Christmas tradition leaves me stressed and feeling so bad I can’t enjoy festive season with my kids
IT’S a wonderful time of the year for most of us but for these three women, Christmas is more like a horror show.
Rather than bringing fun, the celebrations prompt fear – because they have festive phobias.
Here, they tell Nikki Watkins and Alice McIntyre why they certainly won’t be rocking around the Christmas tree.
'If I see someone dressed as Santa I feel panic rising'
SUNITA Thind, 40, from Derby, has been terrified of Santa since primary school.
Writer Sunita, who is engaged to a mechanical engineer, says: "When I was a child, I remember getting so excited about the idea of Father Christmas coming and leaving my presents under the tree.
I used to enjoy going to see him at the local shopping centre, sitting on his knee and telling him what I’d like for Christmas.
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Then, when I was eight, everything changed.
I was at a sleepover at my cousin’s house, and we were watching a movie.
I don’t remember what it was called, I just remember a character who was dressed up as Santa, killing people.
I was immediately terrified and so confused.
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I’d always thought Santa was a kind, magical man and now my illusions were shattered.
I didn’t tell anyone what I’d seen at my friend’s – we shouldn’t have been watching the movie and I didn’t want to get in trouble.
So my fears grew.
But I didn’t want to lose the magic of Christmas so I let my parents take me to visit him every year, even though I felt sick inside every time I saw him.
In some ways, I didn’t want to admit to anyone how scared I was because I didn’t want to ruin their Christmas or mine – so I kept my phobia to myself.
When I was a teenager I tried to confide in some friends, but as soon as I told them, they burst out laughing, so I vowed to never tell anyone again.
Years later, after watching Bad Santa – where Billy Bob Thornton plays a criminal pretending to be Father Christmas – it was confirmed: Santa was a baddie.
I felt ashamed of my phobia. Why was I the only one who was terrified of Santa? Was there something wrong with me?
Sunita Thind
I felt ashamed of my phobia.
Why was I the only one who was terrified of Santa?
Was there something wrong with me?
If a Christmas advert came on the TV my heart would start to race and I’d flick over to a different channel.
And if I saw someone dressed up as Santa collecting money for charity, or at a party, I’d leave the room or walk the other way, feeling the panic rising.
I don’t have children yet, so I find it quite easy to avoid Santa these days, and I do enjoy other aspects of Christmas.
I’m fine with Rudolph and his reindeers.
I enjoy seeing family and decorating the tree, but I have to admit, once January comes around, I breathe a sigh of relief that I won’t have to see Santa again for another year."
'Glittery cards make me anxious and stressed'
IF Christmas card glitter touches Jenni Shaw, 39, she finds it so stressful she almost vomits.
The childminder, who lives in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, with her children Lily, 11 and Isla, seven, has had the phobia of sparkly Christmas cards for as long as she can recall.
She says: "I love everything about Christmas, from watching my kids in their nativity play to taking them to see Santa.
But one tradition fills me with fear and dread – the glittery Christmas card.
The thought of tiny pieces of glitter falling off the sparkly star, or robin, on the front of the card makes me feel sick.
I can’t bear the feeling of glitter. If I walk on it with bare feet, it makes me cringe and if it gets on my shoes I feel sick.
I can’t pinpoint when my phobia began, but I remember hating glitter as a child.
It felt strange, and I always got it everywhere.
I’ve never liked mess, and even as a child I didn’t like the way it was impossible to clean up.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the thought and time it takes for someone to send me a Christmas card, but I wish they wouldn’t.
I remember, at secondary school, we had a cardboard post box where we posted festive greeting cards for our friends, so they could be delivered to our form rooms.
As soon as that box turned up, I started to feel anxious in case the cards were covered in glitter.
The thought of opening one at my desk and glitter, or shiny confetti, falling out and getting all over my school uniform made my skin crawl.
I work as a childminder and the Christmas season fills me with dread.
If a card lands on my doormat, I’ll open a tiny corner, and peek inside. Any sign of glitter and it goes straight in the bin.
Jenni Shaw
I want to help the kids make beautiful Christmas cards for their parents – but no matter how much they beg, I will not allow glitter in the house.
When my two girls bring their haul of cards home, I won’t let any with glitter in. They know how much they scare me, so they don’t bring them home anyway.
If a card lands on my doormat, I’ll open a tiny corner, and peek inside.
Any sign of glitter and it goes straight in the bin.
As soon as the shops put up their Christmas displays, I start to feel nervous.
I won’t go anywhere near shops like Clintons, and I avoid the card aisle in the supermarket.
Over the years people have tried to wind me up by deliberately buying me the glitziest card they can find, but I don’t find it funny.
It genuinely makes me anxious and stressed – something I can do without during the already fraught Christmas period.
So, if you know me, do me a favour and remove me from your Christmas card list."
'Even seeing a mince pie on TV makes me feel sick'
WHILE a mince pie may appear an innocent treat, it strikes fear into the heart of teaching assistant Ceri Hallett.
After eating her first mince pie as a child, she vomited – and it left her with a phobia.
Ceri, who lives in Cardiff with hubby Jamie, 29, and children Olivia, six, Sophia, four, and Amelia, three, says:
"I used to love home economics at school, and when I was 13 I was really excited when my teacher told the class we were going to make mince pies.
I’d never tried one before, but I knew they were a Christmas tradition and they looked so good with their buttery pastry, dusted with delicious icing sugar.
With my classmates, I had great fun mixing the ingredients and filling the little pastry cases.
When they were ready my teacher said we could all try our festive creations.
But as I bit into the warm crust and sweet filling, my stomach turned.
The texture was so strange and lumpy, it wasn’t what I had expected at all.
Standing in the middle of the classroom, I felt overwhelmingly nauseous, hot and sweaty.
To my horror I knew I was about to be sick.
With my hands over my mouth – trying to stop myself from throwing up in front of all my friends – I ran out to the nearest toilet.
I vowed then I would never let another evil mince pie pass my lips.
Back in class I explained to my teacher that I’d had a violent reaction to the mince pie.
Standing in the middle of the classroom, I felt overwhelmingly nauseous, hot and sweaty. To my horror I knew I was about to be sick.
Ceri Hallett
She was very understanding, she hated them too.
From that Christmas onwards, I was terrified of the seasonal treat.
It wasn’t just that I didn’t like them, the very thought of one made me feel ill.
Even seeing a mince pie on a Christmas advert made me feel sick, and I couldn’t be in the same room as one.
My parents never bought them again.
I’ll never forget one day in the run up to Christmas I went to the supermarket, and to my horror I saw a table laden with samples of mince pies.
Boxes were piled up, and little cut up pies were being handed out to customers.
As the sweet cinnamon smell reached my nostrils, that familiar sick feeling hit me, just like it had all those years ago at school.
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With the kids, I dashed out of the shop and only once we were in the safety of our car did I feel safe.
It goes without saying that Santa doesn’t get mince pies when he arrives at our house on Christmas Eve, he has to make do with milk and cookies instead."