I find Christmas to be very tiring and the comercialization of this holiday drives me crazy. Our Christmas meant driving 8-10 hours each way. I would gladly skip the holiday entirely. It is a hassle.....for me anyway. I am just so thankful I don't have to hear any more Christmas music.....

I have had a real bad case of the bah humbugs for the past two years. It started the year my own quilt store closed. That was a real difficult year. Then we decided to change locations and moved to be nearer to our daughter and granddaughter. That was a difficult change for me, more than I thought it would be. So last year was as bad as the year before. This year I just could not get into the Christmas spirit at all. My daughter finally told me I had to decorate. My granddaughter said she would come and decorate for me. Once we actually bought a tree and brought up all the decorations, I started getting into it all. It has been a good year. I do not have the bah humbugs. One thing that helped get me there was making a Christmas quilt for me. I finished it two days before Christmas. It is really pretty and makes me happy. Yeah. I am better. Thanks to quilting and of course my daughter.

I guess I'm different. I love the Christmas season, the music, the shows on tv and making candy. Made lots of chocolate covered cherries. I love all the kids coming in on Christmas eve, church services and just setting around and visiting. We don't buy for the adults just the 3 little grandkids. We play bingo on Christmas eve so the older grandkids get lots of gifts that way. I start buying gifts for bingo right after Christmas so that when Christmas comes there is plenty to pick from. The adults and older grandkids love it. So its a blessing to be with family.

People keep encouraging me to set up one of the Etsay shops, but I already found out that the people here in Florida who have anything to do with small businesses are just PLAIN NUTS! When I lived up in Missouri, I had a sale tax number, and bought yarn and craft items wholesale. I did not have to pay an intangible tax on my equipment. My equipment pretty much was the same thing I used down here....a set of crochet hooks, ran me $6. I got down here, already had yarn from up north, so decided to go ahead and do a small business. Got a sales tax number, and subjected myself to the most stupid people on earth. I was driven nuts by some idiot in the INTANGIBLE TAX department who just could not grasp the concept of crocheting, with crochet hooks, value $6, no other equipment required. Duh. I finally just sent the tax number back with a photo of the hooks, and a nasty note. I am sure that I could sell my stuff, no problem. I just can't deal with stupid.

I love Christmas, love the season - especially since we live in Florida and I don't have to deal with the cold, snow and ice. I put up 5 trees this year, one 6 ft, two 3 ft, three 2 ft, lol. I would have had another 6 ft, but I forgot I had donated one to the Salvation Army. My dh bought one for next year, lol. I used to make loads of cookies for everyone, but I can't have that sugar, and since the family is up north, I gave them the recipes a few years ago to make them for themselves, lol. THat shipping of cookies gets right expensive. I own an extensive collection of Christmas movies, and love to watch them. I also drag them all out in July and watch them, lol.

It's the nice that I like. Even the meanest people lighten up this time of the year, and there are more smiles than frowns. Even tho Congress only deserved coal in their stockings, the rest of the country made an effort to get along for the holidays. I would like to see the Christmas spirit last 365 days a year.

I see a lot of you talking about spouses or yourself being depressed this time of year, and also see that a lot of you are up north. My son, who lives in Missouri, was Scrooge incarnate, until I told my dil that he was most likely suffering from seasonal depression, a very real problem, caused by the decrease in sunlight this time of year. A lot of the quilters have small versions of just what you need....the ott lights.

I had her get a couple of work shop lights and install the wide spectrum florescent lights in them. It has to be the wide spectrum, because that it just like natural sunlight. I used to use them to raise flowers. His office was down in the basement, so she hung them down there. He thought I was full of bologna, but dear old mom knew of what she spoke. They had used this same technique in schools where kids were having disruptive behaviour problems from not being able to be out in the sunshine.

Well, goodbye Scrooge. No more depression, and he enjoys the holidays now, and is far more pleasant to deal with in the winter time, which is pretty darn dreary up there....and so is the spring, aka Monsoon season. So think about it.

I agree Nanamoms that commercialism has taken the joy out of Christmas.
Christmas is my favourite time of the year next to Spring, although it remains the most favourite for me. Over the past few years, say 3 or 4 it has been a chore mainly because we are not settled ourselves. I need to get back my Christmas Mojo and become a bit more organized so this New Year I am planning on making at least one gift item or set of items per month from Jan through to Nov. I don’t like to buy gifts too soon so have planned to start buying one item per week from 1st week in August until beginning of November.
These days I favour made items more than bought as I fight back against commercialism and I try to stay away from the shops in the lead up to and through the holidays. It is up to us to sit down with our families, discuss our dislike of the commercial aspects of the season, say no to them and change. Little by little you will again find your Christmas Mojo.

Thank you JayCee (and Rosyhf, along with a few others with positive responses to this thread)! I was getting seriously depressed reading one negative post after another, then yours came along and made my day!

Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas. Seriously, without Him, there would be no holiday called Christmas. What we do beyond celebrating that birth is of our own doing. If during the season we become over-worked, over-tired, and over-spend, we have no one to blame but ourselves. If you made choices that caused this Christmas season to overwhelm you, I suggest you make a deal with yourself that next year you will remember the reason for the season and forget all the other things that tire you out, bring you down and drain your bank account. And then next year at this time, hopefully you will be saying "Oh, it all ended too soon. I LOVED the Christmas season this year!" :) :)