A few years ago a sweet little old man approached me in a supermarket on Christmas eve with his microwave Chicken dinner for one. He was obviously in for a chat, he kept asking me which pudding he should get, i chose a microwave a jam turnover thing and made "very" small talk with him wished him Happy Christmas and went about my business, i was at work and it was my lunch hour. It wasn't until a few days later i thought about him.

I've never forgotten this and i WISH i had spent some time with him and engaged in some happy conversation. He may have had family and friends, but he may not have and TBH pretty sure he didn't.  I think about that a lot especially over the Christmas period and i vowed never ever to do that again.

In my line of work i meet many older folk and it really amazes me how many are alone and lonely not only at Christmas (albeit very magnified) but generally on their own throughout the year and of course many others young/middle aged (me!) either on the streets or in a particularly unhappy home environment (yes my heart bleeds for these poor children)

So for me, i DO love Christmas Eve/Christmas day/Boxing day but i ALWAYS feel guilty enjoying myself - i shouldn't but i do.

Probably FAR too deep for a NS Forum?? but just felt like sharing my thoughts.🙂

I'm not a Christmas person, all too commercialised.  Getting bombarded with advertising as though you've got an endless supply of cash to spend on crap you don't want or need.

As for people being on their own and lonely, that is a year round issue.  Can never understand why it's made such an issue at Christmas,  but forgotten about by the New Year.

One of the things I've realised as I've got older is, its not about the gifts and money lavished on one another, alot of the time it's as simple as just spending time with people.

Bah Humbug.