Condo Blues: 15 Things I am Not Going to Do This Christmas

Monday, December 15, 2014

15 Things I am Not Going to Do This Christmas

It amazes me how some folks use Christmas time to make others feel horrible because they have different holiday thoughts, traditions, or celebrate (or not) a different December holiday.

Sadly, I internalize their criticism of the way we do things as not green enough, too generous, too stingy, too religious, not religious enough, too secular, or too fill in the blank.  I always let them make me feel sad, angry, and depressed for several days during my favorite time of the year.

This Christmas, I am going to try not to fall into that trap.  I can’t change others but I can change how I let others make me feel about myself and how we like to celebrate the holidays.


15 things I am not doing for christmas to keep my sanity



I will also try to keep my attitude about others in check because fair is fair.

15 Things I am Not Going to Do for Christmas 


1. I won’t feel bad about sending Christmas cards or a year end holiday letter. I stink at mailing Christmas cards on time. I also can’t write a year in review letter without it sounding like bragging which is not what I intend to do. Besides most of the people I’d send the letter are on Facebook and already know what’s up with us.

2. I won’t do a ton of extra baking, just for parties and commitments. I like to bake and  decorate holiday cookies and treats. It is easy to overdo it for our household of two, especially when I can’t eat most of it because it has dairy in it. Baking on demand means I have ore time to pull out the stops for the items I’m asked to bring to events.

3.  Let others make me feel like a horrible consumerism abscessed person for shopping Black Friday through Cyber Monday. I don’t think Black Friday automatically makes people fight over buying a bunch of cheap junk, it just more exciting to show on the news than slow checkout lines due to the crowds.  I shop just as responsibly and carefully on Black Friday as I do any other day of the year. Shopping on line allowed me to compare sale prices from several stores at once while in my PJs with a dog on my lap and nursing an upper respiratory infection. I might have been miserable but at least I was somewhat productive.

5. I will not blow my stack when I have to explain my family again, lactose intolerant people can’t drink goat’s milk.

6. I will not blow my stack when I have to explain my family again, lactose intolerant people can’t drink goat’s milk.

7. I will not blow my stack when I have to explain my family again, lactose intolerant people can’t drink goat’s milk. Insisting I can drink goat’s milk comes up at almost every family gathering. Trust me, if I could, I would stuff my face so full of goat cheese it would make your head spin.

8. I will try very, very, very hard to think of the Christmas pageant as tradition rather than torture. The pageant that has not changed a song, script, or anything since my father in law was a little boy. The suggestion of making a slight change 20 years ago almost caused a riot.

9. Let green eco friends ruin the way my family celebrates the holidays.  They make me feel the worst because I am Team Artificial Tree, like giving and getting gifts, decorating with a mix of handmade, store bought, eco-friendly, plastic, and heirloom things, and such. I’ve been living with and blogging about green options long enough to know that not every option works for everyone all the time. 

10. I will not watch or listen to any Christmas movie, special or song I am currently sick of or makes me feel the opposite of joy. I’ll give it a rest  this year and find something new.  By next year, I’ll be able to fully enjoy them again.

11. I will make peace with Elf on the Shelf. At first I thought it was kind of cute even though we didn’t need it when I was a kid. The mere mention of Santa is watching made us immediately behave. Live and let live and all that, right?

Then I saw overly cutesy Elf on the Shelf Christmas special. It made he hate on Elf like a possessed Furby. I have no idea why. Fortunately, a pre holiday vacation and the reactions to posting our funny alternative, Yoda on the Soda returned me to Elf Neutral. Whew.


If you misbehave, Yoda doesn’t tattle to Santa. Yoda tells Darth Vader and Darth Vader blows up your planet.

12. Stop trying to convince War on Christmas people that  Happy Holidays and Season’s Greetings is inclusive of the people who celebrate other December holidays. It could be if they lived in a country that fines, imprisons, or kills people who celebrate Christmas but that is not the USA. Most of them live in areas where everyone in their bubble is the same. I can’t convince them otherwise because I learned that lesson only after I moved to a surprisingly diverse city.

13. I am not going to wait until the last minute to make New Year’s Eve plans. By last minute, I mean on New Year’s Eve.

14. Be ashamed that we are a Santa house. I like Santa. I like the happy coincidence that a secular and non secular event happens on the very same day.  How cool is that?! Santa doesn’t force people to overspend and over give, they do.  Besides, Husband and I worked out a deal with Santa that if we are good, he puts a nice liqueur or cognac in our Christmas stockings. Go Team Santa!

15. I will not display every single Christmas decoration we own. All of our decorations have a story.  It would look too cluttered if I put everything out but it can get tricky feelings-wise because much of our holiday décor were gifts.  Fortunately a small house encourages me to mix and match so everything old looks new again and the gift givers know that. Besides putting a few family favorites aside this year gives me room to showcase the fabulous handmade snow globe our nephews made and gave us last year.




What is on your list?

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