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I am completely disconnected from the holiday this year. The outside lights are up because I always put them up in October after I do the last trimming of the shrubs but we have no decorations indoors and I did not put up the trees or do anything else.

I didn't even get cards out this year.

We did not get a turkey. Just not feeling like a holiday or celebration at all.

No, not really. Going through the motions, but definitely not feeling it. Put half the lights up, a tree and my wife's Christmas village that she loves doing, but there are boxes of decorations being ignored. Maybe tomorrow when all the family is together and we can actually relax I might feel different.

No holiday spirit for me. My mom has had recurring bouts of UTIs so I have been staying at her place except for a few hours here an rhere. My trips home are rushed and focused on completing necessary tasks.

So, no decorating happened this year and my spirits are glum as I focus on dealing with my mom's denouement. There's no real path or plan to follow; all is based on her needs for now.

The state of the world doesn't seem joyful based on the news reports. My personal economics are in a shamble, people seem more openly and willfully hateful. Blergh.

Yeah, struggling to summon the holiday spirit in the jonmc/pips household too. With Omicron, had to cancel our plans to visit jon's family in Maine for Christmas. Turns out to have been the right decision -- not only is it snowing, making travel treacherous, but jon's sixteen-year-old niece just tested positive for covid (though vaccinated). There are now over 40,000 covid cases a day in NY, more than ever. Though vaccinated and boosted, we're just staying home for now. There are so many "breakthrough" cases. Waiting to see how bad is bad with Omicon. Wait out this latest surge. I barely got out of bed yesterday (Christmas Eve), found myself snarling at anything Christmas on tv. Managed to pull myself together enough to make a nice steak dinner for us (if not for jon, I would've been content with a frozen turkey dinner, or salami sandwich), and we watched my favorite Christmas movie -- Die Hard (and yes, it most certainly is a Christmas movie). Our little tree remains stored away, and the stockings have been up since last year. Most of my family (three parents and two out of three brothers) has passed away, so just about anything with family on tv makes me cry. Any friends I had seem to be mostly avoiding or ghosting me -- guess I can't blame them, though it does suck that people tend to disappear on ya when you're at your lowest. No condolences even for my brother, who died of brain cancer last month. I'm afraid to hope for a better year in 2022. Just take things as they come. Thanks for this thread. Feel a bit less alone in my holiday humbug. Plus Jon just made me coffee/cocoa with peppermint schnapps, bless his heart. Hugs to all who could use them (properly socially distanced, of course).

So sorry you guys are feeling a lack of connection to the holiday too.

We had a quiet day. It was good because we were together but we were not really filled with Christmas spirit.

Distanced hugs and wuffles to you as we head into a new year.

I think everyone is having extra stuff to deal with, plus there was some wee hope that this year's holiday would be better. And the let-down makes it harder because the glimmer of hope is now gone.

Everyone I have talked to seems to have had a pretty low key to depressing holiday.

You know that phrase "A bad day at the beach is better than a good day at work"? That's what Christmas was like this year.