I would pay someone to put away the grocieries after a harrowing couple of hours at the supermarket. 15 plastic sacks of stuff, which, when you get home- you wondered why you bought them in the first place...

Attending the office Christmas party

We're Jewish, so we don't have a lot in the way of "holiday pressure." But my in-laws always come for a visit the week between Xmas and New Year's, because that is when they have time off from work.

In short, I'd outsource that visit. Letting someone else field my mother-in-law's passive aggressive comments while I curl up with an Eggnog Latte and a book is worth any price.

Particularly a holiday luncheon our group at work likes to have.

I work in a an intellectual property law office and in December I always have that last minute anxiety of getting in my billable hours for the year so I can take the Christmas/New Year week off.

It is irrational on my part but, the two hours of the day wasted on that lunch when I usually only take a half hour is painful. I love Christmas but, this does nothing for me in increasing the joy of the season.

The other job for another is making eggnog, I always get it a little wrong. I would hire my friend Nicole who uses a large 2 cup sized Pyrex measuring cup when measuring the booze.

I love decorating for Christmas except for one task. So I would hire someone to string the lights outside. But of course, they'd do it wrong, and I'd have one of my Adrian Monk moments and have to go out and redo it myself so that there would be the exact same number of lights on each bush and no two of the same colors in a row.

I agree that taking down the decorations the first week of January is rather depressing in a way. I would have someone else do that.
Also, putting the stamps and return address labels, on the 200 and some odd cards. I suppose we could send out fewer cards, but it provides both me and my husband with a warm fuzzy feeling, I guess we know too many people.

My Mom loves to decorate the house for Christmas (we usually host the family Christmas Eve get-together,) but let me tell you, when it's over it's over. Most years, the tree is down and the decorations are stowed safely in the crawlspace by 6PM on Christmas day.

For the young 'uns, anyway. I live a thousand miles away from them all, and criminey! Their tastes/ideas about what's cool change so fast I can't keep up. For ten years or better when I was a kid, I was happy with a Breyer horse, or a tea towel with a horse on it, or socks with a horse on 'em, or a horse brush for the horse I didn't have, or a book about horses. I was predictable. Also cheap to buy for!

I'd hire someone to take my place, to listen to my wife bitch about my relatives.

I have a friend who is a wonderful artist and a complete perfectionist. I asked her this year, that instead of a present, she wrap my presents for my family.

Normally my presents look like they were wrapped by feral children. This year they are going to be too beautiful to unwrap.

I've already gotten some wrapped presents back from her. They look better than what you would see under a store Christmas tree.

I am going to be so proud this year.

I would hire an evil robot from the future, painted in a red-and-white theme with gnashing chromium-steel teeth, and have it fly around town wreaking havoc. It would be just like in that cartoon!

I'd pay someone to take my shifts on Black Friday and the week before Christmas. Seriously, I'd PAY to not work those days. All I do is come home hating people and the world and life and EVERYTHING!! YOU @&#$% PEOPLE I'M SMILING HERE WHY AREN'T YOU SMILING DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I WANT TO SCREAM BUT I'M SMILING SO JUST SMILE BACK!!!

Oh, and for future referance to anyone shopping: Telling me you were in line longer than the lady I'm serving and you should have been served first even though you were in a different line behind me... just tells me that you are a greedy little snob who insists on being treated better than everyone else. And my reply, in much happier, smily words, is "Too bad for you!"

Hence when I hear the song, "It's the most happiest time of the year," I'm screaming in my head, "NO IT'S NOT!! MAKE IT STOP!! SHUT UP, YOU STUPID SONG!!"

...I'm normally a really happy person, I swear! Don't look at me like that!

I loved this time of year. We were always busy. It was a challenge to keep up. I always considered people's petty complaints their own problems and apologized quickly to make them feel better (and spend more money).

I'd start to get depressed the week after New Years because there weren't as many people around.

Brianlutz, that's very interesting!

At our house we keep the 12 Days of Christmas -- which start *on* Christmas Day, BTW, and go until January 6, Epiphany, a.k.a. Twelfth Night (hence the name -- hit my link for the Wikipedia article). My family always did this, and I kept up the tradition when I married. I do know people who take their decorations down by New Year's Eve, but this is the first I've heard of someone actually striking the Christmas set, as it were, on Christmas Day itself! 8-O

Of course, I have to admit, the downside of keeping the decorations up the whole 12 days is that sometimes they fade into the background. I remember one year, when I was a kid, when we still had the tree up on Valentine's Day! :-P (It was an artificial tree.) So maybe your way is better -- but I still love the 12 Days.

Clean my house! Please!!!!

Ever since I've lived on my own, I've put up my Christmas decorations the weekend of Thanksgiving. Traditionally, I take them down the day after Christmas - mostly because I'm sick of looking at them by that time. But, now that I have a place that's big enough for company, my schedule has changed a bit - depending on when the company is coming, etc.

Beam me there, Scotty. I'd love to visit family who live in Iowa, Illinois and Florida. But winter weather makes driving plans uncertain or dangerous and crowds at airports plus winter weather make flying unpleasant. So for the past 10 years or so we've all phoned-in our Christmas visits.

I'd like to have a teleportation device to permit Christmas Day visits. And return to sleep in my own bed at night.

On the realistic side, this year I paid the bakery at the upscale grocery store for miniature pecan tarts (tassies), that are so time-intensive to make at home.