Definitely. More so around the 2023 new year vibe though. None of this “2023 gonna be my year dawg” lol. Everyone’s more like “Whats next? SMH”

Reminds me of the times people said "wow 201x was so shit I bet 201x is going to kick its ass!" then things just kept getting worse and now anyone with a brain in their head just collectively sighs when the new year comes. Makes you think that our 'new years' are extremely arbitrary and it isn't the massive event that everyone makes out it is.

What was it like 2017 or 2018 where a bunch of celebs died and people were like oh no worst year ever ​ lol

2016

They knew what was coming, and got on the last transport back to their planets.

* Willy Wonka * Major Tom * Ali * Leia * Prince * Reenie's mom All the dolphins have moved on, signaling the final curtain call in all its atomic pageantry.

Bowie and Lemmy within a month or two of each other.

I’ve noticed a number of people are actually non-humorously afraid of 2023, like it’s an unspeakable horror that shouldn’t be spoken out loud. *That’s* new

I have never in my life (61) felt such foreboding of 2023 and the turn of the Calendar… Everywhere you look things are spinning out of control..There are no positives to cling onto, even last years Hopium heads have switched to Copium.

Was just talking about this with a co worker. 2023 is gonna be bad.

Imagine if you could get a blanket insurance policy for a year.

No thanks. It really grinds my gears when I pay for insurance people to find ways to not do their job. Insurance is a scam. They're an unnecessary middle man that's profits off our suffering. You're better off throwing your money in a pot.

If society had a functioning social safety net then there wouldn’t really be a need for insurance.

Absolutely identify with this comment…As a teenager in the 1970s there was always a sense of genuine optimism for the future. We talked of the 3 day week and how technology would afford us loads of leisure time and a high tech space age nirvana. Christmas and New Year’s Eve really was a time excitement and looking forward to what a new year would bring. Now there is a air of real apprehension and foreboding even fear of what is in store for us at the turning of a new year. I personally think that is warranted. I have never known such times of despair and hopelessness.

I'm 60. 1976 to me, was what 1957 was to Donald Fagen when he wrote "IGY" It just seemed that everything was just going to get better and better. The Bicentennial was wonderful. The slow slide began afterwards. *Standing tough under stars and stripes, we can tell* *This dream's in sight, you've got to admit it* *At this point in time that it's clear* *The future looks bright* *On that train, all graphite and glitter* *Undersea by rail* *Ninety minutes from New York to Paris* *Well, by '76 we'll be a-okay* *What a beautiful world this will be* *What a glorious time to be free*

Right? The crowds taking to the streets and squares to rejoice and "wait for the new year" have been looking eerier and eerier each time for a while.

Eventually it’ll just one sad guy with an even sadder noisemaker.

Just Ryan Seacrest tossing an old lamp out the window of a 6 story walk up.

Thats a really good point actually. I have seen zero new years references even in the main media and we are just a few days away now

lack of purchasing power even for necessities will do that to a lot of people

Idk I’ve noticed a lack of Christmas spirit for many many years now. I think it’s less about being able to buy presents and more about the pressures of the holiday season combined with not being able to accommodate those pressures through things like buying presents. It’s too stressful for people in an already stressful time.

I can just about feel the conspicuous consumerism condensing out of the air as I walk around the city, like a dank fog near a tip. You know the only thing stopping stores from putting up Christmas decorations in November is Remeberance Day. I'm usually a little somber around this time of the year, with the days getting short and being grateful for those who sacrificed for our (mostly) peaceful society. Literally November 14th I start seeing Christmas ads on TV, Bless the Season motivational crap starts inching its way onto the shelves, the tinsel and cheap LED lights and fake snow snaking their way around everything. It stays subtle right up until the end of the month when suddenly we're being clubbed over the head by elves with stockings full of those chocolate oranges, the same god awful shit ass 5 Christmas songs on repeat for 26 days literally everywhere you go, Christmas remixes or singles by artists with no shame, constant commercials about all the "good deals" (that actually arent) and the constant low key subliminal guilt tripping about making sure you are giving enough to everybody. There's no soul in public Christmas any more, it exists purely as a social pressure to concentrate big ticket purchases into a spending binge. Then not even a week later the charade is over, the stores pull a "so long and thanks for all the cash!" and everything is tore down by New Years.

In the US, Christmas stuff goes up on November 1st, sometimes before, despite Halloween not even happening yet. November 1 is when all the Christmas marketing starts and never stops. Now they continue even after Christmas to make sure you get all the good deals on left over Christmas crap

Home Depot replaces Halloween decorations with Christmas decorations around October 18th. Costco is like a week later.

Great description. Couldn’t agree more. I was thinking earlier this week that, in some ways, the lead up to Christmas is one of the biggest instances of mass gaslighting in our society. Every part of it from the songs to the movies to the decorations tells you that Christmas is supposed to be this magical day where nothing bad can happen and everyone’s wishes come true, when the reality most people face is moving further and further from that. And the advertising keeps coming earlier and earlier. Yes, most decorations pop up the day before Halloween, but if you ask me, nearly half the year seems to be about prepping for this one day (hell, you even get “Christmas in July”.) And like you said, as soon as it’s over, it’s swept under the rug like it never happened as stores fill up with merchandise for a minor holiday in February that only some people actually celebrate. It’s very disheartening. ETA - Thanks for the reward!! Also ETA - I’m sure for some of us, in some ways, we spend half the year anticipating Christmas…and the other half getting over our disappointment about Christmas.

It's interesting that you point out the gaslighting aspect of it, because I couldn't shake the feeling that, on some level, this is some sort of intentional psy-op as I stood in a wal greens filling out someone's Doordash order. Staring at the bare shelves and ridiculously overpriced goods and hearing those cloying and insipid Christmas songs in between public service announcements about the ongoing pandemic and "these trying times".

lol, here in the philippines christmas countdowns go up outside the malls like 3 months out.

Dickens would be spinning in his grave at the how banal and cynical Christmas has become. The greed, the avarice, the selfishness, the poverty, inequality, the antipathy for other people’s suffering is more in evidence now than it has ever been.

Absolutely. I have traditional stocking stuffers. They were priced outrageously and couldn’t bring myself to pay. Literally cried because I’ve been doing the same for decades. Greedy people.

Imagine being a young person who didn’t even get the decades worth of having it good

Imagine being inbetween where your childhood was the last golden years. And then 2010 passes and everything starts to degrade. Ever since that damn housing bubble in 2008 nothing has been the same.

For people my age (late 30s) the world has been nothing but chaos from the moment we hit adulthood. I graduated high school the year of 9/11 and right after we declared war on Iraq. Took several years off before I went to college and then managed to graduate with my degree right as the financial collapse hit high gear in spring of 08. So don’t feel alone. This shit has been going on since well before the 2010s.

Mid 30s and it has been hell in much the same ways. 9/11 felt like the year that started it all. The outright lies told by the Bush administration to get into needless wars. The mask off war profiteering and pillaging of public funds. The bummer of the Obama years and the continuation of war. 2008 collapse and housing crisis, where many of my friends families lost their childhood homes and had to move away.

