Not much. Didn’t grow up with it, and trying to celebrate it when I’m older without kids or parents is weird. It’s time off work for me and not much more.

I love Christmas, and Thanksgiving. Opportunities to spend quality time with family are hard to come by these days, but it’s just as important as ever. I also like the core message of “the holiday spirit”, but not the gross consumerism it has been turned into. Love your brethren, peace on earth, and all that good old fashioned shit. Fuck yeah!

Of course it’s a very hard time of year for people without family or loved ones, and for people with emotional issues. I sympathize with those people. I’ve been one of those people at various points of my life. My mom gets super depressed every Christmas because it reminds her of a bunch of shit I don’t want to share on Lemmy. So I’m sorry that it’s hard for you. You do matter. Merry Christmas.

I still enjoy Christmas but there is a bittersweet element now due to loss, experience and outgrowing the magic. The values of cherishing family, friends and community are still important but I don’t make myself a wreck for the season.

I do what feels good and reasonable. That varies each year with my situation. It’s normal and not something to worry about. I’m a real person. I don’t exist in an advert so I don’t try to live like that.

As long as I can sit at the table with my loved ones and share the traditional meals then it is enough. I don’t need gifts or lavish parties. I also only give gifts when it feels right to me.

My country is small and we have Boxing Day so I don’t suffer the travel stress that Americans do. Maybe I would give up on Christmas if I had to deal with that. (Boxing Day should be a human right… ha ha)

Unlike another poster, I like that most stores are closed. I like the idea of everyone having time off together. I do get the poster’s sentiment though. I once felt that way. It can be really inconvenient if an unexpected need pops up.

I don’t like how commercialised Christmas has become but I mostly don’t let that influence me. A pet peeve of mine is Christmas advertising starting months early. It makes the season stale so I avoid the ads as much as I can and I don’t start listening to Christmas music until the weekend before the big day.

None of these holidays have any meaning.

Time off work with holiday pay, If you’re lucky.

Otherwise it’s a capitalism thing to buy stuff to make companies money.

Capitalist holiday preserved by corporate to sell shit

christmas to me means moving on to become a better and happier person, spending time with family that visits town, realizing i still have time left to turn my life around. good feelings but also very nostalgic, thank you for the question!!!

I very much hate christmas. Having a specific day to give everyone something is stupid. We already have everything we want (that’s not too expensive to be a gift), and even if there’s something special, christmas ruins it by being expected. In my family we finally managed to drop the charade after grandma died. Sadly, gonna be celebrating christmas with my GF’s family, and so far I’ve been unsuccessful in making them understand that I don’t want shit from them.

Christmas is just a giant collection of obligations that leaves us all worse off. Like getting and advent calendar, everyone gets mad when I skip days, just because I don’t care about Christmas. In my country we also have 3 days where all stores are closed for it. Great shit…

No. My mom has always worked holidays, and so have I (once I was old enough). We would celebrate around it, but pulled back as I got older. I’m at a job that’s just closed this holiday, and it’s just a day off for me. 🤷🏿‍♀️

No, I hate Christmas with a passion. Despite having pagan roots, the modern version is a BS Christo-capitalist holiday. All it does is remind me (and others like me) how much our families hate us and how much this country sucks. This year is especially bad, since we’re a month out from a fascist takeover that threatens to genocide us.

Fake Christmas cheer is sickening

I don’t really enjoy the holidays. It’s too much stress, too many conflicting family obligations, too much effort dodging the religious aspects, too much forced cheer, and it all just makes me sad. Marginally I like putting up a tree, but after a couple of weeks I get tired of remembering to water it. I skip as much of the holidays as I can, and try to enjoy the small parts that don’t annoy me.

I think as far as holidays go, it’s pretty decent:

• I get some work free time.
• Its a distraction from the fact that there’s no fucking daylight which makes me miserable,
• I get some gifts and give some gifts. It’s not about their material worth but it’s cool that people actively try make someone else happy. We don’t do that everyday.
• There is a lot colorful lights. I love colorful lights.
• I get a lot of time to hyperfixate on some kind of programming / linuxing computer stuff. Maybe gaming.

I feel like a lot negatives of Christmas don’t affect me because: I don’t watch TV or ads, don’t go much to shops or any public places for that matter, I don’t really use social media outside of Lemmy. Also, I don’t have a big extended family.

I’m a Baha’i, so I just celebrate Ayyam I Ha. It’s at the end of Feb so I can take advantage of the after Christmas sales. The Ayyam I Ha Camel can apparently carry more loot than Santa’s Sleigh

I don’t like winter in general but Christmas is ok. I try not to put any demands on anyone, and only do what I can, but have worked at a place that closes for a week at Christmas, and that has made it a lot easier, getting an actual holiday for the holiday instead of scrambling to put it together.

You have not failed, you are alive, you are successful at living by definition. If someone at the holidays is making you feel unsuccessful, that’s mean. If it’s just you feeling it, though, they may not feel the same way. My kids LOVE unmarried aunts & uncles and I loved mine too. You are free to love them without responsibility, more like a friend and that is something kids can really use.

In the end, it’s just a holiday - most of us aren’t religious, it’s a get together time, some presents, a meal. When my kids were up northish, they said winter really was depressing because of the lack of sunlight, they had not realized that was a real phenomenon and were startled by how it made them feel. So be aware you may be feeling worse than usual just because of that, not seeing clearly or objectively.

Stress.

But every now and then I get a little whiff of the magic dust that other people seem to love. Like watching my partner dress a tree while listening to Frank Sinatra.

I don’t have any of the nostalgia for the effects, but I can put on a jovial kind of tolerance.

I’m building a new nostalgia, so that in a couple decades maybe I’ll really feel it.