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Bah... Humbug!

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High Function ASD2
V.I.P Member
I hate this time of year and can't wait for it to be over. Christmas itself has no meaning to me and I don't care about that either way but I hate the traffic and the crowds in shops. School Holidays start here this week and don't end until February so everywhere in the city and out will be busy and crowded for six or seven weeks. Kids get six weeks off here over summer, that includes Christmas, New Year's and Australia day, then they get three other breaks of two weeks each during the year.

It's definitely not the time of the year to be traveling here, the roads are busy and most of the drivers are idiots, but I've got itchy feet. Bit by bit I've been buying things and setting the little car up for travelling with pretty much everything I need to keep me in comfort for a few days here and there. Just a few odds and ends left now, but I'll have to wait until February to go anywhere really.
 
Traffic is horrible here where I live in Florida too.
Try to find a place to park, especially for the disabled, this time of year.

I was thinking the same thing when trying to find a spot close to a cafe this week I like eating breakfast at. There are stores in the plaza around it and people buying gifts everywhere. Had to wait almost half an hour for traffic to thin out enough to even back out of the parking spot I did find when I left.

Christmas and our Thanksgiving here used to have a special meaning when I still had my parents. The "Spirit" was not so much what the holidays are meant to represent,
but rather used as a time of year to remember another year of our family and life together. We always gave a gift in that spirit to each other and had a day of feasting.
I always liked putting up the lights too. They are pretty.
Could use a few the year 'round for ambience as far as I'm concerned. 🌠
 
I'm likewise no big fan of xmas. The attractions of childhood were mostly ultimately trivial and without much meaning beyond a social habit. Not being religious leaves the only extant meaning left as one of the worse of commercialism that in the end only seems to make the people whom profit from it happy.
The only other 'use' it had was to provide an impetus for the family to come together - and inevitably the expectations placed on it would create a day of anxiety and tension, as everyone forced each other to 'have a good time'. Such a depressing time of year. I would have had more interest in pagan celebrations of real things like the winter and summer solstice, and the seasons. Though those have mostly lost meaning now for many of us.
 
Xmas reminds of my family ties l never had. But l have managed to find an acquaintance near me and yesterday l visited 11 cats. Quite entertaining, and l guess some help l gave them seems to have multiplied , now l feel quite happy about the spirit of giving this year, and every year.
 
Aspychata said:
....now l feel quite happy about the spirit of giving this year, and every year.
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I enjoy the gift giving idea but I don't understand why people only do this on one special day of the year. There's been many times in my life where I've spotted something a friend needs at a good price and just bought it and gave it. I didn't need a special occasion for that.

I also can't stand the idea of forced reciprocity. If I give something to someone it's because I wanted to and there's no strings attached. I don't expect or even want anything in return. I give a gift simply because I wanted to.

Someone many years ago posted an interesting hypothetical question:

If you give someone a gift then get upset when they in turn give it to someone else, was it really a gift?
 
SusanLR said:
Traffic is horrible here where I live in Florida too.
Try to find a place to park, especially for the disabled, this time of year.
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That's what actually prompted my whinge. Twice now I've gone shopping but forgot what time of year it is so I've had trouble finding a parking spot and the insides of shopping centres are teeming with people packed shoulder to shoulder.

You'd think after nearly 60 years I'd know better but this is the first time in many years where I've had the mobility and access to shops at this time of year.
 
The reason I like Christmas is that December is a very dark and cold month here. And there are few special days between the end of summer and Christmas. So without Christmas, it would just be another cold and dark month. And the next one is January, the worst month, so Christmas helps build some good mood before January begins. Or Helluary as I call it.

So I like the food and decorations and lights and all that stuff, I can even drag a spruce into my livingroom and no one thinks it's weird. 😃
 
I love the lights. I love singing Christmas carols (often in an opera manner). I love having a real tree in the house and often mourn for it a few days when it is thrown out. I like seeing it all lit up and I also love to feel of the tree limbs (a type of stim I suppose). I try to talk my parents into keeping it as long as I can. It has been kept to the end of January before. I also am religious so the holiday has meaning in that way as well.
 
FayetheAspie said:
I love having a real tree in the house and often mourn for it a few days when it is thrown out.
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I have a tip, if you decorate a tree outdoors you don't have to throw it out and you can keep it all winter long. 😃

1733771732369.png
 
In my youth it once had great meaning about family. Until my father died on a Wednesday just twelve days from Christmas. After that the holiday just wasn't the same.

Then 26 years later my mother died on that very same day and date.

For me it's just a point in time to get past and little else.
 
Forest Cat said:
I have a tip, if you decorate a tree outdoors you don't have to throw it out and you can keep it all winter long. 😃

View attachment 138087
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We have decorated an outside tree in addition to the indoor trees many years. There was one that we decorated year after year eventually having to use a ladder to get the lights on it. It eventually got so tall that we can't light it even with the ladder. Afterwards we started decorating a smaller evergreen some years but we no longer do it every year. Even when we do, I still miss decorating the big one sometimes.
 
Forest Cat said:
The reason I like Christmas is that December is a very dark and cold month here.
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Here it's just after our longest day of the year, and it's hot. A lot of families will gather on beaches or in parks and have their Christmas Lunch there. The only thing that will keep people at home is if it's extraordinarily hot and they decide to stay home in the airconditioning instead. For most people here Christmas day means swimming, lots of sun, and lots of beer. We also have a second holiday on the 26th - Boxing day, so people that have to go back to work get a day to recover.
 
Outdated said:
The only thing that will keep people at home is if it's extraordinarily hot and they decide to stay home in the airconditioning instead.
Click to expand...

-12 degrees here now and pitch-black. 😑 I want the Australian hotness. And sun. Spring can't come fast enough.
 
I'm in a humbug mood this year, probably because I've been really sick with a respiratory infection and have zero energy to do anything except some online shopping. Somehow, in a feverish haze, I guess, I mistakenly ordered three metal detectors instead of just one as a gift to my nephew and his wife. So now I have two additional, rather expensive metal detectors to either give to other people or return to the seller. :rolleyes:
 
Outdated said:
I hate this time of year and can't wait for it to be over. Christmas itself has no meaning to me and I don't care about that either way but I hate the traffic and the crowds in shops. School Holidays start here this week and don't end until February so everywhere in the city and out will be busy and crowded for six or seven weeks. Kids get six weeks off here over summer, that includes Christmas, New Year's and Australia day, then they get three other breaks of two weeks each during the year.

It's definitely not the time of the year to be traveling here, the roads are busy and most of the drivers are idiots, but I've got itchy feet. Bit by bit I've been buying things and setting the little car up for travelling with pretty much everything I need to keep me in comfort for a few days here and there. Just a few odds and ends left now, but I'll have to wait until February to go anywhere really.
Click to expand...
I agree, it's the same here on south coast NSW, all the caravans arrive for the beach. At least it keeps our local shops afloat with the extra income. My birthday is on Friday, but I went out for dinner on Monday to avoid the many christmas parties that go on around here.
 
The only time of year I get to see my nieces and nephews, together along with my brothers and sister all in one place. This time we are giving my youngest brother a birthday party retiring at 60.
 
Ambivalent about Christmas meself. In younger years it was cool to get together with the family and the whole nine yards. But that family is gone, and the one I'm in now have paws and hooves and don't give a ding about holidays.

But I'll turn on the shack's outside Xmas lights to prepare for the upcoming winter solstice on the 21st! In a dozen days, those of us in the northern hemisphere will enjoy the lengthening days, sprouting greenery, and the fertility of nature. Time to plan for the upcoming year!
 
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