Is it normal that i'm not excited about christmas?

I got over Christmas at some point during my teens.

I grew up in the sixties in a family that wasn't religious, so while I knew the backstory, that aspect was never of any real significance to me. There was some hype surrounding the holiday back then, but the commercialism wasn't as blatantly aggressive as it is now, and the "Holiday Season" didn't start a couple of days after Halloween like it does now. (That's how it works in the UK anyway. I imagine that in the USA, everyone starts getting bombarded with Christmas crap the day after all the Thanksgiving crap reaches a crescendo on the day itself.)

It seems to me that modern Christmas (modern in the sense of what's evolved over the last fifty years or so) is a lot like social media. It's all about presenting a carefully curated image of your happy, perfect life to other people - most of whom don't actually give a shit - while the reality is very different for the vast majority of people. All the other problems you've been dealing with through the year still exist, the pressure to spend money on wonderful gifts is a financial drain and families feeling like they have to gather and be jolly often causes huge strains.

It's long been recognised that what happens on Instagram and other social media is that people feel compelled to present a happy, shiny image of their life to the world because that's what they see of other people's lives.

There are a few people who have wonderful lives. They and everyone they love is healthy, they're in a positive, loving, long-term relationship with their soul-mate, they live in an amazing house in a wonderful community, they have a fantastic job and no money worries at all.

Most of the time, the reality is very different to the image (Gabby Petito being an excellent example). Similarly, a whole lot of those happy, smiley people you see having a great time at Christmas have, at best, simply figured out how to push all the crap in their lives to the back of their mind for a couple of weeks and pretend that shit doesn't exist. At worst, what you see is a totally fake front that the person is only putting up because they feel under social pressure to do so. Inside, they're suffering and feeling very guilty that they can't be happy, while the reality is that the amount of shit in their lives means that they're entirely justified in feeling depressed.

About the only good thing I can think of concerning Christmas these days is that at least you do have more options if you want to avoid Christmas crap. If you want to listen to music in the car, you're not forced to listen to Mariah freaking Carey singing about how the only thing she wants for Christmas is you every freaking fifteen minutes. If you want to pass the entire holiday period slouched on your sofa watching TV, your options aren't limited to one slushy, stupid Christmas movie or another; you can binge-watch slasher horror films if you choose to do so.

The "modern" Christmas was invented by Macy's to create a shopping season (look it up if you don't believe me).

So many people have fallen for that - over caring and time with friends and family, and general generosity to the lessor fortunate in the world.

It's hard to get excited about the modern Christmas with its emphasis on buying gifts versus other more meaningful things in life.

Christmas time for me now is working extra so I can afford Christmas presents for my family. Its not as fun anymore.

For me I am a little excited about Christmas but not in the party mood.

I'm not excited either. I have no plans other than being kind and gentle with myself alone.