All hail Das Christmas
Christmas? No thanks, I'm allergic.
It's something we can't avoid (unless you own a hidden bunker of some sort) and it happens every year at the same time. That's right, it's Christmas and it's here to stay.
Another pair of socks?
The gift giving element of Christmas is starting to get out of hand. Retail actually counts on Christmas to keep its yearly profits up, so naturally their line of rhetoric is "BUY BUY BUY, GIVE GIVE GIVE". Regardless of the gift, make sure you buy something for everyone you know. To be honest I'd be happy with something of interest from those close to me (so for me usually a game or something cool or fox related... I'm fairly easy to please). But there's no need to spend hundreds on things people will never use or care about. The culture of gadgets we buy into is amazingly stupid, we buy so much crap for other people over Christmas it's mind boggling how much money we waste over the period.
Baah humbug!
I know a few people (especially my partner Kat) who don't like Christmas. But I think they tend to dwell on the negative elements of the holiday (mass rushing about by the public, gift giving, meeting people you don't like and the cold). Through this negative thought pattern they associate it with all elements of Christmas and become a humbug monster from the first sign of Christmas adverts (which if business had it's way would be 6 months before it). They're entitled to be humbugs about Christmas, just I'd rather they embraced the fun elements of the period and let me enjoy it as well.
How it used to be
This Christmas will be difficult for me and my family. It'll be the first one without my dad there with us. I'm intent on using the period to remind myself of all the good things about the holiday and remember all the fond memories associated with it and my dad. A good example of this would be my dad buying my mother a lottery ticket for Christmas and pretending it was her big present. When she opened it she was informed it hadn't won (not even £10). Obviously she looked a little miffed at the naff present. My dad just responded with saying "yes it didn't win, but if it had then it would have been the best present ever". He then pulled out the real present and recovered from getting any more evil eye off my mum.But how did I use to view Christmas as a kid? (Thanks for this one Sam) Well it's always going to loose the magic once you find out that Santa is actually your dad, but it's always going to be different once you're an adult. As soon as you shift from being a kid and getting free stuff, to being an adult and having to work to spend money on the presents you'll find that there's a change in how you perceive the time of year. I still fondly remember creaping down the stairs to see what was under the tree, then having decided what I was going to open first, started to make as much quiet noise as possible to wake up everyone so I could get to the opening. Now I just sleep in as long as I can then wake up knowing what most of the presents are going to be (money to pay the bills >.<) I suppose now I find it more a chance to relax from work now that I'm a student and not working in retail... in which case Christmas was a ridiculously busy period full of annoying/rude customers. Where I had to work stupid hours.
Final thoughts
I guess my experiences of Christmas have been tainted by working in evil retail for too many years, but I still enjoy the time of year that I get to drink seasonal mulled wine by a fire and fall asleep after a huge meal while watching an old Bond film :)
