I just can't seem to get "into" Christmas this year

[Tenebrae]

I know it’s relatively early yet, although a lot of people have had their houses decorated since Thanksgiving Day, but I just can’t bring myself to do any decorating or to write cards. I don’t even feel like putting up the Christmas tree. Does anyone else feel like this?

 

[Flame4]

Yes! My family has put up a Christmas tree but it doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. I think its because I am studying for exams, so its not exactly a jolly time.
Is there any stress in your life at the moment? Might be the reason.

God Bless

 

[Immacolata]

I feel the same way this year, sadly. I felt this way last year but it soon passed as the days went on, but I’m not so sure this year. There is a little bit of stress going on in my life at the moment, and that may be contributing to this feeling I’m (we’re) having.

Hopefully you will be able to get your spirit in Christmas back and have a wonderful holiday.

 

[ConservativeOne]

There’s a sadness within me, so Christmas - as much as I love it is welcome but slow in comng on the secular side - as much as I’d like to decorate. I have put up my Advent Wreath and one Nativity set - earlier than usual.

It depends on your view of Christmas - secular or religious holiday?
I was raised that NOTHING goes up before December 8th (Feast of the Immaculate Conception). But once the Nativity was up (by December 8th), then secular decos could begin. Tree came about a week before Christmas. Here, too, people have outdoor lights and indoor Christmas trees lit on Thanksgiving and the day after. People want the Christmas spirit, I suppose - but are they aware of what they’re celebrating? I’m trying / wanting to decorate earlier this year but the spiritual and temporal sadness remains. Pray for me, please. I SO love Christmas, and I wish all here a blessed and happy season.

 

[Jeanne_S]

I know it’s relatively early yet, although a lot of people have had their houses decorated since Thanksgiving Day, but I just can’t bring myself to do any decorating or to write cards. I don’t even feel like putting up the Christmas tree. Does anyone else feel like this?

Yep! I’m not putting up a tree this year,either.I have decorated my house inside and out,just no tree.

 

[Metropolis]

Well, my hubby and I have a hard time sometimes getting into the spirit of holidays, but it is mostly because we are far away from our family and friends. It isn’t bad not to decorate, we usually only do a little decorating like putting out our nativity, and our mini tree. We don’t even exchange gifts with each other. Instead we like to spend more time at Church and focus on our prayer life. That tends to help us get more into the spirit of what Christmas is really about. Jesus!

 

[TinyButterfly]

Maybe if you go ahead and just DO some of the usual Christmas time activities, it will eventually help you FEEL the Christmas spirit. Put on some lovely carols, do some shopping and wrapping, make some Christmas cookies, participate in a giving tree and purchase and wrap gifts for small children in need, help at soup kitchen or food pantry, drink a little egg nog early, watch a favorite Christmas DVD, drive around and enjoy the lights others have already put up, etc.

I have struggled in the past with this issue and a combination of doing the normal things I usually do and doing something nice for others helped.

Also you could add some special prayers, fasting or giving that would help the season feel more meaningful to you.

:hug1:

 

[Jala]

Do keep in mind that the “day after Thanksgiving” outdoor decorating may be more (if not completely) due to weather (depending on where you live) and work schedules.

Someone once asked me why we decorate our yard to the nines for Halloween, but have no outdoor Christmas decorations other than a wreath on the door. Elemenatary, my dear Watson–it’s 60 degrees here in October and 40 degrees in December (this year has had some crazy weather, and it was in the 60s today–but overall, it was warmer in October). All of my Christmas decorations are indoors. IF I were going to do outdoor Christmas decorations, the earlier the better.

I have a 4-day weekend every Thanksgiving, making it a convenient time to put up a tree and decorate. I daresay a lot of people are in the same boat.

Jala

 

[TheRealJuliane]

I know we had our Gift Giving Sunday today, and giving to others seems to help me get excited about Christmas. But it’s not the same as when the kids were very little and we could see the holiday through their innocent and awestruck eyes…or going even farther back, when I was young myself.

