Holidays are great, so get over it!

[JCMach1]

They are sharing cultural resonances and traditions with a group larger than yourself.

If you don't like the commercialism, chuck it out.

If you don't like Christmas, decorate a Ground Hog Day tree and throw a party.

But please, please don't think you are an island unto yourself. Holidays are about shared cultural experiences regardless of the basis.

So, sit back, enjoy, and shove your humbug up your chimney and don't rain on my Thanksgiving parade.

[Trajan]

1. Ok ....

Done ....

[Union Thug]

2. I was once as enthusiastic as you are. Now I just don't care.

I wish I did. I wish that I could go back and recapture some of that.

ah well.

Enjoy your holiday season. That's the best I can muster up! :-)

[JCMach1]

5. Then, create something new...

throw an unhappy Bushmas party where everyone exchanges a token of there 'esteem' :sarcasm: for *

[Union Thug]

6. Ha! You may be on to something! n/t

[lligrd]

7. I love It

Maybe I will. Bush Dartboard and Cheney Hangman for party games.

[JCMach1]

9. Excellent ideas: hang blue nuts on the true and hand them round

to democratic friends as they leave the party ... EXTREME :sarcasm:
This would work best if you are inviting and Washington Democratic insiders to the party.


Someone could dress-up as Congressman Mark Foley (fReak, FL) and everyone can sit on his lap and ask for political favors.

[zanne]

15. Happy Festivus! nt

[JCMach1]

16. Yes. and burn a Yule log too... put a stone up in your back yard

and dance naked around it 12 twelve times... ummm, ok wear some robes it's cold...


Whatever, just enjoy!

[rpannier]

3. Agreed nt

[Raine]

4. I like holidays

I just wish commercialism wasn't so rampant but holidays are what you make of them and you can be leave that out as an individual.

[xchrom]

8. i am an unapologetic Holidays booster boy!

i love the holidays -- and i spend many of them by myself -- i don't care.

i love to decorate the house, buy gifts for people -- over do this or that.

it's just plain fun.

i used to ''hate'' it -- but that was just a cover for someone who wanted to come out and enjoy it all.

i was so relieved when finally one year -- i decided not to fight it and just fall in love with it.

i've had a blast ever since.

[JCMach1]

10. Amen! and Yahoo!

:party:

[earth mom]

11. The rampant commercialism of the Christmas holiday is being force fed to all of us.

In this day and age, it's very difficult to check out from it and ignore it when it is everywhere you go this time of year. From stories about it on the news-local news too-to it being hyped in just about every store there is. Just exactly how can anyone escape it unless you live in the wilderness and never need to go anywhere or do anything?!

Just as you reserve the right to enjoy your holidays, others of us reserve the right to want it to be better and not so crass and in your face. It simply does NOT have to be this way. European countries don't celebrate the Holidays with a focus on buy buy buy, but rather they embrace the beautiful and sacred about this time of year and no doubt that experience is more than likely-since I've never experienced it there myself-closer to what the holidays are really about. And I say this after viewing a program about how the holidays are celebrated there so I do know what I'm talking about if not the actual experience on European soil. IMO, it's a damn shame that in this country, we have allowed ourselves to be controlled and exploited the way we have. We should all want more and demand more than that.

[JCMach1]

12. There is nothing wrong with buying! But you might find this an interesting twist

Ask everyone in your household to buy MADE IN AMERICA

Think what an interesting and quirky XMAS that would make.


Jeesh, your post makes me want to go to the closest terrorist infested mall (it's the UAE don't you know) look at the outrageous Christmas decorations and tell all the Muslims I meet they damn sure better stop celebrating!

MODERATION everyone!

SHANTIH SHANTIH SHANTIH

[earth mom]

13. Obviously, you can't handle it that not everyone agrees with you.

Who is exactly ruining your Christmas, hmm? I hardly think comments criticizing the holidays on a message board are going to make a difference to your holiday. However, MY holidays are being dictated by others everywhere I go-it's inescapable. That you are unwilling to understand that simple point shows your narrow mindedness and exactly underscores my point.

