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Nov. 5th, 2003 11:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
queenrileyAm I the only person who finds it disturbingly wrong that it's now 5 November, and yet it's 83F (28.3C) outside? And climbing? And got up to 89F (31.7C) yesterday?
It's freakishly HOT and it's driving me nuts. All the stores are setting up their Christmas displays, have dozens of "Christmas Special Savings" here and there on all kinds of holiday themed stuff. And yet it's 80 FREAKING DEGREES outside. There is something terribly terribly wrong with this.
And can I just say how not cool it is to see Christmas displays right after Halloween? What happened to Thanksgiving? Do we not get to celebrate that anymore? If we no longer have Thanksgiving, I'll be rather upset. I enjoy stuffing myself full of tasty turkey, green bean casserole, yams, pumpkin pie... mmmmmmmm. I'll miss it. And what happens next year, or 5 years from now? Will Halloween disapear too? Will it get absorbed and tossed aside by the evil machine of power that is Christmas advertising?
Christmas is a joke, people. It doesn't mean anything anymore. It's not about family anymore. It's not about being a little more charitable, love for your fellow man. It's now about how many presents you and your kid gets, how decorated your house is, how much electricity you can use without blowing the neighborhood transformer. It's now about "gimmie gimmie gimmie" and "Johnny from down the street got more presents than I did" and "but I wanted the latest hot toy that I will forget about in two days even though you spent three months and a few hundred dollars trying to get it for me". I hate it. I hate all the specials on television. I hate all the movies. I hate all the advertising. I hate the 5 pound Toys R Us books that come the day after Halloween in the newspaper, and you get a new one every week. I hate the commericials, the sales, the decorations. I hate all of it. I really just can't stand it. It turns my stomach.
I used to think, when I began my conversion process, that I'd really miss Christmas. I was a big Christmas kid. I loved the day. I loved going to see my grandmother and how she had tinsel on her tree but we didn't (our cats would eat it and get sick). I loved the dinner that my mother spent all day preparing. I loved the leftovers for days to follow. I loved the snow and the magic of that time of year. I loved the lights, the sounds, the smells, the tastes, the carols. But there isn't any of that anymore. The lights are commercialized. The carols are copyrighted and expensive. The smells are still the same, at least, and the taste is, but I get that at Thanksgiving too. The sounds are now "Buy buy buy" where they used to be "give give give". I never got an allowance as a kid, but I remember before Christmas every year I was given a set limit on what I could spend on presents for my friends, my teachers, my family, and I remember always making sure to give a portion (albeit a small one sometimes) from each set limit to the Salvation Army Santas that hang around and ring bells. I still do that now, but I remember being a kid and standing in line to drop my quarters and dollars into the bucket. Now there is no line. People are too busy spending more than they earn to give to charity. And it sickens me.
I hate it all. And I hate how early it all keeps coming at me. Last year they at least waited awhile into November before starting it all. And the worst of it is, even with converting, I still have to face it. I still go to family gatherings on Christmas morning and watch as my parents and Jeff's parents load Alex up with more presents than she'll ever need or use. My parents are doing better. I've had a talk. They aren't buying near as much as they did last year. But Jeff's parents changed the Christmas policy this year... one big present for each couple, one small present for every person. That'd be fine, except it doesn't apply to Alex. As Jeff's mother said "We're focusing on Alex for Christmas now. Almost everything we buy will be for her." and they budget thousands of dollars every year for Christmas.
It's very hard to teach Alex that Christmas isn't her holiday, but we celebrate it with Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Papa because it's their holiday and they are family. We are helping them celebrate, but it's not our holiday. It's hard to teach her that when she gets a car load of stuff on Christmas morning. It's hard to teach her to give when I get in trouble for donating some of what she recieves. It's hard to teach her to not be greedy when she's lavished with all of this.
Geez... I didn't start this out to be a rant about Christmas. Sorry.
