Poll of the Day > So many adults spent Christmas ALONE!! Are you one of them?

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/share-of-public-spending-christmas-alone-has-doubled-since-1969-study-finds

This college has apparently been tracking this since the 60s. Back in 1969, 5% of adults spent Christmas alone. In 2024, that has increased to 11%

There are a bunch of other interesting questions too

Not this year. But it's a sad trend. Seems typical in a internet-connected (addicted) society.

I wasn't this year but probably will be going forward. I was on Thanksgiving.

My family has ceded the holidays to the in-laws. Everyone spends the holiday itself with in-laws and celebrates with our family on an alternate day. Especially since my dad passed away this year and my sister took over hosting responsibilities, it's easier for her to spend the holiday itself with her husband's family and then have our holiday the next day or something.

Define Christmas?

If just the 25th, then yes.

My dad's side of the family gave up on Christmas day together several years ago, but we did spent Christmas Eve together. And the 26th (Second Christmas Day by Dutch tradition) has always been spent with my mom's side of the family.

Nichtcrawler-X posted...

Define Christmas?

December 25th to January 6th.

I live alone with one cat, but was with my parents on the 25th and with my brother, nephew and niece on the 26th. My fiancee I hope to see next year, had no budget for the intercontinental flight this year.

I remember the days of attending 4 christmas parties. Friends families etc.

Now the ex wife is on the other side of the country sleeping with some guy making 150k and I spent christmas at a casino

No I'm married

Why do people act like it's a sin to be alone? I like solitude and have no desire for love. I ain't "lonely" either. I'm protective of my stuff. Plus I got my cats.

I wanted to but I'm glad i didn't. Family is nice, but solitude is also very nice.

Spent it with my wife, not that we celebrate it to begin with.

pedro45 posted...

I wanted to but I'm glad i didn't. Family is nice, but solitude is also very nice.

Solitude is perfect for me.

Trust issues

I live with mom, so not totally alone, but I don't really care about celebrating christmas, so i spent most of the day in my room like i normally do.

You care a bit too much about this for someone who lives with his parents.

Alpha_MaIe posted...

You care a bit too much about this for someone who lives with his parents.

I don't even live with me own and I detested mine for reasons.

I spent Christmas with my goats.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b7a76ada.jpg

captpackrat posted...

I spent Christmas with my goats.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b7a76ada.jpg

Goats are awesome. I like the ones with the floppy ears though.

No, but it's weird spending time with family now, it doesn't feel like how it did as a kid, more like company than anything unless I'm just visiting my parent alone.

With what family I have left, yes. It was actually kind of rare to see both of my (alive) uncles, grandfather, and father all in a room together. We haven't done that in like 10 years.

Just me and my wife.

We go away for Christmas.

Nope

Showed up at the in-laws unexpectedly on Christmas eve, they scrambled to make us something to eat, I said **** it and got a pizza and we spent the night

Surprisingly my son was the last to get up on Christmas day

My father in law thought it was a brilliant idea to get a duck that no one else wanted and slow roast it in the rotisserie.

He ended up burning the **** out of it which completely stunk out their place for the rest of the day, nobody definitely didn't want any after that and we had to look at it, picked off by his hand,bwhenever we went into the kitchen.

my wife and I go to her aunt's on Christmas Eve every year. My parents just moved out of state, so it was the first time I didn't spend Christmas with them since I was out of state in 2000, so that was kind of weird.

My extremely right wing uncle kept bullying me with microaggressions so i went and stood in another room until he left.

No, I was at work.
Why didn't you answer, TC?

Saw my parents and some other family, but I also wouldve been fine otherwise.

Smartest effing thing I ever did was teach myself how to be happy alone and how to enjoy being around other people too.

against my wishes, I was not alone

Some of my Christmas parties were cancelled by family due to drama. I had to celebrate mine alone. The older folks would surely have come around, if things went smoother.

JixHedgehog posted...

My father in law thought it was a brilliant idea to get a duck that no one else wanted and slow roast it in the rotisserie.

my father loved duck meat.

on topic, spent it alone it's still going to be a rough year until april when the anniversary of his passing happens (same with my dog). 1st one wasn't supposed to happen. 2nd one was because of the tumors and i didn't want to make the same mistake.

uncle ended himself on april 7th this year after deciding to take math and going crazy for 4 days.

Went to my parents' place in Lake City after getting off work on Christmas Eve, stayed the night, and had an early Christmas dinner in the early afternoon.

I would've stayed longer, but I had to work the day after Christmas.

I spent time with family and that was nice.

OneEyedShinobi posted...

Why do people act like it's a sin to be alone? I like solitude and have no desire for love. I ain't "lonely" either. I'm protective of my stuff. Plus I got my cats.

