i've decided something very important

[entitled]

i've decided the holidays are made especially for those of us who can't be with our blood relatives. Just to make us feel all lonely and worthless.

i vote we boycott.

Who's with me?

 

[kendo1]

I can boycott it. No way can I be with my Dad or sisters, simply impossible.
But I can be with my kids. I reckon they would be upset if I cancelled Christmas.

 

[BlackShanglan]

I vote we either celebrate with other friends unable to be with family, or celebrate by hanging around the house in our pajamas grazing our individual paths through the massive, delicious gift baskets we've sent ourselves. Ideally, of course, it's both: gather up the friends and have a pajama-party extravaganza of noshing and lolling.

Shanglan

 

[entitled]

I can boycott it. No way can I be with my Dad or sisters, simply impossible.
But I can be with my kids. I reckon they would be upset if I cancelled Christmas.

i can't be with anybody but the kids, either. But they can go with the inlaws, like they always do, and leave me at home.
i hate having to deal with a couple dozen people that i see twice a year. Been married nearly six years nad i still can't even keep their names straight.
i just don't want to deal with it.

 

[entitled]

I vote we either celebrate with other friends unable to be with family, or celebrate by hanging around the house in our pajamas grazing our individual paths through the massive, delicious gift baskets we've sent ourselves. Ideally, of course, it's both: gather up the friends and have a pajama-party extravaganze of noshing and lolling.

Shanglan

i vote we do it sans pajamas.

*rubs that one spot right between the eyes*

Hey horsey.

 

[kendo1]

you might actually enjoy yourself.
A while back I didn't want to go to a wedding. People here persuaded me to go.

Had a great time meeting friends from BC ( before kids)

 

[mlady_france]

*sigh*

I can't be with the ones I want to be, and I have too much time with the ones I don't want to be with. For Thanksgiving I volentered to work, but we're closed christmas.

 

[entitled]

kendo, dearie, i go this this every single year, and hate it every single year. It's just bullshit and i'll be happy to not have to deal with it if i ever get a job and a divorce.

mlady, i'm right there with you

 

[carsonshepherd]

Don't go.

I boycotted 9 years of family holidays (I moved 7 hours away for a reason.)

My ex and I made our own traditions. Those can be more meaningful than ones forced on you. The people whose names you can't keep straight will probably not care you're not there, so do what you want for once, and be happy!

 

[CopyCarver]

Boycott Strategy

Don't merely boycott: do it with vigor. If you insult Thanksgiving/Christmas strenuously enough, they go away and don't return for an entire year. (Similar tactics don't work for April 15, however. It's humanly impossible to offend the IRS.)

 

[oggbashan]

Christmas can be cruel

Those who are alone in the world; those whose family live an impossibly long way away; those whose family has broken up during the year - Christmas can be a painful reminder that the norm is a family gathering.

Even those with families can be reminded that you can choose your friends but you are stuck with your family members, good, bad and impossible.

Unfortunately Christmas Eve is a peak time for suicide attempts as the reality for individuals is shown to be very different from the rose-tinted advertising dream of Christmas that extols massive consumer spending as the only way to happiness.

If you read the colour supplements and learn that spending 300 pounds/dollars (or whatever sum is totally impossible on your income) on a party dress to be worn at Christmas only once is cheap; and that no one spends less than 5000 pounds/dollars on Christmas presents - the feeling that you are excluded from society and a failure can become overwhelming.

Spare a thought for those who will NOT enjoy Christmas; and for those who will be working throughout Christmas so that you can have a good time - for example the emergency services, the power suppliers, the telephone company, and the butcher who would scream if he saw another turkey...

Christmas can be cruel to those on their own.

Og

 

[rgraham666]

Tell me about it Ogg.

The years I spent out West were very tough at Christmas.

 

[Guest]

I vote we either celebrate with other friends unable to be with family, or celebrate by hanging around the house in our pajamas grazing our individual paths through the massive, delicious gift baskets we've sent ourselves. Ideally, of course, it's both: gather up the friends and have a pajama-party extravaganza of noshing and lolling.

