I really don't like getting presents in company. I'm an Autist and don't react as people would expect, so masking sets in which is very stressful.

You're not alone in hating Christmas, though for me it's different: it's the stress of having to celebrate, be happy, and get people presents. I don't want to be forced to or pretend to be happy, I have nothing to celebrate, and if I want to give someone a present I don't need to wait for Christmas (and if I don't want to give a present, I shouldn't be required to).

Basically, Christmas is just another way to make people spent a lot of money with the pretense of it being "the happiest time of the year" (for someone else).

I had the right not to be happy, don't mandate that I should be happy during Christmas.

I decided long ago that Christmas and birthdays just wasn't for me. Easy enough when I live alone.

I don't decorate, don't eat anything out of the ordinary, don't dress up. It's just a normal day, that passes without much ado. Hate is too strong a word, I just ignore it.

i hate having to come up with ideas on what to buy for people who already have everything. all just because we are brainwashed by capitalism

the same shitty Xmas playlist over and over all day.

This pretty much sums it up. Music is a big part of my life, and to hear it be so... corporate and someone-has-a-case-of-the-mondays vibed makes me sick.

I just hate the consumerism of it all. Gift giving shouldn't be or feel to be obligatory, it should just be something extra and unexpected.

I don't hate Christmas, but it's a holiday that relies on tradition and I derive no joy from traditions. The whole "we're doing this because it's been done every previous year of our life" schtick just rubs me wrong. I recognise that for some people there is comfort in tradition. For me however it feels more like indoctrination.

It's shameless corporate horse shit disguised as shameless religious horse shit.

So I'm going to preface with the fact that I don't hate Christmas. I thought I did for a long time but forced to actually stop and consider it, that's not an accurate statement.

However, I do object to a lot of how Christmas is portrayed and celebrated now (UK if that make a difference)

• it's a family affair: every TV program, every billboard, every commercial on the radio is telling you that this is a family occasion, a coming together. For those of us that are divorced or otherwise alone, it's a really fucking lonely time of year precisely because you're effectively being told from all angles that if you're not at the centre of a massive family celebration, you're a sad loser

• too long: it's one day, maybe one week if you can extend it all. For this we have to have 3 months of build up? It's too much, builds all the stress and makes the actual day unlikely to live up to the hype

• Music: saccharine Christmas music from November onwards. I have a playlist of music that I can stand and I listen to it occasionally (I'm listening to it now). So sorry to anyone working in retail who has to listen to it on repeat

• competitive: did you have the most lights? Most people round? Fanciest meal? Tell us all about it. Please, call in to the radio because we really care

• unchanging tradition: people who have to have it exactly as it was when they were young and force everyone else to conform to that singular vision

So over the last couple of years I've had time and space to focus on what do I want it to be and I've decided that for me Christmas is about: light and warmth and love.

I don't need anything else but pretty lights to look at, a warm house and the love of my family and friends. I now see Christmas cards as a little present, a bundle of love. I send them with a message because I'm saying that I love you with each one.

I've told my boys they don't need to buy me anything, just their presence is all I need to make me happy.

I make sure to focus on seeing my friends and making sure they know that I appreciate them.

This has all helped massively. I still get the lonely feeling - tonight I'll be by myself on Christmas Eve and that's hard, but I can concentrate on what it means to me and that helps loads.

• Forcing each other to give gift we can't afford to people that doesn't need them and probably will end up in a landfill in 2 years time. PD: It would be really interesting to research Christmas impact on the environment.

• Forcing each other to be appear to be happy when a lot of incredibly shitty shit is happening around the world. I'd rather call it Double blindfold holiday!

• Telling a mandatory lie to kids, that is effectively their forced introduction to a society that values and encourages deception and the disconnection from reality.

Fuck Christmas!!!

I genuinely hate the aesthetics of it. I can’t stand Christmas music or Christmas movies (the music especially is just so bad). The “Christmas episodes” TV shows run are so incredibly corny. I find the decorations to be tacky and ugly. I feel like I’m suffocated by so much cheap plastic crap that will be thrown away after the holidays.

I suppose that all wouldn’t be so bad if the “Christmas season” didn’t stretch out for so long. It’s now well underway before Thanksgiving, and I’m being conservative with that. That means at least 10% of the year - so 10% of my life, too - is spent under the Christmas regime.

