Holiday haters

it's whatever you make of it.

my whole family come together at christmas - sometimes only at this time of year due to distance

so we hang out and play games for a week

generally we act like big children

since this is what is important to us at christmas

being together and enjoying each others company

regardless of how much 'the man' makes on said games we may or mat not have purchased for the holidays

it's still a holiday of love - love of family

and to someone else - love of money.

i feel nothing but sorrow for those who obviously cannot appreciate any excuse

for a family to spend quality time together :frown:

 

I'm indifferent to the holidays but if people want to celebrate, who is anyone to say they can't? To those of you who actually get to have happy family gatherings, more power to you. I'm not gonna shit on anybody's happiness but I generally don't celebrate and if I do on certain occasions (Halloween and New Years Eve), it's just about partying.

Thanksgiving, I don't care to celebrate a holiday based on fucking over the Indians for their land. As someone pointed out earlier, usually nobody's thankful for nothing. They're only talking about what they're gonna blow their money on the next day. As for Christmas, I'm an atheist who hates jingles. Nuff said. My own parents don't even give a damn about Christmas, or Thanksgiving for that matter, so it's not like I'm going out to spend time with other relatives. The only thing special to me is not having to go to school. I'm sure others are happy they don't have to go to work either so there's that.
As for Valentine's Day, Easter, Independence Day, etc., it all just passes me by.

It's not that I'm a miserable person, it's just that holidays mean nothing to me. You should be thankful for who you have and what you have everyday. It shouldn't take a holiday for you to emphasize that.

 

Oh, it's not that bad. I expect that I'll have some very good days next year, just like this year - the walk on the beach as the moon rises out of the ocean, the spectacular sunset in the mountains, the perfect orgasm, the night in the bar when friends' jokes seem a lot funnier than usual...

I just don't ever know in advance when those special times are coming. I could mark a day on my calendar right now for a spring mountain trip, but it might be cold and wet all weekend. I accept the unpredictability of life.

It seems that most of my old friends only stopped living their own lives when they had kids and started living vicariously through them. I'm not going down that road - ever.

 

Good for you, babe. :2thumbsup:

 

You may be one of those people who honestly believes what you just said, with no bad intentions whatsoever. I don't know you, so I can't say. But Christmas is also an excuse for a lot of people who have invested too much in the family-first lifestyle and mindset to rationalize and justify their decisions to themselves, even to the point of being grossly insensitive to those who have chosen to go in a different direction with their lives, and to those who don't have great family situations because a lot of family members have died, or because they don't get along with their surviving relatives. All three factors come into play for me.

Now it's time to hate on another holiday - New Years Eve.

Around here, all the clubs and bars will be filled to the fucking rafters with over the hill clueless idiots who appear to party only one night a year. Probably most of them are parents who have had their fill of family-first hype over Christmas. They have forgotten how to party, if they ever knew. Due to the basic concept of supply and demand, they will pay far too much in cover charges to get in these clubs. They will drink until they get sick, and they will be rude and obnoxious to everyone around them. The guys will think every man in the place is trying to flirt with his ugly middle-aged wife, who has been flirting her fat ass off all night with anything that wears pants. Then they will either throw up on the elevator on the way up to their hotel room (rented at twice the normal rate) or drive home extremely drunk, threatening the lives of everyone they meet on the road.

I have nothing in common with those people and don't care to waste my spare time on that kind of lame-ass bullshit, so I wouldn't go out that night if the clubs paid me. But almost every middle-aged woman I know can't figure out why I don't want to go out, and all the younger women I know assume I will be there because I am middle-aged. I think most of the younger crowd will be celebrating at home, with one or more close friends, smoking a joint or two. Like me.

The rest of January should be much better. The local clubs know they have to bring in some really good bands to draw a crowd that time of year. And there's always New Orleans, Atlanta, Savannah, and Key West.
:reddevil:

 

That holiday in August is a real pisser. It was made just for the sake of having a holiday in August.

 

some people use literally EVERYTHING as an excuse to act like assholes. it's the fault of the people acting like assholes, not the day or whatever other excuse they're using.

 

So...I think we have established here:

Christmas lovers: Have friends or family they spend the holiday with and really enjoy it
Christmas haters: Don't have friends or family, and if they do, they don't enjoy being around them
Christmas Don't Really Give a Fuck-ers: The middle ground between the two

 

I miss my friends the most when I'm with my extended family for the holidays. It makes me painfully aware that I don't know these people who share my blood at all, and blissfully aware that I'm very lucky to have people in my life who choose to be with me on other days simply because they like me and not because they are related to me.

 

and what of scrooge syndrome?

you know

people purposely trying to ruin another's christmas spirit

and constantly complain??

i see this as deeply insensitive.

 

You have to remember how this thread started and who was complaining about who. I would be perfectly happy to see family-oriented people evacuate the streets if stores were kept open on Christmas day, and my friends were available, and I didn`t feel pressured to be around family members whose company I do not enjoy, and there wasn`t the constant din of repetitive Christmas music, advertisement, commercials, public adornment, and of course crazed shoppers absolutely clogging every inch of the city.

As a matter of fact, I would love Christmas were that the case. It would segregate the people I have no business being around in the first place. To prove how much I'd love it, I can honestly say that Sunday church-goers bother me none at all despite my being a hard-boiled atheist. They pray inside their own temples, they do not impose on me, or the places I frequent, and honestly, I love the fact that they shut themselves in at will.

