Published on 12, July, 2020
Does anyone else really struggle with Christmas or find it too overwhelming?
I love Christmas day with my family but I get very nervous about it in advance and can't stand the pressure of a day where I feel we all have to be happy. Also, I can't stand the build up. I hate all the endless Christmas songs in shops and the fact that everyone tells me I have to look forward to Christmas and it has to be this big amazing thing. I don't understand why, I mean it happens every year its not a novelty. I have always struggled with anything people tell me I have to enjoy, I automatically feel so much pressure then that I cant enjoy it and I can't cope. Christmas is that times 100, society and everyone telling me I have to enjoy it and be happy, i cant cope with the pressure.
Also I hate the greed of Christmas, everyone just out for what they can get. I hate the crowds and the people barging past you in shops to get more for themselves. I dont understand the point of giving cards to people you hardly speak to all year or giving presents that people dont really want just for the sake of it.
I really hate the commercialism and the endless adverts telling you you cant enjoy yourself unless you spend loads of money you dont have on stuff you dont need just to make these companies richer
I really struggle with the sensory overload of all the noise and decorations in shops and the fact that you cant escape it, whereever you go its just Christmas stuff everywhere in your face and it is such an overload for me.
Also, I cant tell anyone any of this or they just make me feel like a grinch. It feels like your not allowed to say you dont enjoy it
Im a Christian so i love the meaning of Christmas ( I realise that might not be the case for everyone) and I love spending time with my family but thats about it.
I always have a complete breakdown just before Christmas every year, regular as clockwork
Sorry if I sound like a party pooper but I just wondered if anyone else out there felt like me? Is this an autistic thing or is it just me
As a Christian, you KNOW what Christmas is suppoosed to be about.
Peace, love, and good will to all men.
Celebrating the gift that god gave us of the "new deal" that started with the birth of Jesus Christ, and continues to this day.
For some reason these messages are anathema to those who rule us, and a concerted effort has been made to make it as unpleasant as possible, using the usual tool, the T.V. set to sell you a different message. You hardly ever hear a proper christmas carol anymore but loads of thsi ersatz stuff that sounds like a carol but has horrible words usually based aorund commericalism.
Until you rebel properly, and reject the TV conditioning, you are right, Christmas is a horrible time.
IF however, you focus on the original message and DECIDE that you and your loved ones are just going to have a nice time, full of peace, good will, and love to all men, then it gets a lot easier.
YOU decide yourself what constitutes a nice and easy to make christmas dinner, and you both work together to make it happpen. YOU make a bit more of an effort to BE NICE and HELPFUL, and try to be "thoughtful" about others needs. Never easy, but you'd be surprised at what even a selfish Autist like myself can achieve for a couple of days. If you are skint, and can't buy presents, or even cannot face shopping just tell people straight what is going to happen from your end and don't worry. I make a small list of people who I'd like to buy a present for and I try and do that to the best of my abilty, but if I'm uninspired, then I don't. I got fed up with constantly buying more than I received, and seemingly putting more effort into it, I certainly put a lot of pain into it, and since it's RARE anyone really appreciates a Christmas gift, why suffer?
At the age of fifteen or so, I told a branch of my family straight. "I get the same deodorant set off you guys every year. I don't know what you are trying to say to me, but please stop it...
I do like to get some twinkly lights in the window, to let people know that we are celebrating CHRISTMAS, and not "winterval" or "the festive season" or "the holidays".
For many people Christianity is all about what you should or should not do, and they see it as a system of oppression. It's actually designed to set us free from the more horrible ways of living your life, to explain to you WHY shagging your sisters husband is a terrifically bad idea, or starting a vendetta with the neighbours over parking etc. If you pay attention and soak up the basic principles of Christianity your life DOES get more pleasant, and you WILL get more resiliant when the bad things happen. It wouldn't have got so popular as it did, if it didn't actually work..
So, whilst we all feel the "pressure", I can testify that it feels a lot less unpleasant and goes better if you focus on the actual REASON behind the celebration and not as the TV set would have you do on the material aspects that they want you too.
We have what must look like a really *** christmas to many people, just one or two cards, my daughter comes for Christmas eve and half of christmas day, then she goes to the other half of her faimly where they have all the trimings and loads of people, but she has been known to phone me up, and complain about what a horrible time she is having with them...
To put it simply, ithis time of the year simply isn't "Christmas" if you don't allow Christ to participate in it.
Well said. I share may of your sentiments. You've outlined the very confusing mess that modern society has allowed themselves to get in. They are blinkered and over served.