My view of the holidays
I have very mixed feelings about the holidays. I really hate how they are marketed and how you are bombarded with advertisements convincing you how you need to buy this and buy that to have a good holiday. If I could have it my way I would buy nothing, and just enjoy the season. Why don't I you say? Because not everyone in my life would agree, and I would basically come out of it being the cold heartless grinch. I don't oppose gift giving, in fact a thoughtful gift bought or made out of the kindness of your heart is great, but that's the catch. Obligatory gift giving is what drives me mad.
I know that probably a majority of gifts are bought and given out of a feeling of obligation. I also know that a majority of people overexceed their means during the holiday season. If you are broke, what is it going to get you to buy someone a $500 dollar TV? A perfect gift to me would be the gift of time or company, or just plain nothing.
Too many people stress out about the holidays, so knowing that someone's gift to me was a chunk of time that they would have wasted shopping for me and a chunk of money that they'll spend the next three months paying back was instead used to relax, I would be a happy man. The joy of the holiday is what is nice, relaxing with a cup of tea, meeting friends for a drink, enjoying holiday lights... Not running through the mall and flipping people off while trying to navigate holiday traffic. That's just shit.
I see how much stuff if just wasted during the holidays, and that annoys me to no end as well. Trees killed just to make tons of wrapping paper, gifts bought and thrown out just to avoid being "that person" without a gift, food bought and made and thrown out just to have plenty for the guests. Something needs to change. We are already a country whose people have too much, consume too much, spend too much, think too little, and all the holidays do for these people is amplify their problems.
Now after this bah humbug spiel, let me say that the holidays are a wonderful time for many. Kindness abounds, generosity brings warmth, families unite, and dreams are fulfilled. Now we just need to tell everyone else about it.
I know that probably a majority of gifts are bought and given out of a feeling of obligation. I also know that a majority of people overexceed their means during the holiday season. If you are broke, what is it going to get you to buy someone a $500 dollar TV? A perfect gift to me would be the gift of time or company, or just plain nothing.
Too many people stress out about the holidays, so knowing that someone's gift to me was a chunk of time that they would have wasted shopping for me and a chunk of money that they'll spend the next three months paying back was instead used to relax, I would be a happy man. The joy of the holiday is what is nice, relaxing with a cup of tea, meeting friends for a drink, enjoying holiday lights... Not running through the mall and flipping people off while trying to navigate holiday traffic. That's just shit.
I see how much stuff if just wasted during the holidays, and that annoys me to no end as well. Trees killed just to make tons of wrapping paper, gifts bought and thrown out just to avoid being "that person" without a gift, food bought and made and thrown out just to have plenty for the guests. Something needs to change. We are already a country whose people have too much, consume too much, spend too much, think too little, and all the holidays do for these people is amplify their problems.
Now after this bah humbug spiel, let me say that the holidays are a wonderful time for many. Kindness abounds, generosity brings warmth, families unite, and dreams are fulfilled. Now we just need to tell everyone else about it.
1 Comments:
At 8:28 PM, Anonymous said…
You make some really good points, Russ. Clearly people on all sides of the issue seem to have lost sight of what Christmas was even 30 or 40 years ago, let alone where it originally came from.
My kids and I were joking that any business that did Christmas ads before Thanksgiving was a business that we wouldn't buy anything Christmas related from. Perhaps if more folks would take a similiar attitude we could reign this monster in a bit.
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