What in the fuck is someone going to buy me for $40-50 and have it actually be something I need or want? I'll tell you what....not a damn thing. And this doesn't even begin to reflect all the crap in the rest of the house. I already have everything I could ever want and more, I sure as hell don't need anything else cluttering up the place. Honestly I'd rather have someone come over and take something than give me a gift. At least that would help free up some space.
So that leaves 2 other options:
1. Tell people what you want or could use. Well that's dumb and takes away the element of surprise and defeats the purpose of the entire process.
2. Give money. Even worse than #1
Luckily my family sees things the same way so we stopped exchanging gifts between adults a long time ago, and even stopped buying for children in the past 10 years. And we don't miss it at all.
I would say food/drink, but of course that comes with its own pickiness, too... I've had people gift me specific beer and I usually end up giving it away, because I just don't enjoy drinking it at all. I was gifted a Flaviar subscription last year, which was nice since you can pick out different liquor. I also get tasting boxes, so I use those to have people over for tastings.
Which brings up #4... experiences. I've bought people in KC gift cards to Restaurant Week before. Better than a blanket check or Amazon. Or stuff around town or things that feed a hobby.
I'm with ya on lists and telling people what you want..... my parents, now for decades have asked me exactly what I want. I mean... you've only known me for four decades. And by list I mean I used to send them links to specific things they could buy. That's kind of turned into gift cards, which turned into basically nothing the past couple years.
I'm kind of 50/50 on it overall.... I like it when I find something unique that I know someone will love and of course like a good surprise of a perfect gift, but could completely do away with exchanging gift cards and thoughtless gifts. My brother and I would mock that practice and would give each other a $100 bill. [Reply]
It is a thought game. Also how you were brought up is an issue. I think it is a glass half empty/full.
Kids gone, wife with her family, so I was alone. I could have said "screw it" and done nothing. Really no biggie. But thought, "What the heck". I went and got a small real tree, lights and few ornaments, put up a few lights outside, played Christmas music whilst putting on the tree ornaments.
For the 3-6 hours of doing that crap...I had a whole month of coming home and seeing the house lights, going inside and smelling the tree and looking at the lights, reading a book by the fireplace; I had a slice of happiness.
Originally Posted by Bearcat:
I think even if you're fortunate to have fond memories of the holidays and no/few reasons to hate this time of year, there's still several things that can make them less than enjoyable.... and of course the biggest thing being forced to watch the Lions and Cowboys every ****ing Thanksgiving, followed by feeling obligation to make everyone happy while stressing yourself out.
I fortunately had pretty low key parents with low key traditions growing up and do the same these days... very rarely travel, parents are 1300 miles away so there's no going house to house. There's some gift giving drama every year, but whatever.
Given the other 49 weeks of the year, the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years have fortunately been more about relaxation with a little family time.
Originally Posted by Bearcat:
I would say food/drink, but of course that comes with its own pickiness, too... I've had people gift me specific beer and I usually end up giving it away, because I just don't enjoy drinking it at all. I was gifted a Flaviar subscription last year, which was nice since you can pick out different liquor. I also get tasting boxes, so I use those to have people over for tastings.
Which brings up #4... experiences. I've bought people in KC gift cards to Restaurant Week before. Better than a blanket check or Amazon. Or stuff around town or things that feed a hobby.
I'm with ya on lists and telling people what you want..... my parents, now for decades have asked me exactly what I want. I mean... you've only known me for four decades. And by list I mean I used to send them links to specific things they could buy. That's kind of turned into gift cards, which turned into basically nothing the past couple years.
I'm kind of 50/50 on it overall.... I like it when I find something unique that I know someone will love and of course like a good surprise of a perfect gift, but could completely do away with exchanging gift cards and thoughtless gifts. My brother and I would mock that practice and would give each other a $100 bill.
