OPINION: Seven reasons why Christmas often fails to live up to its hype

Prepare yourself for the world’s most unpopular opinion: Christmas (even in normal years) is overrated.

No one likes a negative Nancy, but when you break it down, everyone’s favourite holiday can often fail to live up to the hype. Here’s why… 

1. There’s too much pressure to have fun

2. It’s expensive

If Ebenezer Scrooge could see today’s Christmas commercialism, he’d probably go back to being a miser. Presents, decorations, enough food to strain any dinner table – ’tis the season to deplete your bank account and worry about it in January.

3. Christmas dinner is always stressful

And no, not just because you have to eat sprouts. Preparing Christmas dinner is a rite of passage for fledgling householders (and a yearly nightmare for those stuck doing it every year) – a single mistake can leave the turkey blackened and the day ruined.

4. Family can go either way

Relatives (if you’re allowed to see them this year) generally serve up the best and worst of Christmas, depending on who you end up with. Down one road lies a harmonious family dinner filled with photo albums and getting tipsy with your parents. The other brings long-dormant tensions, snarky comments and increasingly fraught games of Monopoly.

5. There’s always one person it’s impossible to buy for

6. It can never compare to childhood Christmases

Magical beyond measure for kids, Christmas joins funfairs, car journeys and waking up early as things that were more fun when we were young. Nothing can match up to unwrapping gifts from Santa Claus when you’re tiny, not even the prospect of dressing up like him when you’re big.

7. Some of the traditions are just weird