Seasons Ungreeting
Telegraph: New year is busy time for divorce lawyers
Divorce lawyers are expecting their busiest day of the year today as the pressure of Christmas and the New Year holidays finally blows rocky marriages apart.
I’m sure almost everyone can relate to this, whether you were married or in a long-term relationship. It truly sucks how much pressure there is on us in December to get into debt over Christmas gifts, disappointment over gifts received, endless family events to attend in a ridiculously tight space of time, and of course the pressure to have the best night ever on New Years Eve. Its no wonder many of us breathe a heavy sigh of relief on the 1st of January that its over, or have huge earth shattering arguments over stupid things and that drink you so badly needed just to chill out.
This year my mom and Jeremy canceled Christmas and New Years, and I envied them for having the guts to do it. Personally I’d like to just get away, far far away, somewhere remote in the woods perhaps, with no access to any form of telephone, and to make it a habit every year.
All that said, our little family did have a wonderful Yule, the various Christmas obligations were hectic but it didn’t burn me out like other years, and we had a rather non-eventful, slightly disappointing New Years but full of love and happiness. Still though… I couldn’t help feeling like I’d narrowly averted disaster or something, like I feel every year when it didn’t go pear shaped. It always amazes me when I make it through without cracking under the pressure or doing something highly regrettable.
Further to my growing hoard of posts in pursuit of happiness, I would like to start ChristmasIsCancelled.org, a movement to inspire everyone who has been directly and adversely affected by the season to get rid of this man-made consumerism fiasco once and for all. Wouldn’t you secretly love it if you never saw Santa again?
Ms. Wakame
What a great idea!!!! I couldnt believe how the truck was filled with crap just days after christmas to give to charity. I felt overwhelmed and nauseated by it. I felt guilty for ‘wasting’ all that stuff… its a horrible feeling and goes completely against so many of my core beliefs.
I totally value handmade gifts over expensive ones any day. The blanket you lovingly handstitched for me is the bees knees and is by far my favourite gift of all. I treasure it and love wrapping myself up in it every day.
I dont know what we’re going to do this year about christmas and T’s birthday extravaganza since we wont have the space in our RV for all that junk or even a tiny bit of it. Maybe we can encourage the relatives to club together to get the family a gift that we can actually use as part of the trip in some way. It might even spark off a new tradition that Laurie could get into every year. Oh I long for a breakthrough in somehow getting our message across to some of the most obsessive gift givers in the family.
von nathan
Yeah, that was the idea behind Yule in a lot of ways… as a kid I always really loved Christmas, because it was a singular morning thing that our family would wake up to and spend most of the day hanging out at our own house, then maybe visiting some very nearby relatives.
But back then I only had one mom/one dad. Now, with our own chillun who’s got, literally, three grandmothers and grandfathers, [and that’s only counting those in the US 🙂 ], who live 80 miles away from eachother and all vying for his company, it’s just no fun to do Xmas anymore. Not to mention that the endless piles of plastic shit and ugly sweaters or knick knacks that we end up with, Xmas is more of a loading up on the garbage holiday than anything else.
I really enjoyed, this year, the handmade gifts that a few people gave me. I’d rather get one handmade gift from only one person every year than anything else. There should at least be a “do not gift” list registry that you could sign up for. 🙂