Holiday Burnout Already in Full Force

[Bob]

https://nypost.com/2018/11/20/1-in-3-americans-get-holiday-burnout-before-christmas/

 

I saw this earlier this morning, and I saw some eye-opening admissions:

 

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The new survey, conducted by Slumber Cloud, also found that the average American will spend 38 hours — nearly two full days — getting ready or preparing for the holiday season in some fashion

 

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Another nine hours are spent just planning for the holidays, with an additional seven hours devoted to simply decorating. According to the results, “Festive Burnout” will set in for 36 percent of Americans before mid-December, with a further 17 percent saying it sets in before December even starts. Crowds and shopping were the biggest contributors to “Festive Burnout” with long lines and constantly hearing holiday music also receiving high marks. Continually being subjected to holiday TV ads is also enough to burn out 36 percent of Americans.

 

Wow. And I've had people tell me at work and throughout my life that I'm "missing out" and "being deprived of fun". I'm being "deprived" of stress, depression, and financial anguish trying to do what corporate America tells me to do.

[Loopy]

I can’t believe how financially stressful it must be for those living on a fixed income. 

 

About all I could give is a lump of coal. 😁😁😁😁

 

Cant wait till December 1st when our drug store turns on the Christmas music and the speakers are blaring it out for a whole month. I live just a block away. 🤢. 🤮

[Skyler]

During my elementary school years I remember talking to a classmates' mother while she waited to pick up her child. She asked me if I was looking forward to the holidays, so I told her I actually didn't celebrate them as I am a Jehovah's Witness. She then emotionally started to tell me how much she truly hated Christmas. She was a single, low income parent with 2 kids, and every year she dreaded having to explain why other children got expensive gifts like bikes or video games, she could only afford very little.

Because children don't understand adult situations, they would often go on about it being "unfair" and how they wished they had more money or another parent. Or how friends would give better gifts than their mother. Even as a child it broke my heart, I can't even imagine that kind of pain. If that didn't solidify my choice in not celebrating it, I don't know what did. People are so preoccupied with getting gifts for themselves that they forget how to treat their loved ones. I can't even imagine being that mean to my Mama.
 

[Bob]

10 minutes ago, Loopy said:

I can’t believe how financially stressful it must be for those living on a fixed income. 

 

About all I could give is a lump of coal. 😁😁😁😁

 

Cant wait till December 1st when our drug store turns on the Christmas music and the speakers are blaring it out for a whole month. I live just a block away. 🤢. 🤮

Funny you mention this, because even though people know they can't afford it and they KNOW how stressful it is, they cave in to the peer pressure and social obligation, so they go into needless debt. And since people don't see their extended family but once a year, the pressure is greater because they'd have to wait till next year.

 

 

[Friends just call me Ross]

Sometimes, all this holiday stress can lead to depression and even suicide.

The scanner chatter just mentioned police being dispatched to a home where a person was feeling suicidal because of the US holiday, Thanksgiving.

[Qapla]

Florida is known for having nice weather - however, that does not mean that it does not get cold here. Just because we do not get snow and sub-zero weather does not mean we do not need sweaters, jackets and coats.

 

I remember when I was a child in elementary school, when the school year started my Mother would examine our clothes to see what we may need for the school year. Since children grow constantly our winter-wear from the previous year may not fit us. So, if we needed a new coat or jacket, she would budget it in and purchase it for us before the first cold weather.

 

The kids at school, while struggling with their too small stuff from the previous wear would comment how they would like to get their new coats when the cold weather came - instead of having to wait for some "stupid holiday" - and they thought I was deprived ???

[ChocoBro]

When my grandma died my mother flew to England for the funeral. My grandmother had taken a fall around end of November, as far as I remember, the funeral was beginning of December.

 

Upon returning, my mother told me how her sister was completely frustrated from all the time she had been spending talking to doctors, managing the funeral, all the paperwork and bureaucracy and mourning and how she had hardly managed to buy gifts or make preparations for this year's Christmas festivities.

 

My mother had told her why not keep it simple this year. No fancy meals, no big gift giving. After all, she had just buried her mother. Everyone would understand, right?

But for my aunt, it was still an important to host the big annual spending festivity for the wider family circle with all the usual fancy nonsense surrounding it.

 

The truth shall set you free.