An even better play would be to pull that hundy out of a card, tell him thanks, and then stick it right into another card and walk over and hand it back to him. :-) [Reply]
Originally Posted by Buehler445:
I feel like shit about it, but my cunt sister has ruined it for me. I’m serious. You just say Christmas or Thanksgiving and I’m in a bad mood. She’s extra goddamned insufferable and nobody will call her on her shit so I just keep my distance. And naturally she has to grandstand about how much of a better everything she is than everybody else. Despite being none of those things she wants to be. And she picks fights about politics, religion, COVID, medical shit she’s all the way wrong on, how much worse her life is than anyone else. WTF ever. She’s going to pick a fight about it. And then be shocked when people push back.
It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just the holiday. But no. We have to do every waking moment for however long my brother is here for. I get away for work a lot. But it just goes in and on and on and makes me want to eat a fucking bullet. I don’t know if that’s her doing or my moms, but fuck man. Let’s do the thing on the holiday and stop by and visit my brother when It’s time. That way we don’t have to feed 20 people for a week or better. Nope. Every second of every day. With a person I can’t be around. It’s caused me some level of brain warp because I just hear one of the two and get mad.
My wife’s family treats me really pretty damn good. And they do holidays in a much more sane fashion, but it’s invariably a fiasco because there are 40 people and it’s just hard. Wife’s sister has grandkids and IMO it’s time to stop doing it with her parents and do our own thing and have her parents come to one. But that’s not happening. 40 people it is.
But yeah. I hate the holidays. I long for something I can do with a reasonable set of reasonable people and I’d go buy a rib roast or something. And try to do something special instead of just managing chaos and avoiding turmoil.
Damn, I guess I shouldn't bitch about my brother-in-law. Holy hell.
Maybe you should take a vacation to Florida this Christmas. And every Christmas thereafter. [Reply]
One year in elementary school we had some kid in our class whose religion didn't allow holidays. What is that, Adventist or something? This was probably third grade, and the teacher said, "Okay, we're going to have our Christmas party today! Oh, as soon I take Jebediah down to the principal's office." So we had our party and Jebediah sat in the principal's office. I don't understand how a religion like that lasts more than one generation. [Reply]
I've never been big on holidays, or at least not past the age of 8 or so. I'm just not big on traditions. I think maybe it's because I'm usually running at full capacity and holidays just seem like a lot of extra work when I don't have a lot of capacity. That's a bad attitude, I know. I feel like maybe when I retire I might actually start getting into them.
I went back to Missouri a couple of weeks ago for a semi-holiday thing. I thought it went well, and then after I got back I received 26 text messages (actual count, not an exaggeration) from my sister about what terrible people my wife and I are. It was mostly centered on the fact that we moved a small decorative centerpiece on her counter when putting out the plates for a breakfast get-together, but apparently we also called at an inconvenient time to ask what types of coffee we could bring over for the breakfast. According to her, we were "control freaks" for doing these things and unspeakably rude.
I think she's trying to ostracize me from the group. If I had known that, I would have moved the centerpiece years ago. [Reply]
I don't like them either. They make me lonely for some reason. I'll be in a room full of family and still feel slightly depressed. It's like something is about to end forever. I don't know why.
I can remember feeling this way all the way back before my teens.
Originally Posted by Frazod:
Damn, I guess I shouldn't bitch about my brother-in-law. Holy hell.
Maybe you should take a vacation to Florida this Christmas. And every Christmas thereafter.
Wife and I are actually taking off after Christmas because my brother is coming for 10(!) days and they’re planning shit for every day. Wife is a teacher and that’s the whole break. All of it. So I told mom since we didn’t go anywhere at all this year we’re getting out of town for a bit.
I just can’t do it. I will lose my shit. And my wife might divorce my cunt sister. And by extension, me. [Reply]
Originally Posted by JakeF:
I don't like them either. They make me lonely for some reason. I'll be in a room full of family and still feel slightly depressed. It's like something is about to end forever. I don't know why.
I can remember feeling this way all the way back before my teens.