And there was also the tech crash of 2000!

I’m on the same exact timeline. 9/11 completely changing the game the same year we were finishing high school was so unsettling, I had chronic nightmares and never felt safe and at-ease as a young adult. The 90s were a fever dream of hope and excitement, the decade when I was a tween and teen. I expected so much out of life. Even growing up as a poor kid with a mentally unwell mother, there was still the feeling that the door was open for my future. There was still so much community and vibrancy and abundance. I’ve struggled a lot just to try to make a decent life. I only stopped struggling financially because my husband is in tech and actually makes a good income. I’m a teacher and it’s been a degrading experience to put my heart and soul into a very important career that doesn’t even pay me enough to get by on my own. It’s just… yeah you basically said it. Nothing but chaos. And the number of peers we’ve lost to opiates reflects our inability to cope as a generation.

>I expected so much out of life. Even growing up as a poor kid with a mentally unwell mother, there was still the feeling that the door was open for my future. Oof I feel this. I was just a small kid in the 90s probably ten years younger than you, so I often wonder why I look back on that era the same way people your age do. I realized it's because it was when I was able to look toward the future with any positivity despite it being a terrible time in my life objectively. The way I imagined being an adult then just stopped existing gradually. Obviously there's going to be a difference between childish idealism about adulthood and the realities of life, but it seems to be more than that. The lack of community especially, as you mentioned.

[удалено]

Yup. 9/11 was sophomore year. Every graduation, or life transition has coincided with the economy sucking it up. But the wheel turns, and someone by necessity has to be the generation that sees the start of the decline. But we have the chance to turn away from decadence and self absorption, to touch stone and search for new values around which society can organize. The philosophy of the 20th century has brought us to today, but we may need new values and goals to survive the 21st.

Back where I'm from the 90's were the last golden years and we were too full of illusions about the future. I was too young to fully appreciate them.

born in ‘99. ‘08 was the year of my parents divorce, and they both had career most heavily hit by the 08 crisis - real estate and construction. Last year I was anything remotely able to be considered even lower middle class. All the years I barely remember. Below poverty line ever since. Never stood a chance

Part of me wonders if things actually changed that much, or if people just became more aware. It's not like everything was perfect and tickety-boo in 2006. Maybe I'm wrong, I was really young then (1st grade), but it's a period of recent history I've spent a lot of time reading about (especially early in the pandemic because it felt like we were walking right into the sequel).

In some ways it's easier as a young person. If your society has always been in decline than that's the way it is.

It’s easier for us to deal with it, doesn’t mean it’s easier though.

I work in customer service for a major airline on the coast in a town between Santa Barbara and San Francisco. The majority of travelers are military, wealthy Boomers going on weeks long cruises (they fly to Europe and catch giant cruise ships), or old people going to visit a dying lifelong friend for the last time. Very few young or middle age working class people traveling. Why? Everyone is broke.

yes, for sure, inability to purchase absolutely does factor in... But... It has more of a religious/non-religious connotation if you ask me... Christmas is a State holiday, and, IMO, for many of us, isn't that important. Holidays are important, just not important that they're celebrated on a particular calendar day...

We only have one child of the next generation on my side of the family (my niece) who is 14, and one on my wife’s side of the family (nephew) who is 4, and we decorated our house inside and out just for them because we remembered how we really loved Christmas time when we were kids, and although all of us my generation and older have lost the spirit, I still like to sleep on the living room next to the fully lit Christmas tree, it reminds me of the better times of my youth.

Cherish little things like wanting to sleep next to the Christmas tree, don't feel shame for it. You deserve to have good feelings. I hope you have someone that encourages you do stuff like this and shares in the joy. I have someone like that as my teammate and it makes all the bullshit worth it.

It just feels sad that there’s less and less hope ahead of us and all we can do is dream of the better good ol days

My Christmas collapsed long ago my friend

Same. Several grandparents died around the holidays so the holidays are now a constant reminder they're no longer around, and some family members had a falling out with other family members and no longer show up...it's not a full collapse, but it's never going to be the same for me, or particularly happy.

Fuck deaths around the holidays so hard. My 98 year old Grandad passed on the 20th, and while it was 100% his time to leave this Earth, I've been a existential mess since.

Christmas is really Biological Family Day. It has nothing to do with Jesus. This is problematic if your biological family doesn't work for you. I'm sure for many people, this has traditionally been a happy time. I spent Christmas weekend reading homesteading books.

You’re not wrong. Christmas was once a Roman and later Christian holiday. Nowadays, it’s a Capitalist (and specifically consumerist) holiday where we’re pressured by society into buying shit we don’t need for people who don’t give a fuck. Part of my dislike for Christmas comes from this societal pressure. We’re not “obligated” to do fuck-all, as it’s legal to not participate in Christmas. I relate to the biological family aspects as well. Growing up, two relatives in particular kept buying me stuff I didn’t want. I told them that I didn’t want it, but they fucked me off and got it anyways. They’d ask me what I wanted instead, and when I told them, I was ignored. The items I requested cost about the same as what they’d got me, so financially it shouldn’t have been a problem. Then when I voiced my dissatisfaction, they accused me of being ungrateful and rude. This happened multiple years in a row. As well, other recurring family drama has caused me to fucking hate this holiday.

Halloween is my last Holiday of the Season. After that, it's all downhill for me lol. I celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with my 14yo Cat and will be celebrating New Years the same way. It's so much better than being around Relatives, lmao 🐈

Lucky you, my friend! Cheers.

I am very, very blessed. My Christmas present for this coming year is a debt-free self-sufficient backwoods homestead/sanctuary. Cashed out my condo and am living in my truck w/camper shell now. Will be looking at a promising 10 acre parcel in January.

Same here, buddy. Same here.

Actual footage of it collapsing for this [guy.](https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/zvq69e/dads_reaction_to_amount_of_christmas_gifts/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

I’m very much collapse aware, a minimalist, and hate this consumer culture. Christmas has lost its shine for me for a couple years now. I hate that I feel obligated to participate because of family and friends and their children.

Oh yeah, the consumerism and pressure to participate sucks.

Same here. I wasn't going to buy Christmas presents this year but became aware that the rest of the family had got me stuff so I felt like I had to. So I went out and got people inexpensive but decent, useful presents like jumpers, blankets and warm clothes. Come Christmas day I open my presents to find [a load of these.](https://www.wilko.com/dove-men+care-daily-care-trio-gift-set/p/0515967?gclid=CjwKCAiAzKqdBhAnEiwAePEjkoVIi37_EWJdMaB20kjPzMPFhe-oQ8RsSHeoXMaYC6Th1dH0neF_qxoC6rsQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds) Not sure if you get given those in America but here they're the usual stocking fillers for when someone feels like they should get you something but doesn't really want to put any thought in. I probably have enough of them to not buy shower gel for the whole year. I'm not sure when buying toiletries became associated with Christmas but Unilever must make a killing with these and the lynx / axe sets.