I've known folk who just go to the pub for atmosphere or social interaction, but yeah, I see nothing wrong with been content with yourself and the life you have. Some folk however can't see past their own life unfortunately.

wwinterj25 posted...

I spent time with family and that was nice.

I've known folk who just go to the pub for atmosphere or social interaction, but yeah, I see nothing wrong with been content with yourself and the life you have. Some folk however can't see past their own life unfortunately.

I don't like social places and I avoid most social busy places. I like eating alone and having someone near me makes me nervous.

Just so many people act like everyone needs someone.

OneEyedShinobi posted...

Just so many people act like everyone needs someone.

All that matters is you're as happy as you can be in this life before it's over.

wwinterj25 posted...

All that matters is you're as happy as you can be in this life before it's over.

Indeed. Never wanted love. It's pointless to me. Plus I can focus on my mental health.

I was with family.

No, I was with family, but I wish I spent it alone. Christmas sucked this year.

A little rant about my holiday, spoilered because complaining about spending time with family and getting gifts is annoying, but it felt good to type some of it out, so Im going to post it anyway:

The best part of it was the food. Most of which was made by me. My aunt made some really good potato skins, but other than that there was some prepurchased Arby's roast beef in a slow cooker, some slow cooker mac and cheese, some generic dollar store dinner rolls, not terrible stuff, but nobody really tried to do anything special for the holiday. Meanwhile I made 5 different kinds of cookies and desserts, a platter of candied bacon, I got some nice cheeses that you might not normally splurge on and get a chance to try for a cheese and meat platter, and some barbecue meatballs. Nothing super fancy, but I put in some effort and wanted people to enjoy what I did bring.

But hey Christmas is about fun and family and reconnecting. Well the party games all involved singling people out to laugh at their attempts. Things like drawing a Christmas tree using your own head as a table and trying to flip ribbons into a bowl on your head while blindfolded. And Christmas was hosted at my racist, sexist, homophobic uncle's house and half the family didn't show up. Which may or may not have been a coincidence. Hard to say if that's legit how things fell on the schedule this year or if everyone chose the same year to visit the in-laws for a reason.

Well there's always presents? It was a white elephant. I brought a couple of comics and a gift card in case the person who got it didn't like comics, but there were enough kids and guys who liked the marvel films around I thought someone might enjoy them. All together it was around ~$30 what did I walk away with? A dusty case of expired Ramen.

Well what about Christmas morning with the parents, the brother, his new girlfriend and her daughter, the 3 nephews?. It was better. My mom and I made brunch together, had a nice morning, and I gave out some nice gifts. My dad has joined the YMCA since retiring earlier this year and he got a nice gym bag and some gym stuff, my mom got a high quality wool cardigan and some slippers because she has been complaining about how cold it is around the house, my brother has a puppy and had commented on wanting a nice dog bed for his puppy, so I got one similar to my own dogs that his dog likes to use when she comes over and I made sure it was in a design and color that would fit his house. I didn't know the girlfriend well but I know she likes woobles so I got her a few crochet sets. And all 4 of the kids got gift cards for a shopping spree and some smaller gifts to open. And in return I got gift cards to restaurants I don't really eat at unless I both don't want to cook and don't want to eat someplace nice or fast. It felt more like getting me something to get me something rather than giving any thought to what I may want. And I didn't want anything, I didn't need anything, I wasn't expecting anything, but the lack of thought in what I did get kind of hurt. I like eating out, I like good food, some gift cards to my favourite restaurants or a nice restaurant I dont go to often because of the price would have been appreciated. Instead it was just chain store stuff like they just went to the gift card station at Walmart and grabbed cards to whatever was available and saying good enough.

Christmas with the other side of the family was much better, smaller, more inclusive games, better food, cheap gifts, but with actual thought behind them but I had a headache and I had to work the next day and had to cut out early. All in all a terrible Christmas this year and I should have saved myself a few hundred bucks and 2 and a half days worth of cooking and baking and just spent the day alone.

I ain't reading all that.

I always "spend Christmas alone" in the technical sense, partly because I don't celebrate it, but my family are spread all over the place and a lot of us have impaired mobility.

My December 25th is always assigned to reading new stories from the very enjoyable annual fanfiction exchange in which I take part every winter.

Nope. My siblings and I do a Secret Santa thing every year.

slacker03150 posted...

I wasn't expecting anything, but the lack of thought in what I did get kind of hurt.

I don't think that should've bothered you at all if you really had no expectations. Sounds like you were expecting them to put thought into it?

Blue_Thunder posted...

I don't think that should've bothered you at all if you really had no expectations. Sounds like you were expecting them to put thought into it?

I don't know. I think I would have been fine with a visa gift card, cash, or even a stack of scratch off tickets over gift cards to restaurants that aren't bad, but also aren't places I go out of my way to eat at. I wouldn't really consider those more thoughtful than a panda express gift card.