Someone on a Facebook group asking if anyone else dreads holidays brought forth these charming musings:
I have hated most holidays--okay, ALL except Halloween--since graduating college, if not earlier. They are a HUGE amount of work, expense, and cleanup if the ravening hordes descend upon your home. Last night I was watching the 1925 silent Ben-Hur and two scenes which struck me a little too close to home were Roman soldiers breaking down the door of a home and abusing a family, and pirates attacking a ship. I had the immediate feeling, "That's exactly like my relatives or Mom's church group arriving!" (I finally deferred having the church group meet here indefinitely. To be truthful, the worst offender died but the tension is still there.) I just feel that holidays are an excuse for me to drop everything which might matter to me (which then makes it look as if I do nothing--as all my tools and supplies are put away--) to accommodate people who are there to give me the once-over for not succeeding in life, then calling me selfish, petty, and mean for being upset when they trash my stuff, criticize me, and order me around.
Christmas is absolutely impossible as you CAN'T go anywhere else--everyone is gone and/or busy at the same time, and hiding outside or in an empty building is absolutely out of the question as it's just too damn cold. Even the basement with a space heater, which I did for decades prior to breaking my leg, is difficult. It's not just me--in the Goodwill over the Christmas season I heard a girl complaining, "There oughtta be a safe house where people can go!" After years of this, I said, screw it. I'm tired of trying to hide and I'm tired of trying to convince people to be nice--I'm fighting fire with fire! So at Christmas 30 years ago, I simply spent days treating my sister EXACTLY the way she ALWAYS treated me, to see how she liked it! Result was she physically attacked me (everything I had done was verbal,) blamed me for being a bitch, and didn't come home for Christmas for seven years! By that time my sisters had kids and I had to be nice in front of them no matter who did what to me, including niece tearing up a $150.00 book she had been told to treat with care and then lying about it, and nephew throwing away packing material I needed to put away ornaments, this was the Christmas following my father's death which I didn't want to celebrate at all, but my sister beat me over the head with a Christmas tree until I capitulated. If I say anything my sister says, "Thanks for letting us know you value things over people." My sister and her friend had an Easter egg hunt and planted the eggs in my flowerbeds right where the kids could trample my plants! I'm out of strength, out of ideas, and out of hope. I don't completely dislike kids, but I prefer seeing other people's kids at their homes or in church, not on my turf! The kids are older now but I have a feeling the holiday horror show is not ended.