But on a deeper level, I think it points to a real sickness in society. Capitalism has so thoroughly destroyed our real social connections to each other. It breaks those human bonds and creates atomized individuals who are only supposed to care about themselves. But that’s not who we are as a species - we are social creatures who have a couple hundred thousand years of cooperation with each other in order to survive.

On some level, capital “knows” ripping us away from our social being is not only unnatural, but atomizing us so thoroughly harms social reproduction. Christmas has become a way of resolving this problem. BUT, it’s capitalism… so the solution can’t be something like “give workers the month of December off so people can spend real quality time with each other”.

So capitalism has created this artificial holiday structure where “family”, “giving back”, and “what really matters” is centered, but it’s all done in the most superficial way possible. It’s all kabuki. Capital creates an imitation of social connection and still manages to make it about accumulating more capital. Spend money on presents. Don’t like the commercialism around presents? That’s ok, spend money on airfare or gas to see your family. Use up your meager PTO at the end of the year when it’s slow and costs your boss less. But I think getting workers to spend money is still just the secondary objective of Christmas. It’s much more about getting people to forget how deeply separated we are from each other. To pretend for at least 10% of the year that everything is normal, capitalism is normal and being disconnected from each other is normal so long as you watch a couple movies once a year that are supposed to remind you that “what really matters is family” - the feeling though, not the reality.

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

(Copying what I said on the lemmy.ml cross post because I’ve been thinking about this for a while and want to get it out).

1. Deep down I'm still an edgy militant atheist, and really want nothing to do with religious celebrations.

2. The only things I really want are things I'm not realistically going to be gifted. No one's going to buy and install a new heater/windows/deck for me for Christmas, or pay down my credit card, etc. I have too much junk already, I have all the clothes I need, I don't really need more snacks in the house, and I'm pretty much set up with everything I need/want for my hobbies. I don't need gifts. Inevitably I'm going to get a bunch of junk I don't need or want, and I'm gonna take it straight home and throw it out or donate it or otherwise I'm going to spend the next eternity shuffling around my house because I don't have anywhere to put it.

3. I'm probably a bit autistic or maybe just a bit dead inside, so even on the rare occasion I get a gift I'm really excited about I don't really have much of a reaction to it, which I feel is disappointing to the people giving it to me.

4. I really hate decorating and then having to take it all down a month or so later, having to haul all this crap down from the attic and then back up again is a real drag. It's part of the reason I get a real tree, it's easier to just strap it back onto my roof and haul it to my friend's house to burn in their fire pit (which is very cathartic) than to try to wrestle it back up the ladder. My wife likes it, so I suffer through it, I just wish she'd do more of the work.

5. I don't want to spend money. I have things I want to save for and dropping a couple hundred bucks on presents isn't helping that. I don't mind getting people gifts if it's something I think they really need or wound like, but thats usually not why I'm buying them stuff for Christmas, I'm getting them stuff because I feel obligated to get them something.

6. Family gatherings suck. As far as families go mine isn't too bad, I'd even say I kind of like most of them, but getting all of them in the room together and having to spend most of the day with them is too much. There's too many people, it's too loud, and while they're generally all good people, I don't really have enough in common with most of them to make it worth the aggravation, they're best enjoyed in small doses. My wife's family is smaller and quieter, which would be great, except they want the gathering to go on all day, my wife is bringing stuff over to make breakfast and it sounds like they plan to keep things going until at least dinner, so thats probably gonna be a 12+ hour ordeal when you figure in the time it takes to go over the river and through the woods to grandmothers house. Also, most of our family just aren't great cooks, and even if they were there are some picky eaters in the family, so family meals are pretty lackluster. I think my wife's family's dinner plans are a stouffers lasagna. Luckily I have to work this year so I have a good excuse not to go.

7. Christmas music can be good, but not the stuff that's been piped into every single fucking store I've had to go to for the last month, and I'm sick of it.

8. This is mostly just a me-problem, but I have way too much shit going on this time of year. My anniversary is in November, then thanksgiving which we usually do with my father in law who's about an hour away, my wife's birthday, my mom's birthday, christmas even which is usually with my family, usually about 45 minutes away depending on who's hosting, Christmas day is usually with my mother in law about an hour away, and then after that I usually host a new years eve party and between work and holiday obligations it's kind of crazy trying to get my house ready for that.

