Christmas

Having been in your husband's position, I can tell you that, from at least my perspective, NO ONE likes being called "the grinch". If you want him to catch "Christmas fever", treat him like you would a neighbor or friend! Give him little presents. They don't have to be big; they don't have to be tangible. Give him a kiss and say "merry Christmas". Or do something to help him. That's how my wife broke me of my "grinch"-iness. Kill him with kindness. That's the only way to break him. :)

It sounds like your husband has lost his inner child since he found out the truth about Santa. Perhaps you could take him aside and remind him how much fun he had back then, all the laughter and all the participation from everyone. Christmas can still be a lot of fun without getting caught up in every aspect of it. I'm just thinking now, that maybe he did not have fun as a child and needs you and the kids to guide him. Either way I'll cross my fingers for you.

Your husband is killjoy. If he can't celebrate with you and your children, ok that's fine, but he should respect that you want to enjoy christmas and be happy with your children.

i normal am told that i have too much christmas spirit especialy when i cant stand up straight its just a good time to drink, the sun is out it is normaly quite warm-hot and there is not much else to do, the beaches are full everything else is closed

This is another reson man made holidays is not a good idea.Christmas is a commercial holiday at best.If oyu hubby does not enjoy christmas respect that fact and donot try to convert him into the joys of the holiday.You and yor childern can enjoy without being too over the top.

well i can also tell you that im a "grinch" as well but you may not understand just why we are grinches , see i never had good chrismas memories when i was a child and now as an adult its really nothing but a ton of cooking, baking, wrapping ( WHY i have to buy paper that will be thrown away anyway is beyond me ...) writing cards to ppl i dont even talk to but knowing that if i dont send them a card ill sure hear about it , oh and lets not forget the kids holiday gimmies , i know i sound really grinchy right now but this is what we have to look at see rather than getting our bills paid we make more bills , im not saying i dont like baking cookies with my kids and such and seeing the cards they make or the ornaments that they make us , i would rather have all the hand made stuff than the store bought stuff, its just that what used to be a holy day to reflect and spend time with the family has become so commercial it just makes me sick , we do bake a b day cake for jesus and sing him happy bday and all that but it seems like we are the only ones that do it , lol of course right now im just a bit cranky cause im working on my churchs outreach ministry and its pretty much crunch time for me , i have a tone of stuff to do ontop of all the regular stuff we as a family do , but i have more fun with the church stuff than anyone will know :P, its just alot of work but its worth it , but i DO admit one of the things i like best to do with the family is roam the streets and look at all the christmas lights , see its lil things like that that i want rather than a new dvd player or ps2 ( lol tho i sure woodnt turn it down if santa left me one ;) ) ok sorry this turned into a rant maybe you and your family can just zone out on the christmas lights , i think he just dont like doing all this stuff for OTHER ppl who could probly care less in the first place and yet they expect a gift .. go figure ~M~ AKA the grinch

That's how my husband is sometimes, I'm at the point of where I don't even care, I go about my business anyways. I don't let anyone get me down.

From my point of view, the love the Christmas season. I focus on the birth of Christ and if it were not for him, we would not be here. Christmas, for me is about a miracle and for centuries the holiday has been so wrapped in spending money as the main idea. I love the decorations also. I can understand your husband feelins since so many people are so desperate and sad and broke due to the holidays. Sometimes its hard for others to see the reason for the season because of society.

