Do you get into the holiday spirit?

[Serenity Vixen]

This time of year, there are allot of holidays to enjoy... or not. I was just wondering. Do you make a big deal about the holidays? Do you decorate? Sing Carols?
Or do you hate them?

For me, I live with 3 room mates, and we celebrate throughout November and December. We create a sort of Christmas village on a table in the living room, and string lights outside the house...  Well, we argue about it allot too, but it's all good. I like to watch the sappy shows I have seen a million times, and listen to carols, drink eggnog and warm, spiced cider...

We do have a good time :)

[Jeramiahh]

My family's... well, we're just apathetic about things in general. We put up the tree and decorations, and... that's about it. We may not even do that, this year, since we'll be on vacation for a lot of the holiday season.

[TonyWoods]

I seem to make less and less of a deal about the holidays the older I get.

I mean, I try to get into the spirit and all, and usually come the 'big day' I've got something of the Christmas spirit inside me (usually vodka) but it seems to pale in comparison to what it was like as an event when I was younger.

As for carol singers - I treat them the same way I treat people who are religious. I have absolutely no issue with them if they keep it to themselves or meet at some preordained spot (that I can take pains to avoid), but woe betide them if they want to come knocking on my door to 'share' it with me.

[Bliss]

I do get into the holiday spirit, or it gets into me; however much I might get down about myself, the world, the little things that go wrong in life... Christmas for me isn't Simply the presents, the shows, the shopping, the decorations. All of that feeds into it, but at the very root of things in the holiday season is that indefinable sense of hope and rightness and shared joy and renewal that seems to be the base message of any classic holiday special (All of which I watch gleefully, year in and year out, when the come on television).

My mother tells me that I am naive, even though among my siblings I also happened to be the one she worried about the least when I went away to college, in general she also seems to worry about me a little more than my siblings because I have an innate belief in the basic goodness of people, one that seems a little out of place in this day and age.

For me, though, that's what the season, the holiday, is all about - believing that people are good, that the world can be made a better place, be it with a strand of twinkling lights or a hopeful song, a pretty card, holding the door open for someone, gathering with loved ones old and new to maintain and reaffirm the connections that have been built over the course of this or many years past.

I love the tradition of the holiday; the things that ground me in the past of my childhood, of my family, or my own historical roots. Bringing home an evergreen and setting it up with lights and glass balls and little ornaments that are there not because they give it a pretty and Martha Stewart-y look, but because this one was sent from an old high school friend now across the country, that one was handed down from my great grandmother, this one an aunt helped me craft while babysitting for me when I was nine years old... Putting on holiday carols and singing along while writing out and addressing christmas cards to let people know that I'm thinking of them. Staying up late Christmas night with all the other lights out just watching the tree blink. Going to sleep and waking in the morning with more gifts under the tree than had been there the night before (and always, ALWAYS there is one addressed to me from Yukon Cornelius). Finding the perfect crazy little thing to put into the family Yankee Swap. Baking a triple batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and setting them out with milk (and cheerios for the reindeer). Going to midnight mass, and waiting for that one inevitable moment where everyone in the church is sitting there, white candles lit, in perfect, deliberate and shared silence.

Yes, I get into the holiday spirit, and it gets into me, and I always hope that somehow I can share this feeling of rightness with people; and I say Merry Christmas, and I mean it.

[Serenity Vixen]

I can't believe how much I agree with Bliss on this...

I have seen the real ugliness of the human spirit, and stared into eyes of pure evil, and been unable to defend myself, however...

I have also seen the very best the human soul has to offer, and I cling to that. In spite of the ugliness, I know there are shining beacons in the world.

I really believe in the ultimate goodness of the human spirit. I am not completely sure what my actual relationship is with God, but I do believe strongly in Good. and so I celebrate, and I am happy living this way...

I guess it just works for me :)

[HairyHeretic]

Not really. If anything this about my least favourite time of year. I've lost my father, grandfather and two jobs around about now (over the last .. 8 or so years call it).

The whole crass commercialism irritates me as well.

[Stevej101]

No, not a bit, Bah Humbug, nien, Nyet, and however many other languages and dialects one can say no.  I have evidence that I have not been into it for at least 44 years, (I'm 48 and have seen xmas videos of me at four and didn't like them then)

in short  hell no.