X-mas seems gone in my neighborhood

[blues90]

I have not seen one tree , one window decor anywhere where I live nore heard one X-mas song in even the grocery store . I haven't seen one person drive up anywhere with plates of food and presents .

In the 80's there was not one without this and after new years there were trees lining the curbs .

The women who lives below us did not even play her Elvis X-mas album , I didn't miss that .

It's been a slow down since the early 90's , a gradual one .

[OhioChick]

1. Everyone is Depressed....

No $$$$, Jobs, Health Care, etc.

[inanna]

2. It's weird...

Nearly every single person I know was either not in the "mood" for Christmas this year, or wound up having a totally shitty holiday. It was both for me...I just kind of went through the motions with a sense of blandness.

[OhioChick]

3. Same Here....

Too Much to worry about, couldn't enjoy the holidays.

[Warpy]

4. I live in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood

and up to about five years ago, the houses tried to outdo each other.

Now, nobody's got outdoor lights and few have trees on display.

I guess people just can't afford the extra bills.

[blues90]

5. It's mostly Hispanic here too

I didn't even see many even go to church and there are three within easy walking distance from here , I always saw the families all dressed up to go .

I know we are broke and did nothing but the diner since it will last the two of us two weeks but we decided we would not even listen to the music , we have enough mental pain already , I used to love the X-mas music and the spirit of it all even though we are not religious the music does have a thing about it .

I had the tapes of it ready but just couldn't bare opening the cases .

[Buzz Clik]

6. It's alive and well in our neighborhood.

Weather played havoc with the outdoor lights. Normally, I get lights up on the outside of the house, but it takes about 4 hours of hanging off a ladder -- that cannot be done when it is raining or snowing and is miserable when the temperature is below 30. So, we have the tree in the window and nothing more.

A few neighbors got some outdoor lights up, but only a few. Candles in windows, some gaudy yard art, and that's about it.

This happens about a third of the time around here.

[Selatius]

7. When you lose your job or accept a new job with shittier wages, you're in no mood for carols.

That's my best guess as to why things are going down the shitter.

[OhioChick]

8. You're Absolutely Right. n/t

[blues90]

9. No doubt in my mind at all .

[Midlodemocrat]

15. Even as a starving teacher/grad student supporting two

throw away teens, I was always happy about Christmas and the season. It always gives me hope that the next year will be better.

And, this is from someone who lost five family members in five years and almost lost her husband the sixth.

[Loge23]

10. Isn't it all a bit much anyway?

Many folks I heard this season seemed repulsed by the ever-crass commercialism - particularly in how early it started this year (October).
The songs are all hackneyed, the displays cheap and tacky, the traffic abominitable, and the emotions strained past the point of saneness. This is a happy season?
One can't avoid it though. You're a "grinch" if you try, or you risk alieninating your spouse or your family. (guilty as charged)
But hooray! The best day of the year is upon us: December 26!
Merry Rest of Your Life Everyone!

[blues90]

11. We haven't done X-mas in at least 15 years or more

[CrispyQ]

14. Same here.

We haven't had a tree or a light in almost two decades. A few years ago a friend dropped by a few days before Xmas to deliver some cookies. She looked around & said, "Love your decorations." We both had a good laugh. When Mom was alive, I'd write her a check & Xmas was done. I hate malls any time of year, but you couldn't pay me enough to go to a mall during this season.

Halloween, however, is a very different story! Skeletons, bats, eyeball lights, we're a veritable spook house.

[Skittles]

12. I think more and more people see it every year

that's good

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. I noticed it too.

Not as many Christmas lights. And those who put them up, don't bother to put them on timers when they go on vacation.

And I'm okay with it, because it reflects the true community where I live. They've destroyed us. Wanting to build all these upscales homes. They ripped out the heart of this community, by dangling forbidden fruits in front of neighbors, to turn on their own neighbors.

My community is a reflection of what has happened to the entire U.S.A. We will never get back on track if they expect those of us that were victimized, to just forget and forgive. I would at least need to see those at the top be punished for using their positions to corrupt everybody else.

[momster]

16. Children Grown Up?

A lot of people put on the big decor for the kids. When the kids are off to college or the 4 corners of the world, the parents (who are now older too) stop with the decorations. If 20 years ago, they were jazzing the lights for the kids, those kids aren't likely to be there now...wait 'til the grandkids start showing up. So will the lights.

[annabanana]

18. This has been the pattern in our family....

My folks retired out to the Soutwest, leaving us up here on Long Island... She said that if she feels like it, she might throw a string of lights over a cactus, or something. . but that's about it.

When the kids were little, it looked like a santa explosion in our house... a little less so now.

[Xenotime]

17. It's becoming more and more of a dead holiday...

There was a time when people didn't celebrate it in the US. Maybe things are going back to the way they were.