You know what? I'm kind of sick of everyone bitching about Christmas and how commericalized it's become and how 'oh maybe we should call it a Holiday Tree instead of a Christmas Tree so we don't offend people'. "Christmas is a holiday not a season" blah blah blah. For better or for worse, Christmas encompasses all of December in the United States. If you live here and are going to continue living here, stop fighting it and bitching and just enjoy the fucking SEASON. THE SEASON OF CHRISTMAS.
Yes, it's commercialized. It's been commercialized every since commercials were invented. Why does no one bitch about how commercialized Halloween is? And why continually point this out? Charlie Brown made the point quite effectively in that movie he made a few years back. You're not original or politically smart. You're just being bitter. I love stressing about presents, because you know what? That means I have people I care about to get presents for. And money with which to buy them or the means to make them. I love the decorations in the stores. Yeah, it would be nice if they waited until Thanksgiving was over to put them up, but it doesn't stoke me into a firey self-righteous rage to see a decorated tree before December 1st. And the post-Thanksgiving day sales are pretty sweet. I even kind of enjoy getting up at 4am on that one day. It's like going hunting.
I like the hectic travel. I love the heightened emotions that it brings. YAY MY FAMILY THERE YOU ARE I MADE IT WE ARE TOGETHER AT LAST!!! Wow the house looks great! I always loved those decorations. Oh man, the flight was terrible, I thought we were NEVER going to get off the ground! Thanks, I'd love a drink! Let me help you! Last minute shopping? Yeah, I'll go with, I should pick up a few more things anyway, yeah, the crowds are going to be horrible, think we'll make it? Yeah, let's go I'm ready! BATTLE!!! Wow that was terrible! The worst mall crowds I've ever seen! Yeah, I'm never doing that again! Can you believe we got the last one of those? I KNOW! How lucky!! I'm going to go finish wrapping everything, do you want me to wrap some of yours! Oh, awesome, actually yeah, let's do it together, but let me wrap the ones for you before you come up, give me ten minutes! Okay! Yeah, I think pasta is a great idea, I've never made pasta from scratch. Hey, let's open some wine while I ruin your pasta! Ha ha ha! Oh, shit I dropped it all over the floor. Man, we're never going to get this done in time! Okay, we need to make some kind of game plan here. There is flower EVERYWHERE! Ha ha ha! You have a big flower hand-print on your butt!!! What, it's funny! No reason to get all sensitive. Okay, whatever. Man, this is great, the food tastes AWESOME. Great job everyone! Merry Christmas!
I guess I'm lucky. Maybe Christmas isn't all about family and friends for everyone, but it is for me. And I love an entire month of everyone thinking about what they can do to make everyone important in their lives happy. I think it's awesome. It's the one of the best parts of winter. I will continue to enjoy it and call a Christmas Tree a Christmas Tree and watch A Christmas Story five times on Christmas Eve and decorate my fake tree on December 1st and leave the lights plugged in the whole month because it's pretty. And I will tell my Jewish friends Happy Hannaukah and I will spell it wrong and they will correct me but they will be happy that I gave them wishes. And I will wish all my pagen friends a happy solstice and I'll buy bottles of wine and mix a CD for each of my extreme republican millionaire bosses. And I will do Killoggs Secret Santa every year until someone else decides they want to do it, even though I can never make everyone happy and someone will always get gyped no matter what I do or how much time I put into it. Because I like Christmas. I really do. I like December.
craig [email] said at 8:42 PM 12-22-2005: And what's wring with not blindly accepting the bullshit that's spoonfed to you by the church, the media, your parents, co-workers, and so forth? What's wring with playing devil's advocate. Does that not generate creative thought?
I am definitely going to enjoy my Christmas. I am spending it with my girlfriend this year.
Paige said at 7:01 PM 12-23-2005: I don't think it's playing devil's advocate; I'd say it's thinking. I used to get annoyed at people grinching out about xmas, but now that I'm older, I just don't want to max out my credit card, get force-fed sugar cookies, and spend 45 minutes trying to leave the mall parking garage.