Shanglan

damnit. why can't you be wrong?

fine. yes. i agree.
hrmf~

 

[LadyJeanne]

I'm all for Thanksgiving...yummy food, family, friends, and whomever the cat drags in, even pretending to watch football as we nibble your way through the pies...yes. In my world, Thanksgiving holds no pressure. It's all good.

But Christmas? Grrr. The part that gets me every year no matter how much I ignore the rest, is the, "Say it with diamonds" ads. For those of us who don't have anyone who wants to say anything, with either diamonds or donuts, it just makes you feel more useless and rejected than gum scraped off the bottom of somebody's shoe.

 

[rgraham666]

I'm all for Thanksgiving...yummy food, family, friends, and whomever the cat drags in, even pretending to watch football as we nibble your way through the pies...yes. In my world, Thanksgiving holds no pressure. It's all good.

But Christmas? Grrr. The part that gets me every year no matter how much I ignore the rest, is the, "Say it with diamonds" ads. For those of us who don't have anyone who wants to say anything, with either diamonds or donuts, it just makes you feel more useless and rejected than gum scraped off the bottom of somebody's shoe.

Donuts I can afford. Just tell me where to send them

 

[LadyJeanne]

Donuts I can afford. Just tell me where to send them

Ah, you give me donuts all year round, sweets. Thank you.

 

[chris 44]

i've decided the holidays are made especially for those of us who can't be with our blood relatives. Just to make us feel all lonely and worthless.

i vote we boycott.

Who's with me?

If you promise to include birthdays in with that, I'm your man

 

[entitled]

If you promise to include birthdays in with that, I'm your man

Honey, that's been done. i haven't had the chance to celebrate a birthday since i was twelve.

 

[rgraham666]

Ah, you give me donuts all year round, sweets. Thank you.

I feel much better now.

 

[SeaCat]

I am working both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I work most holidays because my wife and I don't have kids. (I prefer to let the people who have children have the time to be with their kids.)

My family as well as my wifes are all up north. The only ones in my family I care to deal with are my parents, and they will be busy this year. This is not an unusual situation.

My wife and I will be having Thanksgiving Dinner in the hospital where we work. Not a big deal. (The hospital gave us $15.00 gift cards for a local food store. We have given them to our best friend so she and her family can have Thanksgiving.) As for Christmas, our plans include a long suck and fuck session under the tree when we get home. (Christmas Eve we will be going over to our friends house and helping her give her kids a good Christmas. We have enough gifts for the kids to fill the back of our tracker, and every one of them has Mom on them! We also have a tree for them, and our friend has no knowledge of what we will be bringing over. )

Even though we will be alone we will enjoy ourselves this year. Much better than the past too many years.

Cat

 

[BlackShanglan]

Don't go.

I boycotted 9 years of family holidays (I moved 7 hours away for a reason.)

My ex and I made our own traditions. Those can be more meaningful than ones forced on you. The people whose names you can't keep straight will probably not care you're not there, so do what you want for once, and be happy!

Amen. The SO and I spent our first Christmas alone, deliberately having our own private celebration, and found we quite liked it. I'm looking forward to doing that again this Christmas. Peace, quiet, and just us enjoying each other and our own little tradition. We like making a Christmas feast just for us and sitting around drinking Christmas cider and helping the dogs unwrap their presents.

damnit. why can't you be wrong?

fine. yes. i agree.
hrmf~

Excellent. Wear your feety pajamas and come down our way, oh most adorable.

i vote we do it sans pajamas.

*rubs that one spot right between the eyes*

Hey horsey.

Hey there Entitled. We're getting you a set of PJ's with the flap opening in the back.

And for heavens' sake, don't anyone do this insane business of trying to express affection and love through dollar sizes of gifts. Think of what you really love about that person and give something related to it, and stuff the rest. There are so many excellent reasons not to get obsessed with spending obscene quantities of money. Here is a hand-culled list of reasons other than the obvious (that it's not what givings gifts was ever meant to be about); read "holiday" as Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Midwinter Solstice/whatever you like:

(1) The moral high ground: "We're really trying to keep our holiday holy and blessed this year, and teach the children not to seek happiness in material things."

