Category: Let's talk
So what with a bit of discussion I saw elsewhere in the 2010 topic, I had to create this one. So, would you say you are a New Year's grinch? Do you think the holiday or the things people do on it are silly? Let me weigh in on my point of view first of all. First, for years I've been saying it's such a depressing empty let-down of a holiday. All the build-up on the eve, then actual New Year's Day to me is such an anticlimax and non-event. Doesn't help that I have no taste for sports and most of the shows the cable channels are marathoning are ones I'm not interested in. Even the Twilight Zone marathon on Sci-Fi channel, which I used to love, has started to sour. I might as well just start buying the DVD sets and start watching them myself. Hey, no commercials! But yeah, waht else. Now, I do enjoy a special meal on New Year's Eve and/or day, but they tend to be simple things. We like to toast the new year with a bit of sparkling wine we like, but just a glass, no getting so drunk we pay with a hangover next day. I like my fun without consequences if I can help it. LOL! Parties? Nope, I'm an introvert. Introverts and parties are not a good mix. First of all, I have very few local friends, I guess because I fail or something. Last thing I want to do is be around a bunch of strangers yelling at the top of their lungs because they're drunk and having to listen to other people's favorite music which is usually stuff I don't like.
Let's see, what else. End of year review or reflections? Naw, why bother. Each year has its good bits and bad bits, that's just life. Couldn't care less how one year compares to another. Life goes on no matter what you think of it. No big wishes and no aphorisms to spout about the way things ought to be either.
Oh, and here's the biggie. This is the one that's really truly going to piss people off and make me an enemy of the state! No New Year's resolutions! How about that, huh? That's right, no solemn promises to participate in some silly self-improvement stunts. Do I think I'm perfect? Not by any means. But you know what, nobody's perfect and we'll never be perfect. I'd rather change when I feel the change needs to happen, not put myself through silly torture and deprivation of things I love just to see if I can or just so I can pretend I'm improving myself. Life is much too short for such things.
There may be more, but those are some of the reasons why I am a New Year's grinch. How about you.
hmm,
i agree with you about the party thing. who wants to be around loud mouthed strangers?. certainly not me!
personally, i think new year's is just an excuse people give so that they can celebrate. sure it's a new year, but you don't go around eating special meals and making resolutions just to celebrate the weekend, do you?. seriously, what's so special about 2009, 2010, what ever. it's just another number and you start from january again. new year's celebrations are so over rated!.
I don't like New Year's resolutions either, perhaps because I'm not much one for ritual, pomp and circumstance. Other things associated withthe day are fun, though.
new years sucks. it is a pointless stupid holiday. why get excited about the future? it is probably different, and often, better then we had planned in our teeny weeny narrow little minds.
the past two years have not been great for me. in fact on new years while poor ol' dick clark was getting confused counting down as the ball dropped my family flushed the old year down the crapper. Pointless but satisfying.
My great uncle john was a new jersey state trouper before he was a nj congress critter. he always called this holiday amateur night. people who would never dream of getting toasted and trashing their trucks or their lives come out in force on this night.
service in bars and restaurants is horrible. the food is mediocre.
when our son was five after he saw the ball drop for the first time. he looked at me and in a totally puzzled voice said "mommy is that all their is?" couldn't have expressed it better myself.
as for resolutions. pish posh macintosh. each day before arising we should make them starting with love and respect one another.
so say it loud I'm a grinch and i'm proud!!!!
I'm somewhere in the middle on this, I guess. Yes, New Year's is used largely as an excuse for people to be loud and get drunk, etc. but hey, if not New Year, they'll find another time, or place, or reason.
I do like parties, but not the big kind with lots of strangers. I like the kind of party I was at thursday night: me and a group of about 10 friends, all of us who knew each other and hang out quite frequently anyway. I don't mind being loud and/or tipsy around that crowd, or vice versa. Or New Year's days like yesterday, where I hung out with a smaller group of the friends from the party the night before, being lazy, eating pizza, playing games, and so on. Fun times.
End of year reflections are kind of cool to write and/or read. It is interesting sometimes, to note what has gone on in a year: things you expected, or didn't. Things gained, or lost, lessons learned. It's just a good and easy time marker to kind of frame things in.
the one area where I'm totally with you, Godzilla, are your feelings about New Year's resolutions. they're pathetic. People never keep them. Most people know they won't, even as they make them. Even if they think they will, everyone around them knows they won't. That's probably one of the stupidest parts about this time of year. Although, it does amuse me, watching how many people fall off they're resolution in the first days and weeks of the year.
