Why I'm Skipping Christmas This Year

[@BunnyMommabird]

Welcome to the no stress Non-Christmas Christmas Crew!! Been on this crew now over a decade and wouldn't go back. Every weekend before the weekend before Christmas we schedule time with each family member group and usually done with "family & friends Christmases" by around the 20th. Then we do a +/- week of grocery shopping and then do nothing and stay away from stores and such until a day or two after Christmas. We do have a day of church with or without family around Christmas. We have just a handful of sentimental pieces of Christmas items that we put out. We have LED lights in our window all year that we change to a Christmas color and we hang a Christmas piece on the front door. We have a tree but it's a foot high that goes on the coffee table and is one of our sentimental pieces. We bake or cook or whatever our heart and ancestors advise to do on Christmas and Christmas Eve and light a candle and say our prayers at Christmas but it's just the two of us. Sometimes might buy a dinner from somewhere open. Then a couple days after Christmas is when we purchase gifts and do a weekend Christmas thing closer to Easter where we get together and open items and play games at our house with family. We've done this for a few reasons over the years. 1- we're not going into debt paying these high prices because it's commercially promoted. Because the after sales are in my price range usually. Plus the items we purchase for the family the weekend get togethers before Christmas we buy all year long and save for the end of the year. 2 - I would get so stressed out it prior years that it was embarrassing and hard to look at the pictures. Cold sore break outs from stress that would need urgent care intervention most years. Lack of sleep illness in most cases during this time. And then severe clinical depression the day after Christmas that would last a week or more due to fatigue and let down and the like. Depression & sickness to the point that my employer always knew I'd call in sick after Christmas and I came close to losing my job a few times. Not worth it. We like our "Christmas" around February or so because it's a nice surprise for family, that's expected now, but special since it's a time we want to spend and not just because the calendar says it's socially required. Plus they get a calmer less seasonally depressed and enjoyable me and my husband. Means the world to them now to enjoy a February "Christmas". Means the world to us to just enjoy the days off work at Christmas to Netflix & chill and enjoy each other in peace. Our favorite part though is when we do venture out to watch people and the crazy they are over a day required by society 6 days before the end of the year. They all look and act insane!! I can't imagine ever going back now, the price to my emotional & mental health would never be worth it. Enjoy this time to just reflect on the year. Enjoy the cold snowy evenings, other people's light decorations, and spend the time doing what's in your heart to tie up lose ends and close out the year, in your own way.