(2) The social high ground: "Oh, let's just do something simple and tasteful. We don't need to make a display of it." Or, for the more haughty: "You know how it can get this time of year - everyone trying to out-nouveau-riche each other. Our family never really saw the need for that."

(3) The personal high ground: "This year I really wanted to give people somethng personal, not just something I got online from Circuit City. I wanted it to really show what I like about them." Also a good approach: "I remembered how much everyone loved Grandma's fruitcakes, so I thought I'd send some to everyone this year. Those were some happy times."

(4) The cooperative high ground (Prepare this one in advance, before gifts are bought): "You know, let's make this our Christmas present to each other: let's go do something fun together, get a little peace from the shopping rush, and cross each other off our lists!"

And, of course, in our house ...

(5) The financial low ground: "Umm. Sorry. I seem to have spent most of the money on dog toys and cat treaties, so I have these, um, D-cell batteries ..."

Shanglan

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I couldn't make it without my folks at the holidays. the one year I had to work Christmas nearly killed me.

I guess for me, the holidays are all about being with family. Even those I see only once a year.

Even if it means a 21 hour drive now.

 

[entitled]

Cat, dearie, much as i love you, that didn't really help much. i don't even have nookie prospects.

Shang? Remind me to get you the good set of shoes, eh? As long as the flappy jammies have footies. Have to have the footie jammies to lounge around and drink cocoa in.

The best winter holiday present i ever got was actually a tiny crab. My aunt had found it when she was walking on the beach. It was dead, but had been preserved perfectly, and she said it reminded her of me.

 

[SeaCat]

Cat, dearie, much as i love you, that didn't really help much. i don't even have nookie prospects.

Shang? Remind me to get you the good set of shoes, eh? As long as the flappy jammies have footies. Have to have the footie jammies to lounge around and drink cocoa in.

The best winter holiday present i ever got was actually a tiny crab. My aunt had found it when she was walking on the beach. It was dead, but had been preserved perfectly, and she said it reminded her of me.

Entitled,

Sweetheart,

My wife and I will be working these holidays,a s we work most of them. Neither of us will have family there, just ourselves. (Yes we will be thinking about and of our friend she will be with her kids and we will be alone.) I understand as does my wife. we too are sepereated from our families and loved ones, she by distance and me by choice. All we will have will be each other. (To us that is enough.)

Would you like an invite to our place? No nothing will be expected. All you will have to bring is yourself and a good mood. (I may even be enticed to make my families deadly EggNog, it is gaurunteed to lower inhibitions 100 percent. You have no inhibitions when you are unconsciouse.) There is one other on this board who has an invite here, would you like to be included in that exclusive club?

Cat
JK

 

[entitled]

Entitled,

Sweetheart,

My wife and I will be working these holidays,a s we work most of them. Neither of us will have family there, just ourselves. (Yes we will be thinking about and of our friend she will be with her kids and we will be alone.) I understand as does my wife. we too are sepereated from our families and loved ones, she by distance and me by choice. All we will have will be each other. (To us that is enough.)

Would you like an invite to our place? No nothing will be expected. All you will have to bring is yourself and a good mood. (I may even be enticed to make my families deadly EggNog, it is gaurunteed to lower inhibitions 100 percent. You have no inhibitions when you are unconsciouse.) There is one other on this board who has an invite here, would you like to be included in that exclusive club?

Cat
JK

Darlin, if i had the ability to travel this holiday season, i would be with my family. It's not my choice to be away from them. The last holiday season i spent with them was six years ago, and even then the inlaws didn't approve of it all that much. None of them wanted to go along and they didn't approve of my traveling alone with a baby and being pregnant.

i'm just wildly jealous that you'll be spending time with each other, and with friends, and that i won't be. Self-pity just happens to be the order of the day.

i'll be cheeky enough to take you up on that offer once the mood changes. As it is, the gesture is appreciated.