I intended this to be mostly about the stupid weather. Oh well. It's still stupid weather... it's still hot... it's still November (yet it feels like March...)
It's freakishly HOT and it's driving me nuts. All the stores are setting up their Christmas displays, have dozens of "Christmas Special Savings" here and there on all kinds of holiday themed stuff. And yet it's 80 FREAKING DEGREES outside. There is something terribly terribly wrong with this.
And can I just say how not cool it is to see Christmas displays right after Halloween? What happened to Thanksgiving? Do we not get to celebrate that anymore? If we no longer have Thanksgiving, I'll be rather upset. I enjoy stuffing myself full of tasty turkey, green bean casserole, yams, pumpkin pie... mmmmmmmm. I'll miss it. And what happens next year, or 5 years from now? Will Halloween disapear too? Will it get absorbed and tossed aside by the evil machine of power that is Christmas advertising?
Christmas is a joke, people. It doesn't mean anything anymore. It's not about family anymore. It's not about being a little more charitable, love for your fellow man. It's now about how many presents you and your kid gets, how decorated your house is, how much electricity you can use without blowing the neighborhood transformer. It's now about "gimmie gimmie gimmie" and "Johnny from down the street got more presents than I did" and "but I wanted the latest hot toy that I will forget about in two days even though you spent three months and a few hundred dollars trying to get it for me". I hate it. I hate all the specials on television. I hate all the movies. I hate all the advertising. I hate the 5 pound Toys R Us books that come the day after Halloween in the newspaper, and you get a new one every week. I hate the commericials, the sales, the decorations. I hate all of it. I really just can't stand it. It turns my stomach.
I used to think, when I began my conversion process, that I'd really miss Christmas. I was a big Christmas kid. I loved the day. I loved going to see my grandmother and how she had tinsel on her tree but we didn't (our cats would eat it and get sick). I loved the dinner that my mother spent all day preparing. I loved the leftovers for days to follow. I loved the snow and the magic of that time of year. I loved the lights, the sounds, the smells, the tastes, the carols. But there isn't any of that anymore. The lights are commercialized. The carols are copyrighted and expensive. The smells are still the same, at least, and the taste is, but I get that at Thanksgiving too. The sounds are now "Buy buy buy" where they used to be "give give give". I never got an allowance as a kid, but I remember before Christmas every year I was given a set limit on what I could spend on presents for my friends, my teachers, my family, and I remember always making sure to give a portion (albeit a small one sometimes) from each set limit to the Salvation Army Santas that hang around and ring bells. I still do that now, but I remember being a kid and standing in line to drop my quarters and dollars into the bucket. Now there is no line. People are too busy spending more than they earn to give to charity. And it sickens me.
I hate it all. And I hate how early it all keeps coming at me. Last year they at least waited awhile into November before starting it all. And the worst of it is, even with converting, I still have to face it. I still go to family gatherings on Christmas morning and watch as my parents and Jeff's parents load Alex up with more presents than she'll ever need or use. My parents are doing better. I've had a talk. They aren't buying near as much as they did last year. But Jeff's parents changed the Christmas policy this year... one big present for each couple, one small present for every person. That'd be fine, except it doesn't apply to Alex. As Jeff's mother said "We're focusing on Alex for Christmas now. Almost everything we buy will be for her." and they budget thousands of dollars every year for Christmas.
It's very hard to teach Alex that Christmas isn't her holiday, but we celebrate it with Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Papa because it's their holiday and they are family. We are helping them celebrate, but it's not our holiday. It's hard to teach her that when she gets a car load of stuff on Christmas morning. It's hard to teach her to give when I get in trouble for donating some of what she recieves. It's hard to teach her to not be greedy when she's lavished with all of this.
Geez... I didn't start this out to be a rant about Christmas. Sorry.
I intended this to be mostly about the stupid weather. Oh well. It's still stupid weather... it's still hot... it's still November (yet it feels like March...)
