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As I get older, I can't enjoy Holidays in the moment and I really hate it.

Zutrax

Zutrax

Member
Oct 31, 2017
4,193
So Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday. I'm a huge horror junkie and the vibes are just peak aesthetic for me. It's always been my favorite time of year. However, as I've grown older I have started feeling more dread during the Holidays that I love (Christmas is also included).

The only way I can really describe this is that I can't seem to live "in the moment" anymore. Instead I think about how inevitably the fun is about to pass, I'm constantly thinking about how October 1st is really my favorite day, and October 31st is my least favorite. This is in part because October 1st still feels like Halloween still with a whole month ahead of me, but the 31st pretty much means it's over.

So now here I am, October 29th, feeling dread and melancholy because the 31st is around the corner. I don't feel like I did enough (never do despite always doing plenty) and I just can't seem to be happy that it's still Halloween despite the end coming around. I feel like my "dread period" is getting earlier and earlier every year. This year I felt that utter sadness a few days into October.

Does anyone else have this mindset? I guess my ask is if anyone has advice on how to truly break from this. I suppose the real answer is to just go and do something, stop complaining and being more mindful, and maybe get some therapy. But I felt compelled to make a thread anyway I suppose since it was bugging me in particular today.
 
MasterOfPuppets

MasterOfPuppets

Member
Dec 2, 2017
57
I feel similar to you. Halloween is probably my favorite holiday and every year for the past few I've always looked forward to the month in general, but it never turns out to be as fun as I had hoped. You aren't alone OP.
 

AndreGX

GameXplain
Verified
Oct 24, 2017
1,815
San Francisco
Man, I haven't felt anything for any holiday for well over a decade; Christmas is just another day. I miss those days, so I'm jealous of whatever feelings you may still have for them.

So this is to say, I don't think that's terribly uncommon. It's like how Sundays always suck, because work is the next day.
 
DarthSpider

DarthSpider

The Fallen
Nov 15, 2017
2,957
Hiroshima, Japan
Yes, I feel this in some variation from year to year. I also have a bad tendency to try and recreate my feelings of nostalgia, but that is an impossible task because it's like trying to compete with something that is dead and gone. You'll lose every time.

This is not really advice, but for me, having a kid helped. Now I get to see them experience Halloween, and watching them experience it and enjoy it has definitely helped me to stay in the moment. It's also a great excuse to go a bit overboard and say it's for the kid, when everyone knows it's just as much for you.

I also feel this when I go to visit my family in the states. I usually visit for about two weeks, once every 2-3 years. I love going, but after just a couple days I get kinda down when I realize how little time I have left. Not enough to ruin the trip or even for anyone else to notice, but it's definitely there. I think that's kinda normal, especially when everyone is getting older and you realize you don't have an infinite amount of these holidays.
 
ZackieChan

ZackieChan

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,056
Start getting into other holidays so there's always more to look forward to. Arbor Day is lit, my man.
 

Deleted member 22750

Oct 28, 2017
13,267
I used to like thanksgiving

I hate them all now
 
Dark Knight

Dark Knight

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,306
I might be the complete opposite. This moment is everything to me and tomorrow is conjectural. Which might also be to my detriment. There's got to be a middle ground between us that is ideal.

However I totally agree that October itself feels like Halloween in general, and it's indeed sad to see it go.
 
Meyneth

Meyneth

Member
Oct 27, 2017
54
I feel like since I started working in food service I've come to hate the holidays. I just associate them with more work and less time for myself/family :/
 
Mekanos

Mekanos

â–˛ Legend â–˛
Member
Oct 17, 2018
44,174
The build up to holidays is in some ways more enjoyable than the actual holidays themselves.
 
Rirse

Rirse

Member
Jun 29, 2019
2,016
I am not feeling this Halloween, but that mosty due to bitterness after last year when one of the cats escape the house on Halloween day (never seen him again). Not really caring as much for the holiday afterwards.
 
TheDinoman

TheDinoman

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,098
I know that feel.

Back when I was younger, every holiday felt like, you know, a holiday. But now, it just feels like every other day to me, except now maybe I get some gifts or I'm passing out candy to Trick or Treaters (not this year obviously)
 
Vanillalite

Vanillalite

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,709
Still love Halloween especially with the family. Thanksgiving feels more like yay I get a day off.

Christmas is the weird one for me. In many ways the Xmas season is still baller. In other ways I get kinda sad and sappy. Like each passing year it's another step towards the end of my mortality.
 

B.K.

Member
Oct 31, 2017
17,038
The only holidays I enjoy are Thanksgiving, for all the food, and New Year's for the annual Twilight Zone marathon.
 
Isilia

Isilia

Member
Mar 11, 2019
5,806
US: PA
I'll never enjoy Christmas again since my mother died that night from cancer. Despite that, I try not to downcast the mood since the wife and her mom are really into it.

Though halloween, we have so many ridiculous lights all over the place. One holiday we all enjoy here.
 
Nikus

Nikus

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,370
Mostly feel the same and the solution is also to make Halloween the whole month :D
October 1st is the best day because it kicks off the best month of the year (and it's also my birthday), and I start my horror marathon.

Zutrax said:
So now here I am, October 29th, feeling dread and melancholy because the 31st is around the corner. I don't feel like I did enough (never do despite always doing plenty) and I just can't seem to be happy that it's still Halloween despite the end coming around. I feel like my "dread period" is getting earlier and earlier every year. This year I felt that utter sadness a few days into October.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I really thought I was the only one feeling like this, because it's kinda weird. Though it changes year to year for me. Last year I was feeling really sad almost a week before the 31st, and this year it's okayish but I know November 1st is gonna suck and I'll be feeling all empty for days.
 
King Fossil

King Fossil

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,230
Oct 1 to Dec 31 is fantastic.

Then Jan 1 is just dark, depressing, and cold as balls for the next 3 months.
 
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