Carol,

I have the same Christmas problems that you do--this year will be even worse, my 18 year old daughter is away at school, and the prospect of co-ordinating her time with my parents (in another state) with her mom(in another state and another marriage, is beyond me. My current (and best) wife is a Christmas person, but relations in her family are strained right now, and we are actually scheduling a business trip to London over thanksgiving week just to avoid a holiday debacle--Her dad died unexpectedly a year ago, and her mom passed away on New Year's Eve, a couple years before that--the season has got too much baggage associated with it!!

A couple years ago, we started buying demented christmas music--things like "Christmas on the Range" and "A Creole Christmas" and other such things, both deliberately and accidentally crazy--It has helped a lot to take the season less seriously--

If you can, I suggest a trip to a warmer climate--or failing that, to a place where no christmas is celebrated--One Christmas, I spent the day in one of the Jewish/Immigrant neighborhoods in new york--another year, I spent the day in a Persian community--even if it is just a day or so of escape, it is some relief, gives you something to look forward to, and, most important, it shows that the "Holiday Season" is not world embracing and all encompassing, as it often seems--

Good Luck--