My like/dislike relationship with Christmas

 We are just past all the holiday shenanigans as I write.

 Christmas, for me, is not a religious holiday. And let's be honest, Christianity hijacked it anyway from existing winter solstice celebrations that have gone on since time immemorial. So; fine, let's all have a winter celebration to beat the darkness away.

 I get soul-destroyed every year with the constant hammering of retailers wanting us to buy Every Last New Thing; the forest worth of catalogues that arrive in the mail (thankfully those seem to have reduced in number this year) and the barrage of emails pushing This and That.

 Then there's the pressure of the fact we are apparently obligated to buy gifts for every member of our family and friends. All at once. And they're supposed to be creative and imaginative gifts. Which I am not great at choosing at the best of times. So I just don't want to do it. I'd rather give someone a nice birthday present; at least that gets spread out through the year and I can concentrate on choosing something good. But I do it anyway, otherwise people will be disappointed.

 At least these days, everyone seems to have acknowledged that they don't really need anything, and some gift exchanges have been put on hold, while my husband didn't want anything at all. (I gave him some Heifer.org honey bees; at least that way he still got to open something, while someone else in the world gets to benefit). I'll be honest though; I like opening a gift as much as the next person - I'd just rather it was something I will actually use, rather than a house-filling trinket.

 I swithered for ages about getting a tree, too. In the end, when faced with some nice-yet-cheap trees a few days before Christmas, I didn't buy one because I really couldn't be arsed to decorate it. My husband wasn't interested in having one anyway, and I just couldn't be bothered to do it only for myself. Sure, I love a decorated tree as much as the next person. Maybe next year.

 One thing I did enjoy was doing the Reddit Secret Santa gift exchange. In this, you're paired up with a complete stranger and have to get them a gift. They can fill out a form explaining their likes/dislikes and you choose something they will (hopefully) like. Some other person gets to choose for you. I like it because there is zero pressure; it's not like getting something for a family member who you have known for 40 years and have run out of ideas of what to get them. You just choose something cool, send it off and hopefully brighten a stranger's day.

The other thing I like is the chance to cook and eat a nice meal in the company of friends. All our family is 5000 miles away so that's less practical. I think that is what Christmas has become, for me - a celebration of friendship, while enjoying the chance to take a break from the world. That period between Christmas and New Year is always strange - a whole series of Sundays, cups of tea and cookies, followed by a fire in the evening. A time to recharge and reset, preferably in the company of good people.

And now it's January; off we go again...