I Hate Christmas (2007 edition)
Human Clauses December 15th, 2007I hate Christmas. I hate Christmas! Ok, there I said it.
Now I am sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. I searched “anti-christmas” and “i hate christmas” on the web and came up with lots and lots of sites. Some even stating F*** Christmas!
Why do I feel this way? Maybe because I am getting ready to spend the next 6 weeks of my life chained to a shop counter selling toys to frustrated, harried parents and their annoying, sniveling children. Gee, that might be it. When did parenting skills start becoming ranked by how large and how expensive a Christmas a parent could give their Kid? Are you a BAD parent because you aren’t willing to risk life and limb to buy your kid the latest, greatest, hottest toy? (I blame that on Cabbage Patch Kids, the scourge of the 80’s!)
Yes, I work in a toy store so some of you are thinking that I have brought this on myself. I do accept some of the blame for promoting the capitalist way of life full of materialism and debt. BUT it wasn’t always that way. 25 holidays in retail have shown me that.
First off, why do we need a holiday that celebrates shopping? Or better yet, why do we have to celebrate every holiday, no matter how obscure, with shopping? We spend and spend and spend enough on a daily basis putting American credit card debt in the BILLIONS, so why do we need a specific holiday to emphasis that?
Second, why so early? Thanksgiving used to mark the beginning of the holiday season. Then it was Halloween and now it’s back-to-school! I knew we were in for it when I saw Reindeer Table linens in Target in AUGUST. Besides, my birthday is in November and I feel completely ripped off. November is just glossed over and treated as a launching pad for December. Next thing you know, November will be struck from the calendar and December will become 60 days long.
It took me years to figure out the Day after Thanksgiving was called “Black Friday” in reference to the accounting term “In the Black”, meaning all the stores will make enough money to put their in a positive balance as opposed to being “in the red.” I thought they called it Black Friday because it was a horrible @#$%& day to have to work!
Thanksgiving is no longer the busiest shopping day of the year because people are trying to start their shopping but because companies are now whoring themselves out with ridiculous promotions and sales in an effort to capture the customer’s last dollar.
On that thought, I need to start my day. Happy Holidays to you (because I’m not allowed to wish anyone a Merry Christmas anymore).
Ellie
(15 votes, average: 4.4 out of 5)
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December 15th, 2007 at 2:57 am
[...] I hate Christmas (2007 edition) (6 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5) Loading … [...]
December 23rd, 2007 at 8:12 pm
The crux of the matter is that Christmas is a religious holiday and since I am not religious it holds no meaning for me.
What I hate more than anything is the fact that the majority of the people I see buying into the commercial aspect of Christmas are also not religious.
It makes no sense. They’re feeding the ultimate hypocrisy and while doing so create chaos wherever they go. Never at any other time of the year in England will you see so many people and so much traffic descend on our towns and cities. The shopkeepers wringing their hands in glee awaiting the glut.
Indeed, it is true that the only people that benefit from Christmas are the shopkeepers, lining their pockets with their ill gotten gains. Filtering people like sheep from one display of baubles to the next. Greed and gluttony are no longer sins it seems, but actively encouraged.
As a bystander it’s quite amusing to watch but I absolutely resent being made to think there’s something wrong with me because I’ll have nothing to do with it. I also resent people’s insistence that I explain why I’ll have nothing to do with it.
Anyway, good luck over the holidays. It’s a hard time for many of us. Especially the enlightened ones.
December 24th, 2007 at 3:33 am
The presumption of happiness at Christmas time .. thats what makes me hate this time of year so much. I should be celebrating my son’s 13th birthday, but he died. My mother and father also. I just freakin hate the idea that I have to be “happy” and show good will to all mankind when my heart is breaking and no-one gives a shit about that.
December 24th, 2007 at 10:07 am
I hate xmas so much that i wanted to kill myself..
December 24th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
What I hate about Christmas is the freaking cooking! No one in my family of thirty somethings has the blasted sense to open a cookbook and actually try a recipe. I can cook and do, mostly because I am way too cheap to order in.
So there they are, all salivating on the couch, while I am cursing and swearing about all this enforced togetherness. Not my preference, because I actually like the holiday and believe in the original message.
So, when you next go to Grandma’s or mom’s, remember that she would like a break, too.
December 26th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
I so agree.It’s so commercial everyone forgets the true meaning behind the holiday.People act so phony during this
holiday kissing each others butts. I hate gathering around the table for a feast with people I really don’t like.
December 29th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Christmas is most annoying, with all the crass commercilism, and all those smug people who churn out digust because you happen to want to live in the real world and the rest of the time they act like total assholes.