9. I work in 911 dispatch, we always get some really crazy/sad calls around this time of year. I deal with it just fine personally, but it doesn't exactly put me in a holly jolly mood.

10. I don't know, I made it this far and just kind of wanted to leave it on a nice round number I guess... Maybe I find tinsel distracting?

I can't be happy anymore and nothing contrasts being happy as a kid with how hollow you are now like the holidays. It also highlights how much of a nonfunctional piece of shit I am because I'm terrible at getting people presents just like I'm terrible at doing anything, so in addition to hating myself for that I also get to feel anxious about it the whole time and then hate myself when people get me things and I haven't gotten them things. I'm also really hate christianity so all the religious songs drive me insane. All in all it's completely fucking miserable and I do my best not to show any of it to anyone because I don't want to ruin the holidays for them.

The constant bombastic music is absolutely terrible. Jingle jingle jingle jazzy jazzy BELLS BELLS BELLS BELLS DING DANG DONG And remember, if you complain, it means you don't want any presents this year!!

Also it's MERRY CHRISTMAS not HAPPY HOLIDAYS even though there's advent, christmastide, St John's Day, St. Nicholas Day, all those funny South American holidays, all Christian holidays celebrated at this time that are not Christmas. But JESUS is the reason for the season.

Christmas is fine in moderation. The problem I have with Christmas is that people try to stretch Christmas out to have it take over other parts of the year.

I also feel like Christmas is the holiday that requires the most work and I'm not a fan of holidays that require me to do a lot.

i hate the ultra consumerist version and the jesus version for different reasons

All the individual small family units in my family have been married had kids, gotten divorced and most remarried with more kids. There are so many split families with kids that some years we end up having 6-8 family dinner get togethers just to make sure all the kids were included. And since it would be mortal sin to give a gift to one kid and not another even if you had given the other one the previous get together the kids get so much shit they actually get bored opening gifts. The whole thing is an over blown nightmare for everyone involved but the women in the family insist on it because Christmas is for the kids and we can't take a chance of a 4 year old feeling left out. I threw my hands up a few years ago and my wife handles it all. I just have to be her uber to all these events, watching bored over stimulated kids that want nothing more than to be home playing with their new stuff, being put on display as they open even more stuff.

My mom was the one who loved Christmas. She loved decorating and shopping and the music. She died in 2010 and it has never been the same. It might have been okay if we still had small children in our family but all her grandkids were grown up by the time she died. We didn't even have any kind of celebration the first few years after. So, Christmas died with her.

Driving... I hate driving. Because I live somewhat far from where the family gathers I get volunteered to be the family taxi and go all over long island picking up people. Turns an hour+ drive into 3 and then back doing it all over. Bleh.

My wife is determined to make it as stressful and chaotic as she can, and then spend the rest of the year complaining about how stressful and chaotic it was.

• Work is always busy with everyone rushing and demanding things so they can meet some arbitrary deadline for their time off.
• Supposedly the season of peace, love, caring but i see far more commercialism and selfish behavior.
• Gift giving is awkward. I don't feel worthy of receiving gifts. People spend too much on junk I don't need which oddly makes me feel bad for not being able to match that amount of spending. And it all just usually leaves me with a feeling that the people around me don't really know much about me.

Oh, and we can only be in one place... with family/in-laws in different places we always miss the ones we can't be with.

I worked retail for over a decade.

I didn’t grow up in a culture that put emphasis on Christmas, and so it’s a very tiny day to me. Meanwhile, my job comes to a standstill for a week about it, stores are selling merchandise for it three months in advance, and everyone I know is heavily invested in it. Since I didn’t grow up with Christmas, it’s hard to really appreciate what it’s about, since the whole tree-burglary-Jesus thing doesn’t have a clear message.

This was a tough year for us financially, so nearly everything for Christmas had to go on a credit card.

All through November and December, I had to choose between adding more to the debt or disappointing the kids. Logically, I know the right answer is "Don't spend more than you can afford" but I think any decent dad would agree that "Merry Christmas kids! Nobody gets anything they wanted because I'm a failure at providing for my family!" has to be pretty close to the bottom of acceptable options.

