The Christmas Syndrome - Why holidays can be depressing (or a deadly bore) and I'm not going to Celebrate

I never liked the periods of the year when everyone is supposed to be happy and celebrate, when you need to make gifts and be "on holiday" with millions of people out there.
Mandatory shopping, mandatory holidays, consumerism and a fake feeling of joy and celebration, while the world is still the same place, problems and conflict are only forgot for a few days and hypocrisy mode is on.

image from timeout.com

I enjoy being happy and celebrating, of course, but I'm not able to do it when it's something you MUST do because everyone else does it with you. I live in Italy, a catholic country, but believe me, there's nothing religious in the commercial Christmas we celebrate here.

Basically Christmas in Italy means compulsive shopping, then few days when the whole country is "on holiday", which basically means millions of people (all together) taking airplanes, cars and trains to visit their family (which produces high traffic congestion everywhere), to go there and eat and drink like pigs, and then coming back again to their slave's job (sorry for the pessimistic view, but that's it).

A busy italian highway, from trasporti-italia.com

For me, usually it means traveling to my family, in the south of the country, with a lot of problems to book trains or planes at excessive rates, then meeting relatives and having severe digestion problems for some days, then travel again to my place with some other millions people, in a frantic routine which repeats every year with no difference.

image from pinterest.com

What about the religious meaning of Christmas? Some people go to the midnight mass (only very catholic ones), while the others just set up a christmas tree or a nativity scene at their homes. I am not catholic (nor strictly christian) but I really don't see a real religious behavior in these days. It's more about shopping and eating!

image from viridea.it - typical italian nativity scene

Additionally, when families meet to eat and celebrate together, many harsh discussions happen, huge amount of food is consumed (and wasted, too) and in the end te feeling you get is quite depressive.

I ask to myself: is it really necessary to celebrate this festivity like this? It's really necessary to meet your family exactly on these days? Where is the religious/spiritual meaning of this celebration?

How can a real christian manage to live the spirit of Christmas with such a full stomach, surrounded by a huge crowd of travelers (first) and relatives (after)?

This Christmas I will not celebrate, I'm quite sick of this crazy routine, so people, enjoy your holidays and please, leave me alone :)

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