Christmas make anyone else depressed??

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I find the corporate nature of christmas a little depressing, but enjoy being with family.

I quite like the general Christmas atmosphere, but I'm not a big family person so it's more or less wasted on me. I think it's nicer when you're older and can sit back and watch the kids unwrap their presents. When you're young yourself, you're too self-absorbed and focused on getting through the holidays and the subsequent obligations to really be able to relax and have fun.

Yeah, love the atmosphere. But I hate the socializing around it. Everybody's making plans, telling you "don't be at home, that's pathetic ..." ::

All holidays typically make me feel bad. I think they are stupid traditions. It's weird too cause when I was little my parents always really made holidays awesome for me, some of the happiest memories I can think of were holidays when I was young.

I live with my dad still and my extended family on his side is rather large and they usually all get together at holidays and such and I have made a decision to really try and go to the Christmas gathering thing this Sunday. I don't want to go, but I guess it might be good for my SA (and I've always had this idea hiding in the back of my mind that I'm a bit of a masochist...).

So I have told my Dad I'm going and he is going to communicate to the rest of them that I'm coming and they will be expecting me. I really hope I don't back out, it wouldn't be surprising to anyone if I did back out at the last minute but I haven't seen some of them in quite some time and apart from the overwhelming anxiety it might be nice.

Feel free to stop reading, the rest is off topic but I felt like getting it out...

To be honest the only person I really want to see is my younger cousin, she's 18 (they grow up so fast! I really need to find out if any boys have broken her heart lately and whether or not I need to break some necks. Not that I'm a violent or confrontational person at all...but she's the closest thing I have to a little sister. I would find it hard to believe that she hasn't had a boyfriend, she sent me a copy of her senior photo for the yearbook and she definitely doesn't look like a little girl anymore(Is that a ****ed up thing to say? If I believed in hell would that qualify me? **** it, it's true)). Anyway I want to see her because we've always been close and I only really get bits of information from other family members gossip that she has been going through a tough time or whatnot and I guess I have also(for like 5 or 6 years...LOL*stab self in face*). I also really sort of look up to her even though she's 4 years younger than me, she was the kind of student in school that did really well, and she seems like a really ambitious person which I'm not at all. I'm proud of her I guess is what it boils down to. Although I think our views on most everything including politics and religion are drastically different and we both seem to be the kind of people that like to hotly debate and get in peoples faces about our views...we strangely get along surprisingly well.

Wow, I went really off topic and rambled. That felt good. Cheers!

Work has finished up for the year, had our xmas party around lunch time and now I'm back at home with 10 days of freedom left but I can already feel this dark feeling inside, depression, creeping out. Christmas has always been dark times for me.

Often, not this year

Yes i am always depressed on x-mass, even that i have familly i stil feel lonely. New year is even worse

Christmases are hard when things aren't as you wanted them to be by now, when you feel miserable and society expects you to be 'cheery'. I burst briefly into tears today when I saw a homeless man watching everyone else go about their christmasy stuff, remembered how silly it all can be. Treat yourself well with stuff you like, don't feel as if your expected to enjoy it all and play some loud thumping music to annoy the neighbours.

hmm the lights at night are nice..

I'm not christian or whatever, so yeah.

I never know what to get for anyone, so then I don't end up getting anything, or I get something, but it's dreadfully half-assed, or the stuff comes too late. It's all too easy to convince myself that something is a perfect present when it so clearly is not. Nobody wants anything, but they don't want to not get anything either.

Hmm yup. Its probably more about new years than Christmas. You know another year, without achieving much and falling behind the pack a bit more.

Its also the family gatherings, first of all I don't really enjoy them because of SP. I mostly only meet them during xmas and its aso depressing to see cousins getting on with their lives and me standing still.

Yes. I have only managed to buy 1 inexpensive christmas present this year :: It sucks being unemployed.

i think the stress of buying presents gets to me. Usually i buy my stuff on the internet during the year because its cheaper and i dont have to venture out queueing in shops and i never know what to get people always end up buying more or less the same as i did last year. I spend christmas with my mum and dad although a few years ago they spent christmas on holiday and i stayed round my sisters over christmas. Christmas itself doesn't depress me.

The corporate, consumerist side to Christmas is very depressing because that's all Christmas has become really, to me, anyway. I also don't see the point in celebrating because I'm an atheist.

The socializing aspect is also very stressful for me because of my social anixety and the fact I'm not that close to my family. I just sit at the table, eating my dinner and saying very little. It's akward.

I wrote an essay on Why I Hate Christmas the other day, and then went to visit some elderly ladies (volunteering), who were quite lonely, and were soo happy to see someone and talk.. And one of them went all warm and fuzzy about Christmas, and they told me how they celebrated in the old times etc. So I kinda got into it more... And Grandma came & we sang the carols (out of tune of course, like every year... )

It's kinda normal to be 'depressed' around Christmas, for people who don't have everything in their life as would want it to be, or even for some who do... or for anyone eco-friendly or such.. we don't really do gifts anymore, though Grandma still keeps buying chocolate?? OoO It's a time of reassesment of life etc.
It'll be over after New Year, I guess...

Christmas is very depressing for me..
My older sister especially. She puts a lot of effort into christmas, and expects certain things back, (makes a list of items and tells us to buy them lol) but I don't have any money this year! Last year she broke into tears and insults at my mother, who bought her things like clamato and tea (my mother likes to shop for small things, is all). It was very painful. And this year, I am giving her a very ... badly made christmas card, seeing as I didn't even have an eraser to work with... I am terrified. The expectations are just so high around this year

But, I am looking forward to opening presents. I know that the presents I am getting are not things I "want", but I'm excited to show that I appreciate the thought so much. Hopefully put Christmas on a better note than last year

Christmas is a lonely time

Nope. No depression here. Alcohol chases it all away. :: Cheers everyone!