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alexist at 10:52pm on 11/12/2004
alexist at 10:52pm on 11/12/2004I am Scrooge McJew. I hate Christmas more with each passing year. I want to burn all newspapers complaining about companies stopping Xmas parties, etc. I will admit to going into Paperchase and thinking "oooh shiny!" and very slightly wanting to have an excuse to buy crap. But mostly I hate it. I hate the enforced consumerist orgy, which we have because people can't be honest and just have a Capitalist Exploitation Festival.
I've got no beef with people celebrating the birth of Jesus, seeing family and friends, or giving presents to loved ones. But that's approximately 5% of what Christmas is about. 95% is about drinking, getting into credit card debt, enduring office nights out, and making obligatory family visits (let's face it, the British are not renowned for their familial ties, I'm continually amazed by how little people here seem to see their families. Including my own husband. My family can't either. When we were over at Thanksgiving, they were amazed Neil hadn't seen his parents since the wedding. After all, they're only 200 miles away, that's practically a day trip!) And since Christmas-New Year is the only real holiday period here (poor country, doesn't even have a decent national day) it all gets packed in.
I'm sick of crowded shops, Christmas music, annoying adverts, TV specials, Christmas crap in the supermarkets, and basically everything to do with it. It's been building up since September and there's no way to avoid it.
Christmas spirit? FEH!
I've got no beef with people celebrating the birth of Jesus, seeing family and friends, or giving presents to loved ones. But that's approximately 5% of what Christmas is about. 95% is about drinking, getting into credit card debt, enduring office nights out, and making obligatory family visits (let's face it, the British are not renowned for their familial ties, I'm continually amazed by how little people here seem to see their families. Including my own husband. My family can't either. When we were over at Thanksgiving, they were amazed Neil hadn't seen his parents since the wedding. After all, they're only 200 miles away, that's practically a day trip!) And since Christmas-New Year is the only real holiday period here (poor country, doesn't even have a decent national day) it all gets packed in.
I'm sick of crowded shops, Christmas music, annoying adverts, TV specials, Christmas crap in the supermarkets, and basically everything to do with it. It's been building up since September and there's no way to avoid it.
Christmas spirit? FEH!
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As for Christmas, it is poo! I technically don't celebrate it, what with being of a more pagan person. So Yule, mid winter celebration which runs from the 22nd to the 26th (but I can't get that time off work, for I must comply with the majority) so out of convinence I celebrate it on the 25th. Meal, time with family, exchange prezzies, have a laugh. Really I just like buying prezzies for people. But I hate all the faff and tatt that goes with it all. Its a very private personal thing. It shouldnt be about money, but it always seems to be. And the run up gets earlyer every year. I don't acknowledge christmas until after my birthday (23rd November) but now I see stuff from the beginning of October, to the extent that they are removing Haloween stock early to put in christmas stuff.
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It is a lot easier without music radio, TV, and commuting by train.
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I've moved about 8 hours' travel from my parents (that's longer than JFK-LHR), yet still manage to see them (separately) about every 8 weeks.
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I'm with you there
(FWIW, I see my mother about once every other month, usually for about a week, and Col see his parents pretty much every week)
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I'm with you in having less and less time for the whole Christmas carry on. All it is for me is a free week and a half off work when I can go back home and catch up with people. Whilst my dad has even less time for it than I do, unfortunately my mum loves the time of year and so we all get haunted by the ghost of Christmas Tat. I'd prob feel happier about things if it wasnt rammed down everyones throat for months, but thats not going to improve either.
Worse still is there are any number of people for whom this is not a happy time of year for one reason and another and they need this whole thing shoved into their faces a whole lot less than the rest of us do.