Who wants to encounter this on the roads during the Christmas season? - Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer

Christmas:

It's supposed to be the happiest time of year but many people find it stressful and depressing. Documented facts show that for some the Yuletide season is so bad, they end their lives. The Lifestyle team also has mixed feelings about Christmas so today we share them with you.

Send us your true feelings about Christmas at: Lifestyle@gleanerjm.com.

Barbara Ellington

I regard many aspects of Christmas in the same way I do weddings. Months of preparation just for one day. I love Christmas but I think it's over too soon. I would love to see an entire week of Christmas (all seven days being public holidays). The other thing I hate about Christmas is that invariably I have to work.

Unlike some of my colleagues, I love the sights and sounds of Christmas, the cooking, visiting relatives, wrapping presents. I do not become stressed about the commercial side of Christmas because I never allow myself to feel pressured into shopping excessively. I do not feel compelled to suddenly find my conscience and give to the needy because I do that all year round.

On Christmas day, I love going to friends and relatives' homes to visit and best of all, I love grand market night in Christiana, Manchester. It's a pleasure to walk the town's entire main street back and forth, rubbing shoulders in the tight crush with folks from adjoining districts out for the night.

And then there is the peace and solitude of sleeping late and doing absolutely nothing next day because others will cater to my every need.

Nashauna Drummond

I make no bones about it! My co-workers know that this is not my favourite time of the year. In fact, I really don't like this 'silly season' at all.

First of all, what is normally a leisurely trip to the shopping mall or supermarket, now becomes a very unpleasant game of survival. There are so many people rushing about that the possibility of being trampled becomes a real threat. You hustle for space and yet have no time to inspect a potential purchase. Customer service is poor because staff are busy helping scores of other people. The cashiers are never focused, so consider yourself lucky if you take home what you actually purchased, or get the correct change. It just becomes a circus out there.

Then there is the traffic. Getting to and from work or anywhere, is a task in and of itself. What is usually a half-hour journey, becomes a three-hour marathon on roads transformed to obstacle courses. More motorists are on the road (or have they become lunatics on the loose?) Forget about short cuts, those are now regular thoroughfares.

Then everyone you know expects a gift. Suddenly they see you as a Santa Claus.

Family gatherings are particularly irksome. I love my family, but when they all get together (and they are many), they are loud, boisterous and just drive me insane. The day itself is unbearable. Everyone is up at the crack of dawn, stomping around the house with no thought that you may have worked the day before; were up all night and drove all the way to the country (in some cases), to be with them. Plus you have to drive back that night because you have work the next day. Then everyone tries to speak over each other, so the simplest conversation becomes a shouting match!

Trying to get some quiet time makes everyone upset.

The icing on the cake is that everyone wants to know who you're dating and when's the wedding. If anything changed since last year, wouldn't they all had been informed?

Daviot Kelly

The only thing I don't like about Christmas revolves around traffic; both pedestrian and vehicular. I remember sitting in traffic for hours as I went shopping with my aunts and mother. It was no fun! On the plazas, it was a maze of persons getting into my way, bumping me here and there. It was chaos to just try and get from one part of a store to the next much less from store to store.

And then, of course, there is the fact that people are going to look for the best price so you end up going from store to store and might end up buying the item from the first store that you tried. Parking the vehicle is also no picnic, with every motorist adopting a cut-throat attitude.

The children are on vacation from school and the parents take them shopping so that increases the numbers in the already thick crowd. And then there are the frantic parents bumping into you while looking for their little ones. Always enough to freak you out. Even getting something to eat is a hassle because the fast-food outlets are working overtime to meet the demand. So it's longer lines and sometimes the food comes out bad-tasting because it was hurriedly prepared. Other than that, Christmas is bliss!

Yahneake Sterling

I used to love Christmas as a child. The carolling, baking cake with my family, nights spent rehearsing plays for the Christmas show at church and exchanging gifts with my friends. Oh, and grand market night which was the only night that we were allowed to stay out until 4:00 a.m.

Today, I hate the season. It has lost its meaning. No longer is the theme focussed on joy, happiness and sharing with the less fortunate. Rather, it has become a big commercial event, with persons making excessive demands for gifts. Hanging out until the wee hours of the morning is no longer fun as people are in fear of being attacked.

I long for the days when I walked to Santa Cruz with family and friends, shopped in the stores, ate jerk chicken from the pan chicken man and then settled down to listen the lyrical genius of the selectors of First Choice Disco. No worries.

Sacha Walters

Joy to the world, Christmas is near and as usual I can't wait.

I'm the type who will fight through the traffic to get my loved ones gifts, with the simple reward of them knowing they were considered.

Putting in the extra work to get the Christmas cake ready and of course, my reward of licking the mixing bowl clean.

Prepping the ham, cake, sorrel and wines can never be a hassle, it comes with the territory.

The Christmas breeze, you know the one that starts from your big toe and wraps it's way all the way to the last strand of hair on your head, is heavenly.

But most importantly, I love attending either midnight mass or Christmas morning mass - a must. After all, there's only one reason for the season.

Keisha Shakespeare-Blackmore

Christmas is my favourite time of year. All my relatives are home for the holidays and we all gather at grandma's home in Clarendon.

Christmas is also special for me because we recognise the birth of Jesus. Though, Bible scholars debate whether He was born in December, it does not matter to me, I still celebrate His birth.

Christmas festivities fill the air and everyone seems to be in a good mood. In my community people come together during the season to spread good cheer. In every home you visit, slices of Christmas cake and a glasses of sorrel are offered.

It is also the time to give and receive gifts and give to the less fortunate and children are shown love through Christmas treats. Communities come together for tree-lighting ceremonies. To top it off, on grand market night, we walk the streets of the town then return home in the wee hours of the morning to go carolling throughout the community. Later, it's home for a big breakfast followed by dinner - a feast that is fit for a king.