Plus, those giant nylon inflatable reindeer are just vile.
rick [email] said at 2:04 AM 12-23-2005: Hey, I got the lode! To celebrate Festivus this year, I mean to bushwhack out in the piney woods and wait in ambush armed with a shotgun and Bowie knives. That will learn those meddling bureaucrats to keep from putting up my aluminum pole in front of the courthouse.
jess [email] said at 9:40 PM 12-22-2005: Cultural traditions change. (Religious right isn't big on recognizing that, obviously.) At this point, my feeling on this whole thing is that you should do what you damned well please as long as it's not hurting anyone. (Yep, the Golden Rule.)
I could give two shits, personally, about the trappings of Christmas, but I have a lot of friends (like you) who really get into it, and that's chill. Whatever. Go 'head, girl, do your thing. I personally choose to use the holiday as an excuse to hang out with my folks, who I don't get to see too often, and spend some quality time in the mountains.
jess [email] said at 9:41 PM 12-22-2005: Also, nobody bitches about Halloween/Thanksgiving/whatever being commercialized because there are little to no links to religion there.
ed [email] said at 11:00 PM 12-22-2005: Why does no one bitch about how commercialized Halloween is?
Just offhand, because if one accepts the Christian worldview, or even acknowledges it, Christ mas = Christ celebration. A time to celebrate the Savior's birth. Not a time to pummel one another at the mall to get the last Buzz Lightyear action figure. Halloween is all about getting candy from strangers with the implied threat of trickery (vandalism) if you aren't pleased with the peace offerings you receive in your extortion bag.
Absolutely, enjoy this time of year, and how much you enjoy frolicking with friends and family. Enjoy it til you can't stand it no more. But Christmas is a holiday (derivation? HOLY DAY) that commemirates something specific, regardless of whether or not the holiday is observed on the exact anniversary of the event being celebrated.
Call it "family bonding season" or "get stinkin' drunk season", or whatever, but Christmas is a DAY. Not a season. To say otherwise would be equivalent to saying it's "Earth Day season".
abby [email] said at 1:53 PM 12-23-2005: earth day doesn't really bring families together, though. maybe it should, you know, you can all go plant trees like my family did once, but thats not the average experience.
i don't think there's any good behind telling people they should bridle in their joy and fucking relax, because its only one day, so don't get worked up all month long even though it is fucking fun as shit.
i'm not even christian! you make the holiday what you want. if what you want is a month of nay-saying and grumbling about, i wish you luck in life.
for cryin out loud. seriously.
merry christmas guys! i'm going to see narnia tomorrow with my mother and brother in our annual christmas tradition of theatre-going!
ed [email] said at 10:03 PM 12-23-2005: I love December, and the run-up to Christmas. I just hate the fact that it's become less about family and fun and celebration, and more about rampant consumerism and keeping a running tally of how many people get trampled and/or assaulted at Wal*Mart.
evanislazy said at 11:23 PM 12-22-2005: i agree! fuck you if you don't celebrate christmas! fuck the jews, muslims, buddhists, hindi, and whatever other bullshit fake religions are trying to front on christianity. it's motherfuckin america and our soldiers are dying so that we can impose our christian holiday throughout this land, raise our fuckin christmas trees in every government building, and continue to make America the greatest, most motherfuckin non-officially (for now) christian country in the motherfuckin world!
additionally, i - as a middle class, heterosexual, white male - am tired of being oppressed. when will be people reach the promised land? when will be rise above the oppression of those who seek to nullify our hegemony and impose their identity upon the status quo! when will our privilege quit being unfairly challenged? that's all i want for christmas!
zack [email] said at 7:41 PM 12-23-2005: Stolen from the internet:
"Politically correct Holiday Wishes: Please accept with no obligation, express or implied, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive,
gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within
the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or
secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular
persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice
religious or secular traditions at all...and a fiscally successful,
personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset
of the generally accepted calendar year 2005, but not without due respect
for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society
have helped make America great (not to imply that America is necessarily
greater than any other country or is the only "America" in the Western
hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical
ability, religious faith, or sexual orientation of the wishee. "Holiday" is not intended to, nor shall it be considered,
limited to the usual Judeo-Christian celebrations or observances, or to such
activities of any organized or ad hoc religious community, group, individual
or belief (or lack thereof).
