Every year, Christmas rolls around as the most wonderful time of the year. People are usually filled with joy and excitement over the festivities, gifts, decorations, and holiday foods they indulge in during this particular season. Unfortunately, not everyone has a positive outlook on Christmas; some people hate it!

Hating or dreading Christmas is quite normal; many people may hate the Christmas holiday season. This is because Christmas and the holidays can be filled with financial issues, family grievances, expensive gift-giving, and over-commercialization. These things can add tremendous stress to the Christmas and holiday seasons.

Table of Contents

• Hating Christmas Is More Common Than What You Think
• Hate Christmas? – Ways To Survive The Holiday Season
  • Leave For The Holidays – Go Travel Somewhere
  • Simply Your Christmas Holidays
  • Do Not Give Gifts Instead Give Something To Help Someone
  • Find Ways To Serve Others During The Holiday Season
• Related Questions
  • Is It Always Dark In Sweden? About The Midnight Sun
  • Is Swedish Cooking Bland?
  • Why Is There No Snow In the Philippines?

Hating Christmas Is More Common Than What You Think

Hating or dreading Christmas is more common than you may think. Most of us have been raised to believe Christmas is a time of warm, fuzzy, joyful feelings of belonging. But, for many people, quite the opposite is true.

Christmas can be a time of feelings of loneliness, stress, anxiety, or even failure. Holiday blues and hating Christmas is a natural phenomena where people hate Christmas and have difficulty functioning during the holiday season.

A recent survey and report by the American Psychological Association discovered some interesting data about the Christmas holiday season. Here are some of the data:

• Suicide Rate Not Highest During Christmas Holidays. Many people think the suicide rate is highest over the holiday season, but it is not. In the United States, the suicide rate is the highest between April and August.
  
• Many people feel a host of emotions during the holiday season, from happiness to love to feelings of fatigue, stress, irritability, loneliness, and profound sadness.
  
• Over 37% of people said stress levels increased during the holiday season.
  
• The top reasons for stress were lack of time, and money, the commercialization of Christmas, the pressure to give gifts, and stressful family gatherings.
  
• Over 53% of people feel financial stress due to holiday spending; some spend the entire year trying to pay off what they have spent over the Christmas holiday.

Hating Christmas is not all that uncommon; there can be many reasons why people hate Christmas. And the top of the list always seems to be gift giving, money, commercialization, and family gatherings.

Hate Christmas? – Ways To Survive The Holiday Season

If you hate Christmas, you can do things to ensure that you can survive through the Christmas season. Here are some of my top tips to help you survive if Christmas is something you do not enjoy.

Leave For The Holidays – Go Travel Somewhere

You can leave and travel somewhere if all the stress of Christmas gets to you. Go to some exotic island or location where you can make a few phone calls to wish some family members and loved ones Merry Christmas but not have to be involved in all the stress and festivities.

I have spent many Christmases away from home, some of which are my most memorable. There could be something very liberating about not going through the Christmas holidays’ stress.

If you have an extremely stressful family, then traveling during Christmas time is one way that you may not have to deal with them but still, at the same time, send them Christmas greetings.

I have a friend who told their children they would give them an experience yearly instead of giving gifts. So this family would travel each year and do something together. She told me that because of this, her children have some great memories of Christmas and their time together, and her children are close and enjoy doing things together.

Simply Your Christmas Holidays

If you hate Christmas because Christmas is so complicated and commercialized, then you can simplify your Christmas. Nothing says that you have to have a Christmas tree up, nor do you need a ton of Christmas decorations.

You can decide that you will simplify your life and your Christmas celebrations. I have done this many times when I have refused to have a large meal or put up a lot of decorations. And to be honest, I had a great Christmas as I did not spend my days and nights in the kitchen for weeks preparing for a meal.

There have also been times when I have gone out to eat at Christmas. Sure many restaurants are not open, but there is nothing wrong with having to go for Chinese food on Christmas.

Do Not Give Gifts Instead Give Something To Help Someone

In some families, gift-giving at Christmas becomes over the top in some situations. Everyone is giving a gift, and some gifts are vast amounts of money. Other times you receive gifts, you do not want or need or are unsure what to do.

I am all for giving gifts at Christmas, but at the same time, I understand the practical aspects of it and how stressful it can be. So I either give a gift that I know I can afford and does not cost very much or give them a more practical gift like giving people a gift of charity.

Buy a winter coat for a poor child and give it to them, or I buy a blanket for a homeless person. Find someone who needs a gift and then give it to them. You will be using your money a lot wiser than giving gifts to people gifts who do not appreciate them.

One of my stresses during the holidays has been when some of my family members hold out their hands for a gift but never give any in return. I started to give to a charity of my choice in their name. Or, in some cases, I have stopped offering these greedy non-gift-givers a gift.

Find Ways To Serve Others During The Holiday Season

Christmas does not need to be about giving gifts, commercialization, spending money, and eating food. You can make Christmas about helping others that are less fortunate than you are. You can go volunteer at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen or help a refugee family.

There are hosts of ways and places you can look to serve others on Christmas and during the Christmas holiday season. You can decide you will spend your Christmas and holiday season doing and helping another person and make Christmas about giving service rather than giving gifts.

If you hate Christmas because it is full of stress, commercialization, money, and even loneliness, turn that around and do other things with your Christmas holiday- it can be very liberating.

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Related Questions

Is It Always Dark In Sweden? About The Midnight Sun

The magical thing about living or visiting Sweden is how different the sunlight and darkness can be between the winter and summer months. The summer months can become a magical time when it is light all the time, whereas in the winter months, you will; you are usually encased in darkness.

By clicking here, you can discover Is It Always Dark In Sweden? About The Midnight Sun.

Is Swedish Cooking Bland?

Swedes have always embraced foods from other cultures and places. Like most parts of the world, the Swedes used local ingredients to spice up and flavor their food. Swedish food is a northern European food, so if you know how and what to eat, it is rich and full of unique flavors.

By clicking here, you can discover Is Swedish Cooking Bland?.

Why Is There No Snow In the Philippines?

It does not snow in the Philippines. Even the coldest recorded temperatures are not cold enough for snow. Because the Philippines is considered a tropical climate with moderate temperatures, the island does get a lot of rain. Climate change has caused the Philippines to have more fierce tropical storms.

By clicking here, you can discover Why Is There No Snow In the Philippines?.