’all struggling with illnesses of all kinds right now: I hope they all resolve in the best way with minimal side effects. (Altruan dot com for tests, $.75 each or something. From germany. Zero affiliation on my part)
My younger got himself strep on thanksgiving. We mask indoors without fail (as far as I know). Where did you get this kid? He is on day 7 of abx though and the rest of us are fine.
I mentioned in an earlier post I do not like Christmas. Still true. Shopping is done though. Or could be if I would stop buying things. A lot are: new sheets and duvet covers! Bras! Socks! One kid wanted an electric toothbrush. Done.
Otherwise still hate it. Mostly I started hating it when I had children and somehow I now am solely responsible for husband, two children, and grandparents. And then I get a robe (SNL SKIT I also hate robes) or harassed for a list. DID YOU GIVE ME A LIST? No. I found appropriate gifts through the year with zero work from you. Make it stop. And then the santa business on top of it where an FAKE man gets to take credit for even more of my work? Asaahhhhhhh
So that’s how I feel about that.
For those of you who DO like it, I hope it’s lovely and chrsitmasy. I did that with and without the double s and both look wrong.