Clickbait title for sure. I'm not fishing for sympathy. I also don't want anyone to think that I'm getting preachy or trying to suggest that my way of life is superior or something. It's just a fact: Christmas has been an extremely non-issue date for me for many years.
And I have mixed feelings about that.
For one thing, it is a little difficult to get into the holiday spirit when you live somewhere that it would never snow unless Al Gore was right and the stuff in The Day After Tomorrow all comes true. I am sure that some of you that are surrounded by cold right now are perhaps wishing you didn't have so much of it but at least you can admit, it is a pretty big part of the Christmas experience.
I did enjoy when mom would take so much time in preparing the house for Christmas but she would always do it in a classy way. For myself and my friends we just had a competition to see who could put the most absurd amount of lights in the yard. I participated in this one year only and after just one session of cleaning all the damn lights up afterwards, that was enough for me.
The Distance it too great
Another reason why I get no Christmas is family. Almost all of my family are east coast USA and I live about as far away from there as you can possibly get and still be on planet Earth. I wasn't trying to get away from them or anything, that is just kind of how life worked out. I am 12 time zones away (until they do that stupid daylight savings garbage) and it is about a 22-hour flight for me to visit.
However, I do go through that horrible travel time at least once a year to visit. Doing that during Christmas time would be the quickest way to drain le pockets because the airlines jack the fares up. My family doesn't like to waste money, we are more of a "Festivus for the rest of us" type family.
Which leads me to my last point.
My family is not huge
source
This is not my family, I don't know the Vandrimelens... they do look happy though
Both of my parents are alive and well, I have a brother and 2 sisters. We are all over 30 years old and none of us have any children. We aren't ugly or anything, it just isn't something that was important to any of us. I don't think that any of us regret this decision (I certainly don't) but the fact that there are no grandkids to visit kind of takes the "ooomph" out of Christmas.
My family stopped buying gifts for one another many years ago and we all kind of agreed all the Christmas food is something that while we do enjoy it, is a bit of a hassle to prepare. So we stopped doing that a long time ago as well.
My extended family is the polar opposite of my immediate family, they all had a bunch of kids, who in turn also had a bunch of kids. That part of the family is friggin massive and they all live in the same general area in the midwest USA. No one even has to fly anywhere.
The last time I participated in this gathering of cousins I felt like a bit of an outsider because I didn't even know most of these people. I have been a bit terrible about keeping up with my cousins. I'm friends with them on facebook and I am sure that I am just that weird cousin who moved to China (which is what I have heard they said about me even though I do not now, nor have I ever lived in China.)
Let's wrap this up!
So for me Christmas will just be another day. I have informed my friends here in Chiang Mai that I will not be buying any gifts so they better not get any for me. There are various Christmas dinners that are going on at various restaurants but I am going to skip all of those as well because they overcharge for the buffets and Thailand banned the import of most turkey.
I have a plan to go to a Mexican restaurant and drink pitchers of margaritas and each lots of guac, but honestly I may not even do that.
To all of you that have "real" Christmas celebrations planned; know that I envy you a little bit but in other ways, i do not :)