That's Ms. Scrooge to you.

[snugglekitty]

I hate Christmas.*

Actually, saying that I hate Christmas doesn't go quite far enough. I loathe Christmas with a pure and unadulterated passion. And I sincerely wish that there wasn't more of it for me to hate every year.



I hate the music. I hate the frenzied shopping. I hate the way that this holiday makes many people assume that everybody is Christian (or possibly Jewish if they have a slight clue). I hate the superficiality. I hate the materialism. I hate that you're supposed to be having Warm Fuzzies for your bio-family at this time of year. (Even for people who like their biofamilies, you can't produce those feelings on demand!) I hate that strangers think it's okay to ask you personal questions at this time of year. ("Who's this for?" "What are you doing for the holidays?" "Don't you just LOVE this time of year?") I hate the expectation of cheerfulness and gift-giving.

And I HATE HATE HATE the fact that the "Christmas season" starts earlier and earlier every year. Past a certain point, I can't watch TV, listen to the radio, or go shopping because I just can't stand it. It makes me want to blow things up.

If I had lightning bolts, I would use them to burn down every establishment that displays holiday decorations, has holiday sales, or even uses the phrase "pre-holiday shopping" before Thanksgiving Day. The rest would learn! Wouldn't they? For goddess' sake, people, it's not even Halloween yet! (Now there's a holiday I can get behind. Fun for all ages and, imo, any spiritual aspects don't get shoved down your throat.)

"The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" would be my favorite Christmas story ever, except that the ending is WRONG, ALL WRONG.



Who's with me?

*Please do not interpret this post as bashing Christianity. As far as I'm concerned, the holiday was okay when the Christians had merely stolen it from the pagans. They did some nice things with it. (When's the last time you gave alms on Christmas Day? Or went wassailing?) It's when the marketing industry stole it from the Christians that things started getting horrifying.

Comments

[rabbitorf.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. While I do think that celebration is not a bad thing, nor is family or putting a big flashy pick me up in the middle of a literally dark time of year, I hate the comercialism, the fact that it gets earlier every year, the fact that it's everywhere and totally inescapable, the forced sacharine-sweetness of the whole deal. Throwing in the occasional menorah does not mean it's ok to bombard me with red and green glitter. I'd much rather have Yule and some sense to the whole thing that ties it to the season. Chosen community. Meaning instead of money.

There's this overwhelming sense every year of being outside of christmas. Watching tv when others are with family and staying home because everyone else is busy and everything is closed. As Rachel said, chanukka is a relatively minor holiday that is spread out over more than a week, so there isn't a day when all your family is in the same place and it happens at a different time every year anyway. Even if i want nothing to do with christmas, i'm forced to deal with it if only because it's celebrated by default. Everything is closed. If there's no mixing of church and state, why does everything close for a supposedly religious holiday? It isn't as if we all close down just in case jews want to go spend time with their family today.

My partner *loves* it and i'm all for having fun for whatever reason. If it reminds you of your childhood and it's a good feeling to remember family traditions, great. I celebrate some of the jewish holidays more for cultural and family reasons than religious, too. Decorating a tree last year, having the lights in the living room when it was dark out, baking cookies, and giving gifts made things less cold and damp-feeling. But i can do without the dancing santas and christmas vomitting all over the world for months at a time.