Is there anything about the Holiday Season that makes you feel blue?

Well I’m in 30+°C heat. It never feels like Christmas to me in December. I grew up in the Northern hemisphere. Also, I miss family that have died. Not that I’m going around like the Christmas grinch or anything. I just bung on the Christmas spirit for everyone around me.

People that don’t have families to spend Christmas with. I know a few people that have no one. That makes me sad. We try to take some of them in, but we can’t get them all.

The Christmas pizza or Chinese food alone. Well at least I get to choose my toppings without sharing.

Missing my mother who passed away just after Christmas last year. I’m having a hard time getting excited for the holiday.

The fact that we don’t have many of the holidays the US celebrate, and winter is my busiest time.

That things can’t ever stay the same for more than a little while.

Snowflakes, cookies, Christmas Trees and candles make up for that. I’m feeling very christmassy this year!

Just about everything this year. I won’t be with any family members, although I was lucky enough to have them for Thanksgiving.

^ I do so hope you’ll enjoy your Christmas despite that, @janbb. Hugs!

^^ ditto @longgone‘s comment. I hope Christmas is surprisingly wonderful for you @janbb.

Also having every Christmas repeat over and over again on television… I seriously want that Home Alone kid to get it on Robot Chicken.

My best friend killed himself a week before Christmas, so that pretty much changed it for me.

Every year, I am never ready for Christmas because I’m usually busy working and have little free time for decorating, wrapping, baking, writing cards and just enjoying doing things. I admire the families in magazines that sit and do cards by the fireplace, decorate in their nice Christmas clothes, bake cookies, wrap presents using wonderfully colorful ribbon and paper with clever wrapping ideas, and do cute Christmas crafts with the kids. That’s all nice, but it’s never me. Once Christmas is over and I do take a few days off or a week off, decorating, wrapping, crafts and all that stuff doesn’t matter any more, until next year.

What makes me blue is thinking about all the children whose parents can’t afford to make the holidays special for them and give the the kind of happy memories I’m so fortunate to have.

I have a lot of sadness around the holidays. Most of it is if they do not live up to the fantasy in my mind. I have cut it down in recent years by simplifying decorations, plans, and expectations.

Rarely I feel blue or empty around the holidays. I think partly because the holidays weren’t a big to do in my house growing up. I don’t have huge expectations around the holiday season so there isn’t much disappointment.

I do like to visit with friends or family during the holidays, but if my husband and I just stay home it’s fine too. I guess if he was gone for some reason I would feel an emptiness. The thing about Christmas isn’t so much that I don’t have something fabulous happening in my home or with friends and family, it’s that outside on the streets it is basically a ghost town and you know everyone else is “doing” something. It’s like being in prison. Nowhere to go, nothing to do. If you choose to stay home on a Monday and do nothing but catch up and rest it is a luxury, but if you have no choice in the matter and feel stuck at home it’s awful. That’s what Christmas can be like, because it isn’t a normal business day.

As a child Christmas Day was very boring for me and weirdly silent. As an adult I just take whatever the day is without much expectation. It’s still weirdly silent though.

Tits, poor little birds all freezing & hungry like that. Makes me wanna hold them & squeeze them :(

^ Tits and boobies?

This is the time of year that I miss my mom the most. She has been gone for 20 years and I still get hit with sadness as Christmas approaches.

As much as I love my husband’s family, it’s just not the same as being with mine.

I did charity work in a church this week, where we collect small change for people who have no money. People are a lot more generous than I gave them credit for. One guy alone gave forty bucks, some others gave 20’s, I recieved a lot of fives, elderly women dumped their entire change in my collection can.
It kinda warms your heart to see all that happen, but at the same time it’s extremely fucking depressing that a cause like the one I was at has to exist.

On the first day I was serving food to people in the church, they’re all poor, some are mentally ill, they don’t have nice clothes and there were a lot of kids. This sure as hell isn’t the first time I see poverty first hand, I mean we all see it every day. But Christmas serves as a reminder since it’s the time of year where people help and give the most. And do you think I’m mentioning my charity work just so I’ll look all awesome? Fuck no, because just like everyone else when the work is done I go home and no more shits are being given, and all those people are still gonna be poor.

It makes me feel bad, but wtf am I supposed to do. Christmas reminds me that if poverty is such an issue for me as I claim it to be, I’d do charity work all year round, at least.