at the risk of being eternally labeled as a "grump," i have one thing to say...
i hate christmas.
now, before anyone goes off on my curmudgeonly dislike for the holiday formerly known as noel, allow me to explain.
it has little to do with the unbearable barrage of horrid christmas music that is piped in everywhere from airports to home depot. i can count on one hand the number of actual good christmas songs. and those are never played at the mall.
it has nothing to do with the weather. i generally like cold weather. so that's not it.
i know that i am not alone in the reason i hate "christmas." many of you share my view whether you think you do or not. this should be nothing new.
it is, quite simply, that the holiday that we have created has taken it's original message; one of hope and peace, and turned it into an extended midnight sale at wal-mart.
i saw an innocent commercial for k-mart this morning that (from the parts i didn't block out) had a couple of women running around and singing about all the stuff they had to get done for the holidays. k-mart then promised to help us get through the stress of christmas.
let me repeat that. the stress of christmas.
so let me get this straight. we, as a society, have turned the good news of the birth of jesus into a stressful race to spend too much money on gifts so that our loved ones will FEEL loved, cook (and subsequently throw out) more food than we could ever eat and eventually crash once we have drunk too much and the new calendar year (don't even get me started on new years) has been effectively and irreversibly rung in?
just run yourself ragged physically, financially and emotionally and worry about the consequences in january. all in the name of the "christmas spirit."
count me out. i have enough stress in my life to have to fabricate more due to a bastardized version of one of the most important foundations of my faith.
i have reached the point where i don't expect gifts. my friends and family tend to be over-generous throughout the rest of the year as it is, so i feel no need to ask them for anything in addition. that is not to say that i look with scorn upon those that give gifts. i CAN be a truly appreciative person...really i can. i just don't like it when people make a fuss about it. i also struggle with giving gifts, but that has more to do with the fact that i am a terrible gift buyer and not so much that i don't want to give things to the people i love. but why do we have to go crazy with the gifts to celebrate the nativity?
sidenote: this is a rambling post and i apologize if the true meaning of what i am trying to say doesn't come across as clear as it is in my head.
my point is that there are a lot of things i don't care for in our society (this country in particular). most of which i get caught up in and am as guilty of as the next. it just strikes me as strange that "christmas" has become, in today's world, synonymous with gluttonly and greed just as "christianity" has become synonymous with moral superiority and intolerance.
i am asking no one to abandon the festivities, and won't judge anyone who partakes. i realize that there are people who love the secular christmas. that is fine...as long as you have the right mindset about it. i DO propose that we (for those of us who choose to) keep to the basics of quietly rejoicing in the birth of Jesus Christ and not confuse it with it's capitalist doppleganger.
merry america-mas to all, and to all a good night.
now, before anyone goes off on my curmudgeonly dislike for the holiday formerly known as noel, allow me to explain.
it has little to do with the unbearable barrage of horrid christmas music that is piped in everywhere from airports to home depot. i can count on one hand the number of actual good christmas songs. and those are never played at the mall.
it has nothing to do with the weather. i generally like cold weather. so that's not it.
i know that i am not alone in the reason i hate "christmas." many of you share my view whether you think you do or not. this should be nothing new.
it is, quite simply, that the holiday that we have created has taken it's original message; one of hope and peace, and turned it into an extended midnight sale at wal-mart.
i saw an innocent commercial for k-mart this morning that (from the parts i didn't block out) had a couple of women running around and singing about all the stuff they had to get done for the holidays. k-mart then promised to help us get through the stress of christmas.
let me repeat that. the stress of christmas.
so let me get this straight. we, as a society, have turned the good news of the birth of jesus into a stressful race to spend too much money on gifts so that our loved ones will FEEL loved, cook (and subsequently throw out) more food than we could ever eat and eventually crash once we have drunk too much and the new calendar year (don't even get me started on new years) has been effectively and irreversibly rung in?
just run yourself ragged physically, financially and emotionally and worry about the consequences in january. all in the name of the "christmas spirit."
count me out. i have enough stress in my life to have to fabricate more due to a bastardized version of one of the most important foundations of my faith.
i have reached the point where i don't expect gifts. my friends and family tend to be over-generous throughout the rest of the year as it is, so i feel no need to ask them for anything in addition. that is not to say that i look with scorn upon those that give gifts. i CAN be a truly appreciative person...really i can. i just don't like it when people make a fuss about it. i also struggle with giving gifts, but that has more to do with the fact that i am a terrible gift buyer and not so much that i don't want to give things to the people i love. but why do we have to go crazy with the gifts to celebrate the nativity?
sidenote: this is a rambling post and i apologize if the true meaning of what i am trying to say doesn't come across as clear as it is in my head.
my point is that there are a lot of things i don't care for in our society (this country in particular). most of which i get caught up in and am as guilty of as the next. it just strikes me as strange that "christmas" has become, in today's world, synonymous with gluttonly and greed just as "christianity" has become synonymous with moral superiority and intolerance.
i am asking no one to abandon the festivities, and won't judge anyone who partakes. i realize that there are people who love the secular christmas. that is fine...as long as you have the right mindset about it. i DO propose that we (for those of us who choose to) keep to the basics of quietly rejoicing in the birth of Jesus Christ and not confuse it with it's capitalist doppleganger.
merry america-mas to all, and to all a good night.
posted by cade at 6:03 PM
13 Comments:
Amen amen amen amen.
seriously. how awesome would it be if we started a movement with in the church to celebrate the incarnation on a diferent day than Dec 25th? what if we picked the 26th? or the 23rd? how about july 7th?
i would also like to add thanksgiving and MLK, Memmorial day to the list.
way to go Dr. King and all vets you are our heros and to celebrate you we will take the day off and eat smoked meats. i hate thanksgiving because it is like the secular version of the first week of advent.