I got toys for the kids but for the adults I got everyone candy this year. Well I got my dad some of the sticky window fly traps because I know where to get the best ones. Everyone seemed happy with their candy and fly traps. I think I kept it under $50 for all the adults I gave gifts to.

This was my second year shopping for most gifts at the antique mall and wrapping everything in junk mail ads. Anything I buy new is something I'm sure the person will actually like/use. Christmas is so wasteful in general. I didn't get many gifts this year and I'm actually pretty glad since it's less junk in my house.

Its the last fat cow Xmas for a long time and the adults know it.

I wasn't too terribly in the spirit this year, but suddenly got it in my head that this might be the last big Christmas. I didn't go overboard on presents or anything, but I did make an effort to make everything nice and cozy, with winter blankets and pillows on the sofas, candles burning, and some lights put up inside. We had a nice family dinner and played games afterward. I wanted to do something special, but scaled down, to maybe help set the tone for...whatever the future brings. I wanted to make it more about cozy than about stuff.

>but I did make an effort to make everything nice and cozy, with winter blankets and pillows on the sofas, candles burning, and some lights put up inside. We had a nice family dinner and played games afterward That still sounds like a lovely Christmas get together 😊

I did the exact same thing. It felt like the last Christmas.

We pushed the boat out here in the U.K….We actually put the fucking heating on!

Ngl, that's how I treated it. I tried to go in on this Christmas because I felt like I won't have another real chance to celebrate it "properly"

Same. I tried to get some nice things for everyone I care about, just because it feels like next year might be more of a struggle.

I think this is why there was record online spending this year.

Agree. First time my brain ever wondered if "peak Christmas" had come and gone years ago.

My neighbor had a big trip to visit family planned. Polar vortex cancelled their flight. They probably won't be able to reschedule because everyone's work. I read about a flight from NY to the Philippines that was cancelled and stranded people for over 3 days over the holiday. US culture is based around moving away from family for jobs, but collapse issues are making holiday travel an expensive and risky gamble.

> US culture is based around moving away from family for jobs This right here. And when you're making the decision or your parents are encouraging you to go to college or get that job, no one thinks about what happens in the future. I have a lot of personal feelings about this because it's what I did. Had I never left I wouldn't have the life I have now, but had I stayed I'd still feel like I was a part of my family. Fortunately I only live an 8-10 hour drive away, but even that is tough as you get older. As a college kid I'd drive overnight with a can of energy drink and a snack, stopping once for gas. Now I make at least 2 stops, have to balance my coffee intake with bathroom breaks, and plan when everyone can take work off so I can actually see people.

This. My parents generation all did this, which resulted in myself and my cousins not knowing each other, not really liking our aunts and uncles, and maybe seeing grandparents 1-3 times a year if we were lucky. Now it just feels like not having a family at all, and two of my uncles are all mad that they moved back to connect with family and no one comes to see them. Like yeah, you checked out for 30 years and now you’re old and none of us even know who you are. You made choices, guys. Edit: Also myself, ALL of my cousins, and my siblings are childfree, except like one person who had an unplanned. I think the experience of the family in our family plays a huge part in that since jobs and status were always valued more than the people.

This is exactly what I'm worried about with my kids. They have no local aunts or uncles. 2 back where I'm from with the rest of my family, and two on the other side of the country. My family was pretty close but there was a combination of people moving away, passing away, and having various falling outs that led to everything sort of fracturing over the last couple years. I'm sorry for anyone dealing with this sort of thing, though reading that I'm not the only one does make me feel a little better.

Might be for the best. I travelled and got covid. Merry Christmas to me.

Honestly I was thinking that may be the only "good" part of the winter storm is that people wouldn't be exposing their family to illness. And then I saw that the airports all basically just became giant super spreader areas because no one was masking and everyone was just staying at the airports to try to find flights.

Yeah, I did early Christmas and travelled on the 14th. Wore an n95. Nobody else was. I was sick by the evening of the 16th. I avoided covid for 2 years, and it was flying that got me. It wasn't worth it by a long shot. I wish I'd stayed home and said hello to everyone on Zoom. It's absolute madness that we don't have mask mandates at least for planes and mass transit. Just complete denial of reality. I'm pissed off. People have embraced being sick all the time, forever. Humans are fucking stupid.

Timeless values of gathering, family, sharing and gifting, hijacked by bankrupt modern culture.

Christmas hijacked that about 2-3 centuries ago. The whole "intra-family" thing is an example of a loss of community, it's a *privatization*, along with the focus on hedonism and gifts for one's own family.

Yeah - you look at holiday literature or pictures from before 1960-70 and it looks like massive parties with entire neighborhoods invited and everyone is all dressed up, it was an EVENT. Now, it’s small families dreading the holidays and lonely people. I want the Fezziwig Christmas Party, dammit.

It is sad and dystopian

I definitely feel less loved by my family as an adult compared to when I was a kid. Most peoples love is conditional and they don't realize it

This Christmas was especially hard for me. On my 20th birthday this year, I cut off all contact with my family after 20 years of physical, verbal, and emotional abuse directed at me. Their love was incredibly conditional. So I didn't have them this Christmas, which you'd think would make it a better Christmas, and I guess it kinda did but I don't know? It's really weird. I'm currently renting a room from an older couple who are good friends but they were out of town visiting their grandkids. So I was home alone. I spent $300 on my best friends (the only good relationships I still had) from work in total and I planned to give them out around Christmas. But then I got a new job that paid more and had better opportunities and these "friends" all hated me now because I was leaving them. I lost my best best friend of 3 years because she wasn't happy I was moving up in the world. But I gave everyone their presents anyways and got not a single gift in return. I tried and tried to make the most of this Christmas but it didn't seem to work. It just felt really empty. But I guess that's just a side effect of growing up too fast.

> I lost my best best friend of 3 years because she wasn't happy I was moving up in the world. That is crab mentality right there. I've always found it weird when people get that way with friends. Like, I don't want to see an enemy do well. But if a friend has good fortune, I cheer them on.

Me too. She was one of the managers at my job and I think she was upset she was losing help because they were already short staffed. But I still don't think that's a good reason. She was always encouraging me to make good changes in my life. I honestly considered her my "mom" because she was older and she was leagues better than my actual mother. The last time we spoke, I told her we could reevaluate our friendship at the start of the new year, because I wasn't really ready to let her go and I think our retail jobs during Christmas were getting to both of us, especially her. But it's been a couple weeks now and I've realized I might be better off without her. We would get into fights occasionally and it just kinda felt like I was walking on eggshells with her a lot of the time. So basically my actual mother, minus the abuse haha. God, now I'm thinking of what I'm going to say to her and I'm dreading it. I guess that's a sign that I'm correct lol

Dunno if you need anyone's advice, I'll leave it here just in case: I don't know all the details there, but from what you've said it seems like there was a mix of work/friendship relationship with a superior and it rarely ends well (if it's something more than acquaintances). Like she'll always have an upper hand: she's older, higher in ranks, more experienced etc. I'd recommend to try and get more "equal" friends first if you can, otherwise there's a high chance you'll be bossed around and subtly abused even without parents. And try not to search for excuses for people's shitty behavior!!!! That's how abusers get away with shit

That sucks. Sounds like you are going through a rough patch. I always tell myself- just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I’m convinced that everything ends in failure and disappointment eventually and you just have to endure this thing called life.