Just my two cents worth.
I agree with SisterDawn. I like the parties and hanging out with friends. But I think new Year's resolutions are a waste because nobody ever keeps them anyway.
I wholeheartedly agree with most things said here; especially that new year's resolutions are a complete waste. if I wanna change things, I'll do so when I recognize the change needs to be made, or whenever possible. I do enjoy parties with people close to my heart, for the simple fact I love being in good company which is something I haven't had all my life.
I forgot to add that I also enjoy reading/blogging about reflections on the past year, because as someone else said, it's a good way to remember the highlights and help close that chapter of life.
I love Newyear, though I don't celebrate it as I used to, with family. We used to watch the ball drop on tv and drink champaign. But Mom and Joanie have been going home early over the last few years and Grandma goes to bed early too. But the last two years have been really fun. I spent both with my boyfriend Spiros. For me, there's no better way to bring in the newyear than to be with the one you love. I missed the big 12 AM, cause he came later, but we had fun anyway. I don't drink, though I do enjoy good dealcoholised champaign. Celebrity gossip, today's music, many modern tv shows, American politics and most current affairs really aren't my thing, so I don't really watch the newyear's count-down now that I'm on my own. But I do love Dick Clark, so missing out on him this year was a let down. I adore the Twilight Zone but keep forgetting when they do the marathon, so, of course, I missed it this year. Great. Just when I got new vhs tapes too.
For people who only know my cynical and sarcastic side, you may be surprised to learn that I am an eternal optimist. That's why I like New Year's Eve and day. I always make a resolution and always believe I'll keep it...until I break it. But I like the whole idea of starting over even if things end up remaining the same. It's just the idea that gives me hope. I feel the same way on my birthday every year.
I have gone out and really partied hard on New Year's eve in the past, but I don't need to do that to still have the feeling of starting over and feeling good about the future.
I think it is that inner optimism that makes a lot of people celebrate this holiday. I think it's human nature to hope for new beginnings. I think it's sad that Turricane and others hate the holiday. I don't like feeling depressed and hopeless and feel bad for people who do feel that way.
Becky, I, too, feel bad for people who don't enjoy it for what it is; there's no need to be so bitter. my favorite part is that it's a time for new beginnings, and considering last year was the roughest to date of my life, I was ready for the start of 2010 because it's just that and hopefully will be much better than the last. while I'm a firm believer life is what you make of it, things happened that were out of my control and changed my life forever...some for good, some bad...but I'll make the most no matter what.
I have to laugh, Godzilla. You said your thoughts on New Year's resolutions would, "piss people off and make you an enemy of the state." Yet it's the one thing that almost everyone here has agreed with you on.
I personally feel that like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day, New Year's has been far too commercialized. I haven't celebrated it in years. To me New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are just two days. I don't even bother with resolutions.
I agree with what others have said about resolutions. Most people probably just feel pressured to make one because it's the thing to do, and that's why they don't keep them. You shouldn't feel you have to change something just because it's a certain date, it should come from within you. I remember once in school we had to write our new year's resolutions for English class, and I got in trouble because I said I wasn't going to make a resolution just because it was the expected thing to do. But no, I'm not really a grinch, I can respect what it means to some people, and even though I think the whole resolution thing is overrated, it doesn't bother me either.
Gosh, there are some new year grumps on here.
I usually love new year's eve. In Iceland there are no limits on how many or what type of fireworks you can buy and they are sold by the rescue and emergency squads to finance their operations, saving people both at sea and people who get lost in the mountains or on the glaciers. So it is a good cause and so every household spends anywhere from 50 to 1000 dollars on fireworks and everyone shoots them at midnight. The sky literally transforms into a was zone, it's like the biggest fireworks show you can imagine but you are in the middle of it. There are hardly any trees and everything is made from concrete so there is little to no fire hazard, at least there have not been any major accidents in years.
A part of this is champagne drinking, big family feasts and relentless partying with friends, staying up as late as possible. Even kids from 6 or 7 years old on can stay up as late as they can on that night. So I have always associated it with fun, friends and drinking (once I turned 20, before that I was a bit of a sports guy and didn't drink, but sure had fun). And I don't understand big parties with people you don't know. Our parties have always been a small group of friends who get together. I don't like it when it disolves and people go clubbing, those types of things I hardly ever enjoy, due to the loud music and being basically cut off from hearing and seeing, which is just not a good feeling.