My wife always imagines a Norman Rockwell Christmas, and has big plans for what she'll cook and what games we'll play and how she'll decorate. She does a great job every time, but it's a lot. She stresses over being able to do it all, and any inevitable mishaps are catastrophic.

This year, I'm trying not to be a Scrooge, but it's a challenge.

It's all humbug!

I no long hate Christmas but many years ago I was a cleaner in a shopping mall food court. The food court was on the second floor and right below was a 40 piece brass band playing Christmas music on the weekend. The rest of the time the mall had the sound system cranked full. People had to yell as loud as they could to place food orders at the restaurants.

To the day, I still don't like that music.

Family drama. My brother is an absolute bellend. Conspiracy theorist and has been awful to mum these last few months

If there was no religious connotations and the gift giving shit was done away with I wouldn't mind.

I do like how entire communities get together and do the same things like light up the streets with Christmas lights and all follow a nice theme.

But I prefer Halloween due to the lack of religion and the only expectations are to give out candy to children.

Overplayed music. Everything revolving around spending money. Usually on things people don’t need or want. The food is great. And time off from work.

It's a religious holiday, and I am an atheist. It means absolutely nothing to me, but people try to make me feel guilty about disliking it.

Because it promotes Christianity

Christmas is just no fun for me. I get that it is (apparently) for other people and I don't begrudge them that but, as a childfree 40 something non-religious queer woman, I think it's kinda lame lol. I do love having time off from work though, so that's cool.

Obligatory gift giving is not at all my thing. I love getting thoughtful gifts for folks and I'm generous by nature, however, I don't care for being strong armed into it by arbitrary convention. I wish the emphasis was on charity rather than consumption and all the time, not just for a few performative weeks.

The commercialized religiosity of the holiday in the US gets increasingly grating for me. The narratives around the traditions are tired. It feels like being shouted at for months. I prefer the pagan roots of the thing and try to ignore the vulgarity of the current interpretation.

I like the idea of mailing gifts so that the recipient gets a fun surprise and the comfort of opening it in their own space, and on their own time, without an audience. So I just mail out fun little things, sometimes homemade, sometimes purchased, throughout the entire year to my loved ones and make no specific effort at Christmas time. Like, a Christmas present is all well and good, but it's also quite predictable. A gift that shows up on March 12th for no reason other than you're awesome and I love you feels much more thoughtful to me.

That it's so incredibly hyped up. You start hearing music and seeing ads and decorations for it too early. Black Friday is a complete shitshow.

Holiday travel sucks, and the possibility of shitty weather is rather high. I avoid traveling for holidays, but I've had to travel around Christmas for work and it is a mess.

The expectation of gift giving. I'm big into anti-consumption and don't want to buy or receive a bunch of junk. While this expectation is more of an annoyance to me, it has actual negative impact on people who are struggling financially.

It's become so commercialized. I'm not religious at all, but it's become a farce.

Cat died on christmas.

But also christmas music and consumerism and religion and insincerity and various intersections thereof. And my phone automatically capitalizes christmas no matter how many times I tell it to not do that.

I can like christmas, but I experience an adverse reaction to "Christmas". Call me a kringlephobe idc

Christmas at it's heart is a religious holiday, it deeply bothers me, to be immersed in Christian family values for what now seems to almost two months out of the year.

I've never been a member of the Judeo-Christian faiths, I didn't have a particularly good upbringing so I'm not really close with my family. I'm addition I don't have children and I have zero plans on becoming a parent. So in short, this holiday is not for me.

Then to add insult to injury and you have the blatant consumerism. Where you are forced to be a good capitalist and spend money on gifts you can't afford to buy gifts people for don't really want it. Yay.

Edit: After scrolling I was reminded of the music. Holy fuck is the music bad. It amazes me that there are people out there who will happily and VOLUNTARILY put this drek on. As a listener of hard rock and metal holy crap does the music set me off.

• Started with always stealing my birthday thunder as a kid.
• Blatant commercial holiday (in the USA at least) encouraging rampant consumerism.
• Cultural appropriation; no fucking sleighbells and fir trees in Jerusalem. Pretty trim on reindeer, too.
• Stole the holiday and trappings from the pagans they persecuted.

