Christmas Shmismass
“Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What’s Christmas to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ‘em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”
- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens.
Ahh Scrooge, you gotta love him. I’m not a big fan of Christmas; I mean I’m not siding with our pre-reformed protagonist entirely here (although ‘boiled with his own pudding’ is a funny line). I just think it is not worth it in the end.
As a child I liked Christmas for the following reasons:
1. Father Christmas
2. Decorating the Christmas tree
3. No school
4. Presents
5. Being with family (my grandparents always came down from Auckland for Christmas)
6. Sunshine
7. General happiness and goodwill everywhere
8. Christmas Carols (I have a soft spot for them, carols mind, not cheesy Christmas songs)
Alas, the innocence of childhood has long gone, and I am left bitter and cynical. Why you ask? Well it just so happens I have another list prepared for you:
1. Santa is dead. Christmas began to loose it’s magic when I began to listen to those mean kids whose parents have already told them that there is no such thing as the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and even old St Nic. I also became suspiciously aware that Father Christmas had the same handwriting and wacky humour as my grandfather…
2. My mother still has a fantastic Christmas tree, but I am having trouble finding a place for my tree in our shoe box of a flat
3. I still have no school, but as a student I have worked (almost) every Christmas on the shitty days that working people take off, i.e. Boxing Day through to New Year (the year I didn’t work I spent that whole week drunk, so I’m not sure what I did…)
4. Presents are expensive. I love giving presents, but I’m too poor to give decent ones. And I have a lot of people to buy for. Last year I painted everyone a picture, but I don’t think I can get away with that again.
5. Both my partner and I have parents who split up when we were about 13, so Christmas day is spent racing between usually about 4 households. That’s a lot of Christmas meals.
6. Sunshine?
7. I don’t know whether anyone else has noticed, but people are not full of cheer around this time of year.
8. I still like Christmas carols, but they are being taken over by the cheesy Christmas songs.
‘And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!’
Ba humbug
- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens.
Ahh Scrooge, you gotta love him. I’m not a big fan of Christmas; I mean I’m not siding with our pre-reformed protagonist entirely here (although ‘boiled with his own pudding’ is a funny line). I just think it is not worth it in the end.
As a child I liked Christmas for the following reasons:
1. Father Christmas
2. Decorating the Christmas tree
3. No school
4. Presents
5. Being with family (my grandparents always came down from Auckland for Christmas)
6. Sunshine
7. General happiness and goodwill everywhere
8. Christmas Carols (I have a soft spot for them, carols mind, not cheesy Christmas songs)
Alas, the innocence of childhood has long gone, and I am left bitter and cynical. Why you ask? Well it just so happens I have another list prepared for you:
1. Santa is dead. Christmas began to loose it’s magic when I began to listen to those mean kids whose parents have already told them that there is no such thing as the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and even old St Nic. I also became suspiciously aware that Father Christmas had the same handwriting and wacky humour as my grandfather…
2. My mother still has a fantastic Christmas tree, but I am having trouble finding a place for my tree in our shoe box of a flat
3. I still have no school, but as a student I have worked (almost) every Christmas on the shitty days that working people take off, i.e. Boxing Day through to New Year (the year I didn’t work I spent that whole week drunk, so I’m not sure what I did…)
4. Presents are expensive. I love giving presents, but I’m too poor to give decent ones. And I have a lot of people to buy for. Last year I painted everyone a picture, but I don’t think I can get away with that again.
5. Both my partner and I have parents who split up when we were about 13, so Christmas day is spent racing between usually about 4 households. That’s a lot of Christmas meals.
6. Sunshine?
7. I don’t know whether anyone else has noticed, but people are not full of cheer around this time of year.
8. I still like Christmas carols, but they are being taken over by the cheesy Christmas songs.
‘And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!’
Ba humbug
posted by Lis | 1:26 pm
1 Comments:
I've heard a lot of people make comments similar to yours. It's good that people are starting to see that, unless it is ceebrated for what it really is, Christmas becomes dreadfully meaninless and tedious.
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