What's the worst thing about Christmas?

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EasterJoy said:
That’s it! The most difficult thing about Christmas is that it has become a time of year when things are supposed to be at least a little idyllic for a change. It is meant to be a time that puts light into the darkness, but has become a time when burdens are increased, rather than lifted, because people feel as if they are expected to magically be happier than they are, to have a better sense of style than they have, more empathy than they have, better interpersonal relations than they have, and an easier time than they are having.

That is an oppressive and pervasive cultural myth. Yes, I can buy that as the reason that the difficult things in life seem harder at Christmas, rather than easier. It is hard to be thankful, when a season relentlessly “promises” so much that it cannot possibly deliver.

Look what is in the Holy Scriptures, surrounding the 1st Christmas: Scandal, poverty, intrigue, danger. A vulnerable young woman, barely more than a girl, at risk for her life for her fiat to God, subjected to an arduous journey, a heartless populace, an oppressive government, bewildering and difficult circumstances, her miracle one that could be attested to only by foreigners and outcasts, her support being a husband who was running on trust in a vision seen in a dream. Even at the Presentation, amid the joy of those very select few in the community of Israel who recognized the unique and utter dignity of her Son, a promise of pain and heartbreak.

Yet amid all of this: Glory. The promise of joy. That is what Christmas is all about, as Linus put it. Yet as Charles Schultz recognized, the season can seem to be stacked entirely against that message becoming the light to us in this vale of tears that it ought to be. Yes, that is the most difficult thing about Christmas; it is the root of all these trials that we perceive as being particularly associated with what ought to be a great and joyous start to our liturgical year, even situated as it is in the darkest time the Northern Hemisphere has.
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Thank you for your moving post.

I will use your post as a basis for meditating the Joyful mysteries when I pray the rosary tomorrow.
 
Sarcelle said:
Thank you for your moving post.

I will use your post as a basis for meditating the Joyful mysteries when I pray the rosary tomorrow.
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I made and edit to tack on a little Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown got that there was a problem, but it took the whole of them to hit on a change that would mend things for him.
 
I loved Christmas. The worst thing about it to me is that it is over too soon.

Then I read this thread.

Now I think the worst thing about Christmas is people complaining about Christmas. A celebration of God incarnate, of eternal life for us all. Of us being saved!

Jesus came for the lonely, the broken the sad and the wicked.

That is what we celebrate. If one is incapable of feeling that joy, then they are ignorant of what Christmas is and who Christ is. It is the very lonely, the sick, the elderly, the abused, the starving that should feel the greatest joy of all. And more often than not, that is the case.
 
EasterJoy said:
The whole year has the same neurotic and difficult friends and relatives to love, the same economy running on selling people as much as possible whether they need it or want it or not, relationship break-ups, acquaintances who like all the least interesting forms of recreational amusement, and all the rest.

Why project all these trials of our vale of tears particularly onto Christmas? Again, I don’t get it. 🤷
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Because it is more visible then, at the very time that we are taught is “the most wonderful time of the year”??

ICXC NIKA.
 
GEddie said:
Because it is more visible then, at the very time that we are taught is “the most wonderful time of the year”??

ICXC NIKA.
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Yes, I think that is exactly it. It is the expectations and the resulting disappointment and even embarrassment when those expectations inevitably cannot be met that ruin what is good about Christmas and get in the way of what it is meant to bring. It is meant to bring hope and joy and fellowship and a fault-covering sense of generosity, but the performance anxiety that cultural expectations put onto the season can squelch that and turn into exactly the opposite.
(See my post #58)
 
Hoosier_Daddy said:
I loved Christmas. The worst thing about it to me is that it is over too soon.

Then I read this thread.

Now I think the worst thing about Christmas is people complaining about Christmas. A celebration of God incarnate, of eternal life for us all. Of us being saved!

Jesus came for the lonely, the broken the sad and the wicked.

That is what we celebrate. If one is incapable of feeling that joy, then they are ignorant of what Christmas is and who Christ is. It is the very lonely, the sick, the elderly, the abused, the starving that should feel the greatest joy of all. And more often than not, that is the case.
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Yay! Great post! Thanks!

There is a difference between joy and happiness. We certainly can’t be happy when we have no one on this earth to love and who loves us, but we can be joyful in all circumstances.
 