Edit to add:

• Had to visit family from the born again christian evangelicals on one side and republican supply side jesus christians on the other.

I used to hate Christmas because I felt obligated to surround myself with my asshole family.

Then I retired from family Christmas, and all is well.

I like the idea of seeing all my siblings at one time (except for that one cross country one) and seeing my nieces.

But I hate all of Christmas. Everything about it, from people having decisions up the day after Thanksgiving, to them staying up until February, the fact that most songs from this time of year talk about Jesus...

The way it (this is a little redundant) takes up the whole month is the 2nd biggest part. No other holiday gets more than 48 hours of observance, including prep time. Even extra Halloween candy is done being talked about after a day or two once the discounted stuff is bought up.

The biggest part is the religious part. My siblings all know how I feel (most of them share the feeling), but my parents didn't and I aim to keep it that way unless point blank asked about it. That conversation will not end well. I've already told them that outside weddings and funerals (and hopefully not even then) that I will not ever step for inside a church again. My family was not exactly cult level, but it bordered on it. When I finally came out of that bubble it was rough. Really rough. I didn't wanna claim religious PTSD, as I don't think it's that severe, but churches bother the hell out of me (pun not intended, but it works).

Growing up Mom had way too many decorations (in general, but especially Christmas ones) and just bringing them all in the house, and being made to help out them up was a PITA. I think part of me figured it (religious faith) out early, but it took until I was almost 31 to figure it out. But even then I was annoyed by how much work it caused.

So (TLDR) I wish it was just a day or few days where you'd hang with family you might not get to see any other time of year.

Literally every other part of it can just be forgotten with no ill effects.

Christmas meant 'family coming together'.

If you don't agree with your family, then what's left?

I just hate the overplayed music mainly.

I had a friend whose son died around christmas so it was always a rough time for him :'(

While I don't hate Christmas, my household isn't Christian and we don't celebrate it. Of course we know people who do and we're happy that they're enjoying it, but the really tedious bit is all the mainstream Christmas marketing and pushes of it as the "norm."

The fact that the big stores start with the Christmas stuff around September now really gets up our noses.

Organized religion is a plague.

The pressure and the lack of creativity.

Everyone truly expects some Hallmark movie perfection, often with minimal effort from them. Pouting like a spoiled child when you don't do everything just exactly perfectly right. The exact shit that sometime else fetishizes that literally no one else notices. Or the genuine expectation that you have and can spend $2000 to visit, just to sit around and watch TV most of the time you're there.

All of that packaged up in the same exact bullshit. Never waiver. Never add anything new. Same playlists. Same images. Same movies. 20+ years ago Elf worked its way in through sheer persintence. One new entry. So repetitive and droll.

Finally, I love love love the lights. Because it's a pagan solstice party after all, lights to brighten the long cold dark nights of winter are simply intuitive. Why do we take down the lights on Jan 3 or 4 and make the next month ugly and miserable? Leave them up until the second full moon of winter. This year that's Feb 1. Makes sense, yes?

Holy shit. You guys are miserable as fuck. Having to find a gift for your company's Secret Santa or White Elephant event isn't the fault of Christmas. That's the fault of your company's and/or society's corporate culture.

If you find yourself miserable at a party, then don't fucking go to it. If it's organized by your company and you were forced to attend, then once again that's not Christmas' fault. Ask yourselves these questions:

1. Were you forced to attend (e.g. takes place during work hours)? If yes, then blame the corporate culture.
2. Does it take place after work hours? If yes, then why are you attending it? If your answer is because of pressure from your bosses and/or you fear not attending means you'll suffer professionally, then it's the corporate culture's fault.

I don’t really hate christmas as a whole. It is after all the source of winter break. But we don't actually need christmas for most of the good things that it currently provides. That said. The fact that I read news stories about a power outage potentially causing a small business to fold because it happened during the "critical" christmas season tells me that christmas is just plain wrong. So presents are why I hate christmas.

Rampant commercialization and consumerism. I don't have a problem with small family gatherings and candlelight church services, but I do have a problem with the Christmas industry. Also: I despise ugly Christmas sweater parties.

This post is hilariously popular...

