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I read a post by saint_vaelor not long ago about the lack of snow during christmas lately. This got me thinking about many other things that seem to have disappeared over the past ten years or so. With that in mind, I present my "Grinch List 2007", or "What in the Hell Happened to Christmas
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9) Caroling. Well...the zombies of course. http://community.livejournal.com/photoshopranger/43743.html
8) I bought exactly two of my Christmas presents this year at the store. The only time I ever did my shopping at the last minute...I broke into crying hysterics in the taxi on my way home.
7) You're watching the wrong channel. Channel 7 has been playing all the good specials on 7pm on Monday and Wednesday nights.
6) The office christmas party is just one more opportunity to get drunk in front of your supervisor. Deal. I usually "visited" for Christmas...I can't remember the first actual party I attended...but I was well into my 20s.
5) Gifts? I like classic vs. innovative. Clothing, books, CDs...occasionally movies. Games...and silly stuff. I don't understand people who expect to get big ticket items for the holidays. I mean...the market value of gold may still be steady...but the frankincense and Myrhh has definitely gone down.
4) I was listening to NPR this morning...and there was a Muslim group protesting the British School System's removal of Christmas Pagents from the School Calender. Not INCLUSION...but REMOVAL.
Their rationale? Jeshua Ben Joseph was a very important Muslim prophet. Chrismas is an important part of British culture. Why wouldn't we want to learn about the birth of Jesus?
I don't know many Jews who are openly offended either. It's usually the athiests who complain. But just like I make an effort to spell people's names right...I would like to wish someone the appropriate holiday greeting if at all possible. Considering the party usually starts on the 23rd and ends on the 2nd...might as well say "Season's Greetings."
3) They don't do that on Amazon.com.
2) Charity begins at home. I like giving the other 364 days of the year when the food pantry shelves are bare and I'm not so strapped for cash.
1) The message of commercializm in Christmas started with Charlie Brown. And besides retailer's going gonzo...I don't know. The holiday traditions change from generation to generation...and culture to culture. I celebrate Christmas now more than I ever did as a child...when the "holidays" were more a nice week off and a few gifts than an explosion of shopping and preparation. The older I got...the more family I lost...and the fewer holdiay visits I made. My mother's friend Marge died...so I had to invent a new Christmas Eve tradition besides going to her house with my mother. Then my Mom had a falling out with her friend Chris...so the annual visit to the Museum of Sci-n-I got canned. I could go on. After my Aunt...Grandmother...and my Cousins...the only traditions I'm left with are the ones I've made for myself. It's not lack of Christmas spirit...it's just an annual reminder of the fact I'll never be able to come close to my childhood Christmas because those traditions depended on the people who made them. And they're gone.
Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ. Everything else has snowballed from Saturnalia all the way to Black Friday Sales at Sears. That's the message that has been Santafied.
The only thing that really gets me is people who get on for me for not "keeping Christmas." The larger the family the person comes from...the more they can't relate with the fact that I don't have Cousins and Aunt's and Uncle's and Siblings' houses to shuttle between all December long. I have reminder after reminder of the things I used to do as a kid...but now can't. Christmas just doesn't mean the same thing to me that it did in 1987.
Tim's family celebration of the holidays has always been radically different from mine. It's this odd potluck shuffle from house to house...centering very much on gift giving and a "Christmas is for the children" attitude. Not appealing when you're not planning on them.
I hate to be a scrooge...but there you have it.
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