I get burned out on decorating, gifts, cards etc. because it’s always been me alone who makes Christmas happen. And I get tired of doing it all, frankly. But “if it is to be, it is up to me!” There won’t be a Christmas at all if I get too down. 3 years ago, I had a bad spell of depression and it was the worst Christmas ever. I didn’t even get a card from my husband. I swore I’d never let it get that bad again. But I do have to struggle against depression just about every year. Not seasonal, just cyclical.

Hang in there! Volunteer at church more; go to a homeless shelter and work; make some treats for a neighbor.

 

[cviolette]

Does your family help decorate? Do you do everything yourself?

I have struggled for the last couple of years when it comes to Christmas. I do everything. Shop,decorate, wrap the gifts, send the cards. It just burns me out. And then we had financial problems so there was the added struggle of trying to pay for it.

This year is the worse. So much stress in the house and my husband and I barely tolerate each other. I just want it over and done.

I will fake it for the kids but boy is it hard.

 

[Sirach614]

I feel the same way. I live alone, and i want to put up a tree just to give my home a little bit of cheer. But it doesn’t “feel” like Christmastime yet Maybe it will when the day draws nearer. I also don’t have much money to buy gifts for my family this year…and i’m working a lot too to try to save up some money…so everything just feels weird this advent season. And I’m single so I dont have anyone to share the season with except my family…and they can be a bit overbearing at times. So i can relate. This advent feels kind of lonely for me.

 

[Bookcat]

It is …Advent.

Not Christmas.*

So not time to “get into Christmas yet”

Seek to get into Advent. Then hopefully Christmas Season will be easier to enter into when it comes…

Pray, go to confession, sing some advent songs, take some time to pray in silent meditation the expectation of the Second Coming of Christ…and then on the preparation for the celebration of his first coming…

For those though who are struggling with various difficulties …seek out friends…fellowship…seek out those who need you…remember the stress of Joseph having to take Mary to Bethlehem while she was expecting …and the stress of all the difficulties involved…know that they understand and that Jesus loves you and that Christmas can be simple yet joyful with him …even in the mist of struggle.

*(I say this after just decorating the tree…we normally do so on the Third Sunday of Advent (that joy filled day!) but this year we had to do it early)

 

[TinyButterfly]

Does your family help decorate? Do you do everything yourself?

I have struggled for the last couple of years when it comes to Christmas. I do everything. Shop,decorate, wrap the gifts, send the cards. It just burns me out. And then we had financial problems so there was the added struggle of trying to pay for it.

This!

I used to do nearly everything myself and I got soooo burnt out!

I’ve cut back on some of what I do, delegated some of the things that need to be done and I try not to stress about making it a “perfect” Christmas.

And yes, it’s Advent, so there is no rush.

 

[ConservativeOne]

I came in to add a post script to my earlier post - and found some great ones !
I agree - Thanksgiving weekend does afford people time to decorate outdoors during better weather. But seeing INDOOR and outdoor lights lit - in November seems a bit early. The reason for my return was to say I’m in similar situation as previous posters…I want to but can’t get into the mood. Further, I realized tonight that I’ve barely noticed what few decos I have put up. I look forward to Christmas decorating - and then overlook them once up… either tired or distraction? Yet, if I didn’t put them up, I’d be ashamed of myself !

 

[CatholicZ09]

Like they said above, maybe just putting on some carols, watching a festive film, or something of the like will get you in the spirit. Maybe some egg nog?

I think what helps me in feeling the spirit of Christmas is the season of Advent. The Advent hymns get me all joyful in anticipation of the Christ child! We sang O Come, O Come, Emmanuel at Mass today, and that usually does it for me. Emmanuel is coming!

