tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457422002171939579.post3985092915242794628..comments2024-03-20T04:19:52.573-05:00Comments on Stuff, Things, etc.: Christmas, Consumerism, Etc.Kristinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12075708535155080258noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457422002171939579.post-57917344346134554802019-11-20T15:16:28.767-06:002019-11-20T15:16:28.767-06:00I relate a lot to this. We have no family here any...I relate a lot to this. We have no family here any more. We’ll generally travel to see my parents for Christmas, but they’re always moving. This year they’ll move into their new house about a week before Christmas. It will be chaos I’m sure. Who cares. We don’t do a lot of presents because my husband gets super hung up on the consumerism/materialism aspect, and financially we don’t want to be stressed out. We’ve never had Christmas in our own house in all our married years and I wouldn’t even say we have traditions anymore other than cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast. It is what it is, and I’ve learned to roll with it. Michellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01155303404223970814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457422002171939579.post-690277881432697882019-11-20T04:50:49.653-06:002019-11-20T04:50:49.653-06:00We don't have any Christmas traditions. We'...We don't have any Christmas traditions. We're usually in a different place every year anyway, and I would happily have pretended Christmas didn't exist last year. Jan didn't even get me a present because he had just started a new job and had no time (he didn't get anything for his family either, or write the Christmas cards I had made for him... they're still here, waiting to be used this December).<br /><br />We're going to England this Christmas and I've paid an absolute fortune for flights... literally triple what I normally pay - and it's not like it's our first time flying to the UK for Christmas. Thanks to that I'm now officially broke. It will be nice to see my family (especially since my dad has been having health issues and is currently waiting for the results of a bone scan) but no matter how magical it still won't be our first Christmas with our boys like it was supposed to be, which will never not suck.Confuzzled Bevhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09873744799887614543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457422002171939579.post-50347079652640267982019-11-19T20:05:40.998-06:002019-11-19T20:05:40.998-06:00I can relate a lot to not having much in the way o...I can relate a lot to not having much in the way of set traditions or expectations for Christmas specifically. 2010 Christmas, we'd been married three weeks, and hosted Christmas day for my dad's side of the family at the last minute due to illness at my aunt's house...in our very empty house with folding chairs and borrowed folding tables. 2011, Angel worked Christmas and I drove myself to the other side of the state to spend it with my Mom's side of the family, 2012, we drove to Texas to spend with Angel's family, which was a very new experience for me (midnight mass and midnight tamales vs. ham Christmas dinner, etc.), 2013 Angel worked and I went to the other side of the state again...2014 was in China, just the two of us, 2015 was our first Christmas in Malaysia with my family here, and that was nice. 2016 Christmas was shortly after my miscarriage and I was not in a great state of mind. 2017--I got steroid shots and put onto bedrest on the 22nd or 23rd of December due to early labor. 2018 with Cyrus felt special, and like a lot of redemption after a couple years of not feeling up to much "Christmasing". And I'm so, so thankful that this year we get to have another "first Christmas" and I'm starting to dream up little traditions and introducing Cyrus to classic Christmas films and playing Christmas music all December and reading the Christmas story together...Angel's work has a family Christmas party that Cyrus will be old enough to go to this year...maybe I will even bake but I'm not getting too crazy...<br />I definitely have "traditions" in my mind that communicate Christmas to me--boardgames with family, candlelight service at my Grandparents' church, but they've had to be very flexible over the years. And it's just reality that Christmas seems a bit less "Christmas-y" in SE Asia, since it isn't widely celebrated or even if it's slightly commercially "celebrated"...the meaning isn't known or is ignored.<br />I agree that people would do well to consider consumerism and whether their Christmas traditions and gifting add joy to their lives and others or add weight. My "minimalism" definitely comes out at Christmas...last year I let Cyrus open up on Christmas, with no shame at all, some megablocks that a coworker of Angel's had handed down since her son no longer played with them. And Cyrus still plays with them on the daily! For my little sisters here, we've normally done "experience" gifts (particularly since my parents are getting older, and aren't as big on going to places like waterparks with the kids anymore, this was fun over the past few years).<br />Rachelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07894832851934334471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457422002171939579.post-5809305158691753912019-11-19T10:55:02.944-06:002019-11-19T10:55:02.944-06:00Our Christmases lately have all looked a bit diffe...Our Christmases lately have all looked a bit different too. Some of my family members have left the state, and our big family Christmas Eve party doesn't exist anymore. A lot of things have changed once my brother and I started having kids, too. Now we do more lowkey things with each other and our parents. We're also trying to start making some of our own little traditions in our house. This year, we are getting each of the boys a Christmas book to open on Christmas Eve. A lowkey, inexpensive new tradition to try going forward!StephTheBookwormhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05340476943567585965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457422002171939579.post-84618706053071429332019-11-19T10:46:58.402-06:002019-11-19T10:46:58.402-06:00I can not tell you how much I love this post!!! I ...I can not tell you how much I love this post!!! I am in the same thinking as you ... & am so disheartened when everyone else in my family is all about the piles & hills of presents & spending & debt... & expect us to join in with them. & we do for the most part just because its what's expected. You are inspiring me to take that stance to say, NOPE - we're tapping out. For us - for our holiday sanity!Rebecca Johttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03965781380511208862noreply@blogger.com