Over the past few weeks, we've all been inundated with the holiday bullshit that swamps TV and the airwaves. In this time, spirits are high and low depending, usually, on financial situations. Nobody can avoid this time completely. All we can do is grin and bear it or openly accept and enjoy it. I'm somewhere in the middle, but I'm doing my best to enjoy the awkwardness when people try to be politically correct or stand up for their religion.
For the past two weeks I've made a concerted effort to say Happy Holidays to people I know celebrate Christmas. It burns their ass and they get so flustered, because you're being nice, but it's not what they want to hear. I also have wished many of my Jewish friends a Merry Christmas. They usually don't react negatively, but it's funny, especially when they know I know they are Jewish. I do this for fun and because it shows how much has been lost in the marketing of this season.
I think the absurdity of Christmas hit me more this year than any other. It was December 4th and someone wished me a Merry Christmas. I think if you still have a stomach ache from all the turkey you just ate, it's too early to start wishing people a Merry Christmas. It actually made me pause and say, really? Like the fictitious fat man, I am making a list. I won't check it twice, because unlike Santa, I'm really not that anal retentive. My list has a name and a number. The number is the days before Christmas I was wished a Merry Christmas. So in 2010, I will call that person that number of days before their birthday and wish them a Happy Birthday. When they explain that it isn't for another two weeks, I'll let out a big hearty laugh and exclaim "yeah well if it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for you." If they don't get it or get offended. I'll say that they aren't being politically correct and then go on to explain that I should have wished them a happy birthday nine months ago, because their screwy religion believes that life starts at conception. Which leads to another question. If you actually believe that life starts at conception, then why aren't you one years old after three months? Answer that Father.
Honestly, Christmas has lost it's religious appeal thanks to advertising. I remember seeing those old coke ads with the polar bears and thinking. I get it, cute bears, North Pole, Santa, Christmas....I'll have a Coke because it's Christmas. Now its become girl in red and green bikini, laptop, and Happy Holidays...I'll have some, er, internet porn and wtf? Seriously, some ads just confuse me. Also, if you are of a Christian faith and you tell me that Christmas is the biggest and most important holiday, I will buy you a Bible, because it's not. Easter is. And another thing. Don't get offended if you're Jewish and someone spells Hannukah wrong, because honestly, it doesn't matter and two, nobody knows how to spell Hannukah or Chanukah, or Rumplestiltskin. It's not a big deal. I am a little upset that they don't have more Jewish based ads. Just once I want to see a hair care product and then see a Hassidic man with flowing peyes'.
I don't want people to think I hate Christmas. I really don't. I love getting together with family and friends. I love seeing a child's face when they get the present they wanted. I love the food and drink. I love every aspect about it. My problem is, why can't people be like this the other eleven months of the year? Why is Christmas time when people are nice to each other? Think about it. When was the last time in mid-April someone hugged you for being their friend? Bought you a drink and said thank you for alway being there? Called you to wish you the best? Why have we deemed the second half of December as the only time to shine? Think how great a world this would be if everyone carried their Christmas spirit throughout the year? Some people think I'm down on humanity, because it's Christmas. Nope, I'm down on humanity all the time. It's just that I'm being me, 365 days a year and you aren't. Nobody minds my realist (some deem them pessimistic) views in September, but in late December I'm a Scrooge or The Grinch. Why is that? Am I the one being a fake? I think not. Look in the mirror people. You guys don't think once about your mail carrier during the year, but leave him a couple of bucks for Christmas. I don't. I talk to my mailman both at work and at home all the time. I joke with them and ask how they are doing. When my work mailman hadn't been by for two weeks, I asked someone who works with him that I know if he was OK. When I found out he had a minor heart attack I was floored. I actually cared. He finally came back and then lost his mother. I felt for him as I would a friend. Every day I work, he comes in and we talk baseball. Maybe only for a few seconds, but every day, not just in December.
Christmas was always a wonderful time for me growing up. My mother, my father, later my brother, and I would always be joined by my grandmother and usually some friends of the family who didn't have a place to go for Christmas. Everyone and anyone was welcome in my home. It wasn't just family. The thing is, this wasn't just for Christmas. My parents opened their door and their hearts to anyone. In the course of my lifetime, we've had people stay the night, stay a week, stay a month. We had a friend of a friend, who we had never met stay for over a month at our home. We were sad to see him go and to this day I still have the gift he gave me when he left. One of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever received. Oh and did I mention...it wasn't during December.
This Christmas is different. My mother is gone. My brother is married and with his in-laws. My father is with his mother at his home in Ithaca. I decided to go it alone this year. I went out last night and hugged and kissed everyone who was out. I got a few invites for this evening, but decided to go it alone the whole way. A normal breakfast of bacon and eggs, some coffee and a few phone calls. I watched a movie and now I'm sitting in the office where I work writing a blog. I'm perfectly content. I'll go out and find an inn or a tavern and join those who are done with the holiday and watch some football. I'll shake hands, hug and kiss those I know. I'll wish them the best and then we'll bid each other adieu.
