Is there any part of Christmas you used to hate, but you miss now?

[Archae]

For me, it was the getting together with uncles, aunts and cousins.

Some of the uncles especially, would get half-drunk or drunk and get loud and obnoxious.

My "Gramma" (Mom's Mother) died in 1989, and most of my relatives from that side I haven't seen in decades.

[stonecutter357]

1. No!

[Shrike47]

2. No. I miss it all.

Especially the loved ones.

[marble falls]

7. The ones I miss are all gone, what I don't miss ...

... because of my Mormon in-laws and my dad's strong will and my mom's desire to have her children around her, was eating two Christmas meals, two Easter meals, two Mother's Day meals and two Thanksgiving meals.

It was one of the considerations when we made the move to Iowa. Then I only had to eat two Christmas and Thanksgiving meals.

But we finally started having our own Christmases, the four of us.

[LakeArenal]

3. My Christmases as an adult have been way better than my childhood Christmas.

[fierywoman]

4. No!

[Nictuku]

5. Just the people that are gone

[wnylib]

6. Not really. I remember many parts of

Christmas with nostalgia and happiness. It was a "magical" time to me as a child, with all the bright decorations, lights, foods, presents.

Both of my parents came from large families so our extended family was HUGE! On my father's side, we all went to my grandfather's farm the Sunday closest to Christmas. Everyone brought a couple food dishes.
After eating, we kids (oodles of cousins) went outside to slide down the hill in front of the farmhouse. My aunts made the most delicious cookies and chocolate candies and fudge!

On my mother's side, there was one of her cousins who hosted everyone at her house the week between Christmas and New Year. She had 6 kids of her own and a huge playroom in the basement that included a lighted village with a train set. Lots of fun playing with with cousins and snacking on cookies and chocolates.

We visited a few relatives' homes individually, too, and vice versa.

Christmas Eve was spent in church for the Sunday School children's pageant. Afterward at home, we opened presents and stayed up as long as we wanted to.

Can't think of anything that I hated about Christmas.

Two of my favorite things to do during the holidays as a child were: 1) Get up early before anyone else and put on the Christmas tree lights while it was still dark outside. I got mesmerized staring at the colors, lights, and reflections of tinsel on ornaments. 2) Going through the huge number of Christmas cards that my parents received, with my sister, picking out the ones that we liked best, and then taping them for display onto the woodwork of the double door entrance to our living room.

[oswaldactedalone]

12. Sounds like a Norman Rockwell Christmas

Pleasant to read about. Mine were generally good but nothing like you experienced. Consider yourself very fortunate.

[wnylib]

14. Not quite Norman Rockwell.

When you get a bunch of kids together, there will be some arguments sometimes, but nothing major that stands out in my mind. The adults were having drinks and snacks while the kids went off to play, so if they argued, we didn't see it.

In my father's family (he was one of 9 children), there were often spats during the year, but they had a rule about putting aside differences during the holidays. If someone started to argue, one of them would say, "Save it for later. It's Christmas." One of my aunts (who was also my godmother) was really good at maintaining that rule. She'd interrupt a potential argument and change the subject, or say, "Some other time, please." Ones who had unresolved differences from before the holidays would avoid each other and hang out with a different sibling. They had enough to pick from.

Those holidays were so much a part of us that well into our own adulthood, when some of the older generation had passed away, one of my cousins e-mailed me, "How will our own kids know what it was like to have such big gatherings every year?"

About 4 years ago, when only one uncle and one aunt were left, the uncle's kids had a birthday party for him (age 90). His 3 kids were there with their children and grandchildren, plus his step children (second marriage) and their children. His one remaining sister was there. They had all moved to Arizona, so I flew out to be there. He was my godfather and favorite uncle.

When a couple of the youngest kids crawled under a table in some sort of game they had made up, one of my cousins said to me with a big grin, "Remind you of anything?" Of course it did. It was just like us when we were kids at a big family get together.

(Sadly, that uncle died of covid last year.)

[Walleye]

8. We lived next to my grandparents when I was a little girl

They would come over on Christmas morning and we would have breakfast before opening our gifts. That was a strict rule no presents till after breakfast. My grandfather always took great delight in having extra cups of coffee just to make us wait. I really miss the whole thing now. Everybody’s gone

[rurallib]

9. The shopping in downtown stores with all the decorations that went on for blocks

The town I grew up in was @ 30,000 and had a pretty good sized downtown. The streets were all decorated both downtown and leading into town. There were no malls and only a few discount places on the fringes of the city back then.

Crawling from store to store you couldn't help but run into neighbors, friends and classmates. On Saturdays we would spend the whole day downtown. This often included morning shopping, a double feature at one of the theaters and a sandwich and coke at a drugstore.

The the malls & Kmart moved in and the downtown morphed into a place that catered to the university it co-existed with.

WHOOPS! I forgot about that 'hate' part and just wrote about something I missed - well I am going to leave it unless someone tells me to remove it. Sorry.

[Prairie_Seagull]

10. The kids table at 15yo. I ruled with an Iron fist and lots of pie and ice cream.

[Ocelot II]

11. Just about everybody is gone now, so I guess I miss all of it.

[Archae]

13. I know what you mean, almost all my uncles and aunts, and several cousins have died...

In addition to my own parents.

[zanana1]

15. Christmas mass.

I don't miss it.