January 1st, 2008 at 2:53 pm
i’m 13 and personally i cannot stand xmas. i may be 13 but im not a dumbass like must 13 year olds. so please dont just rule out my opinion because of my age like a lot of people do. I hate xmas. I hate the fact that while xmas is on and all my friends and familys are busy getting more unnessacary material objects. everyone ignores the fact that: civillians in iraq are dying, forests are being cut down, people are being murdered, people are starving to death in 3rd world countrys while we are getting more shit we dont need. excuse my language but i feel very strongly about this. i have no religious ties to xmas so i dont feel a need to celebrate it. every year it turns out crap. i’ve told my parents my beliefs and why i dont want to celebrate xmas anymore. this upsests them, so i am expressing myself here. thankyou for reading
October 6th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I hate Christmas also, but for another reason. I hate Christmas because so called Christians say it is Jesus’s Birthday. When in actuality no one knows his birthday. It is believed to be in the Spring. A pagan holiday on the 25th was changed to be a Christian holiday by Constantine. It is peppered with pagan symbols. Like the Tree, yule logs and santa. Hey if you where Jesus how would you feel if someone was celebrating your “birthday” on your most hated rivals holiday?
I hate stupid fake, self-righteous, hypocrits who go around saying “I am not going to shop at Wal-Mart anymore because they did not say Merry Christmas to me. He is the reason for the season.” No he is not you stupid fake c**t. The devil is the reason for that day. Read your bible and get off everyone else’s ass. If these losers spent more time practicing what it really means to be a Christian and not trying to look all pious and self-righteous then maybe the world would be a better place. Spouting “Merry Christmas” to everyone sure is not getting the job done.
December 11th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Oh, thank you! An outlet for my feelings at last!
Wealthmas, sorry, ‘Christmas,’ is nothing more than a festival of ebullient smugness, revelled in by those who have lots of money, many of a family and are oblivious to the feeling of awkwardness they cause to those of us who are simply not interested.
They would have us believe we are socially inadequate meanies for not wanting to go to their alcoholic drinking sessions, join in almost daily group bonding sessions (‘Christmas get togethers’) at work, fawning over each others’ inane contributions of fairy cakes, ‘wit’ and talk about buying, buying, buying.
They tell us (for about three months prior to Christmas) what they ‘always do at Christmas,’ what they ‘are going to do at Christmas,’ and (after the event, for about three months,) what they did and, of course, got at Christmas. What they got. They even discuss what the worst presents they’ve ever received are. Then, they ask me what I got, and look at me as though I’m such poor thing, who must have received so little because I’m so poor, sad and lonely, when I tell them. (That is, rather than because I didn’t actually want anything, because I am content with my life, what I have and who I have. I’m not some wide-eyed 5 year old hoping for a train set.)
How many times must I be asked:
• “What are you doing for Christmas?”
Why do you want to know what I am ‘doing for Christmas?’ Is there some sort of competition; a grading system or something, applied to the way I spend the holiday?
• “Have you done all your Christmas shopping yet?”
All what Christmas shopping? I have better things to do than traipse around shops buying things for people who don’t even want them, and would probably include them in gleefully recounted tails of the ‘worst present’ they ever received anyway.
• “What did you do at Christmas?”
It’s over. Get over it.
Insincerity is rife. It disgusts me.
My work colleague is the most insufferable Christmas bore I have ever had the misfortune to work beside. She daily recounts how many people she is having to dinner, how many presents she ‘has to’ wrap, what she is getting for her over indulged family, and cannot complete a sentence, let alone hold a conversation, without mention the Ch word. She revels in goading me with her exhausting enthusiasm for this two month long celebration of her wealth. Myself, I come from a small family. We’ve always lived quietly, not making too much of a fuss about ‘high days and holidays’ as we didn’t overrate these things in the first place. We have each other, day to day. This is our family life. We are happy. If my colleague was to be believed, my life, my experience of living, is totally inferior to hers. She’d have me believe I should be doing this, that… going here, going there… getting a _______ (whatever the ‘must have’ is this year,) buying presents for a crowd of people, having a load of people to dinner, spending loads of money on alcohol, food, presents…. If this was in the last week or two before the day, it wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s every day from the beginning of November. I think she is overcompensating for something lacking in her life. There’s nothing lacking in mine. Of that I’m sure. I am content and happy with my life and small family (three of us, in total.) I think it’s the total lack of tact, sensitivity towards others, the total disbelieve that anyone could have any enjoyment out of doing something other than in the way she does things, that just makes me sick, really. It’s so enervating, day to day, having to thole this tiresome, puerile behaviour from a person I have to spend so much time with, and an adult at that; a grown woman. I put up with it. I’ve come to consider this under the “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them their trespasses against us” heading. Oh, yes. I do try to live as a Christian. I’m not someone who hates Christ. But then, what Christmas has become is not anything to do with Christ or his teachings. What people like my colleague have turned this time of year into is Wealthmas. That’s what it is now. Christ doesn’t get a look in!