They call it holiday cheer. I'll call it Friday.
For the past two weeks I've made a concerted effort to say Happy Holidays to people I know celebrate Christmas. It burns their ass and they get so flustered, because you're being nice, but it's not what they want to hear. I also have wished many of my Jewish friends a Merry Christmas. They usually don't react negatively, but it's funny, especially when they know I know they are Jewish. I do this for fun and because it shows how much has been lost in the marketing of this season.
I think the absurdity of Christmas hit me more this year than any other. It was December 4th and someone wished me a Merry Christmas. I think if you still have a stomach ache from all the turkey you just ate, it's too early to start wishing people a Merry Christmas. It actually made me pause and say, really? Like the fictitious fat man, I am making a list. I won't check it twice, because unlike Santa, I'm really not that anal retentive. My list has a name and a number. The number is the days before Christmas I was wished a Merry Christmas. So in 2010, I will call that person that number of days before their birthday and wish them a Happy Birthday. When they explain that it isn't for another two weeks, I'll let out a big hearty laugh and exclaim "yeah well if it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for you." If they don't get it or get offended. I'll say that they aren't being politically correct and then go on to explain that I should have wished them a happy birthday nine months ago, because their screwy religion believes that life starts at conception. Which leads to another question. If you actually believe that life starts at conception, then why aren't you one years old after three months? Answer that Father.
Honestly, Christmas has lost it's religious appeal thanks to advertising. I remember seeing those old coke ads with the polar bears and thinking. I get it, cute bears, North Pole, Santa, Christmas....I'll have a Coke because it's Christmas. Now its become girl in red and green bikini, laptop, and Happy Holidays...I'll have some, er, internet porn and wtf? Seriously, some ads just confuse me. Also, if you are of a Christian faith and you tell me that Christmas is the biggest and most important holiday, I will buy you a Bible, because it's not. Easter is. And another thing. Don't get offended if you're Jewish and someone spells Hannukah wrong, because honestly, it doesn't matter and two, nobody knows how to spell Hannukah or Chanukah, or Rumplestiltskin. It's not a big deal. I am a little upset that they don't have more Jewish based ads. Just once I want to see a hair care product and then see a Hassidic man with flowing peyes'.
I don't want people to think I hate Christmas. I really don't. I love getting together with family and friends. I love seeing a child's face when they get the present they wanted. I love the food and drink. I love every aspect about it. My problem is, why can't people be like this the other eleven months of the year? Why is Christmas time when people are nice to each other? Think about it. When was the last time in mid-April someone hugged you for being their friend? Bought you a drink and said thank you for alway being there? Called you to wish you the best? Why have we deemed the second half of December as the only time to shine? Think how great a world this would be if everyone carried their Christmas spirit throughout the year? Some people think I'm down on humanity, because it's Christmas. Nope, I'm down on humanity all the time. It's just that I'm being me, 365 days a year and you aren't. Nobody minds my realist (some deem them pessimistic) views in September, but in late December I'm a Scrooge or The Grinch. Why is that? Am I the one being a fake? I think not. Look in the mirror people. You guys don't think once about your mail carrier during the year, but leave him a couple of bucks for Christmas. I don't. I talk to my mailman both at work and at home all the time. I joke with them and ask how they are doing. When my work mailman hadn't been by for two weeks, I asked someone who works with him that I know if he was OK. When I found out he had a minor heart attack I was floored. I actually cared. He finally came back and then lost his mother. I felt for him as I would a friend. Every day I work, he comes in and we talk baseball. Maybe only for a few seconds, but every day, not just in December.
Christmas was always a wonderful time for me growing up. My mother, my father, later my brother, and I would always be joined by my grandmother and usually some friends of the family who didn't have a place to go for Christmas. Everyone and anyone was welcome in my home. It wasn't just family. The thing is, this wasn't just for Christmas. My parents opened their door and their hearts to anyone. In the course of my lifetime, we've had people stay the night, stay a week, stay a month. We had a friend of a friend, who we had never met stay for over a month at our home. We were sad to see him go and to this day I still have the gift he gave me when he left. One of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever received. Oh and did I mention...it wasn't during December.
This Christmas is different. My mother is gone. My brother is married and with his in-laws. My father is with his mother at his home in Ithaca. I decided to go it alone this year. I went out last night and hugged and kissed everyone who was out. I got a few invites for this evening, but decided to go it alone the whole way. A normal breakfast of bacon and eggs, some coffee and a few phone calls. I watched a movie and now I'm sitting in the office where I work writing a blog. I'm perfectly content. I'll go out and find an inn or a tavern and join those who are done with the holiday and watch some football. I'll shake hands, hug and kiss those I know. I'll wish them the best and then we'll bid each other adieu.
They call it holiday cheer. I'll call it Friday.
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