For those who know me, you'll know that I love Christmas. So much so that it often sickens people around me.
I've wondered, often, why so many people seem to hate Christmas so much. In fact, before I moved out on my own, it never even occurred to me that people might dislike Christmas, outside of classic Christmas stories.
I don't claim to have the answer, but I do have some insight: I had a really really lucky time of it around Christmas when I was a kid.
My parents moved to Canada from South Dakota before I was born, so we had no really close relatives (that's not entirely true -- my dad's sister moved to Manitoba also, but was about 2 hours away).
As a result of having nobody close, we had really easy going Christmases. We opened gifts with the family on Christmas Eve, Santa gifts on Christmas morning, and Christmas was generally a lazy time of eating lots of good food, sleeping in, and getting presents.
Compare this with people who live close to family, and have in-laws to boot -- typically two or three Christmas dinners, present openings with lots of relatives, and everybody is slighted if you don't do their thing. It's no wonder most people associate Christmas with stress.
I sometimes wonder if the focus on family during these occasions causes more harm than good. Of course, it's good to appreciate the things you've got, and to spend time with your family. But on the other hand, it re-emphasizes the lonliness of people who don't have these things, and makes people who *do* have them stressed and busy. This doesn't seem like a good deal to me.