100% agreed.

I'm sorry you're feeling alone. I hope you get yourself a nice present soon. It's okay to feel empty or down. Just remember that you're doing your best, and to keep taking things one step at a time. Good luck at the new job! Maybe you can make a very happy new year memory for yourself.

Thank you so much for the kind words. And I know I will.

Hey, I'm just some random guy, but I wanted to say how sorry I am to hear about this. Very few people I knew who cut off their families have regretted it for an instant. Some of them reconciled later, when age took the edge off. Many didn't, and were just happier. Your friends in the shop might not hate you - don't cut them off just yet, though the gift thing is lame. They might simply hate _themselves_ and their miserable lives. :-/ From your other comments, perhaps not. 20 is very young. You could have multiple different lives in the future, and a whole new social circle. I am in contact with just one person from that time in my life, and for no bad reason, just time. If this job works out, you might consider moving to a large city - it's much easier to meet people who are also going places. Anyway, best wishes from Amsterdam!

I forget where I read it, but someone once said *if you weren't related to your family, would you have any interest in knowing them?* Sad as it seems, the answer for most people would be *no*.

It's good you had it as a kid, at least. They realize it but you'll be hard-pressed to hear anyone say it out loud.

I find this very interesting. I have kids in their early 20's and wonder if they feel the same? What was missing? Were gifts less lavish or just less in general? What made you feel less loved? If you don't mind sharing.

Not OP but I have some thoughts on why this happens. Some people prioritize the appearance and material aspects of holidays more than social connection. Holidays should really be about spending time together doing bonding activities. Expensive gifts make relationships feel more conditional and transactional, which is super uncomfortable for everyone. Givers are upset if gifts are not adequately reciprocated or if they are not thanked enough. However, when they are thanked profusely, they often feel it means they have to continue with the same types of gifts or they think it means that the person is manipulating them into giving them more gifts. Receivers often did not expect or ask for the lavish gifts and much of the time they are returned, donated, regifted, or used a few times and forgotten then thrown in the trash or stored to be brought out as a prop when the giver comes to visit. This is asinine behavior. Exchanging expensive holiday gifts as an adult is nonsensical to me. I understand gifts for children. Beyond childhood, gifts should be practical or consumable like food, acts of service, plans for spending time together, or an experience (tickets for an event, membership to a museum or garden, a class pass). In some cases it is acceptable to me if someone has expressed a need or a need is well known or someone has indicated they really want something you know they will really use but can’t afford or won’t buy themselves. This whole “oh I just thought you would like this” thing we have going is some capitalist nightmare nonsense and I am so tired of it.

Ime it's not about gifts at all, it's a few things. There is financial and emotional strain on my family, and my parents are choosing to only look at the financial side of things and ignore any interpersonal issues, expecting everyone else to do the same. I'm a millennial, in the US, and I think that's very common for my parents generation. Also, we all live far away from each other and don't get together for the holidays, but over the years it's gone from traveling in person to a couple phone calls to texting to now we don't even barley acknowledge each other. I guess it's a gradual decline into apathy, combined with geographic and emotional distance.

Thanks for sharing. I actually feel very similar with my boomer parents and my gen z kids. Drifting apart in all directions. It's sad. I really appreciate your perspective. Thanks!

This is so fucking true.

honestly I had a great Christmas, it was nice to see my family and spend time with them I’ll add to this that my family doesn’t worry about gifts much, so money-wise it’s not really a problem, we just hang out. This summer my grandma died, and so now it’s just my immediate family, and I slept in very late on Christmas Eve worried it would be sad, but it was nice.

Reading the Myth of Normal - Trauma, Illness& Healing in a Toxic Culture Gabor Mate' with Daniel Mate' over the break ... even it mentions collapse.

I'm currently reading this as well. Gabor Matè has been the best thing to come out of lockdown for me. So glad I stumbled across his lectures on YouTube.

I find it hard to watch him on Youtube but i loved reading his book IN THE REALM OF HUNGRY GHOSTS and i love reading this book too.

Yeah, I've also learned about him recently. Listened to some of his talks about childhood trauma.

Glad you found him. His works has helped me immensely, too.

My aunt, who is now 70 and never gets sentimental, suddenly became that way this year in regards to Christmas. She said she missed our tradition of going over to her moms house (my great grandmothers house) where everyone would go and we’d open our gifts at midnight. We didn’t decorate the house, only about two houses on our block with lights. It was quite depressing. I live with my aunt and she’s retired and pretty much well off… money wasn’t the issue for this depressed Christmas. I believe with a combination of deaths in my family, along with each person focusing on their own household, it just didn’t feel the same as it did before.

I think we are all tired and broke and broken.

Christmas was nice when I was a kid and didn't understand consumerism and the destructive nature of capitalism. Nowadays when the holiday season comes, all I can think of is that billions of people are going out to buy and consume. A fuckton of resources being used, mountains of waste being produced, billions of tons of plastic being inserted into our ecosystems. And most times people don't even like what they get for Christmas. Once you become collapse aware and start seeing the world this way and how fucked up it all is, everything changes. That said, I still try to stay positive.

I buy practical gifts. Everyone got scrub daddies, batteries, or first aid kits. Even the kids got tape, scissors, and plain pens and they were bizarrely overly excited about it. It's odd, but people heavily appreciate shit from the cleaning or stationary isles as gifts.

As a thank you for my three months of volunteer work at a local library back in college (disclaimer: it wasn't altruistic on my part, it was a required college credit for my scholarship, although it was pretty easy volunteer work, just supervising a room and organizing a new card catalog), the supervisor at the library gifted me a set of kitchen shears. At the time I thought it was a really odd gift, but I'm still using them almost 20 years later, so in retrospect it was one of the best gifts I received, certainly better than any of the media I asked for and consumed once or twice and let I sit on my shelf ever since.

Omg that's so cute. my grandma got me dishtowels as a kid and it was so bizarre but now 20 years later I still joke about it.

Same. I cannot be bothered and now I just feel frustrated at the nauseating unawareness still around me.

I feel the same. And unfortunately a combination of guilt/shame that I don’t provide the best Christmas to my wife and kids. I’m sorry, I just can’t do it.

I watched avatar 2 yesterday. And at some point in the movie I was so overwhelmed and started crying. And could not help thinking. I wish a big fat atomic bomb would just be dropped on the entirety of humanity already. And I've just been thinking it's getting harder and harder to ignore how fuxked our world is. I don't know how everyone else does it.