Who are YOU or anyone to decide for ME what I want my holidays to be like?! :wtf:

[JCMach1]

14. Absolutely, I am a fascist when it comes to fun...

So, why don't you voluntarily give up your holiday and immediately report to work!!!

By the way, sounds like you do need a break! :sarcasm:

What I can't stand is EVERY year and EVERY holiday there is the official I hate holidays thread...

Well I'm sorry that I am different from you, but I farkin' like the holidays.

I like shopping for silly things... I like pointless colored lines and inane animatronic store sculptures... I like vulgar plastic lawn displays... I like paper turkey cutouts done in fall colors...

And, I really shouldn't have to apologize for liking those things...

Do whatever you want, but I know who's having more fun!

[earth mom]

18. Fun can be had all year long as can silly things to buy.

You are in denial if you can't admit that the way buying is being pushed this month is like being hammered by the obnoxious car salesman who like a pesky fly won't give the hell up! Where's the fun in that?!

And just where did I say that I didn't like the holidays or fun? You need to can the judgmental attitude and quit trying to frame what others like or what they define as fun. Because honestly, your posts remind me of the "War on Christmas" B.S. that Bill O'Reilly loves to spew.

Bill is that you?

[JCMach1]

20. Nah, don't care what the holiday is... We enjoy celebrating

Ramadan and the two Eids in my family as well...

Although the animal slaughter on the second isn't exactly a favorite...

I hate Bill O, but I don't take the PC spin on holidays as my mantra.

Honestly, bring in Christmas and everything else. If there's a holiday, let's learn about it and maybe even learn from it.

Let's revel in our holidays, it makes life much more interesting.

[Nobody]

26. From a friend who works at MegaHugeDale

He sees this every year. Stores are in the red until some time in November, when the huge push to spend spend spend and buy buy buy until you're broke broke broke and can't pay your bills bills bills.

He says that even without artificial spending orgies, people will still come in and buy the same amount of stuff. People will always be getting married, having birthdays, celebrating anniversaries, having housewarmings, throwing showers, and going out on the town all year long. If you spread out the spending, people are better able to afford it, stores can better plan employment needs, and they won't be ghost towns in January and February when everyone who has bought into the hype has maxed out their credit cards and damaged their credit ratings.

I've been told that because I have zero credit card debt (no credit ccards!) I'm unAmerican.

The problem is not the holiday or the fact that people want an excuse to party. I love a good party. Like you, I hate the crassness of what I've been calling the Season of Greed. Like you I hate having things shoved in my face. I hate the way it's become obligatory. I hate the assumption that if you want to opt out you're a horrible person. I hate that if you want to cut down and only spend what you can afford, you're selfish. If I want to celebrate something, I will celebrate it. I hate obligatory avarice. I won't play.

This year I'm donating as much as I can afford to a charity, and the charity will receive that check in January. After the madness has died down and the charities no longer receive donations.

[MadHound]

17. You obviously haven't been either truly poor, or truly by yourself

Two conditions that seem to have a relationship to each other, the poorer you get, the more that your family, friends and relatives tend to leave you alone. It is in these conditions that the holidays become true torture, as you cannot join in the spirit of giving, you are thrown on the mercies of various non-profits who expect either utmost gratitude or utmost religious submission for the least little bit of charity.

Yes, these conditions can easily make one into a grinch. Sorry that people are pissing in your corn flakes, but holidays aren't all sweetness and light for many people. So take your own advice, and get over it. Or better yet, truly help out those who are less fortunate than you are.

[JCMach1]

21. I won't go into a lecture about growing-up poor and working class

to an uneducated family in the South. That should be introduction enough.

And trust me, I'm not a pollyanna...

Alienation can be horrific, but we shouldn't celebrate it with bitterness.


Dicken's story A Christmas Carol wasn't just about a bitter old man witholding charity and goodwill. It was also about the myopia that sometimes happen to those with good intentions.

What I take from the story is a celebration of what it means to be human... that's what I'm talking about.

[MadHound]

31. Sorry, I'm talking homeless poor

Out in the streets, maybe lucky enough to be in a shelter for awhile poor. At least when you were growing up, you had family around you. When you drop into the basement, most everybody politely forgets that you're on the face of the planet.