We should adopt a Neo-Quaker attitude and not even take time of for Christmas! They thought it was too pagan, too papal, and refused to even recognize the season as corresponding to the season of Christ's birth. That'd be wild. That said, I absolutely love all this Christmas stuff. I'm like a pig at a trough. Mel Tormé, Jackson 5, and Elvis are all singing their Christmas tunes in my ear, I get teary-eyed everytime I hear O Holy Night, I have my students memorize Twas the Night... Intellectually, I totally agree that Christmas has become bastardized, but for some reason I experience absolutely zero emotional rejection of the celebration.
Actually, the Christmas music at Home Depot repeats on a 3 hour loop. That means that during an average 12 hour workday you hear each song 4 times. During the holidays everyone works exrta days, so it's a 6 day work week.
That means you hear each song 24 times a week from Thanksgiving till New Years day. One more small bit of math and you have listened to that loop 121 times while at work during the most joyous of seasons.
I don't work there anymore. . . but I still cringe at the canned Cristmas songs, and probably always will.
mike- you're wrong about thanksgiving.
ryan- "o holy night" is one of the ones i can count on my hand. i do love that song. and i appreciate that you like the christmas stuff. most of my favorite people do. it just bugs me from time to time (read: today)
b- i thought that might drum up some memories for you. i'm glad to help.
Cade -- you'll probably like the Xmas Resistance Movement site:
http://www.xmasresistance.org/
the song i hate, absolutely hate, hate with the fire of a thousand suns...
mary did you know.
You are all Scrooges.
Ho ho ho.
Mary did you know! HA! That's hilarious, Mike. I totally hate that song too. The things bizarre, is that sometimes I feel my eyes well with tears when I hear it. It's that stupid? I seriously hate it, and even so it pulls at my heart strings. Maybe this Christmas thing is like liking McDonalds. No one can deny that Mickey D fries aren't delicious, but then you think a Big Mac sounds kinda good too. And pretty soon you're getting stomach craps and the meat sweats. Oh, another great Christmas Carol is "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day"
cade...I'm not trying to scare you, or anybody, but the loathing of this part of the year increases EXPONENTIALLY when you have children. At least for me it did.
Seeing as how I feel quite similar to you, imagine my, and my wife's, added frustration as we try and find some kind of balance. We want to make sure the kids enjoy Christmas, but planting the idea in their hearts that it's really about the birth of Christ and not about Santa Claus and presents is more difficult than I ever imagined.
I want it to be over...I wanted it to be over November 18.
Incidentally (not that I endorse this Church in general) the Orthodox church has an interesting method to combat America-mas. They fast from certain foods (sweets, most meat, etc.) most of December until Christmas Day. They then have a feast for 12 days (like the song) and they give gifts and celebrate the birth of Christ those dozen days which I think is great because it's always so depressing on Dec. 26th when all the wrapping paper is sitting on the curb in a giant trash bag and we go back to work as if nothing happened.
As for the music, I'm getting really tired of the song "We Wish You A Merry Christmas"
I worked in retail for 6 freakin' years, and I have always said that Christmas brings out the worse in people. I blame it on the crappy music that starts the day after Halloween. The closer it gets to the 25th, the meaner and more selfish people get, all in the name of Christmas. Ah, the stories I could share...
But I still love the season. Yes, the music sucks, but I love thinking about the gift God has given us. And I love giving gifts, so I get so excited on Christmas morning when everyone opens their gifts from me, and I love opening my family's gifts cuz I know they worked so hard that finding something "just right" for me. All of it is such an amazing expression of love. Aww... I'm feeling all cozy and festive now...
I'm with you homer.
Fight the power.
I worked in retail for just as long and actually, I liked Christmas. We didn't have to go out of our way to be extra nice to people-if they were determined enough to get their purchases, they were willing to put up with a little sarcasm and snideness. I loved watching people get aggravated when something was out of stock because after they left we could say, "Well what the hell are you waiting until December 21 to buy stuff for?"
I disagree with the "America-mas" term. What about Britain? Britain-mas? It's not just America that celebrates it. I've seen that in past years, the Japanese are getting into it because they like American culture.
BG- all the more reason to call it 'America-mas'. I'm sure Wal-Mart or Macy's or Coca-Cola owns the copyright to Christmas, or at least Xmas, as I call it.
I just wrote a big post/rant about this sort of thing, before I even noticed this post. But I think cade has hit it on the head here. However, I still buy presents and I still tend to expect them.
I don't think the problem is with presents. I think the problem is the retailers. But if my company's profitability rested solely on 6 weeks' worth of sales centered around the giving of such presents, I guess I would go nuts with the marketing, too.
As far as parenting 'around' Xmas, my wife and I have long since decided that Santa will have nothing to do with Christmas at our house. We'll put him back where he belongs, on St. Nicholas Day (December 6th), in the German tradition. So when my kids' friends all talk about the things Santa brought them on 12/25, my kids will be able to say "Santa came to my house 3 weeks ago and gave me a little bit of candy and some crap toys for my stockings. My family gave me some real nice things on Christmas, though, to commemorate the gift that God gives us through Jesus."
That's the idea, at least. Plus we may celebrate epiphany like the Argentinians and have the wise men bring gifts on January 6th. Of course it's all moot 'til we actually have kids...
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