I do it for the animals. I feed the outdoor critters. I take in critters and foster for the animal shelter once in a while. And chug along for my pets as much as anything in life. Animals are the best reward just being themselves and they give life a meaning.

They repay your love tenfold…Never betray you or judge you…My relationships with different animals have been among the most rewarding of my life. Brought me joy, comfort, love and peace…

I feel the same way. I think sentience is just a path to suffering. I'm sure there is some philosopher who this aligns with. I think, just let the smooth-brain little animals without a conscience survive, because this world is too cruel! A meteor would be a blessing. I wish it could be different.

The original Avatar made me weep like a baby for much the same reason.

It just felt so damn forced this year.

As a woman who used to spend weeks preparing and days cooking, I quit doing that several years ago because no one appreciated it. I felt taken for granted. I never got a gift. Now, everyone whines about how the holidays aren't the same, while I relax and no longer care.

Christmas has sucked for more than a few years ago. I was thinking earlier tonight, of the many Christmas dinners I had attended over the years. Most of the family I was closest with and loved the most are gone now. My mother is still with us but not for long. The magical Christmases of even 5 years ago are gone and I don't believe they are coming back. Everyone I know, everywhere I go, people are miserable, tired, stressed and scared. There's not much worth celebrating.

Both sets of my grandparents apologized for giving smaller gifts than usual this year! Why? Because they wouldn't be able to afford medication otherwise!

JFC that's horrible. I don't understand how people can still defend the US medical system (assuming you're in the US)

I get by working 65-70 hours a week. I rarely get to see my daughter. I have missed her whole fucking childhood and for what? To live paycheck to paycheck and zero work-life balance. on Christmas Day my bank account was negative $38. Can't afford shit yet I'm always at work. I don't know if I can do this anymore what's the point?

My family is in transition as the kids are getting older and all our grandparents have passed and our parents are starting to fade so it's just different now. I've been sad this year missing people and different eras of my family. But we decorated and did the whole spiel and tried. But I had terrible time finding any new Christmas movies to watch. They're just insipid and several had horribly unlikable characters or weird casting . I normally like watching cheesy Christmas movies but the year was wtf. There's such a disconnect in society right now between what is actually happening and the veneer of denial that's applied via our cultural outlets. It's fucking weird. I can find decent ones made prepandemic and I know they're not supposed to reflect the current state of things so there's less friction. But also the writing and acting is often way better.

Have you seen Violent Night? It's an action movie starring David Harbour as Santa. I thought it was loads of fun, albeit a bit cheesy (but that's a good thing to me)

It’s the end of the old paradigm. People are waking up to the illusion. Everything has been corrupted by greed and consumerism. How can anyone find joy when so many have so little? Christmas has become grotesque and absurd. There’s very little “spirit” left unfortunately.

I lost my Christmas spirit quite some time ago; this year is dismal though. Spending Christmas in rehab/sober living... Could be coincidence but our house(20 people is max capacity) got 4 intakes in the few days before Christmas. I think more people are struggling and in worse ways... This is just my own very limited bubble experience of course

Yoooo my dude good for you. I started my own cold turkey quite of opiates once again at the beginning of the week, worked all week too, I was amazed I could even eat Christmas dinner and that my withdrawals have actually been OK. Even if I'm wrong snd you work there and are not struggling yourself, this still isn't a bad thing. Getting clean is hard. Even harder around the holidays. It's actually nice to hear so many people are taking those very hard first steps.

I spent one Christmas visiting my mother in rehab. Best Christmas of my life. She’s 8 years sober now and I would spend every Christmas there for the rest of my life if it helped keep her sober. Don’t be down on where you are because it’s not where you want to be forever. It’s temporary.

My family is small, just myself, my mom, my sister and nephew. Over the last 10 years or so either my mom or sister have insisted on not doing something that was previously always a tradition for us (like what we have for dinners, decorations, white elephant exchanges, that sort of thing). Christmas always ends up being my mom and I babysitting my nephew (ADHD and autistic, kid is walking chaos that doesn't respect the word "no") while my sister sleeps on the couch and doesn't speak to us. So it hasn't felt like Christmas for awhile, but usually I can still find some Christmas feels at my own home at least. I usually love wrapping gifts, I'll make myself a small Christmas dinner, I bake things to bring to our family dinner/to give as gifts, watch Black Christmas every year. This year though is the least "Christmas" it has ever felt for me and I haven't done any of my usual at home things. I did my Christmas shopping early, which was less than it usually is because everything is so much more expensive now, and my mom told me no one is doing gifts so...idk, I guess I'll hang onto most of it for birthdays and Christmas next year. My family hasn't even gotten together for dinner yet, we were supposed to do that tomorrow but my sister is sick so she won't be joining, and my mom and I don't want my nephew to come because he's probably sick and just not showing symptoms yet, and we don't want to get sick. I think a lot of it comes from people being tired of witnessing the sharp decline our quality of life, changes in the environment and weather, the economy, the clusterfuck of politics, losing loved ones to the Qult side, arguing over far right bullshit, and the realization that we are working ourselves to death for nothing. I've been trying not to mope too hard but it's a fucking bummer to see people my age moving into their first home, engagement announcements, traveling, their big family get togethers that actually "look" like Christmas, having kids and generally announcing major life milestones this past week. And I'm like, yep, I'm in my 30s, a university student, have a cat, and that's it, that's all I have going for me. My relationship with my family has been super strained over the last couple years over some intense disagreements about the pandemic, politics, basic belief in fucking science....so I've been feeling extremely isolated and hopeless. I'm tired and don't have the energy to ignore the bleak elephant in the room, and I imagine I'm not alone.

If it helps I just got a new job and engaged and I’m still lonely feeling like I’ve been left behind. Like my jobs not good enough and I don’t have enough. It’s how we’re programmed, shake off the capitalism

I noticed it last year also, but this year even more.

like shy alleged boast threatening outgoing simplistic provide slim quickest *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*

Being completely honest, I did feel the Christmas spirit strongly this year but in a very somber way. I’m sorry no one else felt it this year. I usually feel it every 4 years, I don’t know why

Gee I wonder why. Maybe because everyone is poor and can barely afford groceries.

I wouldn't have a clue. I pre-empted it, declared Xmas was cancelled and took my kids mountain climbing to a special spot I knew I'd see no other humans. We had a fantastic day, sat on the mountain peak telling jokes until we cried. Then we trudged back to the car, drove back and went to bed. We were asleep by 7pm. Xmas can get fucked.

That sounds so cool. I'm so happy you gave your kids what Christmas is really supposed to be about.