That's OK, that was over a quarter century ago, and I'm doing much better now. Own my house, have a lovely wife, enjoy the holidays with family, etc. etc. But I leaned many hard lessons in that time period, including the true nature of most of my fellow citizens. No, it isn't a pretty picture, and yes, it has made me really cynical. The real sad part is that my deep abiding cynicism is regularly surpassed by actions of government and society.

And no, I don't forget my homeless brothers and sisters on the holidays. In fact each year I go out, to where they live, and try to make the holidays better for them in a way that doesn't belittle or trivialize them. It is one of the the activities I look forward to each year.

Sorry, but your post came across as pushy and rude, demanding that we all should be happiness and light. There's a flip side to that story that most of society doesn't know about unless you've been there, and such gruff demands as yours are out of place. Just to illustrate the point a bit further, the time around Christmas is the highest suicide rate of the year. Why's that:idea: Not everybody can be happiness and light at the holidays, in fact for some the holidays is the utter worst time of year. Sorry that doesn't mesh with your view, but reality bites at times, so there it is.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

23. I've been alone on holidays

and the solution is to find other people who are alone and invite them over or invite them to go out somewhere.

Some of the best Thanksgivings I ever had were with make-shift "families" of unrelated people. In one case, we were poor graduate students, some from overseas, who were living in a dorm and had little money and only basic cooking facilities--so we bought a few bottles of wine and made spaghetti and had a blast.

Don't let the commercial image of what holidays should be prevent you from enjoying what they can be.

[MadHound]

32. Well, that would require actually having a place to invite people over to.

Huge difference between grad school poor and homeless poor. For the homeless, while this time of year is a relative bounty, ie they won't have to worry about starving to death, it stands in stark contrast to the rest of the year when the rest of society just wants them to go away, and they really don't care how they go.

As I posted above, this experience of mine is a quarter century in the past, but it has shaped my views of society, government, and the holidays forever. I'm outraged at the amount of money and food that are literally tossed in the dumpster this time of year, when around the block, down the alley, some poor soul(s) are literally starving or freezing to death. Meanwhile, up in some penthouse some trust fund baby who has had everything handed to him is whining that a particular bottle of wine is from 1980 instead of 1979. Or out in the burbs, some snot nosed spoiled brat is whining over getting the Wii instead of a PS 3.

I'm not anti-Christmas, nor anti-holiday. However this orgy of ostentacious holiday spending is over the top, and frankly in my opinion, immoral in a time where the ranks of the homeless are increasing, here in this so called "land of plenty". Give your sweety a Lincoln Navigator for Christmas!! Give me a break, take that money down under the tracks, and rent out an apartment for five people so that they can get a shower, have an address for a couple of months, thus making it easier for them to get a job. You would be doing the world a hell of a lot more good. Mighty hard to get a job when you stink and have no phone or permanent address:shrug:

[DemBones DemBones]

19. Thanks for posting this. It's easy to avoid the commercialism -- turn

off your tv and stay out of the malls. Life is to be enjoyed and Christmas is a joyous season.

[JCMach1]

22. Or, go to the mall soak in the atmosphere and laugh

at the sheeple moving from stable to stable... just enjoy

[Telly Savalas]

24. How do you know which ones are "sheeple"

and which ones are just there to buy new socks?

[DemBones DemBones]

25. You can enjoy all the decorations for free and they usually have

free concerts during the Christmas season, too. It's the closest thing we have to the Italian passegiata (evening stroll.) :-)

[JCMach1]

27. Good points... living over here though

I have grown to hate American Mall architecture. Most are hideous. Dubai is redefining the space as the modern version of the Kasbah and that's way cool.

By the way, they also go OVER THE TOP for Christmas decorations.

[Ian David]

28. Hitler celebrated Christmas

Hitler celebrates Christmas with his soldiers, next to a decorated Christmas tree.

More:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=214x97928

[JCMach1]

29. Hitler also wore Khakis

[Ian David]

30. But the pants had to be tailored with a lop-sided. inseem n/t