(POST) CHRISTMAS TIME
(Ed. note: This post has been sitting on my docket waiting to be published for over a month. Perhaps this lends greater credence to the post overall...)
Over the years I've found myself greeting the holidays with an ever-growing sense of indifference.
That sounds bad. Let me elaborate...
As a kid, you look forward to the presents and the two weeks away from school so you can spend your valuable time building snow-persons, hucking snowballs at cars, and burying younger siblings in the yard. During the budding teenage years, for many of us, the holidays were still a couple weeks off school, but the importance of presents and familial conviviality were less motivational, primarily because teenagers are selfish assholes (prove me wrong, teens!)Watching a 6 year old open that "must-have" gift is a heart warming holiday experience... nobody wants to see a 15 year old open a present.
From there it's a precipitous decline in excitement each year as the holiday season becomes more and more equated with shitty driving, and having lots of stuff to do and trying to find the time to do it all in before going back to work on Monday.
It's a fact that Christmas is not a 20-something person's holiday (unless they have kids.) New Year's is a 20-something person's holiday, but mainly because celebrating it mostly involves staying up late and getting incredibly drunk (find me a holiday special with that as its core value.) But Christmas will forever remain a kids' holiday, and it's not as much fun without kids around. Watching groan-ass people open ironing boards, sensible slacks and file cabinets is no where near as interesting as watching a kid go apeshit over some unpronounceable object made out of colorful non-toxic plastic.
But it's not all "bah-humbug" for me. No- over the last few years I've had a real Ebenezer Scrooge moment and come full circle, realizing that the part of Christmas that warrants looking forward to is spending time with your family and friends, staying inside and not worrying too much about the day-to-day drivel that continuously piles up 'til that aneurysm finally bursts. And truly, with as difficult as it is to buy good gifts for most people (not waffle-of-the-month clubs or 7-11 gift certificates), there's still something to be said for seeing someone, young or old, open a well-selected present. Having a three-year-old niece also helps: she's excited about everything.
So why the growing indifference on my part?
Americans are inundated with holiday bric-a-crap starting as soon as the Jack-O-Lantern candle is blown out- sometimes even before that, with Santa and Dracula rubbing elbows at the big box stores like some bad 80's cartoon special. Stores start stock piling red and green things of varying shapes and textures so early that it all becomes so much background fodder by the time Christmas actually comes around. Plus, the wonder surrounding Christmas decor you might've experienced as a kid is long gone because as a nearly 30-something, you've been seeing that same stuff lining shelves and door steps for a quarter of every year for the last nearly 30-something years. Factor into that the whirlwind speed that daily life seems to ramp up every year, and you don't even have time to process what's happening.
I've been so busy this year (ed. note: you'll notice the post below is from Halloween for christ's sake) I've had nary a moment to digest anything other than the most basic needs and information this season: "It's cold." "I'm hungry." "I sleep now."
Hopefully- one of these years- Christmas will start to feel like Christmas again. But in the meantime, I'll savor the fact that after Christmas is over, it'll be another 9 months before I have to see Santa-crap again.
God bless us- everyone.
(Ed. note: This post has been sitting on my docket waiting to be published for over a month. Perhaps this lends greater credence to the post overall...)
Over the years I've found myself greeting the holidays with an ever-growing sense of indifference.
That sounds bad. Let me elaborate...
As a kid, you look forward to the presents and the two weeks away from school so you can spend your valuable time building snow-persons, hucking snowballs at cars, and burying younger siblings in the yard. During the budding teenage years, for many of us, the holidays were still a couple weeks off school, but the importance of presents and familial conviviality were less motivational, primarily because teenagers are selfish assholes (prove me wrong, teens!)Watching a 6 year old open that "must-have" gift is a heart warming holiday experience... nobody wants to see a 15 year old open a present.
From there it's a precipitous decline in excitement each year as the holiday season becomes more and more equated with shitty driving, and having lots of stuff to do and trying to find the time to do it all in before going back to work on Monday.
It's a fact that Christmas is not a 20-something person's holiday (unless they have kids.) New Year's is a 20-something person's holiday, but mainly because celebrating it mostly involves staying up late and getting incredibly drunk (find me a holiday special with that as its core value.) But Christmas will forever remain a kids' holiday, and it's not as much fun without kids around. Watching groan-ass people open ironing boards, sensible slacks and file cabinets is no where near as interesting as watching a kid go apeshit over some unpronounceable object made out of colorful non-toxic plastic.
But it's not all "bah-humbug" for me. No- over the last few years I've had a real Ebenezer Scrooge moment and come full circle, realizing that the part of Christmas that warrants looking forward to is spending time with your family and friends, staying inside and not worrying too much about the day-to-day drivel that continuously piles up 'til that aneurysm finally bursts. And truly, with as difficult as it is to buy good gifts for most people (not waffle-of-the-month clubs or 7-11 gift certificates), there's still something to be said for seeing someone, young or old, open a well-selected present. Having a three-year-old niece also helps: she's excited about everything.
So why the growing indifference on my part?
Americans are inundated with holiday bric-a-crap starting as soon as the Jack-O-Lantern candle is blown out- sometimes even before that, with Santa and Dracula rubbing elbows at the big box stores like some bad 80's cartoon special. Stores start stock piling red and green things of varying shapes and textures so early that it all becomes so much background fodder by the time Christmas actually comes around. Plus, the wonder surrounding Christmas decor you might've experienced as a kid is long gone because as a nearly 30-something, you've been seeing that same stuff lining shelves and door steps for a quarter of every year for the last nearly 30-something years. Factor into that the whirlwind speed that daily life seems to ramp up every year, and you don't even have time to process what's happening.
I've been so busy this year (ed. note: you'll notice the post below is from Halloween for christ's sake) I've had nary a moment to digest anything other than the most basic needs and information this season: "It's cold." "I'm hungry." "I sleep now."
Hopefully- one of these years- Christmas will start to feel like Christmas again. But in the meantime, I'll savor the fact that after Christmas is over, it'll be another 9 months before I have to see Santa-crap again.
God bless us- everyone.
posted by Pete Klockau at 7:17 PM
0 comments