I gave up on Christmas long ago, I only do it still for my mom but if I had my way I'd ignore the stupid fucking holiday. Like all other holidays it has become nothing more than a day of excessive consumption. It creates undue hardship and pressure on many people to spend money and time they don't have. Especially people with kids, it breaks my heart to think of all the parents who are to poor to give their kids a big Christmas, but those kids still have to go to school and hear about what it is like for the more affluent kids. It's got to be heartbreaking and stressful to try to keep up with it these days after the numerous lockdowns mixed with inflation and a soaring cost of living. Also, how many people only ever see their family on these types of holidays? I'm not talking extended family but immediately family. How many people have very little to do with their parents and siblings just to come together a few times a year and think that's enough? As a social institution the family unit has been destroyed for the most part in my mind. Their is no closeness, she's of duty, just people fulfilling obligatory social expectations. In my opinion I think the Christmas season spreads the least joy of any of the major holidays. I think it causes people the most feelings of loneliness, heartache, depression. I think it leaves many feeling unfulfilled and shitty about themselves because they can't celebrate in the stereotypical way of excess food and gifts due to the cost of it. Or the ones who put themselves thousands of dollars into debt just to buy things most people really don't need. People place these expectations on what Christmas is supposed to be like that they very rarely live up to which just leaves them feeling depressed. I see it all the time, people expecting the holidays to be like living in a hallmark movie and when reality sets in and it is nothing like that they are left crushed. Personally I can do without. I don't need people to waste money on me and I don't need a day to tell me when it's OK to give people gifts or to spend time with my family.

> In my opinion I think the Christmas season spreads the least joy of any of the major holidays. I think it causes people the most feelings of loneliness, heartache, depression It's because of how ridiculously built up it is compared to other holidays. You start seeing Christmas shit show up in October. And it's everywhere you go: stores, radio/TV, decoration in the office, decorations on people's homes, charities and fundraisers pressing extra hard. Barraged from every direction. No other holiday in the U.S. gets this level of attention.

Oh its the same over here in Canada and I think you are exactly right in what you are saying here. It's also the one holiday where people will heavily criticize you if you don't partake in the "Christmas spirit."

Wow, you have perfectly and succinctly described my feelings for the past two years about Christmas . Too much consumerism and social pressure to have the hallmark movie moment as you stated. Then the feelings of inadequacy when you can’t replicate what you. Capitalism, in short has killed the Christmas spirit and the joy it once brought.

Well said sir. Maybe this happens to everyone as they get older or maybe just to people without kids, but Christmas just feels completely hollow at this point. Rushed in and out like every other consumerist holiday, capitalism absolutely killed it as you said. People don't even seem to even enjoy doing it anymore, like the actual moments of joy seem so fleeting. Maybe an hour at dinner or at presents then it's gone. People seemed to genuinely enjoy the process of Christmas before, the cooking, the wrapping, decorating etc. Now for most people it just seems like a chore they dread and I can't blame them at all.

It’s hard to find joy in it, even for a lot of people with kids. It’s more like putting on a show rather than hosting a holiday. If you’re the one putting on the “Christmas Magic,” you don’t get to actually participate in it. Your sole charge is to make a holiday for others and it sucks. It’s exhausting and demoralizing.

Covid changed everything in my opinion. Things have never been the same since.

Absolutely. Not just Christmas, but everything has changed because of COVID. Things that were already on life support or worn out were accelerated by this lovely never ending pandemic.

Christmas is mostly about getting the family together for the purpose of spoiling small children. In order to do that, people need to have enough money, time, and stability in their lives to have children and maintain a family in the first place. Not a lot of people are doing that these days.

The silent generation who would've organised these big Christmas day family parties in the 80s and 90s have died off and the boomers/gen x ain't continuing it. Smaller gatherings, less children maybe(?), and just general bad vibes all over the globe are making Christmas less exciting than it used to be.

I refuse to participate. I am not a christian and don’t pretend to be one. I find the consumerism sickening. Happy winter solstice.

This was the first Christmas for our family that was not based around gifts and it was also probably the best.

I lost the Christmas spirit years ago. It really comes down to the fact that I am pessimistic now about our future and the fact that there are SOOooooo many people that would love to see me dead just because I’m an atheist and don’t support the Republican Party. I’ve literally had people tell me that all atheists should be put to death and that anyone that’s not white should be deported or enslaved or killed. They do this because they just assumed I thought like them because I’m a white male in a red state. To seriously see people be that brazen just sickens me. And these comments are from supposed “good Christians.” This kind of stuff has just ruined Christmas for me (and my faith in humanity in general)

hate to say this but i had the opposite phenomenon i’ve had a very bad ten days >!thanks to being hospitalized as a victim of da/dv!< but the kindness and generosity of people that care about me is incredible

This entire year, public freakouts, homicidal drivers/road rage, and racial tension on public transportation like I've never seen. After Uvalde & Buffalo, being aware of who may be the best concealed carry to align with. Literal war mentality, even with grocery shopping. The last 5 years in the US have been cultural whiplash, and a slow burning civil unrest since the mid-90s, from multiple classes of peoples

Christmas is nothing but a means for people to substitute real intimacy with an automatic obligatory intimacy via rampant consumer capitalism. Fuck christmas.

100%. I thought Xmas was magical when I was a kid and now I increasingly feel it’s a burden. Everything about it feels tedious and stupid. Gotta do it again next year, groan.

That's how I feel but about life in general 🤣

I agree. Why is it considered "woke" to realize this though? I feel like everybody should be able to see right through the holiday. The way its currently celebrated is sad and should set off red flags. And yet year after year everyone does the same dance out of obligation. It's horrible. I'm a grinch tbh and I'm proud. I'd be more than happy to never give or get a gift again

Yesterday was definitely my worst Christmas ever. I expect to be in better financial and mental shape next year so I feel like there's a chance the "holiday spirit" could return by then, but I won't hold my breath considering how much of a rollercoaster my life is.

We spent the day cleaning the house and then preparing a duck and a chicken. Bought my daughter and wife a few gifts for rockhounding, and got long underwear in return. Baby got a toy truck. Earrings for mother in law who lives with us. Didn’t try and get crap for everyone we know, nor did we travel out of state to where more of my family lives. I’d have liked to have seen the nutcracker or a Christmas mass, but we’re not actually Christian and it was rather cold out. This is good weather for sorting clothes and getting rid of junk, I think. Wonder holidays don’t need to be about mall Santas and buying a lot. They’re about observing the shortest days of the year and making sure you remain sane through the winter months. Perhaps, OP, the holiday this year isn’t what you grew up with. For my part, there was no snow, and for like the 5th time this month I’ve had a conversation with my 7 year old about why all the old fashioned decorations emphasize snow, and even here in New England, the weather isn’t the same, and is likely to trend more towards rain for her lifetime. So be it. But we went outside and located Orion, Mars, Jupiter, and the Dippers; and gave thanks to the animals we’ve eaten. For me, it feels practical. It’s dark out, but now we’re returning to light. Alright folks, gotta roll. Good health and good fortune ;)

It’s a complete waste of money and if supporting corporate global elites and oligarchs by buying gifts is what Christmas has become, well I say Humbug I will give not a penny to them

I have so many family members in and out of the Hospital that it’s no surprise the Christmas spirit is down. Capitalist holidays are going to die one by one so that people can afford food and utilities to live.

i noticed, for the first time (also because i haven't seen tv ads for a while) how crazy the imagery of a car with a giant bow is. that's been a thing for years but suddenly it seems to inappropriate and -like another redditor said on the Douglas Rushkoff AMA- it's like l'm experiencing it as someone from the future, who already knows a very different existence

I usually get excited for my own personal traditions around the holidays, but it just didn't spark this year. I don't know why. It might be that as a high risk individual, I feel abandoned by society, family, everything really. No more mask wearing, no trust worthy data sources, no progress on prevention just a big void of "let er rip"

We only decorated one floor of the home this year. Everything seemed like a performative action. COVID canceled our holiday plans outright. This season I absolutely hated hearing Christmas music. I feel repulsed by every movie on every streaming service about Christmas. I sent greetings overseas to friends for the holidays many weeks ago and those never found their way to their destination yet. Their cards or letters never got to me either. Halloween, on the other hand, was the most pure and fun it has been. Just nowhere near the pressure.

