Am I weird?

[Isidour]

I know that Christmass is almost here (how much is left, one month?) and with all those xmass stuff on the stores, tv, and everywhere many wish to time pass away faster, so they can be opening the presents under the tree.

I would be someone of those persons, but this year I don´t feel in a xmass moode...I don´t even wish or imagine any present...

am I weird?

[Escapay]

Yes, and we love you just the same.

I feel the same way sometimes, not in the holiday season spirit and all. It comes and goes, and usually it's easier to fake it than try and genuinely get in a Christmas mood.

Last year we went away for Christmas, for the second time in my life. The first was 1994 for a big family reunion that was very Christmasy (and included a trip to Disneyland, sweet!), but this one (2005) we went to Las Vegas, which was rather unsettling for me. On Christmas Day, instead of a big party with the four families in New Jersey, we were at a big swanky buffet at the Hilton. Didn't feel like Christmas until about the late afternoon or so, when we were at a party to see our mom's college friends and their families. And even that took some time to feel like Christmas.

So it's perfectly weird to not feel in the Christmas groove. Just fake it until you do. After all, it doesn't have to be about the presents. It can be about walking around a mall, content that you're done with your shopping, and looking at all the poor saps rushing all over, trying to find that one gift, or just trying to find anything within a reasonable budget.

I recommend reading John Grisham's Skipping Christmas. It helps immensely. Just don't watch the movie version until you have read the book. It turns a serious story into a humorous one, and while I enjoyed it, I felt let down by it, as if it were a mockery of the book instead of a good adaptation of it.

Escapay

[JiminyCrick91]

Well, it is my professional opinion that you are suffering from Charlie Brownitis. Go and watch A Charlie Brown Christmas four times and call me in the morning.

[Escapay]

Charlie Brown: I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel. I just don't understand Christmas, I guess. I like getting presents, and sending Christmas cards, and decorating the trees and all that, but I'm still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed.

Linus Van Pelt: Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem. Maybe Lucy's right. Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you're the Charlie Browniest!

Escapay

[RachelSmachel]

I know how you feel. When I was little Christmas was probably my favourite time of the year, it always felt like I was waiting for it. Every year we would travel down to Brisbane to stay with my Grandma. I would see my relations, who I rarely ever see, there was the big Brisbane stores to shop in, wonderful baking by my Grandma. I would watch every Christmas special on her big TV (in these days she had a much bigger TV then we did so it was made that little bit extra special). It just was this wondrous, magic time for me.

On Christmas Eve we would have dinner at my Auntie and Uncles house with their family. I remember that I could barely sleep on Christmas Eve because I was just so excited. My Christmas Day routine was as follow: 1. Opening my presents, 2. Breakfast, 3. Church, 4. Family present opening, 5. Going over to my Auntie's mother's house for Christmas lunch, 6. Playing with my "not-cousin-Kirsten", 7. Eating a tonne of my Auntie's special sausage rolls so I didn't have room for lunch but just enough room for her sister's famous Christmas pudding, 8. Back home to spend an afternoon playing with my new things, 9. Go to bed a happy little girl.

Then things started to change. The Christmas Eve dinners stopped happening. After a while the Christmas Day lunches stopped too. In the last few years we passed up church too because my Grandma was too frail to make it. I was older now and the Christmas magic seemed like it was slipping away.

Last year my Grandma passed away and my family experienced it's very first Christmas at home. My Dad was the only one who had a Christmas outside of "Going to Grandmas". It was nice, but it just wasn't the same.

So I can totally get what you're saying. I hope we can get back into the spirit very soon.

[Caballero Girl]

You're not wierd at all, Isidour. I understand exactly where you, and RachelSmachel, are coming from. As a kid, I adored Christmas. It was easily my favourite day of the year, and I would count down very eagerly all through advent, growing all the more excited as the number of opened doors on my Advent Calender grew.

Nowadays, I find that my enthusiasm has waned. I first noticed this in the Xmas of 99, but I put it down to the fact that everyone was far more excited about the new millennium than they were Christmas that year, and expected things to be back to normal in 2000, but again, I had trouble rousing myself up to the 'Christmas Spirit' which came so naturally as a child. Over the various Christmases which have come and gone since, I've tried to make myself feel that same excitement again, but no matter how hard I try, I just can't do it. The magic just seems to be gone.