But, I only love Sunday church-goers because I can live my life normally on Sunday while they worship. Unfortunately, on Christmas there`s little room to live your life normally if you don`t celebrate it or particularly share so-called family values.

Hence the complaints on my part. And, even so, I feel like I don`t complain any more about Christmas than what of Christmas is imposed upon me by enthusiasts and mercenaries alike.

 

no its just they all cost MONEY that i dont have enough of. sorry

 

growing up - my mother used to tell me

to never 'stoop to another's level'

i think this is sound advice.

 

Do you guys actually know any true holiday haters?

I know people who don't particularly care for the holidays (like me). I know people who even blatantly hate the holidays.

But I don't know anyone who goes out of their way to make the holidays miserable for everyone else. Sometimes my best friend gets really into the holidays, and I roll my eyes at her, and we both laugh. We don't actually ruin each others' day or entire holiday season because one of us loves it and the other doesn't.

Maybe the problem is not that miserable people ruin the holidays for others, but that people who generally love things like family time and love are surrounding themselves with miserable people.

I decided a few years ago that I just didn't have time for negative people anymore. Amazingly enough, I noticed that I didn't really have to kick people out of my life. Negative people actually changed to suit me and my attitude.

If the holiday haters are getting you down, just make fun of them with a smile. They'll take the hint. They'll either go away or stop being such an asshole.

 

yes sir.

 

The huge problem here is, many people see somebody merely being miserable/unhappy at this time of year as "trying to ruin their christmas spirit", which is also deeply insensitive. If you're miserable, you shouldn't expect others to be miserable as well just to make you feel better. But by the same token, people shouldn't expect others to put on an act of being happy just to make themselves feel better.

The issue here really, is one of selfishness. Expecting others to feel a certain way, or at least outwordly act in that way, just to suit you. Disregarding others' feelings, be they feelings of unhappiness or joy, is what I actually see at the core of this thread, and most it seems, are guilty of it. This is a general problem, which is only exacerbated by the holiday seasons, especially christmas. It's a two way thing, but most people on either side, typically believe they are in the right, when in actual fact, neither of them are.

It's all about "what I want"/"how I feel", and expecting others to fall in line with that, or be damned. No matter how those other people may personally feel. And plenty of people on both sides of this divide are guilty of that mentality. Just this thread alone, is proof of that.

Simply put, it's just a case of people attempting to enforce their will and wants onto others, and if they don't conform to that, then to hell with them. Which is all well and good, I just find it amazing that so many people fail to see the hypocrisy and irony in their own complaints about others' actions.

 

That's true, but this time of year seems to bring out the worst in some people. For example, if I didn't put up any Christmas decorations that could be seen from the street, I would have to deal with complaints from neighbors who normally don't talk to me. Maybe they are assholes all year long, but I don't know about it.

I do put up some decorations, but some people seek me out to tell me (politely) that more is expected, in order to conform to neighborhood standards. I'm not going to change anything.

I definitely have friends; they are just a lot less available during December because they are constantly involved in Christmas activities. Actually, most of them drop off the radar about a week before Thanksgiving and get back in touch about a week into January. That's about six weeks that I feel like I just moved into town.

:cheers2: That's the way the world should work. All the time.

Oh god, you have invoked Charles Dickens. Who are we mere mortals to question him?
:leaving:

I don't know anyone personally who dares to do this. When someone asks me a question about what I do for Christmas, I say as little as possible, and try to change the subject. Online, I say what I really think.

Most of the time, I try hard to get along with everybody as best I can, but I have a hard time restraining myself from telling Christmas Nazis to go fuck themselves. Or better yet, go to a nativity scene and fuck some farm animals.

I feel better already.

Heaven help anybody who needs to buy an ordinary item for themselves this time of year. You can't drive within six blocks of a big shopping mall without getting stuck for 20 minutes. I stock up on everything in November, as if I'm going to be wilderness camping for a month.

Lucky you. Around here, it isn't legal to serve alcohol during church hours, because they think Jesus wouldn't like that (didn't he turn water into wine?). Bars and clubs can't serve you after 2:00 AM on Saturday night, so you won't have any excuse not to be in church the next morning at 11:00. Champagne brunch has to start at 12:00 noon. Most of our cool establishments that don't cater to a family-oriented crowd don't even bother to open on Sunday at all, because the whole day is family time.

Church people here want to force everyone to be like them.

 

ultimately - i am not here to judge

i wish everyone the best

and hope find peace of mind at least

over the christmas period.

it's a sad world though isn't it - i feel like the leper in the room

when i'm talking about simply loving life and loving the company you keep

within it.

 

I was just having a conversation about it, with my dad and cousin. My cousin lives in Germany, and my dad is moving to France. I should be able to get EU citizenship this year...

I told him how interesting it would be to live in an atheist country like Estonia, where my dad`s girlfriend`s sister lives. 98% atheist.

I would like to have that sort of experience before I die. I think I would feel much more at home. And, surprise surprise, Christmas doesn`t seem to really be celebrated there at all. A lot let emphasis on family ties and marriage, and a lot more in friendship.

Ultimately, I`d like to spend the final years of my live in a place where drugs are legal, euthanasia is legal, prostitution is legal, and people are atheist, single, practical, polite, and mindful of personal space.

The second half of my life is shaping up to a place like that.

 

People have their different reasons for hating a certain holiday. It's sad that some of them don't embrace any kind of love and gathering on it... but that's just how they roll.

I just don't like how some of them parade around snaring at every single thing that resembles the holiday. If only they just kept it to themselves. :/