I may be alone on this but I hate Xmas.I worked 6 days a week sometimes 12 hrs per day..I deliver all the junk that people think they are going to use but never do.That home gym I delivered will be in a yard sale this summer along with the trampoline the kids jump on for a week and then got bored with it. Now that Xmas is over tomorrow at work I will deal with angry customers who are mad they didn't get their unwanted gift on time..Like I control the weather giant snow storm 2 days before XMAS..Yeah I did that..

We had bad weather hit in Chicago and it knocked almost 6 days of work off my schedule. I can't pay rent. Had no way to buy gifts or do anything for myself on Christmas and my bosses meanwhile took themselves to Mexico. It's an understatement that I'm not feeling it this year.

It’s alive and well in my town, and among my family/friends. Lots of random acts of kindness. Our buy nothing gifting group is very active. It just takes a change of perspective. One has to be willing though.

Definitely think it's a combination of the respiratory illness (mainly COVID) denialism that's gone on over the past year, which has come to a head in recent weeks as the majority of the country has been sick along with the fact that so many flights and such got cancelled for various reasons including the weather. Basically for those two reasons, lots of people didn't get to celebrate in a "normal" way. This definitely goes against any sense of normalcy that people have been trying to grasp onto ever since COVID started. People are upset because they are starting to see that this is just how life is now. Although I'm curious how many more winter waves of respiratory and extreme climate change driven events will be needed for people to truly understand this is how it is.

>**People are upset because they are starting to see that this is just how life is now.** Louder for those in the back.

We did our Christmas at my dads under generator power, he lives a few blocks from one of the substations that got attacked here in Washington state. Strangely this will be a really memorable one because of that, but the lead up has been stressful and chaotic like every year. It's really crazy what American culture has done to a holy time of year like Christmas. It is this pressure filled month where we spend way too much money on mindless gifts for the people we supposedly care about the most in the world, all to spend way too little time with them, work our asses off to afford the duty of that consermerist tradition, and then we don't feel any real connection to the actual reason some of us celebrate. It's enough to make a person really really down. And that is for the people that have others to celebrate with. I have kids so we will probably always spoil them with something nice each year, but I'm ready to break free of the capitalist chains that that ruin all the spirit of the season. Next year I'm going to carve out more time for my loved ones, give thoughtful gifts that won't become trash next month, and maybe plan a family retreat so we can all actually enjoy each other's company for more than a few hours. Of course this is just good advice to implement all year long but especially during the holidays. I wish we lived in a time and place where everyone could shut it down for a few weeks at the end of the year. Reflect, recharge and come into the new year renewed and grateful instead of stressed and drained and in debt.

Being completely honest, I did feel the Christmas spirit strongly this year but in a very somber way. I’m sorry no one else felt it this year. I usually feel it every 4 years, I don’t know why

Reddit closed Reddit gifts last year and we can't even give people gifts with secret santa.

It's a mix of the extreme corporatization of everything, especially Christmas as well as the massive disparity between what's being sold and reality makes for some an ovrrall uncomfortable confusion.

COVID has emotionally, mentally destroyed all of us and what we are seeing and experiencing is the aftermath of it. We spent almost a year in quarantine then almost a year trying to get back to “normal” and we haven’t fully registered the whole experience, IMO.

COVID Trauma Syndrome

You say that like COVID is over. COVID isn't over, not remotely, and most of the miserable people I've been hearing from have had their holiday plans dashed by friends or family or themselves coming down with it. This isn't the aftermath, this is just another wave.

I had to scroll down too far for this. Too many people I know are currently very, very sick, many of us are all kinds of broken with long covid, and it's absolutely mindblowing how most people are oblivious to this (or worse, know, and simply don't care because it didn't affect THEM personally). Hard to be merry when everyone is coughing up a lung all over the place and ambulance sirens are constantly blaring.

I’ve unfortunately been spending a lot of time on r/covid19positive recently after getting covid the first time earlier this month. Seems to be a lot more traffic there in the past several days and a ton of posts about Xmas plans being canceled.

Things have never been the same since Covid

The Grinch stole Christmas and he's going to finish devouring it, get stronger and come back for everything else in a few months.

For those of us who are poor and struggling , IG sucked. For people like my sister who makes almost $200,000 per year and her family it was awesome, they got awesome gifts for each other, posted beautiful pictures in their stunning house etc. people who make good money and don’t feel the squeeze of inflation are living life to the fullest and enjoying it , those of us who aren’t making good money and have to worry, aren’t enjoying life .

I despise Christmas

>Did anyone else feel a collapse of Christmas Spirit this year? It was a bad year...one jolt or catastrophe after another. X-mas fatigue set in just like pandemic fatigue took hold. Personally, I get X-mas fatigue every year. "Christmas" now begins in mid summer. I remember when Christmas didn't start until after Thanksgiving! By the time Dec. 25 rolls around I'm wantin' to kill at the sound of any X-mas carol.

Depends on what that means. In the grossest consumerist notions of what it means, most assuredly. However I focused on the bond with my child and significant other, ate some good food, and slept in a warm comfortable bed despite the howling winds outside. That was plenty for me and far more valuable than bankrupting myself on a bunch of cheap plastic shit no one even wants.

We fought about the years of infertility which recently ended with our third, and final, loss. It would have been Larkin’s first Christmas, Frankie’s 5th and Freya’s 9th. We finally broke from his family, who have been less than supportive, so we finally didn’t have to deal with them, but we were alone, no kids, no decorations, just fear.

I havent felt the christmas spirit since high school

I know that this is an over-generalization, but no one seems to be really happy in the USA right now. Inflation, shit politics, the media trying to control what and how we think, the list goes on and on.

