[katyasha]

I have been watching the news the other night and that some families here in the USA are canceling christmas because of the economy. So any thoughts about this? Are you going to celebrate christmas this year or cancel it?
For me I'm not going to cancel it is the only time of the year that I can spend with my family and enjoy a little something as well even it is not what wanted I still enjoy it.

[Coda]

A lot of people have to cancel because of the cost of transportation -- if your family doesn't live close together, it's very expensive to meet up. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with not getting what you want; if Christmas is about togetherness, not being able to get together can kill it pretty effectively.

[Demonskid]

My mom and I have always been poor.. but we always celebrate xmas. <3

even if we can't get presents, we're still gonna sit here and do our usual watch tv and chat so no cancling for us.

[Toki]

i dont celebrate christmas so

yeah "/

my family has canceled hanukkah for the past two years though because we felt threatened by some of the people in our neighbourhood who had said some nasty things to my sister and i about our religion

we still get together with the rest of the family to hang out but we don't really celebrate christmas per se, it's mostly a big dinner and (ew) watching sports

[Belial]

We are still celebrating, my sister is flying in from CA as she hasn't seen us in years. It might be a smaller christmas with less presents but we always seem to manage. We also have Skype to see my relatives on webcam so we get to see them anyway. Not as good as a IRL hug from them but loads better than a mere phone call.

Christmas is only canceled if you focus on the merchant aspect of it. Even a hand made something is a good present if store items are too much. I do know that the business's would have us think otherwise.

Family time is family time, no amount of items can rival that. It doesn't have to be religious nor does it have to be someone spending hundreds of dollars. So for us, Christmas would never be canceled.

[Yokuutsu]

You can't cancel Christmas. Because Christmas isn't about giving or receiving gifts...if it was...me and mother wouldn't have been celebrating Christmas for about five years now. Only like two people give me anything (and I can only give random stuff in my room. That's about it)

Christmas is more about family togetherness...there are phones, chat services, webcams and other things. Families can still be together if they can't be there physically. And there are still cheesy Christmas movies to watch, alone or with others. There is no canceling...there is only bad times (moneywise) where you can't buy what you used to...but almost everyone can afford some candy canes...that they can munch on while watching those cheesy movies on Christmas.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Can't not have Christmas! Or Chrismakuh, as we joke at times. The gifts are really only a side thing for us next to the dinner, but we like to get at least tiny "stocking" gifts for people. I'm definitely making stuff this year. This will be my nephew's first Christmas and Hanukkah so we might do something with my sister and her husband too. They usually keep Hanukkah to themselves and their Jewish friends but then come over for Christmas with us. Not sure what the plans are this year.

[Night Fury]

not cancelling it but it may go as it did last year there we draw one name out of the hat and do a secret Santa thing
but not sure other than that...

[termyte]

i would never cancel christmas!!

even when i was little and money was tight my mom always had something to give us even if it was a handmade doll, a new blanket, or something else she made for us. one year we did not have enough for a tree and gifts so my mom made a tree from green material and metal coat hangers. me, my sisters, and my brother, spent the day before christmas eve making things to decorate our homemade tree. it was a fun christmas because we were together playing and joking. the meal wasn't turkey that year but we each had some of our favorite things for dinner it was cool.

[Epic Rave Monster]

..What in the world? You can't just.. cancel Christmas. It only comes once a year! D: I'm so glad my family doesn't do that. That's like canceling Halloween.

[Lestrade]

The idea that if you can't spend a bunch of money on Christmas you should just cancel it is frankly appalling. So many people have this bizarre need to go completely over the top on Christmas. Why not just spend the day with your family having a nice meal and giving what you can? No need to cancel it entirely, even if you're broke.

[Coda]

Lestrade, what if you don't live near your family and it would cost you $600 in travel expenses alone?

[Lestrade]

Do you live literally all by yourself and have nobody around you that you could spend time with? Because if so you have much bigger problems >.>

[Coda]

Not me but it's not far off from my situation -- it's not as unlikely as it seems. Imagine someone who has moved away from home for the first time to pursue a job opportunity and has not yet made any close friends at his new home but has hit financial hardships around the holidays.

This is almost exactly what happened to me, but I have a wife and son so Christmas isn't cancelled -- but it's not a stretch to extrapolate from my scenario.

[Belial]

Coda, is a webcam/livestream a viable option?
I know it isn't the same thing but it is a little something at least.

[Coda]

We've done it before, but actually this time around my inlaws have pulled some strings to fly out here for Christmas, so this year we're actually okay. But we were close to only having Christmas for our son's sake -- if it had just been Ginny and me, we might have just cancelled doing anything special and just spent the day together.