Christmas has Started Feeling Less Like Christmas to me

[PallElendro]

Hey, guys. Since 2010, I guess I haven't been looking forward to anything about Christmas. Even my birthday is another day I tend to shrug off, on the ninth of December. I'm wondering if there are any factors that can contribute to my attitude regarding these days, because it's been plummeting sharply. If anyone needs any info that could corroborate, I'm willing to dispense it at my own leisure.

[Asta Kask]

Hey, guys. Since 2010, I guess I haven't been looking forward to anything about Christmas. Even my birthday is another day I tend to shrug off, on the ninth of December. I'm wondering if there are any factors that can contribute to my attitude regarding these days, because it's been plummeting sharply. If anyone needs any info that could corroborate, I'm willing to dispense it at my own leisure.

Is it just Christmas and birthdays or do you find it difficult to look forward to other things you used to enjoy? Can there have been events that has led you to dislike Christmas (drunk relatives being nasty, for instance)?

[PallElendro]

Is it just Christmas and birthdays or do you find it difficult to look forward to other things you used to enjoy?
Really, just those two. Halloween has been an easy turn-off for me. I tend to attend Halloween parties more than trick-or-treating. Teenagers, man.


Can there have been events that has led you to dislike Christmas (drunk relatives being nasty, for instance)?

Not that I can think of. My dad is fun when he's drunk. If there was anything that could make me a little underwhelmed about Christmas, it'd be that I gave my now ex-girlfriend some Steam games and a copy of Star Wars, her favourite film franchise, in Blu-Ray.

[Asta Kask]

Maybe it's an age thing? I'm no longer as excited about Christmas as I was as a child, and my birthday is now merely a reminder of my mortality - not much to celebrate there.

[PallElendro]

I'm seventeen if that's any indicator.

[Jermz]

What things did you look forward to in the past regarding Christmas? The good cheer? The presents? The cozy feeling? The magic of Santa Claus?

There are probably several factors in play, but in my opinion the main one is likely that you're growing up and you're wise to the whole marketing shtick of the holiday season. Buy me! You need me! Your life will be better with me! I'll make you feel good! You want me!

If you give more information about what you're missing, what you used to look forward to and what made you enjoy Christmas more, it would probably be easier to pinpoint the issue/s.

[PallElendro]

What things did you look forward to in the past regarding Christmas? The good cheer? The presents? The cozy feeling? The magic of Santa Claus?
Initially it was Santa Claus. I wisened up to that quickly. Thanks, Coca-Cola. Apart from that, I did enjoy getting the good cheer and cosy feeling.


If you give more information about what you're missing, what you used to look forward to and what made you enjoy Christmas more, it would probably be easier to pinpoint the issue/s.

If there was any one thing I missed, it was being able to not give a damn about the world around me and immerse myself in the new toys and clothes that I got. Everything was good feeling, and I didn't understand anything about politics and the domestic economy, though in the interest of not getting this thread locked, I'd rather stay away from talking about that in public. I miss the enjoyment of having someone special around to enjoy what I brought for the holidays. I had a vibrant feeling to say the least about 2012-2013, meriting maybe a blip on the Spirit-O-Meter before it went back to scanning background noise of me getting finished with my schoolwork.

[factotum]

I'm seventeen if that's any indicator.

Yes, it is. I don't think it's possible to maintain the same excitement about Christmas and birthdays when you're an adult as it was as a child...I know for me it was around the time I became a teenager that the gloss started to come off the season.

[aspi]

Yes, it is. I don't think it's possible to maintain the same excitement about Christmas and birthdays when you're an adult as it was as a child...I know for me it was around the time I became a teenager that the gloss started to come off the season.
Definitely this. As kids, we are easy to excite and it becomes progressively more difficult as we grow up, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it feels like we lose something of course. It's just part of growing up. For me, my birthdays have been like this for years since I'm not a party person and (being a bit cynical) I see it as essentially just a random day that is determined by the speed of the earth's rotation, so why bother?

However, you'll find other things to look forward to - like seeing your family over the holidays after you've moved out for example. There will always be things you can get excited about, you'll just have to find them, which is a bit exciting in itself :smallwink:

[Asta Kask]

I think seventeen is when you're most adult, because you need to distance yourself from the childish you you just left.


To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

Childishness can only increase from this point.

[Jay R]

If there was any one thing I missed, it was being able to not give a damn about the world around me and immerse myself in the new toys and clothes that I got.

That's a child's Christmas. You are now mature enough to realize that for that to happen, people need to commit to making joy for others. And you can be part of that.

Start with your parents and immediate family. What can you do to make the season happier for them.

Eventually, bringing joy to others will be your focus, and that act will bring you joy as well.

Note that Scrooge and the Grinch are both portrayed as learning to love Christmas by bringing it to others.

[Bulldog Psion]

In my case, it doesn't feel like Christmas to me because I lack the funds to even think about decorating, or buying anyone gifts, or for that matter take a day off. Yes, I worked all day Christmas. :smallyuk: Which, I suppose, made it exactly like my birthday, since I worked all day then, too. :smallsigh:

Yes, I am griping and grumbling, thank you very much! :smallbiggrin:

[Mauve Shirt]

Yeah dude, you're just growing up and unable to maintain the sense of childlike wonder at shiny lights and wrapped presents.

[Gavran]

I'm seventeen if that's any indicator.

Yeah, sounds about right. I'm twenty two now and hardly register the holiday, but I still have memories of the joy I used to get just sitting in front of the tree playing music on those dumb strung bells with speakers.

Hopefully you can find a new adult joy in it, and if not, that's okay there are plenty of less ephemeral things in life to be happy about. (Though one can hardly have too many.)

[Knaight]

As described, it pretty much just sounds like aging to me. As regards more negative things in the world (you listed an awareness of politics and the domestic economy, but it's generally tons of issues), I've generally found that people get better at not always focusing on them. Sometimes this is detrimental, where people just shut themselves in and do nothing. Other times it's in the context of people who are actually doing things for others, but who also have leisure activities.

[Jay R]

You don't need funds to do something nice for somebody. Wash somebody's car, or clean the house, or scrub the bathroom. Give yourself - your own hands and your own work.

[Scarlet Knight]

My wife and I are in the medical profession; we have worked many a holiday when we couldn't get off. I remember my wife crying when she worked her first Christmas after our marriage. I went to the hospital, spent time with her during lunch, and reminded her how happy the patients were to have someone caring for them when they were so sick.

It doesn't take away the sting, but it makes it hurt less.

For Pallelendro, 17 is such a great age; the world holds so much potential. Allow yourself to look forward to Christmas with a purpose.

Musical? Join the Church choir. Artistic? Local pagents. Organized? Help the food banks gather supplies.

You'll find your niche and help make the world better, at least for one day. That's what happened at Belleau Wood. Imagine the courage that first soldier had to step out of the trench to exchange a Christmas present, hoping some sniper doesn't kill him. Sure , WWI was back the next day, but for one day, no one died.

[Mauve Shirt]

Indeed. As you age, Christmas may become more like a chore than it did when you were young. But you will find it still a rewarding holiday, I think, if you turn it into a chore that helps other people. Something as simple and personal as cooking a meal for your family, or as far-reaching as running a charity drive or feeding the homeless. You can learn to revel in the happiness of others.
Some people have told me that feeling happy vicariously is a selfish thing to do, but to those whose holidays are brightened by my actions I don't think it matters.

[Jay R]

Hey, PallElendro:

I hope you have a Happy New Year, and good luck on a Merry Christmas next year!