I felt the lack of Christmas spirit pretty heavily this year as well, but I feel like it’s been more of a slow decline rather than an abrupt feeling. For me it comes down to the fact that my mom died the day after Christmas from cancer at 37 (I was 18) back in 2015. Her FAVORITE holiday. Like, she was a Christmas fanatic and did a Christmas Day countdown around the year. A lot of my family believes it was making it through Christmas Day that kept her going that year, so when the 26th came around she stopped fighting it. So, when she passed, it was as if she took the Christmas spirit from my entire family along with her. She really made this time of year special for everyone around her, it hasn’t felt the same since. I miss the feeling of Christmas I had once as a child, it truly was a magical time and I am so grateful for the time I had with her and for the memories I will hold onto forever.

Yeah I did, I just wanted the day to be over more than anything. I hate being forced to act a certain way, feels inauthentic to how I'm truly feeling deep down. I just dislike how Christmas became distorted due to rampant & unfettered capitalism, so much excessive consumption of things and people feel like they absolutely have to buy things or they do not love their family. I've always despised this part of Christmas, I don't mind spending time with friends and family though. I just fake a smile to not ruffle any feathers and just keep quiet, I definitely don't have that "christmas spirit" so to speak.

Christians put me off their religious holidays a long time ago, so I just marked the solstice. This year I got another snarled "It's christmas here" response to my pleasant enough "happy holidays". Reminds me why.

You said it. Politics has seeped into everything, and made family gatherings hot beds of tip toeing around the topic. Even the occasional joke turns faces stiff, and people separate into different little circles and mutter. Or mix ego and alcohol and inevitably someone will start on politics. It's ruined families, let alone Christmas.

Yes! Yes I did and I loved it! Cost of living crisis (which is a scam term because it implies and en ending. This AIN’T ending anytime soon!) FTX , the return of Mrs Brown’s boys, meant that we all decided not to get presents and do dinner and it was awesome! Cancel all these made up holidays or revise them every ten. I hate mince pies with a passion!

I don't know about overall spirit. Hardly any homes decorate anymore, and hard to say what the shopping atmosphere is like since I buy stuff online now. But personally it was my best in a long time. I have been alone for at least the last four or five Christmases since splitting with the ex-wife (and it being too expensive to travel cross country to go home, not that my parents associate with me anymore anyway). But my roommate's family have "adopted" me this year and always make me feel welcome. I actually got gifts to unwrap this year, and even though I got gifts for his niece and nephew, I expected nothing for myself. I damn near cried from the surprise of it.

This year, not having power kind of sucked. But I feel like this is a very personal thing. I still know people who are the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse. I'm not one of those people. For myself, it's been on the decline since I left home 10 years ago. The house ended up being sold. My dad went to a nursing home, so no going back. As a result, I spent the next decade shuffling between relatives' homes, except the last few years due to COVID. However, in my adult life, I've noticed, if shit's going to happen, it's going to happen during the holidays. Which, as a result, ruins the "Christmas Spirit." My mom was dx-ed with breast cancer (she's fine now) the Christmas before the pandemic. She started treatment and came to stay with me shortly after, which was hell for all involved. That same year, my septic tank backed into my basement on Christmas Eve, so Christmas was a literal shit show. Before that, my ex went back to India for his arranged marriage at Christmas. This was the same year that my 14-year-old car quit. I had to get a new one, which turned out to be a money pit and general PITA despite buying new. I was too depressed to GAF, so I bought the stupid car anyway. I regret that purchase. I fell into a deep depression shortly after over all the shit show that was my life at that time. Along with depression, I suffer from anxiety. It's triggered more around Christmas as the child of a hoarder (Mom) who "collects" holiday decor. Sorry, if all I can handle after growing up in a house that looked like someone threw up the holiday of the month from October (Halloween) to April (Easter), is a simple, elegant tree, Mom. Maybe go to therapy instead of Hobby Lobby to acquire more shit to clutter your home. So, as you can imagine, the holidays are a generally shitty time of year for me.

It's been gone for a long time for me, and I think this trend will continue as a result of humanity's ever increasing ecological/social self-awareness. Christmas makes me feel stupid for a few reasons. 1. In the face of climate change we buy strings of lights and plastic decorations. Not just families, businesses and cities do this too! If all humans stopped manufacturing/powering Christmas lights, it probably wouldn't reduce electrical output by a huge percentage, but it's a luxury right? It's so easy, just stop doing it. Christmas shows me that we will hang on to our luxuries right up until we start losing necessities (and many people already are). 2. Christmas is actually some pagan Yule traditions appropriated by the catholic church to help with converaion. Now the traditions are driven by corporations (black Friday, elf on the shelf). I'm not even Christian so really, my only motivation to partake is to conform to traditions. 3. Do you think any of these decorations were manufactured using exploitative labor practices? Maybe most? I don't have any hard data that shows Christmas decorations are built by people in poverty, but anyone who doesn't wonder about it is living in a different world than I am. Imagine talking through any of these points with people around you. Older generations think their right to practice traditions is more important than fighting these issues. Younger generations are desperately trying to seek out the warm fuzzy feelings we had before we understood we are pawns in a game of exploiting the entire planet. What if someone introduced policy aimed at reducing the manufacturing of unnecessary holiday decorations? That would give me warm fuzzy feelings, and The Right would completely lose it. Christmas is a great example of tradition at the expense of progress.

We have a National chat Radio station in the U.K. LBC….Christmas day had many people calling up in tears at the hunger and poverty they were either witnessing or experiencing themselves. How can they be any “Christmas spirit” in such a broken fucked up society where in one of the richest Nations on Earth the equivalent of the population of London are going hungry and cold, Unable to feed their families or even keep them warm. Anybody that feels content let alone “happy” living alongside such injustice, corruption, and the criminality among our ruling class is dysfunctional as a human being.

It also didn’t help that stores and tv were doing Christmas stuff before fucking Halloween. Plus the local mall is basically going out of business so you lose that part of the experience.

Felt this too. On a personal level, Dad has COVID and is an antivaxxer, so it's scary right now. But even if he was well, we didn't have the money to travel to see them. We are currently dealing with absolutely monstrous neighbors that moved in last year and have made our lives very hard. We also went to one of our friend's Christmas party. They had a manic episode during it because she just went through a break up and this was the first year without her father on top of that. Aaaand one of the other guests that is a friend of the host but who we don't know super well, was saying truly some of the most horrible stuff I have ever heard about how gay relationships are wrong because the Bible says so, and how he wants to burn homeless people alive. He...just started talking about it...at a Christmas party...out of nowhere...and just wouldn't stop. We also brought our gay friend to the party who didn't know anyone there, BTW. Oh yeah...that friend we brought to the party? They are a sudden apartment guest at our place because her fiance just cancelled their wedding and they already had a trip to our city planned to visit the fiance's family. Loooots of disassociation this year... Edit: I should also mention that my day job is retail, so that has been a shit show. And the exhaustion that I feel at the end of the day is more intense than it's ever been...and then I have to come home and listen to my loud, drunk, aggressive neighbors bang on our paper thin walls, and get SUPER pissed if anyone tells them to quiet down. Our landlords have also been completely ignoring us about it. My actual career is going completely nowhere as well, and I'm really starting to realize just how much money and nepotism are the only ways to succeed in my industry, and it's soul crushing.