Comments on: Why People Get Depressed at Christmas

By: Sophie

Sophie — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 16:05:43 +0000

@ Jared Gaites: I expect to be tucked up with a good book, poised ready to leap to my son’s aid if gate-crashers arrive.

It’s tragic. When the kids are small you can’t get a babysitter for New Year. You promise yourself that as soon as they’re older you’ll party again. But no. The kids grow up and you end up being an on-call emergency bouncer for their party!

Oh well, at least I know where they are. Making a lot of noise downstairs is where.

By: Jared Gaites

Jared Gaites — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:46:31 +0000

Ah Sophie, you are getting more interesting by the day. What are you doing this amateur night?

By: Sophie

Sophie — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:30:51 +0000

@ Simian: Valentine’s Day was fun when I was a kid. One year I made a pact with a boy and when the day arrived we were the envy of all, with several very different but lavish cards – in different handwriting – from anonymous admirers.

As for New Year’s Eve…. In AA we call it Amateur Night.

By: Simian

Simian — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 09:47:55 +0000

I agree. I feel the same about New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day. So much hype and so much pressure to ‘have fun’ or find the perfect presents. Those of us who tend to be neurotic find these very difficult times every year. But there’s no hope of putting Pandora back in the box – or is there?

By: Goy

Goy — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:56:16 +0000

Christmas has become a day of hypocracy, it should be renamed charlatan day.

By: Sophie

Sophie — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:43:02 +0000

We’re sold a false image of a perfect family Christmas. If there’s something wrong in our family – death, illness, divorce, estrangement – this is thrown into stark relief against the puffed-up expectation of joy, harmony and consumer madness. You have to spend too much – regardless of the misery it can cause.

I’m sure the trick is to be realistic. We are not perfect, and neither are our families. Christmas is for us, not us for Christmas – particularly the Christmas sold to us by advertising. Take what you want, and leave the rest.

My older son once described Christmas as “a very long run up for quite a small jump,” a remark which, like him, is both true and funny.

By: Jared Gaites

Jared Gaites — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:22:59 +0000

I have found that I have to be pro active about Christmas. A little planning and a sound reality check helps to make the transition back to normality a little smoother. But yeah, it can get overwhelming.