Actually, come to think of it, I think adults have forgotten how to behave as adults. I don’t mean they should be cheerless, fun free, miseries. I just mean adults. Know what I mean, anyone?
December 20th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
I hate what Christmas has become. I hate the crass commercialism and the constant lying about and perpetuating the myth of “Santa Claus.” I learned long ago that there is no such person and only priviledged kids get their Christmas wishes granted.
December 24th, 2008 at 2:58 am
i hate christmas too i feel like victor Meldrew saying that but i cant help how i feel. Its seems all about money,money,money these days. Where have the days gone when you could just be content with a couple of pressies, a nice christmas food and abit of tv on christmas day. Why has it turned into people getting sloshed and buying way too much!
How does it make people feel when they havent got a ot of money to spend and have to watch the pennies for instance me and a friend are having a quiet christmas, couldnt afford to spend massive amounts of money or spend all day getting brassed this i think is the best christmas! We bought each other a couple of pressies which shows we care and love one another and some christmas food i think this is all you need to enjoy christmas.
#
Another thing is that i dont see my family at christmas as they dont seem to bother coming to see me this may sound selfish but all i get is a card they know where i live and my number but nothing, the same with my brothers:( but i know that my family will spend christmas day together opening all there pressies and me sitting once again waiting for them to call or invite me. How sad is that?
So christmas sometimes is painful for me, what makes it worse is my family are christians ha ha ha!
what a joke!
Christmas advents of happy familys is S*** its not like this for me or lots of other people.
so i cant wait till everything is back to normal.
December 24th, 2008 at 3:10 am
hi
December 25th, 2008 at 6:24 am
I hate Christmas, because it brings back many bad memories. However, as an adult I hate all the fake well-wishers who go around loving everyone and wishing peace during this season. If they really want love and peace, why don’t they do something to spread it all year round? If you think Christmas is bad in the U.S. you should come to Mexico where celebrations start on December 16 and last until the 25th. You must be careful if you have to go out at night, because there are plenty people who drive after drinking at parties for 9 days. Worst of all is the tradition of holding a family gathering on Christmas Eve to gulp down huge servings of “bacalao” (Spanish style cod fish), a gook made of mole and cactus, and all kinds of sweets that can put you in a diabetic coma even if you are not diabetic. All of these eaten and drunk around 11:00 p.m. But the worst part are the Christmas ornaments and music that crop up everywhere…offices, stores, subways, buses, etc. I find this down right disrespectful towards people of non-Christian faiths.
I wonder what Jesus would say if he decided to take a little trip to Mexico on his alleged “birthday”. Would he throw all those people out as he threw out the merchants from Temple?
December 25th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I hate Christmas because it gives more fuel to everyone to make me feel like the worst mother in the world. I don’t put up decorations, thus I’m “taking away childhood happiness.” I don’t give my son or husband gifts on this one day so I’m not “showing how much they mean” to me.
I have also been told just this past week that my son is growing up without “good Christian values and morals” and he will hate me later on for making him different than everyone else. And what a horrible mother I am for never having talked to him about Santa much less getting his picture taken with him.
I’m forced to go to my family’s place to give, give, give to everyone and their kids because “they’re just kids and this is such a special time of the year, and their feelings will be hurt if you don’t come (meaning bearing gifts).” So every single person there has to get 3 presents from us (mine, husband and son.) It get’s expensive and causes a lot of resentment on my part because without meaing to I start doing the math by the 2nd crappy gift given to my son. He’s only just turned 4 so all he see’s is everyone else’s piles and piles of clothes, toys, shoes, toys, money, toys and his meager sippy cup, puzzle and socks. “This year has been really hard on us, you understand.”
How is it my fault my husband and I both work, and have only 1 child (meaning we have “lots of disposable money” or so everyone thinks), and we don’t go ask for presents at churches?
So I then feel guilty about being so petty and doubting my own beliefs, but after wiping my son’s tears each year and having to explain why he shouln’t care about material things and how I love him so much that that’s why I don’t want him to be like everyone else makes my heart hurt. So then my husband has to dry my tears and he gets angry at both our families for doing this to us year after year after year.
I have also “ruined” it this year because I always get the food but my arrangements fell through yesterday. “So I guess since there’s not going to be any real food, we’re going to go eat first, and you all can come around 3p so the kids can open their presents then and we can snack on the pizza and stuff you bought instead.) Well thank you so much for the gracious invitation. And again it comes down to my son crying when I said we weren’t going to go over there today, so here we go again.