(I apologize, Tristinn, for my late writing. I was in transit all yesterday, and today has just been lazy. But I am back on the boat!)
I hate Christmas.
I mean, I love the Jesus part that I am supposed to love. But the way the season is inescapable, the way no matter where you go everyone is crazy. Stores are packed, people are greedy, and grabby. Everything that is terrible about our society is accentuated during this season. I hate Christmas music for the same reason people hate contemporary Christian music, it's all the same. I hate the forced togetherness, and how dreary the weather is. Except for the part where school is let out for a few weeks, there are no redeemable factors of Christmas- except the twinkling lights.
Every where you look there is Christmas. You go to stores and they are decorated up crazy, you turn on the TV and Fox News is on a rampage about this so-called "war on Christmas." There are other, less forced ways to love people than fighting strangers at midnight after Thanksgiving. I agree with you, Triss, if we gave gifts to people often and freely maybe people wouldn't get trampled every year in Wal-Mart.
My love language is not gifts. I appreciate a thoughtful gift, a personal gift because someone knows I love something- Kelsi made me a TARDIS Slanket for my birthday, and it is one of the best gifts I have ever received. But I think in the bustle of all the consumerism we forget that there are other ways to express love, there are other ways to make people in your life feel important.
I want to spend time with my family because I want to, not because there is a cultural expectation that I do. I want to give my favorite people gifts because I was thinking about them as I walked through Powell's, not because I'll look rude if I don't.
If I can't destroy Christmas myself, that's fine. But I can work on giving people gifts all year- gifts that don't always include things and stuff.
Moral of the story: Gifts are great, don't limit it to one day a year.
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