New Year's Eves here are very different and more low key and I definitely missed the Icelandic carnival feeling this time, but it was too expensive to fly over there.
To me this is a happy holidays, if the years has been bad you can break with it, if it has been good you can see it out in style. Sure it is just arbitrary, just a date, but you can say that about anything in your life. Ultimately we are born and we die and nothing we do matters, so if you choose to go that way there is never a reason to celebrate anything for nothing is worth celebrating (with religion of course you can celebrate the hope or belief or conviction of an afterlif I guess).
I don't take that view, I think there are milestones and events and measurements, endings and beginnings, however arbitrary, that you can use as stepping stones to change or break out of a phase in your life, and there is always a reason to enjoy yourself.
Regarding new year's resolutions. I think often people have planned something, be it a diet, less drinking or taking samba lessons, often people just need to get a grip on themselves and get started, so it is possible to use a time of apparent change as that day, that time you are going for it. Even if you fail it's ok, what is not ok is deciding you are going to fail anyway and never try it.
If you lose 10 pounds and gain them back by August, chances are you would've just gained 10 pounds extra by August, plus the fact you managed to lose them convinces you you can do it again and do better next time.
So I am anti new years grinche, because life's too short and I enjoy it too much to exclude any day I truly feel is special for any reason.
I don't feel V-Day, Halloween or Thanksgiving are special because I wasn't brought up that way but I am learning to appreciate them. But it is another point, you need to make sure you celebrate special occasions when you have kids, because what you do with them is what will make the days special when they grow up.
Bravo, WB. Well said.
Yes, I'm probably a New Year's grump. I don't do anything and think the holiday is overrated. I'm not ashamed of feeling that way. I'm also something of a cheapskate but that's another matter entirely LOL.
I would say I am a grump when it comes to the New Year too. Oh wow it is just another day. Another year, a decade gone by for the case of this year. Don't really party and whatnot. As for CHristmas, I like it and get excited about it, but still people need to realize the true meaning of it, you know what I mean jelly bean? Also, I am one to think that New Year's Eve and New Year's day are overrated, in all truth and real honesty, they are. Just my opinion folks.
wildebrew, if we had new years here like those you celebrated in iceland,, I'd go for them in a big way. It sounds extremely fun and enjoyable. In 1979 I was in Hawaii and it was very similar and extremely fun.
Libra Lady I think it is amusing that because I am a new years grinch, in your world I am automatically a bitter nasty person. It is but one day out of the year. You don't know me so think you are painting with a pretty broad brush.
You know, I have been thinking about this and realize that the main reason i don't like the holiday is simple. when I was a kid on new years day we took down the christmas tree. I love it and that is my absolutely positive holiday. I realize that for my parents taking down the decorations at that time was expedient and practical. For me doing it was a real downer. I used to dread that chore the entire evening and night before. I think it colored my perceptions of new years frolicking and still does to an extent today.
Also, libra lady like you I do all my reflections and planning on my birthday. It seems more fitting and practical.
Turricane,, I don't recall calling you bitter or nasty. I enjoy the feeling of hope that the beginning of a new year gives me and did indicate that I feel bad for those who don't feel that sense of hope. But bitter and nasty are your words, not mine.
I think my problem with resolutions is that so many people's approach towards self-improvement is more of a test of will or self-torture or punishment than making a new person. I think Libra Lady's approach is something I wish I had and I wish a lot of folks have. From waht I observe, most people's approach to resolutions is either giving up something they really enjoy or doing something they don't want to do but feel guilty that they're not doing it and should, thinking this new approach will make things better. Is this how things have to be?
i guess my problem with resolutions is that people think they should only be made once a year. i try to make them every day and each time I do there are some that are the same and many that differ. does this make sense?
libra again i must appologize. you said depressed and hopeless not bitter and nasty. just because i don't like new years doesn't mean i'm depressed or hopeless. i just can't comprehend feeling anything but confused about 365 days of future. every day i try to wake up with a happy outlook on life. my philosophy of life is simple treat every event like it is the first day of my life, and treat my relationships with others like it is the last. each day is a clean slate that we can fill witha beautiful picture or an ugly rant. it is strictly our choice. i am a person who experiences and feels with things i can touch and hold. the whole year ahead which is a whole spring summer fall and winter i can't grasp. does this make sense to you?