Ok most of you know I love Christmas time but even I cant stand the blatant commercialism and BS that goes with it ... I found this article several years ago (unknown author) on usnet ..I just bet that more than one or two of you will read this and your heads will be nodding all the way through ..Mmk mine was ..lol


Jules




Here it is December and Im forced yet again to deal with Christmas. I want to make it plain that I dislike, no, let’s be frank I HATE this time of year and always dread its coming. Ive learned over the years that you cant ignore Christmas or people will hate you. Christmas is forced on all of us and most people assume its a good thing. Were bombarded with sentiments about the ‘joyous holiday’ and images of smiles as people open presents. (pass me a bucket) Those presents are one of the main things I dont like about Christmas.

I dont think Ive ever enjoyed getting gifts and I know I dont like giving them. Gift-giving is a ‘game’ of fulfilling an obligation to buy something for someone who probably doesnt need or want what you get him or her anyway. Gift-getting is a game of pretending you like the useless thing you got. Even as a kid, I remember the strain of having to pretend I liked what I got. Sure, I sometimes got stuff I liked, but that didnt make up for the times I got stuff I didnt like. Wouldnt it just be easier for people to buy their own stuff? Then theyd always get what they wanted. But even the game-playing could perhaps be endured if it wasnt for the expense. Maybe rich people dont mind spending money stupidly, but I definitely DO mind it. During the early years of my marriage, we had many lean years when we had to watch each penny. But, of course, not at Christmas time. Not if we didnt want to be pariahs. We could hardly say to our relatives, “Gee, we cant afford to buy you gifts this year." I remember one particularly tight year when I asked family members if we could opt out and not buy each other anything. Well, I soon learned that such an attitude was not acceptable!

Christmas is such a sacred cow in our culture that you cannot refuse to participate. Not only do you have to buy gifts, but you also have to spend lots of money on them. I heard a woman complain a certain friend got gifts for her at boot sales. She was indignant about this. It so happens that I buy a lot of things for myself second hand. No, instead I have to spend more money on other people than I normally spend on myself. If I dont, Im showing disrespect. In our culture, we express love and esteem for someone by spending money on them. There is no escape from this, even if you have no money to spend. I hear the ads on the radio from the loan companies urging people to take out a second mortgage!! on their house so they can buy Christmas presents! This makes me VERY angry, to think people would put their home at risk over something as stupid as buying Christmas gifts! It also is a measure of just how strong the pressure really is to spend lots of money at Christmas time and a measure of people’s complete and utter stupidity.

Some people who buy gifts try to deceive themselves into thinking the gifts are not really that important. Such people like to say "its the thought that counts." I always wonder if its really the thought that counts, why do I have to spend so much money? Try giving a "thought" as a Christmas gift and see how far you flaming get. I think even people who say "its the thought that counts" know that its the price tag that counts. Gift-getters have been conditioned to think of the amount of money spent as a kind of equivalency for love and esteem. I wonder how someone would respond to a gift of a boot-sale item with a note that explained "its the thought that counts."

I can almost hear a chorus of voices telling me I should concentrate on the "true meaning" of Christmas. The people who say that make me even angrier than the ones who insists I must give and get gifts! As far as I can see, Christmas has no "true meaning." Yes, I know Christians says they are celebrating the birth of Jesus. But scholars tell us there is no evidence that Jesus was born on December 25. And even if you say, so what, we celebrate his birth then and it doesnt really matter when he was born, I have to ask what most of what we do at Christmas time has to do with Jesus? Did Jesus tell us we have to buy each other dumb overpriced stuff to celebrate his birthday? I think not.

Some people try to reconcile the commercial nature of Christmas by an orgy of "giving" to the less fortunate, the same people they despise the rest of the year. Put a coin in the Salvation Army kettle and erase the guilt over our nations shameless lack of a safety net for our citizens. Instead of trying to solve the persistent problem of poverty amid plenty, we massage our consciences by contributing to charity once a year. We love the idea of the gratitude we imagine the recipients must feel. Im not against charitable giving its needed and we should contribute what we can, but we should do it whenever its needed, not use it to make ourselves feel better at Christmas time. Im sure some of the people who get those goodie boxes at Christmas are grateful, but others must surely resent it. You dont have to be a genius to see this "giving" is just part of an effort to offload the guilt of meaningless overconsumption.

