Reasons Why It’s Not Okay to Tell Someone to “Get Into the Christmas Spirit”

(TW: Abuse, hate crimes, eating disorders. Note: In the context of North America)

Not everyone celebrates Christmas. Many people of different cultures and religions have different winter celebrations, or don’t celebrate anything at all. Not only is important to respect other people and their cultures, but telling people to partake in Christian holidays is extremely problematic as historically and currently in North America many people are forced to assimilate to Christian culture or convert to Christianity.

Christmas is a holiday included in Christian privilege. Not only is it more highly publicized than any other winter holiday, but it is also seen as “better” by society. People who are non-white and non-Christian experience more hate crimes than people who are. Thus, Christmas can cause distress in many non-white, non-Christian as it reminds them that their race, culture, and religion are not accepted by society and they are likely to be verbally and physically assaulted for not being apart of white, Christian society.

Christmas can be physically demanding on people. Many people who are physically disabled are unable to do things such as get a tree, put up decorations or lights, go out to stored and buy presents, wrap gifts, or make meals. Telling people they have to “get into the Christmas spirit” by doing any of the former can cause them a lot of distress as they are unable to do so because of their disability.

Christmas can be mentally demanding on some people. Not only can the chaos and rush of Christmas cause anxiety and depression, but Christmas can be triggering for many people. Some people may have had bad things happen around the holidays, or someone may have used the holidays as an excuse to abuse them. For these people, Christmas may remind them of this abuse and thus cause panic attacks, hallucinations, insomnia, vomiting, and any other stress or post-traumatic stress related symptoms.

Many people feel forced by society to “get into the Christmas spirit” by spending the holidays with their family. If their family is abusive, this can cause them a lot of distress.

Some people do not have families. This may cause them to feel depressed during the holidays and thus choose not to celebrate them.

The Christmas holidays deal a lot with foods. From Christmas dinner to Christmas cookies, to gifts involving food people are constantly being bombarded by food. For people with eating disorders, this can cause a lot of distress and even cause people in recovery to relapse. Avoiding Christmas activities may help them to maintain stability in their life.

Please feel free to add any other reasons why when someone isn’t “getting in to the Christmas spirit” people shouldn’t pester them about it.