another christmas thread... ho ho ho

[rocio]

I'm excited about Christmas. Mostly because I haven't had alot of them. We never celebrated the holiday growing up. I've celebrated a couple of them with other families, feeling like a bit of an outsider, and others I've spent watching t.v.

 

So you can probably understand why I had my Christmas tree up 5 weeks before Christmas. And why there are already a dozen little presents under the tree.

 

My husband is also excited about the holiday. He has good memories of it growing up.

 

But he's been complaining alot about the whole present thing. He doesn't know what to get me, he says I've lost sight of the meaning of Christmas - that it's not all about the presents. He even said I'm torturing him by putting his gifts under the tree and not letting him open them.

 

I've told him that I'm not expecting anything special. Nothing expensive. I didn't spend alot on his gifts. I put thought into them, but not much money. And I would seriously be happy with a $20 gift.

 

Alot of it is the fact that I like to open presents. (again, I'm probably overcompensating for my childhood and the lack of presents to open.) He doesnt know how to wrap presents. He refuses. He thinks it's just as good to hand me the present. I tell him he can get it wrapped for free in the mall, or just stick it in a present bag from the dollar store and throw some tissue paper in there. I don't know why he insists that it's stupid and it's just as good to hand it to me.

 

To me, it's not about getting material things. It's the anticipation, the thrill of ripping open presents and being surprised. Now he feels alot of pressure because I have all these little presents under the tree and they're just rubbing in his face the fact that he feels pressure to get me nice things and wrap them up pretty, when that's not really his thing.

 

How can I stop myself from ruining the fun for him?

[Sweet Buttabean Jellayroll]

tell him to do what he wants to do, or just play along....let him do his thing and wrap the presents up nicely. that makes him happy........

[redrose85]

Ah! I feel the same way. I am super excited about Christmas this year in particular, because we live together now, are going to have a tree, stockings, have some family over maybe, and just in general have a nice relaxing day. I've brought the same thing up with my bf a few times, but he won't budge, and I've basically just decided that he can do whatever makes him comfortable. I don't want the whole thing to become stressful for him. He doesn't know how to wrap gifts either, so I am going to have a stockingful of unwrapped things, but that's okay. It's better than pushing him outside of his comfort zone. I think the thing to keep in mind, is that it isn't all about us, it's about the general happiness of everyone else. Plus, you may get a couple of gifts from other people that you can unwrap