HELP!!! I'm surrounded by an Andy Williams Christmas - RANT

[RiverStone]

This time of year, I wish I could press a button at work and down would come the "dome of silence". That's from the old Get Smart show...

I work in a conservative school in a very red county.

Around mid-November, without fail, comes the Christmas things from closets and boxes. Mostly secular (i.e. candy canes, reindeer's, snowflakes). Merry blinking Christmas signs appear at all the entrances. I've grown to accept this much as I tolerate it in store windows or on TV. This is not to rant about the separation of church and state issue. Here anyway, that battle would not be won (or ever even fought).

My office is adjacent to other offices which share a common lobby. In that lobby are secretaries that year after year, like clockwork, plug in Christmas song CD's. We're talking Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Andy Williams, and Elvis Sings Christmas stuff. Now here comes the heart of my rant:

It starts around Thanksgiving and DOES NOT END TILL WINTER BREAK! Not just a song here or there, but imagine the same fucking CD's being played on repeat ALL DAY, day after day. Add off tune humming as well.

Now I'm not Scrooge on Christmas per se; we all have the right to celebrate whatever we chose. I grew up in a totally non-Christian home. Never touched the holiday as a kid; though do celebrate Solstice and honor the ancient Pagan roots of the coming of the light (where it all originated - in my belief). I'll just never get, how some people ASSUME everyone in their midst is Christian???? And assume we ALL dig the constant drone of Christmas songs. Or not ponder for a sec that some folks may want a break from Jiggle Bell Rock?

People know and have known for years I don't do the Christian ritual. Though nobody in all this time has ever asked me about Solstice; and I say a genuine Merry Christmas to my co-workers that celebrate. Then I leave it all at work. My sanctuary is my home in the middle of the woods, near the stream who's beautiful sound reminds me of what I believe.

[tigereye]

1. there are lots of other great CDs for the season

wonder why they don't play some of those?

Paul Winter and others have Solstice CDs - I guess that would be too much to ask in a red/righty school, though. My son's school has a bit of both, Hannukah and Christmassy songs are both learned and there aren't a lot of decorations, either.

[JoDog]

2. I know your pain

My office used to play the same music over and over again on the loudspeakers (christmas carols during the season and other stuff year 'round).

Do the secretaries play music all year, or just at Christmas? If it's just at Christmas, you could always ask them to turn it down (or off) because it's breaking your concentration and making it harder for you to work (that's how my department go the loudspeakers shut down). And if they want to know why you've gone for X number of years not mentioning it, just say "Well, we didn't know each other very well, and now that we do, I know that you won't take it personally, and you're the kind of nice people who want to make sure everyone can do a full day's work blah, blah, blah".

Or, offer to donate some other music CDs to the pile. The solstice albums that have already been mentioned, the Brian Setzer Christmas album (I'm a Wiccan and I love that one) or maybe some seasonal classical music. You'll score generosity points and add to the variety.

Failing that, could you get away with listening to your own music/radio through headphones?

People tend to assume others are Christian too for several reasons. One is simple statistics. On the average, most of the people they will meet up with on a typical day will be some stripe of Christian. You may very well be the first non-Christian those folks have ever met. Also, human beings have a certain "mirror principle" to their psycology (there probably is a technical term for it, but I don't know it). We usually presume, absent any outward physical differences, that other people are just like ourselves. Same loves, same passions, same beliefs. We presume that everyone loves their parents in the same way we love ours, care for their children the same way we do ours, etc. That extends even to religion--they presume that everyone has the same God until proven otherwise. This also explains why Christians think that pagans, wiccans, jews and others are out to convert people to their faiths---Christianity encourages them to do that, so they presume that every religion has the same mission.

I hope this helps. Happy Solstice!

[RiverStone]

3. Thanks JoDog!

Particularly liked your paragraph on why folks make Christian assumptions.

Outside of the "holiday season", the secretaries are very easy to work with; so I chose to not make waves and let them over eat on Christmas tunes. I just needed to vent.

I'll be spending Christmas itself far from the maddening noise and music, up in a mountain cabin with my girlfriend, soaking in the near by hotsprings, and sharing good cheer with others who equally chose to avoid it all.

My you find a peaceful place to dwell as well!

Happy Solstice back at ya.:D