Why I Don't Like Christmas
"OMGWTFBBQLOL YOU DON'T LIKE CHRISTMAS WTF WHYYYY IT'S FULL OF LOVE AND JOY AND JOYNESS AND YOU'RE A HEARLESS HEATHEN FOR NOT LIKING THIS SUPER SPESHUL TIME OF YEAR!!1!!"
So I know the big two usual reasons for not liking Christmas. Either you have problems with the religious aspects or you have problems with the commercial...ness of the holiday season. I get that, and I have beef with those too, but that's not my main reason for really, really not liking Christmas.
The main reason I don't like Christmas? It's a family holiday. It seems like a weird reason, but think about it - this season promotes getting together with family to support whatever belief of not-belief system you happen to hold 'round this time of year. Now, I come from a home where we weren't exactly close-knit. Thanksgiving was just the three of us - my mom, my brother, and me - while Christmas was just me and my mom, as my brother has visitation with his dad. No other relatives were invited. I understood the reason for this. Most of my extended family are annoying, mean, crazy, or, most commonly, a good combination of the above, with the exception of my paternal step-grandfather.
In any case, at either meal, we'd never eat together. My mom would eat in the kitchen, I'd eat at the computer (which was in the dining room and in later years my room), and my brother ate while watching a movie in the living room. There wasn't any togetherness going on here. We might as well have been roommates for all the loving that was going on there.
At first I was resentful of this, but now I just don't get "family togetherness," nor do I understand protocol that goes with it and thus I avoid it like the plague. It makes me edgy and uncomfortable to be at family things because I have no idea what's going on or why. And out of that came the resentment of Christmas. Dammit, I didn't have a happy family and I don't like being reminded of that fact.
[/scrooge]
Happy holidays.
So I know the big two usual reasons for not liking Christmas. Either you have problems with the religious aspects or you have problems with the commercial...ness of the holiday season. I get that, and I have beef with those too, but that's not my main reason for really, really not liking Christmas.
The main reason I don't like Christmas? It's a family holiday. It seems like a weird reason, but think about it - this season promotes getting together with family to support whatever belief of not-belief system you happen to hold 'round this time of year. Now, I come from a home where we weren't exactly close-knit. Thanksgiving was just the three of us - my mom, my brother, and me - while Christmas was just me and my mom, as my brother has visitation with his dad. No other relatives were invited. I understood the reason for this. Most of my extended family are annoying, mean, crazy, or, most commonly, a good combination of the above, with the exception of my paternal step-grandfather.
In any case, at either meal, we'd never eat together. My mom would eat in the kitchen, I'd eat at the computer (which was in the dining room and in later years my room), and my brother ate while watching a movie in the living room. There wasn't any togetherness going on here. We might as well have been roommates for all the loving that was going on there.
At first I was resentful of this, but now I just don't get "family togetherness," nor do I understand protocol that goes with it and thus I avoid it like the plague. It makes me edgy and uncomfortable to be at family things because I have no idea what's going on or why. And out of that came the resentment of Christmas. Dammit, I didn't have a happy family and I don't like being reminded of that fact.
[/scrooge]
Happy holidays.