 

[Allegra]

I always put my Christmas decorations up the day after Thanksgiving. Sometimes we put the outdoor lights up a week or two early. (if the weather is really nice) However, we don’t turn them on until the day after Thanksgiving. In the future, we may wait to put up the actual tree, but this year we didn’t.
Anyway, something the OP might try to get into the spirit is to participate in a “giving tree”. You go shopping for a family in need. You could also volunteer time and talent in another way. Volenteer to help at a children’s hospital or a nursing home. Showing love to others is the best way to prepare your heart for Christ and a sure way to get into the spirit of Christmas.

 

[ConservativeOne]

…Christ child! We sang O Come, O Come, Emmanuel at Mass today, and that usually does it for me. Emmanuel is coming!

Same here ! Loved hearing / singing that hymn today in Church !

 

[cheezey]

Stress, stress, and more stress. I cannot, either, no matter what it means to me. Try doing one thing. Anything, even a simple little decoration as a reminder of why you would like to be in the spirit. And of course, pray. Go to a decorated church. That’s what did it for me a few years back. For me, I just can’t celebrate this year as I’d like or need to.

 

[centurionguard]

I admit everything leading up to the religious season of Christmas is not easy at times I dare say for most of us. I despise the secular side of everything leading up to before Christmas Day and appreciating the entire significance of the liturgical season itself and the Solemnity of Christmas itself. After all “Jesus is Reason for the Season” Placing our focus on prayer and preparation leading up to this Profound Awe of contemplating the Holy Incarnation itself is where the importance lies IMHO.

Regretably; the worries and distractions of this world have a way of creeping in on our expectations of happiness during Christmas. But really the Christmas message in our Advent preparations of making our soul ready for celebrating Christ’s Birthday is not that Peace comes automatically, because Christ was born in Bethlehem; that birth in Bethlehem was the prelude to His Birth in our hearts by grace, faith and love. Peace belongs only in those who will to have it within. If there is no peace in this world today, it is not because Christ our Savior did not come; it is because we did not make room in our hearts to let Him in.

As the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said; those who truly wish to honor Jesus at Christmas are the ones who humble their heats, bending their egos entering the Cave of Bethlehem seeing the tiny Holy Babe Jesus the Son of God on His mother’s lap. One cannot help but adore at such beauty and simplicity of great love.

At every Mass and especially Christmas Mass we ask our Guardian Angel to place our worries, pain and sadness inside the Chalice of Consecration so that it can be transubstantiated into something God alone knows is good for us especially and those of our loved ones and our dearly departed.

Advent is a time of preparation in our hearts, a time of clearing the clutter of worldliness and sinfulness within us. A New Church year where we illuminate the darkness within us by removing our old self and putting on a new self in Christ’s light. Jesus beckons us to follow His light like the shepherds in the field who watched their flocks and seeing the star of Bethlehem in symbolic sight of the light of a Sanctuary lamp lighting up the brillence of God’s Holy Eucharistic presence in the Sanctuary at Mass on the Atar in eternal rememberance of the wonderous Gift of God where there in reflection of the stable scene of Bethlehem lying in the creche of your heart resides the Light of the World; if we but make room for Him.

ISAIAS - Chapter 40 haydock1859.tripod.com/id1260.html

1 Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your God.

2 Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her: for her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven: *she hath received of the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.

3 *The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God.

4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain.

5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken.

6 The voice of one, saying: Cry. And I said: What shall I cry? *All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field.

7 The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen, because the spirit of the Lord hath blown upon it. Indeed, the people is grass:

8 The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen: but the word of our Lord endureth for ever.

9 Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion: lift up thy voice with strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem: lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God:

10 Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his arm shall rule: behold his reward is with him, and his work is before him.

11 *He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather together the lambs with his arm, and shall take them up in his bosom, and he himself shall carry them that are with young.

 

[cheezey]

I know that ultimately all will be well, but I wonder how, though I shouldn’t ask. My life is so overwhelmingly problematic and miserable. I cannot keep up though I want to. Like I said, stress, stress, stress.