Unlike RachelSmachel, my own circumstances, on the whole, have remained much the same. We've always lived fairly far away from our extended family and other than my grandparents, who both passed away quite recently, I'm used to only really seeing them at family occasions such as weddings and funerals. I spend Xmas with my nuclear family, and our routine hasn't really changed over the years. I'm beginning to accept that this lack of festive spirit may just be an inevitable part of getting older (I'm only 21, but still). Perhaps if I stop fighting it, it'll be a lot easier to deal with.

Part of it, in my case, may be medical. I suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder, which in turn can cause me to experience bouts of concurrent despression, during which I find it hard to feel terribly excited about anything. It's just that everyone else around me seems to be complaining about the same thing. None of my friends seem to care that much about Christmas, and view all the celebrations as just going through the motions. My parents do still claim to get excited, but even then I wonder if it's just a routine with them. My dad tells me that losing that feeling of Xmas magic is an inevitable aspect of outgrowing Father Christmas/Santa Claus, but I'm not sure if I really agree, given that I stopped believing in that guy long before I started to feel this way.

There are certain elements which I still love about the season. The lights, the decorations and a good selection of the music. And the Raymond Briggs cartoons which are always very popular in the UK this time of year. I'm going to focus my attentions upon them this year, but my devotion to Christmas itself will probably be very minimal.

I hope things will improve for both you and RachelSmachel though.

[PixarFan2006]

You are not weird. A lot of people have this problem around this time of year. My best advice would be to stay positive and do whatever you think might get you into the holiday spirit.

I have always loved this time of year. It just gives me this feeling of happiness seeing snow and decorating the house.

[DisneyFreak5282]

Am I weird?

Yes.



No, I'm totally kidding! I haven't really been in the Christmas spirit either, but I guess once I watch a few Christmas movies, or listen to some Christmas music, that puts me in the mood. Sometimes, I just kick back, take out my iPod, and listen to some Christmas tunes! Just watch a few movies (especially Elf and The Santa Clause, and maybe some of the 'classics').

[Vee]

There is nothing whatsoever strange about not being in the Christmas spirit.

The same as the rest of you, I used to think Christmas was the best thing ever when I was a little girl. But then you realise that Christmas is bloody expensive, because suddenly you're old enough for people to expect you to buy things for them as well. Now I'm twenty and I'm actually dreading Christmas.

I don't live with my family anymore, and honestly, I'd rather just stay here in London and not see anyone, and not spend any money. I'm broke, for crying out loud, and I certainly don't much feel like seeing my mother and her boyfriend. He's a complete jerk and he's blatantly going to ruin it for all of us when we go for that curry on Christmas Eve.

Hah, bumhug.

[Isidour]

now that´s a relief....


well...not much really, I forgot to tell that I asked to my family to don´t give me any present

[Escapay]

now that´s a relief....


well...not much really, I forgot to tell that I asked to my family to don´t give me any present

Instead of making them feel bad about not getting you a gift, and maybe as a way for you to feel better, ask them to donate the money they would have spent on your gift to a charity or worthy cause of their choosing.

Escapay

[Josh]

I feel the same way too, and it's increased over the past 2 Christmases Although I have a theory for my case, my sister and her husband had their first Child in November 2004, and that Christmas (for me) was ok, however the Christmas Spirit has been progressively dying away for me. I was the youngest for 13 years or so, and then my sister had a child and the attention switched to him...that sounded kind of selfish of me
I've noticed that as I get older, the spirit shrinks, I find out that there is no Santa, no Chimney, no Reindeer.......just presents

[slave2moonlight]

I am always excited for Christmas, except when I get the Christmas loneliness (which I always get, just have to balance it out). However, I do often wish Christmas wasn't so close, because I have too many things I need to get done before it arrives! When Halloween creeps up on me, I feel enormous pressure all the way through till after Christmas, because each holiday is so much work (and so expensive) to prepare for, ha. Though I love them!

[Jasmine1022]

you are not weird. there have been many times when i am not in the christmas spirit. baking and doing all the things to get ready for christmas always bring me some cheer, but christmas is a couples holiday, and up until this year I never had somebody to kiss under the mistletoe or anything. hopefully this year i can get into the full swing of christmas and see what everyone is raving about

[Loomis]

Yes you are weird, and you also smell.



I go through phases. Some years I'm really superhappyintochristmasohmygoditsalmostherewherearethedecorationsandthevariousthings??!?!

Other years I'm just going through the motions. I'm somewhere in between this year. I'm actually enjoying all the trappings and gift buying, a combination of heat and work is making it hard to get too enthusiastic.