Christmas Lies

Nice one naps. You seem to know your way around, the whole Christmas cha-bang. Not to mention, everyone not doing anything for christmas, but is caught in the act, of responding to this post. Wich means that we will most likely be here on psychs, spying on who are actualy having a life. Not me, i admit it.

I don't believe in god, or in Santa Claus, or gnomes or angles, or in killing sweet animals or cutting down helthy trees or in breaking the bank, or in over eating fat salty food till you puke.
To me Christmas make no sence, soo i choose to celebrate sun is comming back, and the days are getting longer.
It is a old viking tradition, we have here in scandinavia, and it include some fire, some good food, and something to drink.

Other than that, i am going to watch a lot of tv, and walks with my dog. It is really cold here now, soo mostly indoor activity is requiret.

We usually just have a small get-together for a few hours. It's only me, my mom, grandmother, my sister and her husband and kids. It doesn't really bother me. I live with my mom and grandma anyway. And I am really close to my mom. If it were more extended family like aunts and uncles, I'd probably feel differently.

As a child I usually found Christmas disappointing - and my mother's relatives sometimes came round and I considered them appalling.
As a young adult I contrived to be away at Christmas, or pretended that I was (those Christmas lies).
In my mid thirties I married a secular Jew who was 'casual' about the holiday.
With my second wife in my fifties I had children. Then I enjoyed Christmas. My wife had been fostered as a child and we always went to her foster mother's house for both Easter and Christmas and it was very family oriented. I think the fact that I wasn't responsible for hosting it made it OK.
Now I'm on my own again and that's alright. If I have to lie to avoid invites then I will.

Texted my mom my new apartment number. She told me she needed me to call her. I asked why in text. She told me my brother broke his neck and my grandmother is in a nursing home. It is what it is. I've got nothing to really say or do.

Just kinda isolating myself and relaxing.

naps wrote:What are you doing for Christmas?

I considered spending the day eating candy and watching movies, but in the end decided to visit my sisters and mom.

Do you fulfill family obligations?

Sometimes.

If so, are you OK with it?

I have mixed feelings. I don't like socializing and carry a lot of resentment towards my family. In the past I've avoided family functions to "punish" them. Spending time with family brings up strong and mixed emotions and I always dread it beforehand, but often it isn't as bad as I thought and I'm glad I went.

If there are no family obligations, do you find you have to lie about what you're doing?

It's been a while since I've spent Christmas completely on my own, but I probably did lie.

Christmas seems to be one time when being evasive just won't cut it. After all, you must have plans for Christmas. Otherwise, they tilt their heads and look at you and say "Awwww..." Then come the questions.

Yes.

I do most of my lying around this time of year. Clients, casual acquaintances, they all ask me what I'm doing for the holidays. Really, it's just another day off for me, one where I'm less likely to be disturbed by phone calls or other intrusions because everybody is busy traveling or visiting or partying. They have to. The calendar says they have to.

Ha ha.

So this year I am visiting my sister on Christmas Eve (I don't have a sister), and on Christmas I am going to a friend's house. He's having a nice cozy get-together.

Not.

Ha ha again.

I find, each year, every time I'm asked what I'm doing for Christmas, I get more and more annoyed by it because I generally don't like lying. But what's the alternative?

Me too. And I don't know.

I plan to have some solitude, and probably wind up just reading and goofing off, but maybe I'll do something productive. I will be calling my family to at least say hi though. I'm living relatively far away from any family right now so between that and being back in school (one social expectation cancels out the other ), I don't think anyone's surprised if I can't come for Christmas. I was invited to another Xmas dinner, but that would also involve a lot of traveling and I just couldn't muster the energy for it.

All in all, I've always liked Christmas though. At least with my immediate family and some of my extended family, it's never really been religious at all; it's just a day for everyone to stay in their pajamas, fool around with gifts, watch movies, and eat comfort food. I really like Xmas lights too, especially inside the house; when people keep their normal lights off, I actually get a vibe similar to Halloween, only less edgy. There's a good deal of snow where I'm living too, which is cool since that maybe happened twice when I was growing up.

Runestone wrote:To me Christmas make no sence, soo i choose to celebrate sun is comming back, and the days are getting longer.
It is a old viking tradition, we have here in scandinavia, and it include some fire, some good food, and something to drink.

This here sounds pretty sweet too though.

Random thing for me, I find giving gifts fun. I enjoy it.

I like solving the puzzle of what can I buy for a person that they would want. I've done pretty well at that. Sometimes people are kinda impressed.

Dalloway wrote:

naps wrote:So this year I am visiting my sister on Christmas Eve (I don't have a sister)

Awesome, so you don't need presents for her.

I hadn't thought of that. Now I'm stuck with 88 pounds of blood sausage.

In Germany we call the 24. „Christmas Eve“ as well as „Christmas“. The 25. and 26. is called first and second christmas feast day. So I was a little bit confused.
All three days are considered family days - to spend any of these with friends would have been considered alternative.

No, here we just have Christmas eve and Christmas day. Maybe the tragically religious types make more of it, but I wouldn't know about that.

What about your grand aunt Agnes?

Where do you think I got the sausage?

pleasnpetrichor wrote:I have mixed feelings. I don't like socializing and carry a lot of resentment towards my family. In the past I've avoided family functions to "punish" them. Spending time with family brings up strong and mixed emotions and I always dread it beforehand, but often it isn't as bad as I thought and I'm glad I went.

Same here, except for the last part. No matter how bad I'd imagine it would be, it was always worse.

It's been about 5 years since my the gates of hell opened up and sucked in my mother, and I still breathe a sigh of relief knowing I won't have to fulfill any family obligations. It's a great feeling. I will always appreciate it, I think.

It's Christmas Eve and I don't have any family to deal with and there's no people I need to deal with so I don't have to tell any lies. Since on Christmas Day nearly everything will be closed and I have all the food I need there's nowhere I need to go so it will be a nice and quiet day. It's supposed to be rainy and windy here tomorrow so it's just a great time to stay inside.

Reynolds wrote:It's Christmas Eve and I don't have any family to deal with and there's no people I need to deal with so I don't have to tell any lies. Since on Christmas Day nearly everything will be closed and I have all the food I need there's nowhere I need to go so it will be a nice and quiet day. It's supposed to be rainy and windy here tomorrow so it's just a great time to stay inside.

same here, exactly. Although I think it's supposed to be sunny here tomorrow.

I keep forgetting that it's Christmas Eve. No reason to remember, really..