I can’t decide between “I want” and “I got”. I hear too much of either one this season!
 
GEddie said:
Because it is more visible then, at the very time that we are taught is “the most wonderful time of the year”??

ICXC NIKA.
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Yes. It’s hardest to deal with unhappiness at the happiest time of the year. The mismatch between interior and exterior reality can be very painful.

I think my worst Christmas celebration ever was when I went to a work conference when I was working overseas where I knew barely anybody. I found the festivities very sad. I think I would have been way happier to stay home, unfortunately.
 
I get a little grinchy around Christmas time because money is always short (despite the fact that we save throughout the year for Christmas). There’s also the issue that there’s a big difference between being a child and getting to enjoy Christmas and being a parent and having to produce a Christmas for your children and others to enjoy. We do the traditional thing and decorate our tree on Christmas Eve, plus we do a special dinner, and Christmas Eve is invariably exhausting. We have started having the big kids help with gift-wrapping other people’s gifts, which does help a lot.

The thing is, it’s easy to say, well that’s not the true meaning of Christmas, but the true meaning of Christmas isn’t going to get a tree home, saw off the bottom, haul it in, mount it in the tree stand, decorate it, vacuum up all of the needles, buy gifts for everybody (my list has “just” 14 people on it), wrap them, clean up the torn wrapping paper and ribbons, assemble anything that needs to be assembled, shop for Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner, cook Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner, clean up after Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner, and send out some sort of yearly communication to friends and family. And there’s a very hard deadline on a lot of this stuff. The way I feel about that side of Christmas, I’m pathetically grateful to my SIL who let us off the gift exchange hook this year. Thank you, SIL! I won’t forget it!

More humorously, last year I made the mistake of going to a mall Starbucks on the last shopping day before Christmas and getting trapped in the parking lot for 20 or 30 minutes because there was such heavy traffic that I wasn’t able to get across one of the lines of traffic at the mall. Oops.
 
Cup_o_Joe said:
Thank you. This is a forum, which means the conversation can be revived at any time, unlike an instant messenger. People come on at certain times of the day.

If its been 3 days or more since someone responded, then you shoule add our saved thought to revive it. But the point is please give others a chance to respond.
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Sorry the darn auto correct was on. i meant to say “then you should add your saved thought…”
 
Xantippe said:
More humorously, last year I made the mistake of going to a mall Starbucks on the last shopping day before Christmas and getting trapped in the parking lot for 20 or 30 minutes because there was such heavy traffic that I wasn’t able to get across one of the lines of traffic at the mall. Oops.
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Ah, contraire, the last shopping day before Christmas is on the 24th, some time within double digits minutes of when the stores close. My husband tells me there are only other bewildered gentlemen in the mall, with clear sailing in and out, LOL.

I remember when I was little, there was a Midnight Mass that really began at midnight. Our Christmas did not start until we got going for that, so it was something simple like spaghetti on Christmas Eve, and off to bed for naps for the kids. Poor Mom, though, she did get very tired! Her favorite day of the Octave of Christmas was the 26th, because she always arranged for plenty of leftovers and so no cooking or entertaining to do.

Go, St. Stephen, and let’s hear it for Holy Days that have an Octave for the celebration!!
 
The fact my dad loved celebrating holidays and birthdays. He passed away in 2010 of cancer. So I think of my dad a lot around any celebration.
The worst thing about cooking were the dishes. I unlike my family like to clean up in between cooking so it is not so messy when we’re finished eating. My family members clean up afterwards which is a lot too take in after eating a good meal.
 
EasterJoy said:
Ah, contraire, the last shopping day before Christmas is on the 24th, some time within double digits minutes of when the stores close. My husband tells me there are only other bewildered gentlemen in the mall, with clear sailing in and out, LOL.

I remember when I was little, there was a Midnight Mass that really began at midnight. Our Christmas did not start until we got going for that, so it was something simple like spaghetti on Christmas Eve, and off to bed for naps for the kids. Poor Mom, though, she did get very tired! Her favorite day of the Octave of Christmas was the 26th, because she always arranged for plenty of leftovers and so no cooking or entertaining to do.

