Prepare yourself for the world’s most unpopular opinion: Christmas is overrated.
No-one likes a negative Nancy, but when you break it down, everyone’s favourite holiday can often fail to live up to the hype. Here’s why …
1. There’s too much pressure to have fun
Christmas Day is the golden goose of the calendar: if you aren’t squeezing memories out of every second, you’ll have to wait a full year to try again. It’s just one short day, and after a 25-day countdown and months of themed advertising, it’s hard not to wind up feeling short-changed.
2. It’s expensive
If Ebenezer Scrooge could see today’s Christmas commercialism, he’d probably go back to being a miser. Presents, decorations, enough food to strain any dinner table – ’tis the season to deplete your bank account and worry about it in January.
Read: The rudest things you can do during Christmas dinner
3. Christmas dinner is always stressful
And no, not just because you have to eat sprouts. Preparing Christmas dinner is a rite of passage for fledgling householders (and a yearly nightmare for those stuck doing it every year) – a single mistake can leave the turkey blackened and the day ruined.
For bystanders, it’s hard to know how much to help. Control freaks will see offers of assistance as a comment on their competence, but it’s probably worse to completely abandon floundering chefs.
4. Family can go either way
Relatives generally serve up the best and worst of Christmas, depending on who you end up with. Down one road lies a harmonious family dinner filled with photo albums and getting tipsy with your parents. The other brings long-dormant tensions, snarky comments and increasingly fraught games of Monopoly.
5. There’s always one person it’s impossible to buy for
Few sentences are more annoying in the run up to Christmas than, ‘Surprise me!’ There’s always one person who’s reading list is already too long, their wardrobe too unique, and their job well-paid enough that if they really needed something, they’ve probably already bought it. If they don’t know what they want, how are you supposed to?
Read: Kim-Joy’s Christmas Robin Cookies
6. It can never compare to childhood Christmases
Magical beyond measure for kids, Christmas joins fun fairs, car journeys and waking up early as things that were more fun when we were young. Nothing can match up to unwrapping gifts from Santa Claus when you’re tiny, not even the prospect of dressing up like him when you’re big.
7. Some of the traditions are just weird
Mistletoe is creepy, mince pies are often disappointing and eggnog is disgusting. Throw in next door’s seizure-inducing roof lights, and up to four months of Christmas songs; we’d quite happily take the presents and run.
Read: Seven ideas for hosting a Christmas party on a budget
8. Everyone says you’re a Grinch
If you identify with even one of these, you’ll probably be well aware that nobody likes a Christmas killjoy. It’s true, you are a Grinch. It’s just that the Grinch was right.
How much do you enjoy Christmas? What would make it better? Let us know in the comments section below.
– With PA