So You Hate Christmas?

What have you done?

You winced at that sentence.

And also this one.

Not everyone likes Christmas. And that’s OK.

Though as a government mandated holiday it makes things hard. We are going to cover some strategies to let you, yes you grinchypants (that made you frown didn’t it? Maybe you don’t like attention being drawn to it), let you enjoy the holiday period.

There are so many reasons to not feel it, they don’t have to be rational, the common ones revolve around anxiety, overwhelm, depression, bereavement, loneliness – you’re not alone. If it’s not one of them you’re not alone.

Me? Well, Christmas baby, a bit of sadness at grandparents being gone, never really having had the big ridiculous Christmas you see on TV and friends tell you about. Envy, sadness, anger, all wrapped up in a Christmas bow.

How do you deal with it? (the answer is videogames a bit, surprise!)

Hey Ho! Let’s go!

1) Accept it.

Acceptance will make a huge difference. Accept that you don’t like it, you don’t have to like it, no one can make you like it, don’t even try. Weight lifted.

2) You don’t HAVE to do anything.

This goes for everything in life. Yu don’t have to go visit family, you don’t have to have dinner, you don’t have to do a damn thing. You have options.  Explore them.

3) Be tolerant of people who like it.

You can escape them if you REALLY try, but adopting point one, letting it wash over you, not being an arsehole to people will make it easier. You won’t get people bristling back and everyone has a nicer time. You have the right to hate it, they have the right to love it.

4) Make it about you.

Take on a project. Do some work. Play all the Zelda games in order of release OR, make it more complex and do them in order of the timeline.

5) Make it about others

Go and volunteer. Get a massive rush of brain chemicals. Do something good.

6) Watch some geeky Christmas episodes or movies

Maybe you want to dip your toe in the water. There are some great Christmas episodes of Futurama, Bob’s Burgers, Doctor Who, Alan Partridge, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The X Files, heck even Friends!

For movies we’ve got Gremlins, Die Hard, In Bruges, Brazil, Lethal Weapon, Batman Returns, Trading Places, Iron Man 3, American Psycho…

7) Give yourself time.

If you must go and spend time with people, build breaks in. Take yourself off to your room, read, play games,  have a wank, go for a walk (not at the same time), go to the local sports centre and workout. If you’re not used to so much time with people then you need opportunity to recharge your batteries. Build it in. Plan for it.

8) Play some games

Get some great boardgames, you know, ones that aren’t Monopoly. Indoctrinate some non-gamers into our ways!

Take the pressure off. You don’t have to perform, enjoy the bits you can, and don’t worry about it. It’ll soon be next year!