Jo Has The Word - Christmas doesn't feel the same

Christmas doesn't feel the same Johanna - Thursday, December 4, 2025, 3:30 pm

Hello,

I just want to talk about growing up and the meaning of Christmas for me.

I remember celebrating Christmas at my parents house about three days early, we'd spend Christmas day with my grandparents. My brother and I would open our stockings in secret at around two in the morning, I've always knew Santa wasn't real, though I've never told anyone about that. We would then wake my parents at around six in the morning and open stockings again and go back to bed to open gifts at ten or nine in the morning. Then we'd have breakfast and leave for Detroit.

We would stay at my Grandpa's house and go to a really nice Chinese restaurant and pass around all the dishes with each other, then open more presents afterwards. Then I would go to bed.

Then we would go to my Grandma's house and meet up with my great aunt and have Christmas dinner and more presents. We would have ham, and I hate ham so usually I'd have mac and cheese.

I've chosen to stop going to Michigan for Christmas after being mocked for being depressed and having panic attacks. I have enough self-respect to know that I already have enough negativity in my life. My great aunt didn't like my decision, but I told her that I would not be compared to my cousins even though we are all adults who are unmarried with no children. Which apparently is something I am supposed to want.

Christmas this year has woken me to the sheer lack of quality of products and the political opinions of big box stores that don't match mine. Also, how expensive everything has seem to gotten over the tariffs.

I have been doing the minimalist strategy by making wish lists and then deleting whatever I have decided I didn't want anymore. Then I forgot to clear out my list before I realized that my family has access to my lists.

I've seen people post about how they have woken up about how TJ MAXX and Walmart and the Aldi's finds. Now I do shop at TJ MAXX and Ulta for consumable products and I did recently get some silicone ice cube trays and a silicone cupcake pan for my flax seed muffins. Though most of the time they have tons of junk.

Side note: I love Aldi's by the way, they have saved me so much money, put their rotating snack collection is fun because it gives you new things to try.

There is too much junk in the world. I try not to shop but this time of the year it gets very difficult because I don't have the time to home make something or energy to look for things people would like.

I don't care about presents as much as I did as a child. Mostly since I want to spend more money and buy quality and local products.

Like a stationary store opened downtown so I am excited to "hunt" for stickers. My friends and I trade stickers from local shops, park gift shops and things from Etsy.

I'm excited to find local items, though unfortunately a lot of companies are using AI art now which makes me uninterested in supporting them.

I do plan on getting Butterbeer coffee creamer and my fiancé bought me some peppermint sticks and gingerbread creamer. So, I am celebrating in a more minimal way I guess.

I also found a bunch of Christmas cards that were my great grandmothers from like the 70's so I plan on putting those to use by sending those vintage cards to my friends and family. So, I guess I am aiming for a frugal and minimal Christmas which wasn't intentional but ended up being that way.

I do have to declutter as well so I plan on taking some dead faux airpods and dead batteries to Staples to recycle and DSW to recycle my slippers that are falling apart unfortunately.