Well, some say, Christmas is really for children. Think of those glowing faces on Christmas morning as presents are unwrapped! Well, I think what children learn from Christmas is greed. Its a freakin gimmee, gimmee gimmee holiday. It’s an ABSOLUTE CRAP FEST!! And the parents who work hard to buy those soon-to-be discarded or broken toys dont even get the credit. Oh no, that goes to Santa Flaming Claus! By maintaining the fiction that a fat tw*t in a red suit brings the gifts, the parents are unable to plead poverty to their children. They are made aware that their kids will feel unloved and unworthy if gifts are not under the tree. How can they not go into debt to insure their kids have adequate self-esteem? How could they bear to think their kids might feel less worthy than other kids if they do not get loads of presents?

There is even that bit of blackmail that says if the kids were well-behaved all year, then they deserve presents. Dont parents of well-behaved kids have an obligation to buy gifts for their kids (although not getting any credit for it that goes to the mythical red suited fat man)? If Christmas is for children, then what are we teaching them with this holiday? And please, dont roll out that tired old "its better to give than to receive." If no one gives, then no one receives. The "better to give than to receive" is just one more way to smooth out the guilt of overspending. Its message is "be a giver." But "giver" means buying. Remember, it doesnt mean just providing an item to be a gift if that were true, I could buy my gifts at boot sales. And of course, kids have no money, so any gifts they buy comes out of the parents money. No, "giving" means spending money. Were basically saying that its a blessed thing to spend money. Christmas is an invented holiday, which commerce has built up into an ever-expanding event that requires us to spend more and more of our hard-earned money on stuff of little use. It is an important holiday for merchants who sell the things people buy, and that helps our economy, but why deceive ourselves into thinking it is anything else? The folks who prattle on about the "true meaning" make me want to gag. Face it Christmas has no true meaning. It is an orgy of buying, greed, excess, false values, conscience easing and that is all. A complete crap fest!!

I know there are those who will read this and say they feel sorry for me because I cant enjoy this "joyous season." Oh poor me, depriving myself of all that "joy" because of my horrible attitude! Well, keep in mind that I dont object to others "enjoying" it if they want to. My objection is that I am pressured into participating in it even when I dont want to. I object to the blackmail that says I am a "Scrooge" because I really dont want to buy gifts, that I am a monster for not insisting my child believe in a fat baffoon in a red suit, for thinking I should get the "thank you" for any useful thing purchased with my hard-earned money.

Over the years, I have come to think of Christmas as a kind of tax. I am required to spend money I sometimes dont have because society requires it of me. I have put up with that and tried to comply with this yearly requirement with as much good humor as I can muster. (Ho Ho flamin’ Ho!!) Ive done all that so dont ask for the last ounce dont ask me to enjoy it. If I ever give in on that one, I will cease to be a free person. In short I will become like you! ARRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Merry Xmas peeps!! Enjoy the years of debt that will ensue your “joyous occasion!!”

 

(** head nodding vigorously**) LOL

This should go nicely with your post Jules...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH-He10OZ_E

 

I fully agree with you Jules- it's overrated, and gives children a wrong set of values, which is not to say I haven't been pressured into it all my life too.......but that's about to change.......

 

Here's me thinking Christmas was banned in the U.K.....

 

So true. The money I'll be spending on other people could easily buy me those pazzos and a two brothers can... but what will I get instead? Stupid retarded crap!

 

Its all really funny, and true but, I lol at this bit!!


Some people who buy gifts try to deceive themselves into thinking the gifts are not really that important. Such people like to say "its the thought that counts." I always wonder if its really the thought that counts, why do I have to spend so much money? Try giving a "thought" as a Christmas gift and see how far you flaming get

 

nod nod nod

 

Why can't we do at Christmas like we do for weddings ?
(assuming gifts are obligatory)
Post up a list of what you need, and as people buy it they remove it from the list.
Set a max value for a gift.
Buy people what they'll appreciate.
I now do it with my family.
(which doesn't mean I don't think the whole gift thing is bollocks.)
Don't even get me STARTED on crap like Valentine's Day, or Mother's/Father's day....[:@][:@]

 

So, Pete, ... what are you buying me for valentines day?? ..lol


Jules *sticks out tongue and runs*

 

Well if you REALLY want to avoid dealing with christmas just tell people that you don't celebrate it, but hanukah instead :P