Screw the mistletoe, just give me presents and cookies.
Oh, and wonderful wintertime memories with family and friends.
Scanning Hallmark Channel movies and listening to hundreds of Christmas songs, one might assume the only way to make the holiday season enjoyable is to share it with a significant other.
It’s as if single folks belong on the Island of Misfit Toys with Charlie-In-The-Box and the Spotted Elephant.
But I don’t need to share my egg nog or ice skate hand-in-hand to have a festive holiday season.
Consider the many Christmas songs playing on radio stations this month — so many make reference to a significant other not being there and one of the pair having a blue Christmas. Or, songs tell a holiday tale of how splendid it is sharing a Christmas kiss or some other moment.
Sure, you might surmise the songs could reference family members or friends, but I’m not sure if I’d want to be under the mistletoe with my brother or mother. It’s bad enough if I’ve seen mommy kissing Santa Claus!
I love Christmas and (almost) everything about it. I love the dark nights and bright lights, the snow, Santa, trees, giving gifts, carols, food and so much more that make this time of year so special. But what sets this season apart from the rest of the year is sharing so many unique memories with friends and family.
I’ve made it an annual trek to share many holiday traditions with the ones that I love. From major holiday events such as Pittsburgh Light Up Night, to smaller days like my annual “holidayday,” where me and my close pals spend a festive day finding Christmas events, I love making holiday memories with friends. I’ve never considered wanting to be selfish and share those moments just with a significant other.
I’d sooner eat a fruitcake than even consider sharing those great Christmas traditions with just one person.
Yet so many movies thrust love and relationships — many of which are broken — into a dramatic plot, complete with some snowflakes, a tree and some Christmas music just to make viewers think the season is about a spouse or significant other and some earth-shattering romantic idea that can only be fixed by the holiday spirit of forgiveness.
Just thinking of how many relationships are wrecked in those holiday-themed movies makes me happy I’m not with anybody during the holidays. Christmas is my favorite time of year, so the last thing I’d want to happen is to have my heart broken during the holidays.
So Santa, if you’re reading this, I’ll take an iPad, a new car and cash. If you bring me a romantic interest, I’m going to have to ask for a gift receipt.
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Can’t get enough of twoday magazine’s contributor, Bobby Cherry? Catch up with him at Gobobbo.com and follow him on Twitter @gobobbo.
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erikdolnack
I’m the ultimate Grinch every year.
I absolutely HATE Christmas!!!
I’ve always hated it. I think Christmas is a horrible holiday. And before anyone wants to argue, I’d challenge them to be honest about Christmas themselves: most people seem to hate Christmas as much (if not more so) than I do.
Christmas is a commercial/materialistic holiday for bourgeoisie consumption. It’s a completely fabricated mercantile festival of shameless over-consumption by comfortable families who use gifts as a way of absolving themselves of guilt for the lack of love in their homes. Most people are busy fighting their fellow human beings to get to the bargains first, driving recklessly and aggressively, irritated and irritating others in turn. Christmas turns everyone mean. Everyone is just a wee bit more their dark side during the holiday season.
And because everything basically shuts down for several weeks so that we have to all be forced to take part in this ritual, when the party’s over come January 2nd, we’re forced to work twice as hard to catch back up. It’s pretty miserable if you ask me.
I see holidays a lot like religion itself. Most people in modern western societies today really aren’t very religious anymore, yet most still defend religious belief for its traditional values. I argue that point. Like Bill Maher, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens, I see religious belief as dangerous, anti-democratic, anti-intellectual, anti-feminist, anti-science, anti-equality, anti-progressive, reactionary, anti-ecology, homophobic, racist, sexist, misogynistic, and bigoted. Religious belief is a liability than humankind can no longer afford if the human race, democracy and the planet’s eco-system are to survive.
Sooner or later, the human race is going to have to face the dark truths of the dangers of religious belief and start to shed these ancient superstitions once and for all. And that includes these ridiculous and hateful holidays of fake posturing and wanna-be charity. Face it, the only brotherly love anyone feels on Christmas morning is whether their guilt has been absolved because they’ve made another successful holiday for their immediate family alone and to hell with the rest of humankind. Who’s thinking of the starving millions in the Sudan on Christmas morning? No one.