Maybe he had some bad memories associated to Christmas time, that could explain his behaviour. I have almost the same problem than you, but with different reasons....my husband being from another religion doesn't have one ounce Christmas spirit, wich is understandable. I have it and it's sometimes hard not to be able to share this with my loved one. But I have this Christmas spirit because it reminds me nice chilhood memories, something magical, beautiful and full of family love, he doesn't have these memories, so how could he understand what I feel. This year though I made a Christmas tree, our son is almost one and half years old, and does enjoy to have a tree at home with all these lights and nice decors, it makes him happy, and his dad is happy also as he sees him smiling or watching the tree. So I hope that with the years to come, he will also collection memories of joy and child happyness and with time passing, learn to appreciate Christmas as much as I do! I think you should once have a nice and calm discussion about this with "the grinch" ;o) so maybe he could explain you why he doesn't appreciate, and even hate this celebration. I don't know if it'll be easy, I know I more or less fighted to make mine understand my feelings... Wish you good luck and a special happy and beautiful Christmas.

looks like a stressed-out guy with little shyness and insecurities(my guess- sorry if i m wrong-talking with my personal experience)u need a miracle to change him.so, let him be happy in what he likes and don't argue with him and do ur work as well.don't spoil the fun with children and remember don't get angry with it just deal it with some patience.hope u like my answer.-tell me

Theres nothing you can probably do about it.. everyones got their own interest and opions about it, my bf says christmas is just another day but chrsitmas is everything to me! i have no kids I do it myself or to my parents and join the activities. :)

Hello, I do have a boyfriend that is the same way, he refer to christmas as a bunch of crap. But I tell him that christmas is what you make it. It can be beautiful or crappy. He comes from a very small family, and now that his mother is deceased, and he's recently Divorced with children. He feels alone. So I think this has a lot to do with people who don't celebrate holidays period. They are bitter about something in the past or never experienced christmas growing up. And now that their grown, they don't know how to experience it.

good noon

good morning

what about scrooge does that come to mind? yeah mine used to call it the 'i dont wanna participate season' and grumped around for days. i usually had to be happy just trying to do christmas without him. he never got excited about anything much we did. was really disheartening and hurtful too... too this day im still hurting when things excite me and he wont join me.

tell him that if you have to accept his way of not living christmas he has to accept yours specially the kids. I knew a girl which parents didnt do anything at christmas and she was feeling so sad for it. Now she's one of the most entusiastic persosns about christams and love it, so i dont think he should cut your shildren christmas spirit. Its magic for kids.

well, I can understand you. to spend a holiday. a hostess aways do a lot . and guides her famlily to enjoy the holiday.sometimes her spouse is not always positive .like other thing ,they usually hold defferent apionion .at this situation. you do it yourself. if you think you are right.

My husband ruined my Christmas every year for years, he is Bipolar. The holidays hit him hard, so he had to hurt mine. He left now, but the sting still remains. I hope you can love him enough to go on with what you want to do and just let him be. I feel like if you keep trying to make him enjoy something he doens't want to it makes it worse.

my boyfriend is like that, not really into christmas but theres not much i can really do about it, but he knows im into it so he does not say much to me, he lets me do what is included in christmas. i know he doesnt like it, but there are few things i dont like that he enjoys doing and well i just stay there let him have his fun.

