Grinchiness – an over-50 complaint?

The simplest Christmas of all

I can only speculate. I haven’t worked out why yet.

Time was when all those Christmas-y traditions were top of my list, and I’d be hoping for fat snowflakes poised momentarily – and rather romantically – on the end of my nose as they melted away. The gifts, the wrapping, the ribbons, the feasting, the decorating… oh, what fun I had with it all.

The past few years, the tawdriness of it all seems to overwhelm. My dearly beloved suggested we get modern, and ‘download’ Christmas instead, this year. After all, he does have a shiny new iPhone. Even so, I don’t think the Download Your Favourite Holiday Traditions App has hit the market yet.

Then there was the guilt to deal with. In a last minute fit of anxiety, a pre-Christmas cocktail party was organized hurriedly. We had a fabulous time, lots of fabulous hors d’oeuvres, and our closest friends gathered with us. Goodness, we even played charades! That, and a rather splendid brunch with son number one and his partner, then Christmas was quite frankly over and done with.

I don’t feel like a grinch, I am not anti-Christmas in any way. Quite honestly, I just couldn’t be bothered. I didn’t want to either give or receive gifts this year: instead the family sponsored the purchase of goats in poor villages, and ensured that two impoverished high school age students in Africa were able to complete their last year of education. Helping out those with much, much less that we have here in Toronto – that felt much more like the spirit of Christmas, to me at least.

So I speculate. My hormones are acting up? That’s a great excuse for almost anything, even though it is the most likely cause.. My sons have grown and flown the nest, and there are no grandchildren to entertain – perhaps that’s why. If it’s because I’m growing older and thus more curmudgeonly, then that would be a terrible thing, and I’ll be right into therapy come new year.

What was your experience?