Gift giving.
We do it all year.

Getting drunk and calling each other names.

Pinning the tail on the incapacitated uncle.

You know, what we have going on now, I’m cool with (I don’t have a least favorite tradition). Actually, there are a few things that we did, say 10 years ago, (cutting down our own tree, visiting certain relatives) and those traditions have since died. I miss doing all of that.

We don’t do it anymore, but caroling.

Standing infront of a crowd of people I don’t know while trying to remember what the seven swans are supposed to do = the fifth circle of hell for me.

Eating fruit cake.

erichw1504 That was a great answer!! I’m still laughing!!

My family does not celebrate Christmas; but, I still feel able to comment having dated and now being married to someone who was raised in a Christmas celebrating family. The most annoying part of Christmas is the gift part. Not far behind is any guilt doled out if you do not travel to be with everyone for Christmas.

Cutting down a live tree to hang some crap on.

I don’t like how holiday songs clog up ALL the radio stations from Thanksgiving til Jan 1st.

Call me nuts, but on Christmas day (which is usually “chill” day for me), I just want to curl up and listen to soft rock…not Christmas crap.

Staying up all night, waiting for Santa to land on my roof.

He never came!

Skinning the opossum.

Putting up the beachball sized wad of Christmas lights.

I don’t know, I tend to like them all. I guess I miss that we don’t get a real tree anymore. :(

Call be a humbug, but writing Christmas cards

Hanging up lights.

The lighting of the yule frog, always seems kinda sadistic but thats what i was always told to do

The “Running of the Bulls” at the shopping center ;)

all of it I would never say this to anyone but it is very true. I hate having to fake that I like it. =Z Once the last child is out of the nest I will be able to celebrate it how I want. No decorations, no shopping, and no baking..It is just too much work and stress!

Killing a baby tree. Traveling to spend a week with people I moved to avoid being with. Spending money I don’t have on crap they don’t want. The incessant arguements over which group owns Christmas and why no one else is allowed to enjoy it. And then having to pack away boxes of teeny, tiny pretty things that I only unpacked two weeks earlier.

But I love the joy of the season. The kids faces. The lights and the glitter and the music that inspires a feeling of comraderie.
Taken as a whole, it isn’t so bad!

The mad rush to buy gifts…. everyone worrying about what to get who… the crowded stores. People put way too much emphasis on gift giving. It gets out of hand. It should be a time when people concentrate on spending time with friends and family… not spending so much money.

xmas cake and pudding….if they were tasty we’d eat them all year round…we dont ergo they arnt that great

I like everything about Christmas except dinner at my grandmother’s house. The rest of the Christmas gathering is rather nice, because it’s a lot more casual- sitting in the living room sipping on wine or hot chocolate, eating hors d’oeuvres and cookies, and opening presents.

The dinner itself is really good food, but my grandmother insists on spending two days cooking the whole thing by herself from scratch. I’m not sure that she even likes doing this, maybe she feel that she has to or she’ll let everyone down. She is an amazing cook. There is way too much food, but you have to try one of everything and reassure her multiple times that it’s really good or she’ll look crestfallen. The meal is very formal and my older relatives usually grill me on what’s going on in my life during this time. I wish we could have a more casual holiday potluck and defray some of the tension. Then there’s just so much running around. I have another dinner with my mom’s relatives, and a third that’s usually at a fancy steakhouse with my stepmom’s family, and most years her family also has a huge gathering at one of their houses with a million kids everywhere.

We do have other traditions that are really nice. They live in a rich neighborhood that’s basically all huge houses on beautiful wooded grounds, and the neighbors go all out decorating. It’s unreal. So after dinner when we’re all feeling stuffed and drowsy, we drive around looking at all the lights.

Since my nuclear interfaith family decided entirely on our own how we want to celebrate Christmas, it’s one of the few holidays that has no downside for me. The Christmas season however is highly annoying; it goes on way too long and way too loud.

The airing of Grievances. Oh, wait….that’s Festivus.

Caroling. My kids want to go caroling. I would feel like the most ridiculous person on the planet if I were to bang on my neighbors doors during their relaxing evening only to humiliate myself by yodeling poorly sung off key christmas songs. I had to tell them no. I can’t bring myself to do it..

The feats of strength! The Festivus is not over until the feats of strength are done!