Note that by accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This
greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal, and is revocable at the
sole discretion of the wisher at any time, for any reason or for no reason
at all. This greeting is freely transferable with no alteration to the
original greeting. This greeting implies no promise by the wisher to
actually implement any of the wishes for the wishee her/himself or others,
or responsibility for the consequences which may arise from the
implementation or non-implementation of same. This greeting is void where
prohibited by law."
jeff [email] said at 1:49 AM 12-24-2005: Video iPod?
I'm really diggin' my iPod Photo, though I'm pissed at Apple for making the Photo part only genuinely usable by shelling out $80 for newer copies of iLife. Unless you have iPhoto 5, your photos have to be pooled together and it's a pain to get them on there via iTunes (of all things). It's sort like selling a TV with built in TIVO, but not including the TIVO-specific remote.
reggie [email] said at 9:42 AM 12-24-2005: I don't quite understand the necessity of either the video or the photo iPod...
All it does it store photos? Big deal, it doesn't actually take pictures. (That's probably in the works...and I would be first in line to snatch one up. Might even pay for it too.)
brad [email] said at 1:31 AM 12-24-2005: I like the hectic travel.
Oh God, me too! Especially when my flight is cancelled for the second fucking day in a row!
I understand, though. Whether you're religious or not, it's just nice to have a time to see family and exchange gifts (without obligation, if that's possible) to show people you love how much you appreciate them. But I don't get my hopes up for it anymore. Nice gifts are a nice surprise, never expected. And if I'm able to go home and see my family, that's just a nice bonus for the year. But if I have to spend it in solitude, like this year, I can find plenty to keep me busy or just relax and stuff my face and watch movies or anything else I don't get to do often enough.
zack [email] said at 2:09 AM 12-24-2005: the funny thing is, this post was the first real "rant" regarding christmas I've seen here.
I personally enjoy christmas for the most part, if I'm able to hang with the family, eat food and get nice presents. I'm not religious so it doesn't really register on the xtian scale with me. I just treat it as a time of high stress to be drunken into submission so I can enjoy the happier aspects of it.
reggie [email] said at 10:13 AM 12-24-2005: I just finished, or rather survived, yet another season of working retail during this glorious time of the year. Now any of you who have ever worked retail during Christmas knows how flat out brutal it is. I'm not exaggerating in the least when I say it's both physically and even emotionally draining. Having done this for seven years now I have a decidedly mixed feeling about Christmas. I do love going to see the fam, exchanging gifts don't care too much about receiving them--unless it's a video camera--but I do love the look on people's faces when they open 'em up. I suppose that's a little cheesy but so what, Christmas is cheesy like dat.
However I've seen how selfish and mean-spirited the search for this emotional gratification can make people. I pretty much only buy gifts for my immediate family and whomever I might be living with at the time because normally that's all I can afford. I got off work at seven yesterday but didn't actually leave the store til about 8:30 because I spent an hour and a half looking for books for my sister and my pops. I actually didn't actually find one for my dad because I wanted to get him a book about retiring (he recently retired) but our selection left a lot to be desired. Plus my mother's about to retire and I was hoping I could find some kind of him/her retirement book or something. The point is, because my pool of gift recipients is very limited a try very hard to give them something I know they'll appreciate and put to good use.
Which is why it sickens me, perhaps that's too strong a word let's go with "frustrates" me when I get parents asking me for suggestions of what to buy for their own blasted children. Even after I outgrew the desire to give Christmas lists, my family has always had the perfect ability to get me whatever I needed. Keyword there being needed. Like my father I'm the type of guy (as I think most guys are) who will wear something or use something long after it's passed the point of being practical. We just don't like throwing things away. Anyway, it just strikes me as odd sometimes how little thought some parents put into gift giving.
As I write this, I still have a little bit of shopping to do but I'm not panicking (although I would like to be done before the Redskins game) because I know the people I'm buying for and trust that knowledge will lead me to something they'll appreciate.
My roommate got me a gif certificate to Video Americain/18th Street Video or whatever they're called (what is it Matthew?) That's what I'm talking about. It's simple but it's perfect and I will most definitely put it to good use!
Anyways, Murry Chri'muth (or whatever it is you may personally celebrate this time of year) to all and to all a good night...and good luck.
