I hear ya Anchor.
It's pretty silly how kindness, giving, joy, etc. have become "seasonal" to some extent. Some people can ride out their "Christmas good deeds" all year long I guess. Dec. 25 is pretty arbitrary even. It's pretty well documented that the census that Joseph was supposed to be returning to Bethlehem for was nowhere near Dec. 25. It's probably a somewhat related to the pagan holiday of the winter soltice, but some part of me thinks that it simply placed as a boost to the econonomy at the end of the "fiscal year" for most retailers. That's pretty far fetched I know, but there is no denying that Christmas has become more and more about the economy. If we just spend more, everything will be fine! I actually hear people on the local news saying that they feel like it's their duty to go out and spend money to help the economy. These are peope at large "Westfield" malls mind you, not at some local "main street" book store or music shop (where I'm getting all my presents from this year). Feeding money to Macy's or Westfield is not gonna help much if you ask me.
I've even had the feeling for awhile now since the gas prices have been slashed here by 60%, that the reason was that they (you know,
them) knew people would be less inclined to actually go to the malls if gas prices were high. Gas dropped just in time to allow everyone to get their shopping in, and now watch it skyrocket in January.
Even though I know this is all pretty ridiculous, some of the sappy stuff still gets to me at this time of year. Charlie Brown Christmas, A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, I love watching the same stupid movies and catching up w/ the fam every year especially since as we all grow up it's getting harder to get everybody together. I can't help but feel a bit cheerier than normal (even though I'm pretty cheery year round too).
Also I know there's a bit of a disconnect between northen and southern hemisphere Christmas. Something about snow and Christmas just go together imo. I guess I'm lucky that I live here in the midwest for that at least. I really do enjoy the snow, probably a bit more than your average bear.
So yeah, most of Christams is contrived and it's basicly an excuse for some buttholes to feel good about themselves (myself included) for spending money each other, but hey it's another excuse to get friends and family together so what the hell, it can't be all bad.
On the flipside though Christmas can suck for so many different reasons!
