“hate christmas”
12/25/07.
A sunny but cold Tuesday. Stuck inside my shoebox apartment with nowhere to go. Just another person who is left out by circumstances during the so-called “Happy Holidays” season.
I turn on the TV just long enough to make sure that they haven’t blown up the world on this holiest of holy days. Then I snap it off. Why should I bother to watch sappy Xmas specials or movies for the nth time? Even the TV news – known for its “objectivity” – is slanted towards upbeat seasonal cheer.
So it’s time to escape this frozen tundra Podunk and connect to the outside world via my blazing 40 kbps dial up connection. Type in the key words “hate christmas” on the Google search engine and see what pops up.
As I suspected, I’m not alone. Not everyone can conform to the societal dictates of the season.
Of course, there are those who hate the holiday because of the stress on materialism, not religion. As oxymoronic as it may sound, there are Christians out there who hate Christmas.
Sometimes the lamestream media will mention that complaint, how the holiday has been corrupted by materialism. It’s a brief item, just enough to provide “objectivity.” But generally the media is pushing the positive because it’s beholding to its sponsors who don’t want their sales ruined by the truth.
At one site I come across a sad but honest post by someone who finds the holidays meaningless, empty. He says everyone tries to hide their negative feelings by putting on phony smiles and eating and drinking too much. Another poster mentions that suicides rise during this time of year.
And then there’s the poster talks about the peer pressure she feels because she wants to opt out of the holiday routine. She doesn’t want to send out stupid greeting cards or even bother buying gifts. The usual labels are thrown at her: Grinch, Scrooge. It’s that name-calling time of the year.
What the average non-thinking conformist doesn’t understand is that not everyone is the same. And because someone doesn’t believe in the phony bullshit of Christmas, doesn’t mean that person expects you not to celebrate. Go ahead and indulge. Conform.
Just keep in mind that some people are different. We’re not you.
Comments
Unfortunately, it gets harder every year to opt out of Christmas. Hell, it seems that even non-Christians feel obligated to be Merry on the 25th.
ThanX for your comment. Gee, no responses from the pro-Xmas crowd?
Just to make my point clear: if someone gets into the Xmas scene, good for them. But some people don't fit in to particular situations all the time. And sometimes they don't want to fit in. Freedom of choice.
If someone is alone on the holidays, that doesn't make them a loser or a Grinch or a Scrooge. Or even Jewish. [g] (Yup, a couple of idiots have asked me about that when I said I wasn't into Xmas.)
Anyway, enough ranting about eXcessMas.
Ray
PS: You're not into basketball? What are you, a commie or somethin'? [g]
That depends if you live in a red state...
But there are other more important issues. Some people want to put the Christ back in Christmas. Me, I want to put the Satan back in Santa.
Ray
It's a complicated time. I have both my own family and my fiancee's family to spend time with, and those are pleasant occasions (more often than not), so it's not that I'm pretending to be happy during the actual celebrations; I really am.
When I am very much not filled with "holiday spirit" is in the weeks leading up to those celebrations, when it does feel like that holiday spirit is being shoved down my throat (figuratively). By the middle of December generally I am of the mindset that there is no enjoying it but merely enduring it.
I imagine that were it that the holiday got the same level of attention as, say, Easter, there'd be less of a backlash. (There's less a sense of spending Easter alone as being so devastating.)
Of course, analyzing the backlash, it's not against the actual holiday (the observation of the birth of the Christian savior, adapted from the Saturnalia festival) but against the way that it gets perceived. In other words, whoever it is that put out this shoving holiday spirit down our throats is the problem, not the holiday itself.
It's kind of like when a band puts out a decent album and it gets touted in the music press as though it is the greatest thing in the history of the medium, and then those who thought the album was decent start to think less of it not because the music itself changed but because of it getting overhyped and that changing their perception of it.
It's not that Xmas is intrinsically bad; it's just that it doesn't live up to the hype.
Hype. I don't mind Halloween but if they start hyping it like Xmas - all stores playing Halloween music at the mall, neighbors competing to see who can put up the biggest overlit Halloween displays in their frontyards, advertisers pressuring people to spend mucho bucks on Halloween gifts - well, when it becomes another rat race, the fun is gone.
I know someone who works at the local mall. He says the Hallmark Store started displaying Valentine cards before New Year's Day. Enough with the commercialism crap!
And to top it off, retailers are complaining that Xmas sales were only increased by 3 percent. What do they expect? A 20 percent jump? Talk about greed. Maybe a 20 percent decrease would shut them up.
Ray