r/ihatechristmas

i wish people would stop pretending that christmas has anything to do with being kind to one another and spending quality time with their families when really it’s become a present measuring competition and a massive guilt tripping opportunity to do and buy stuff “because it’s christmas 🥺”

hospitality and retail are under so much pressure to work overtime for the same pay and get blamed for ruining customers’ christmases on purpose if they fail to provide the exact thing they’re looking for

some people have no one to spend quality time with (I’m not even talking about extreme scenarios. so many people have horrible toxic families that are a drag to speak to) and it’s such a grim reminder that others had better families and are having a blast at christmas

it’s impossible to buy anyone anything meaningful because of all the kitchy meaningless tat every shop pushes, and you’ll have to kick and shove if you leave it too late (october)

christmas has the BEST PR ever because of you express any stress or any lack of enthusiasm to participate in it you’re immediately accused of being stingy or grumpy or a scrooge or ungenerous or a loner

it just boils down to this for me: you will break your back to make it as good as possible and when it’s over you’ll still have found some way in which someone else thinks it had been inadequate. no amount of money will ever fill the void of “the right way” of doing christmas.

it’s such a stressful and exhausting time unless you’re a child or a guest at someone’s house and it’s got nothing to do with religion anymore either

I can't do this again, it feels like last Christmas was 3 months ago, I cant keep doing groundhog day Christmas.

The shops have all the halloween decorations out now meaning the Christmas ones will be out soon.

It feels like they start celebrating earlier and earlier every damn year

WHY WILL IT END

In no particular order:

1. Commercialism (I think even people who love Christmas hate this aspect)
2. Making people feel that they have to be good because hey, it's Christmas. People in need need help every single day of the year. Help for those in need is not a gift under the tree. It is essential every day.
3. Kitschy decorations and music even triggering sensory overload in some people
4. It often confuses children who have been good all year and then see that rich naughty children get super expensive gifts while they get gifts from a 2-dollar store if they get something at all.
5. The pressure to buy not out of love but because it has to be (again because hey, it's Christmas)
6. Unwanted gifts often end up in the bin or on eBay; they are nothing memorable
7. Real trees mean trees have been killed; artificial trees often mean an environmental burden (many people don't even bother to recycle an artificial tree for next year)
8. Christmas can trigger traumas - memories of those we loved and who have died, memories of abuse and loneliness -, and can make people feel worthless if they don't have the money to buy expensive gifts
9. Forced family reunions often end up in disagreements, snarky remarks, inappropriate questions, and at any rate they are not exactly refreshing for those who love peace and quiet.
10. Christmas also obviously creates differences and for some it is almost a competition - look what I bought and what I got (apparently there are even people who put empty boxes under the tree just to make people jealous - yes, the true spirit of Christmas...).
11. Movies totally unrelated to Christmas often end with a Christmas scene (I have to mute the volume if I want to know how a movie ends and turn on captions because I cannot stand the music!)
12. It has become a real joke. In the past it started in December, then in November, then in October, then in September - last year I saw decorations in August, and because they thought maybe that's enough for Christmas in December, they invented Christmas in July (which doesn't even start in July).
13. It is a pagan holiday that has been basically stolen, but Christmas lovers refuse to accept the truth (including the fact that Jesus was not born in December).
14. Irritating questions like "What are you going to do for Christmas?", "What did you get for Christmas" (after the painful event)
15. Fake smiles, fake everything -all problems should magically disappear because hey, it's Christmas.
16. The Elf and Santa
17. All the disruptions, delays in the mail, closed shops etc.

In a nutshell - Christmas should be banned, at least publicly.

If I can think of more reasons I will add them to my post. Can you think of more?

Honestly, I see Christmas being a national holiday as more of a privilege given to Christianity than just a "cultural tradition."

A lot of people say, "Christmas isn't really religious anymore," but its origins are still Christian. When the government officially recognizes that celebration as a national holiday, it ends up giving Christianity a special status compared to other religions—and compared to people who don't follow any religion at all.

If the state is truly secular, it should remain neutral. It doesn't make much sense to say that all beliefs are equal before the government while one religion has its holidays officially recognized and, for the most part, others don't.

And before anyone says, "But no one is forced to celebrate it," that's not the point. The issue isn't that people celebrate Christmas; it's that the government officially designates a specific religious holiday as a national holiday for everyone. Atheists, agnostics, and followers of other religions also have to live according to a public calendar shaped by a Christian tradition.

To me, that looks more like a subtle way of promoting Christianity's influence in society than an example of genuine religious neutrality.

The basement smelled like musty wet concrete and old dust that had settled over the decades. I hadn't put up a Christmas tree or decorated the house in years-- not since Mom died. But this year felt different. I'd decided it was finally time to pull out her old boxes of treasured ornaments and try to get back a little bit of that Christmas spirit. I wanted to make this year special for my grown kids who were both coming home to visit.

Over in the corner stood that five-foot Santa that my late husband, John had dragged through the front door back in 2005 when the kids were little. The kids loved dancing and singing along, but to me it was noisy and kinda creepy. I hauled Santa down to the basement along with his transformer box and its power cord when it outlived its usefulness for the kids. They were grown now with kids of their own. I had kept hoping that one of them would eventually take the damn thing home with them-- maybe this year.

I shifted a heavy box to get to Mom's ornaments. Behind my back came this sudden scuttle across the floor--a harsh sound like hard plastic dragging across bare concrete. Then a heavy click echoed off the walls. I froze. I turned around slowly, dreading what was there.

That damn Santa wasn't facing the wall anymore. It popped to life with a sharp screech of dry plastic gears, its waist jerking into a stiff, unnatural dance, eyes staring right at me. Then a warped, low-pitched rendition of Jingle Bells filled the silence--

"Jiiiin-ggglle...b-bbelllssss...jjj-innngle...b-bbbells...jiiiin-gggle...aaalll...t-thhhhe...w-wwwaaayyy..."

Shocked and totally unglued, I dropped the tote and ran for the stairs!