My main issue with Christmas is that I have had a few incredibly traumatic experiences during it over the course of my life. Now it just makes me feel extra stressed and depressed. I also come from a split family, with a bonus split around 10 years ago. I'm not longer really in contact with the two people I would have considered my brother's growing up. Also my wife is working on permanent residency in canada, so she is also really sad about not seeing her family for years now.

Also my wife flat out refused to visit my mom or dad this year, thank god for drugs and self harm!

I mean it's a good reminder that I'm not really part of my biological family anymore

I don't hate it I just don't celebrate it. I got a bit fed up of how stuffy most European holidays are.

Any holiday which compartmentalizes a normal human behavior, I do not participate.

If you need a day set aside to ceremonially 'show' your partner that you love them, or you need a day to show your family that you want to spend time, none of it is real.

I hate christmas because of how some people get so stressed out about it all.

Because I lost my parents in traumatizing ways

I don't

2 reasons. Firstly I'm just extra shit at buying presents. I like to think I'm generous and thoughtful but I just don't get "presents". Like everyone works and buys the things that they want.

What the fuck is the point of a gift card? "oh I know you like buying things so here's a card which will allow you to buy a selection of things from one or more specific vendors who I assume you regularly shop at."

This has gotten a bit easier as I've gotten older and a bit more financially stable so not so restricted on price I guess. This year in August I saw these great massage guns on sale for half price so I just bought 6 of them to dish out for Christmas presents.

The other is forced social arrangements. Just today my partner said I'm going to this thing for Christmas lunch tomorrow. I said I'm not. She insisted. I didn't respond.

I don't want to be an asshole partner who doesn't go anywhere but... I feel like the only reason she wants me to go is because that's what normal people do. Like lets go to this thing full of people you hate and pretend to be happy and normal. I only have to stick it out for 2 hours so will see how that's going tomorrow.

All fake ,and biggest scam still around in 2025

It has been several decades since I was in a position that I was doing more than making magic for others. I’m exhausted. But I want to keep giving my kids core memories because they deserve them. But there is no joy. Just obligation/financial burden/mental exhaustion. I hate it.

I just find it boring and inconvenient.

I don't. I mean I don't believe, but I got no hate. Funny enough, a family member said something something about "too early for Valentine's Day" and I couldn't help but laugh.

It's the season I still hate. The Holidays sucked when I worked retail, and back then we didn't even have to work Christmas unlike many stores now! It's certainly not better these days, and the amount is stores that are open on the day is insane. We can't close it even a single day of the year to allow the workers to celebrate with their family and friends!?

I no longer work retail, but I still see the craziness. Everywhere is crowded, everyone is rushing around and stressed and grumpy and driving crazy. Everything is just bad this time of year...

the stupid outfits and people telling me i need to like it

Having to spend time around people I dont care about but have to pretend I do. Also my birthday is soon after, which overall makes the season depressing.

I’m Jewish, but grew up Christian (my mom converted young). I deconverted in university… heh, going to a Christian university at that. So I gave up Christmas at that time. I kinda miss it— that is, I miss the quiet memories of decorations and sitting in the dark by the fireplace watching the blinking lights… but I definitely don’t miss the loud blaring parts. And you can’t avoid the loud blaring parts. They’re freaking everywhere.

So I get to see all the things I never really liked about Christmas all the time. And it turns out that watching the channukah candles burn down with the lights turned down scratch the itch of what I ever liked about Christmas. So what’s left?

Second post, sorry. But here's something you can enjoy. I didn't bother trying to find all of them, but as you can tell from the numbering, there are more than these if you look for them.

Christmas Music Sucks: Part 2

Christmas Music Sucks: Part 3

Christmas Music Sucks: Part 5

Christmas Music Sucks: Part 6, The Voicemail Episode

Courtesy of Your Favorite Band Sucks. If you listen to any of the primary eps, start with a band you don't like and realize that the schtick is that they know a ton about music and can turn their sites on any band. It doesn't mean they actually hate everything.

I don't trust merriment. I'll take the food, drink, and occasional gift, but I can't pretend to be jolly and ignore how the world is going.

It's just stress.

Stress I don't need.

It's a corporate holiday and it causes weeks, if not months, of stress.

And if you've worked retail during the holidays you have had whatever Christmas joy you still felt as an adult stripped from you forever.

I would absolutely love if Christmas never happened again.