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[CLKD]

It's easier sometimes when family live close by .......... or it can be a drag visiting every home in the village, as my DH has 5 aunts/uncles and various cousins: another reason not to tell them we are 'there' 

[Oldteen]

We all have different viewpoints don't we? Some of us have a problem over the stress of visiting relatives or having them visit, and others ( like me) would love to have lots of family to visit and be visited by!

[honeybun]

I have given my children my full permission to take me out and shoot me if I get to be like my mother 

I think all they will have to say to me is "remember Gran" and that will stop me in my tracks.

Honeyb
x

[Taz2]

I wish I still had aunts and uncles and parents alive to visit. Each year I seem to miss them more!

Taz x

[Suzi Q]

To all who moan and are unhappy about rellies at Xmas here goes unless they are abso rotten nasty then I understand
If its all just a chore  for you and you wish it was diff THEN try 32 Xmases with no family nothing billy no mates
Xmas eve is dead in Ozz Xmas everythings shuts early
Xmas day nothing is open no pubs clubs nothing hardly any rest are open
If they do have the odd one doing Xmas lunch its 12/4 at the most and approx 150 pounds for 2 adults and 1 child
Its hot lonely sad all the memories of Xmases past come flowing back people you miss times oyu had
\Let knowone play Last Xmas or Slade death will ensue I hate it I think of my MUM my brother Nan Gag Unlces and Auts some living some dead all enjoying Xmas together the Pub Xmas eve daning away to Sla\de
British legion after for a closed house Xmas lunch down the local entire family then dinner for 30 and at nightime
Everyone out xmas finery spending money on discos and pubs but fun happiness joy even just for 3 days
Here Xmas eve we go to lunch with Son and Dinlaw for an hiour or so then we are alone
Xmas day Lunch with son and dinlaw till 4pm then we are alone Boxing days fine parties and cinemas but those 2 days
Id give anything to have DR Whos Tardis just to come home be with MY family still Im alive we are all healthy
And I have more than many and after yeatserday my pal beinbg diagnosed with Ovarian cancer even writing this
Makes me feel ashamed of myself but I cant help it its true
So I took t Xmas in hand Xmas eve night out to dinner and dtinks with another couple and my pal whos hubbie died
Xmas lunch taking it all over to dinlaw and sons eating there so we get out fair share of time Bobbles not happy BUT!
\Xmas night my pal whs hubbie died ios coming over for Xmas dinner in the evening we will chat play ganes (ok bit hard for 3 but we will do it) she will stop over night with us Boing day been invited to a ULY pals home for the afternoon evening so Ive done all I can to keep ocupied and enjoy it just had to graspo it

[lady57]

Honeybun that is how i feel too but i hope i still have my powers of reasoning to understand it, my grandmother lost all powers of reasoning quite early on, since reading here about other ladies mothers i suspect she was also a narcissist or a sociopath and couldn't or wouldn't see the world from any perspective but her own, other people were simple unimportant except to serve her and i have been told in the past i can be a lot like her which is something i struggle with daily to overcome 

[Elena]

Pixie I agree - bad memories surface this time of year.  I wish it wish could just be ONE day but there's all the build up, then the day itself, then the no-man's land week before New Year.

Also the feeling that I get is that come January we have nothing but freezing cold miserable weather to look forward to for 3 months...

[pixie]

Its not always bad memories, sometimes they are lovely memories too, but it just all seems to get stirred up at this time of year! Some of it is a bit wistful, and a feeling of harking back to yester year, when things were more simple and more innocent perhaps!
I went into a well know supermarket today, and they were playing that song by David Essex - A winter's tale.  Everyone looked so glum trudging around with their over full trolleys of food and snappy customers at the checkouts!  Somehow we have lost the true meaning of it all somewhere along the way, whatever it does mean to us all! Its a reflective time, when I tend to remember some of the people i have spent it with and its probably the only time of year i think of them! It becomes a series of xmas's all rolled into one.  I did go to a Vitorian Christmas, down the road, where they were all dressed up and preparing mulled wine and mince pies, carols, etc and got chatting to some of the volunteers there.It was actually very relaxing and unpretentious.  I like the traditions, its just all the hype, gluttony, and buying excessively expensive rubbishy gifts I can't bear and the huge debt afterwards. Its all the same tat in boxes!  Most people don't appreciate it anyway. x

[Oldteen]

Quite right Pixie, and I don't see why I should spend all my hard-earned money supporting the economy of China!

[Suzi Q]

YOu see nothing like that in Ozz
Its a Christian country dont get me wrong but its also our June and Xmas holiday time as in UK summer
So people are doing street house lights but you never see a Xmas tree in the window they are out back of the house
People spend more money on summer clothes or TVs etc you dont see the same type of crowds shopping for toys
You all dislike it and I understand but at leaset it feel Xmasy seems Xmas deccies up wvery where here almost non
Heaps of people go away on holidays before Xmas or go Boxing day so its quite normal to have loads of empty homes
School holidays start next FRiday till about 25th Jan so its all go go go for summer holidays Xmas gets a bit lost
No carol singers never seen any in my 32 years We have Church functions for caroles or in Parks Carols by Candleight
All in all Xmas is pretty much a NON event but its so hot today it was 41C =111F and its what 3rd day of Summer!

[Oldteen]

If it wasn't for the heat I'd be signing up to emigrate to Oz right now!

This country is a Christian country on the surface, but how many people truly are Christian?They may say they are because they're English/white and were baptised and married in church ( and let's face it, how many choose  a church wedding  just for the show?) but how many attend church on a regular basis? How many attend at Easter and Christmas? Very few. And Christmas has very little to do with true Christianity nowadays anyway. Have a look at card shops. They have a small section labelled off for "religious" cards as most people don't buy that kind.

I don't follow any religion by the way; I lean towards Humanism.

[Elena]

I agree with all that too Pixie, and Bob.  It's the ridiculous expectations people build up about Christmas and the fact that it is all based on what you will spend and what you will get and what you will eat.

I also hate being EXPECTED to feel happy just because it is a  particular day.  I would like to just keep it very low-key and then move on swiftly.

[Joyce]

The money supermarket guy, Martin Lewis, was saying that too much pressure is put on us at this time of year to buy presents for all & sundry.  I only buy for family and that's expensive enough.  But many buy for friends too and they then feel obliged to buy in return.  Money woes at this time of year can cause the blues too.

I don't mind Christmas, but oh boy I don't like the New Year.  Been that way since my mid teens, in fact I can remember the year it hit me 1971! I was sitting watching the usual TV programmes and suddenly felt this wave of sadness and I've been the same every year since.

[littleminnie]

I don't like the new year much either. Don't like the first few weeks of the new year much either, all the shops are trying to get rid of their Christmas stock. Much prefer the beginning of Feb when all the spring/summer clothes come in and you know Spring is coming.

[Oldteen]

Yes Cubagirl, I know that "wave of sadness" at New Year all too well. A couple of years ago when I was in the throes of meno symptoms I sat there sobbing through most of New Year's Eve!