I'll be interested to see what your thoughts are.

I think the origins of 'Thanksgiving' is full of crap. But I usually just keep that part to myself. Most retailers have taken the Christ out of Christmas (xmas), so no Tis really not the season to be jolly for me anymore.

actually i get very depressed at x-mas. yes, its all about the "gifts"..at least it feels that way when i visit my relatives.

I am trying not to stress too much. I want to stay home & make a small dinner..I dont want to Visit (hubby has a large family) but i will if i have to.

Im not spending as much $$ this yr on gifts.
sorry...dont mean to sound like the grinch..lol

Dayclear said:

I agree, Christ has definitely been taken out of Christmas. Christmas, to me, has become waaaay too commercialized for my taste. But, what can a person do?

sonic said:

No need to apologize, I agree with you. I don't even want gifts at Christmas anymore, to be honest. Eating my mom's excellent home-cooked meal () and getting the chance to spend with my family is all I really need. My three older brothers all make a 6-figure income, so buying gifts for them seems useless, in my honest opinion. With the kind of money they make, if they want/need something they just go out and buy it. All of the adults in my family put their names into a bowl, and everybody draws a name from it, which helps. At least now we're not buying gifts for everyone in our family, like we used to do. But it still is a pain trying to figure out what to buy them. Half of the time, we buy each other gift cards, because we have no idea what to buy each other. I homestly get the most enjoyment out of watching my nephews and niece opening their gifts on Christmas. Seeing their faces as they open a much-wanted gift is good enough for me. I really wish the adults would stop buying gifts (I have told my mom this). But my mom and oldest brother have the, "It's Christmas, we NEED to buy each other gifts", mentality. I honestly don't know when or if I'll be able to change their minds about that.

Of course it's commercialized, but everything else in life is as well so why not?

I love it. It's my favorite time. My family is not all that big and we really enjoy being together above and beyond the gifts (which I love giving).

After about a week I'm ready for everyone to get the hell out my house.

oh my...that is one thing i wish my MIL would STOP doing is buying me gifts.
I dont want to sound ungrateful, but she buys clothes the wrong size (on sale) so i cant return them. & her taste is sooo different from mine. I need to work on telling her "dont buy for me"

i use to love watching the kids open thier stuff too...but at my MILs house there are between 7-10 small kids & its total CHAOS...
most of them dont even remember who gave what to whom afterwards. so why do i go to so much trouble choosing the "perfect gift"?

things are gonna change...

psychodelicide said:

I looooove the holidays! I don't get caught up in the grind tho.

I love entertaining and talking thru the night with friends and family I haven't seen much all year... laughing until we're crying... it's such a great time to reconnect and reminisce.

We don't focus on gifts so much, we focus on each other and all of the blessings of life as we wind out the year.

I have to say that I absolutely love love love buying for my son tho. It is an honor, joy and privilege to find THE perfect gift for him on holidays!

johnart said:

Christmas seems to be the most commercialized, out of all of the holidays. Shoot, they start showing Christmas commercials in October, and they never used to do that. I would be ready to have my guests to go home if they spent a week at my place as well. Luckily, I live in a small condo, so that isn't possible. When my older brothers and their families come into town, they stay at my parent's house.

sonic said:

That's terrible that your MIL buys you clothes in the wrong size, and then you can't return them. My sister-in-law has a HUGE family, and she invites my mom and me over to her mom's house on Christmas day. But I don't like going there, because as you said, when there are that many kids running around, it is total chaos. I've lost track as to how many little kids there are in that family, but there are alot. Kids do tend to forget who got them which gifts. I think they're interested in the gifts, more than anything else.

slimhustle said:

I wish my family would do that, instead of feeling the need to buy gifts. It would make things easier. I do understand the joy in finding your child the perfect gift. If I had a child, I would feel the same way.

i could give a damn

Cuddles said:

i totally need your autograph!

It's just another meal.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It's just like Christmas, but without the obnoxious need to buy/give/receive gifts and without all the religious bullshit. Can't we just get together for every holiday and have a nice meal and togetherness without the other crap? Bugs the hell out of me when people start putting up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. And I really hate when we start talking about the importance of Black Friday before Thanksgiving. It's getting to the point where Thatnksgiving is just a roadbump to the next opportunity to spend a bunch of cash on stupid shit no one really needs, and Black Friday has become the real holiday.

I find it interesting the ones who do all the complaining about the overcommercialism of it are the men in my family, they don't lift a finger to help out in the decorating, catering or the gift-buying, yet every year they complain about it all, and yet should the women stop passing down the traditions, the men would surely complain about that too.
We usually do secret santa with both families, so we get 2 presents to value of $50 each. My sister won't be able to participate this year due to financial hardship, so there won't be gift exchanging on my side of the family this year, which I think is great for my spoilt kids

The way we celebrate is usually cooking our respective customary christmas foods (swedish/argentinian) and that kind of doesn't buy into the commercial way of doing it as my supermarket keeps suggesting to me.

So for us personally, no, we don't go into any debt or craziness like that, but I hear all the time of people that do, swept away in a buying frenzy.

Too commercial...
Xmas is stressful when you work in retail

slimhustle said:

you just reminded me, the best presents that got the best response were gifts I gave my parents that I made myself, one year I wrote and illustrated a book about my dad, and another me and the master recorded a CD of Christmas carols
http://www.myspace.com/av...ychristmas with a difference - since the family that farts together stays together, and it was very timely, since my sister's partner that year let one slip out by accident for the first time in front of us and my parents said "welcome to the family!"

errant said:

Co-sign!!!

Thanksgiving was always my favourite holiday when I lived in the states.

errant said:

Why need a holiday to begin with?

errant said:

Have you not heard of the importance of Black Wednesday???

Cuddles said:

ask me when i'm not hungover...

errant said:

i enjoy the holiday season!

sonic said:

I'm not either. And it's both because of lack of funds this year and also the fact that I just don't have the energy in finding out what people want. I'm sending out Christmas cards instead. The only people I got gifts for was my mother and my boyfriend. I had a little bit more cash to squeeze out to give my grandparents. But thats about it. Times are hard.

i do festivus. so in lieu of presents, i give out donations cards for 'the human fund.'

Christ is all good in my book but his mass makes me wanna
yeah i'm a total grinch and don't buy anybody anything anymore. My income's not so great these days so my loved ones don't need shit from me that they could buy themselves or plain go without like the rest of us

Xmas should just be a 2nd thanksgiving all nice and cozy... and tasty

poetcorner61 said:

Not a big fan.

- I suck at finding appropriate gifts.
- There is always an argument of some sorts when the family meets up.
- I am a non believer, so I feel funny when I celebrate the birth of something I don't believe in
- I get older. I was born on Dec 25. Guess who always takes the cake :-/