before we answer issues about christmas, why don't we take a look on the tru meaning of it.. saw this article from this site: http://www.wintersteel.com/What_is_Christmas.html What is Christmas? The word Christmas comes from the words Cristes maesse, or "Christ's Mass." Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus for members of the Christian religion. Most historians peg the first celebration of Christmas to Rome in 336 A.D. Why do people give each other presents on Christmas day? The tradition of gifts seems to have started with the gifts that the wise men (the Magi) brought to Jesus. As recounted in the Bible's book of Matthew, "On coming to the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they presented him with gifts of gold, incense and myrrh." Is December 25 really the day Jesus was born? No one really knows. What is known is that Christian leaders in 336 A.D. set the date to December 25 in an attempt to eclipse a popular pagan holiday in Rome (Saturnalia) that celebrated the Winter Solstice. Originally, the celebration of Christmas involved a simple mass, but over time Christmas has replaced a number of other holidays in many other countries, and a large number of traditions have been absorbed into the celebration in the process. Why is there a small evergreen tree in your living room? This is a German tradition, started as early as 700 A.D. In the 1800s the tradition of a Christmas tree was widespread in Germany, then moved to England and then to America through Pennsylvanian German immigrants. Why do you decorate it? In Victorian times, people started decorating trees with candies and cakes hung with ribbon. In 1880, Woolworths first sold manufactured Christmas tree ornaments, and they caught on very quickly. Martin Luther, in the 16th century, is credited as being the first person to put candles on a tree, and the first electrically lighted Christmas tree appeared in 1882. Calvin Coolidge in 1923 ceremoniously lit the first outdoor tree at the White House, starting that long tradition. Why do you decorate with mistletoe? Mistletoe has apparently been used as a decoration in houses for thousands of years and is also associated with many pagan rituals. According to the book "Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things," by Charles Panati: The church forbade the use of mistletoe in any form, mindful of its idolatrous associations. As a substitute, it suggested holly. The sharply pointed leaves were to symbolize the thorns in Christ's crown and the red berries drops of his blood. Holly became a nativity tradition. The Christian ban on mistletoe was in effect throughout the Middle Ages. Surprisingly, as late as the 20th century, there were churches in England that forbade the wearing of mistletoe sprigs and corsages during services. Why is mistletoe hung over the front door? For Scandinavians, the goddess of love (Frigga) is strongly associated with mistletoe. This link to love and romance may be where our tradition of kissing under mistletoe comes from. And what about the nativity scene? The star, the manger, the swaddling clothes, the shepherds, the angels, the heavenly host and the wise men all come from the books Matthew and Luke in the Bible. Why is there a big log in the fireplace? According to the "Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins," by William and Mary Morris: "Yuletide" for "Christmastime" is a term derived from the yule log, which in olden days was a huge log used as the foundation of the holiday fires. Bringing the yule log in was, as recently as the 19th century, as much a part of the pre-Christmas festivities as putting up an evergreen tree today. "Yule" can be traced back to the Middle English "Yollen" (cry aloud) and is thought to date from early Anglo-Saxon revels in celebration of the discovery (after the winter solstice) that nights were becoming shorter. And according to this page: http://cybertowers.com/selfhelp/articles/holidays/pagan4.html Up until the 19th century, the custom of burning the Yule log flourished in England, France, Germany and among the South Slavs. Out of oak, families carved a heavy, wood block. They placed it into the floor of their hearth. It glowed throughout the year under the flames of household fires. Gradually it became ash. Why are there poinsettias on the hearth? Poinsettias were attached to Christmas starting in 1828. Joel Roberts Poinsett, then the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico, imported the plant from Mexico. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica: In warm climates, the poinsettia grows outdoors as a winter-flowering leggy shrub about 3 metres (10 feet) high; as a potted plant in northern areas it rarely grows beyond 1 metre. What appear to be petals are actually coloured leaflike bracts that surround a central cluster of tiny yellow flowers. A milky latex in the stems and leaves can be irritating to some people or animals, but the claim that poinsettias are deadly poisonous is greatly exaggerated. ("Poinsettia," Britannica CD. Version 97. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1997.) Why are socks hung on the mantel? According to a very old tradition, the original Saint Nicholas left his very first gifts of gold coins in the stockings of three poor girls who needed the money for their wedding dowries. The girls had hung their stockings by the fire to dry. See this page for a version of this story. Up until lately, it was traditional to receive small items like fruit, nuts and candy in your stocking. What are the main Christmas songs? There is a set of songs that are played continuously during the Christmas season. Here's a pretty complete list: Away In A Manger Carol Of The Bells Deck The Halls God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Jingle Bells Joy To The World Hark, The Herald Angels Sing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas I'll Be Home For Christmas It Came Upon A Midnight Clear Little Drummer Boy O Come All Ye Faithful O Holy Night O, Little Town of Bethlehem O Tannenbaum Rudolf the Red-Nose Reindeer Santa Claus Is Coming To Town Silent Night Silver Bells The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) The First Noel The Twelve Days of Christmas We Wish You A Merry Christmas What Child Is This? White Christmas Winter Wonderland