Go, St. Stephen, and let’s hear it for Holy Days that have an Octave for the celebration!!
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My dad was a chef and cooked every Christmas Eve. My mom cooked Every Christmas day. Sometimes they helped each other. We went to Midnight Mass at midnight as well. It changed to 11:00 PM some times in the late nineties.
We had leftovers for the next three days. I always ate two or three plates growing up. I was a tomboy and hung around my older brother. So he and I were responsible for cleaning dinner dishes. It was a pain since my mom used her good dishes. Unlike any other day we had to dry and put away. Any other day we just let the dishes dry in the dish rack.
 
IdaD said:
The worst thing about cooking were the dishes. I unlike my family like to clean up in between cooking so it is not so messy when we’re finished eating. My family members clean up afterwards which is a lot too take in after eating a good meal.
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Ugh, yes! I agree with you on your dishes method. Dishes are my least favorite thing in the world, but rather than let them pile up I’d rather get them over with. I like to use nice dishes for holiday dinners and special occasions, but I definitely understand why some people go all disposable!

Even when cooking during the week, I try to have only the dishes we’re serving and eating off of left to do after dinner is over. The only thing I want to do after eating is chill out for a bit, especially after eating holiday meals!

I do generally try to have as much cooking and gift buying as possible done well in advance. Preferably wrapping too. Trying to do those last minute just makes me really agitated.

One thing I know I am NOT going to do again is write hokey little “thanks for being interested in my alma mater” cards to high school seniors who have applied to my college. I’ve done it every year since I graduated and each year I resent it more! But that’s something I’ve put on myself and I can make it go away just by not signing up to do it next year.
 
I just had a flash back:

If you’re like me you dread job of getting ready for one of those special occasions.
You have to clean the house, cook the food, but the most miserable, time-consuming job of all is cleaning and polishing the silver…

Every year, like clockwork, about the time the Sears Wish Book came in the mail, LOL.
 
EasterJoy said:
Ah, contraire, the last shopping day before Christmas is on the 24th, some time within double digits minutes of when the stores close. My husband tells me there are only other bewildered gentlemen in the mall, with clear sailing in and out, LOL.

Funny!

I remember when I was little, there was a Midnight Mass that really began at midnight. Our Christmas did not start until we got going for that, so it was something simple like spaghetti on Christmas Eve, and off to bed for naps for the kids. Poor Mom, though, she did get very tired! Her favorite day of the Octave of Christmas was the 26th, because she always arranged for plenty of leftovers and so no cooking or entertaining to do.

Go, St. Stephen, and let’s hear it for Holy Days that have an Octave for the celebration!!
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I like a Christmas morning Mass, because otherwise there’s too much packed into Christmas Eve and it’s easy to wind up exhausted on Christmas Eve and with nothing to do Christmas Day (we grownups do nut spend hours playing with our gifts, as a rule!). Come to think of it, overstuffing Christmas Eve with things to do is probably a cause of a lot of unnecessary discomfort.
 
Xantippe said:
I like a Christmas morning Mass, because otherwise there’s too much packed into Christmas Eve and it’s easy to wind up exhausted on Christmas Eve and with nothing to do Christmas Day (we grownups do nut spend hours playing with our gifts, as a rule!). Come to think of it, overstuffing Christmas Eve with things to do is probably a cause of a lot of unnecessary discomfort.
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Our Christmases got simple the year that there was this huge storm that made the roads very difficult. We were able to get to Mass and other than that we were stuck just staying home. Best Christmas ever. Now we visit everyone during the Octave, instead.
 
Truth be told, a lot of people complain about the ridiculous amounts of sales that happen around Christmas when their loved ones get what they want… as well as ( I think it’s relativist, not sure) the notion that Christmas is about peace, love, and joy between the people of goodwill.
I do recall hearing a story about St. Boniface when he was in modern day Germany, cutting down an oak tree that druids sacrificed, then ordering that a pine or fir tree be placed in the homes of the villagers (Something like that) and that from now on, those should be used for giving gifts, not sacrificing people.
 
Well,I think this is one of my most successful threads, Clare will be impressed,

I feel for some women on this one, longing to fuss over a family , but there is no family,
Looking forward to cooking,preparing a house for guests, but there are no guests coming,
A strong sense of belonging,but no one to belong to,
I know of someone,we will be inviting her to share with us on Christmas Day
 
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