Bah humbug! (The Anti-Christmas Thread)

[Live R Perfect]

In the interests of balancing out all the festive spirit thats going on here, I thought I'd start a thread for all of y'all that DON'T like Christmas. :)

Personally, I am beginning to detest the whole idea of this commercial event which poses as a religious celebration. And no, I'm not religious. But what IS the connection between this supposedly Christian (but formerly Pagan) festival and the crazy, stressful, expensive and materialistic event that everyone seems to be obliged to celebrate these days?

Don't get me wrong... I was raised to celebrate Christmas, presents and all, and as a child I loved the whole idea. I mean - you get free toys!! What could be better?

Now, as a 27 year old, I've begun to see the contradiction in being an atheist celebrating a religious festival through consumerism. The same goes for Easter of course, but thats not so topical. I think another of my New Year's resolutions will be to stop celebrating these festivals. Not so easy when everyone around you is stuck on the idea, so maybe I'll have to educate them a little

Anyone else feel like this, or am I just turning into a grumpy old git? :lol:

Feel free to rant against Christmas here...

[LonePiper]

Yes. Oh God yes. Yes yes yes.

I hates it. I hates it my precious. Yesss my precious. It burns uss.

Nasty christmas. Evil christmas. Stressful christmas. Over-commercialised christmas.

In the (approximate) words of Terry Pratchett:

You spend lavish amounts of money on other people's gifts and when the wrappings all cleared away you are left with one slipper that's the wrong colour and a book about toe-nail clippings.

Pushing trolleys at a supermarket car-park does not do much to relieve my hate for the season either :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :evil:

[Cate Perfect]

Christmas is a big stinkeroony. *raspberries Christmas*

I donae like having to sing carols off-key, which seems to be the only way to sing them.

I donae like having to beat down the shoppers going after gifts I want. Last time I broke a nail. Damn bikers. I saw that Harley jacket first!

I donae like being obligated to work on Christmas Eve and day just because I'm Jewish. Damn, you get (falsely) blamed for killing the Messiah and for the rest of eternity have to work on the guy's birthday. What a freakin' gyp!

I donae like the 'Christmas spirit' and 'goodwill toward men' going around because...they kinda look like greedy kids and grumpy adults.

I donae like having to have the same arguments with the people I only know because we share DNA. On the other hand, we've been having the same arguments for YEARS so we're really good at it now. We should go on the road with it.

Mostly, I donae like having to get completely smashed just to look at my credit card statement after the holidays are over.

I have some more gripes, I'm sure...

Oh yeah, and my flying monkeys don't like Christmas, either. They hate having to wear the fairy lights on their little bellboy hats.

Flying monkeys: *grumpy faces* *passes out spiked eggnog*

Well... I like THAT part of Christmas, I suppose.

Cate

[Damien Day]

I have to admit, I have alway felt very uncomfortable celebrating Christmas, as an atheist. I have no problem with the pagan aspects such as the Christmas tree and the gifts and the stockings filled with fruit and nuts(wasn't the idea of santa claus originally pagan?-I'm not sure). What I can't stand is the Christian element, the moronic carol-singing about a newborn runt, the endless talk about peace and love, when most Christmases are filled with endless family friction and over-commercialism. Plus, as a child, I never got decent presents from my relatives, just endless religious books from my born-again Christian aunt and the like.Birthdays are so much better in that respect.

Sherlock

[Twitch]

I don't HATE Xmas persay...I'm too materialistic for that. But I must say I don't like the holidays. My relatives get drunk and I HATE drunk people. They annoy the hell out of me. Christmas songs get annoying. Expecailly Let it Snow. I'm cold natured so let it not....Next Xmas I want to be in Hawaii.....

all I really like are the presents I get...people buy me stuff I ask for...

[Tanasha]

*Like a cowboy or something* Nope, dun't like it partner.

It's all just so comercial, I think that's what bothers me the most. It's supposed to be a religious holiday for Christians, but that aspect of it was dropped quite a while ago.

The overspending and overabundance for stuff gets me too. Imagine how much of the stuff bought or used for the holiday ends up in the trash. Makes no sense to me anyway. :(

[winged]

i choose not to celebrate them because i'd rather get on with my normal life and give people gifts/visits/cards when i feel like it and not when i feel like i'm obligated to. i wouldn't mind holidays except for the fact that everyone says "what you HAVE to celebrate holidays, HAVE to call your parents, HAVE to do something special " ect.. and ooh noes if i spend christmas by myself. "you poor baby ect.." blaaah. stop with the criticism and pity! :x

[Kombucha2000]

a few days ago I saw a documentary on the history of Santa Claus on one of those learning channels and I thought it was quite interesting. It started with going back to the 3rd century with the real saint Nicholas and worked their way through with how the Protestants wanted to turn away from a saint to focus on Christ. It also said how the the north pole and reindeer came to be, etc.

I think it's sad how the old roots are forgotten.

I'm not religious, but I go through the motions of gift exhange, cookie-baking (mmm.....home baked cookies :D ), and cooking.

what I don't like about the winter holidays:

- greeting cards

- most carols and songs (some I can tolerate though) especially when they're played overhead in a store

- fruitcake

- people being extremely cheerful and saying "Happy Holidays! " "Merry X-Mas!"

- those bell-ringing Salvation Army volunteers at the enterances of stores and grocery stores that want to make you feel guilty by not donating some change every time you walk by.

- made for TV X-mas specials. Blehhh!!!

- crowded shopping stores

- gaudy X-Mas lights and decorations on houses (it must be nice to have that kind of income to waste money on the electric bill.....)

- hearing spoiled children, obvious not living in poverty, ask (or demand) for expensive toys.

hmm....I'm sure there are more to this list...

[Damien Day]

Christmas songs get annoying. Expecailly Let it Snow.

The Christmas song I hate the most must be "Silent Night", closely followed by the equally banal Bob Geldof pop song "Do They Know it's Christmas Time".

Sherlock

[Silly Green Monkey]

I guess I'm really lucky then, I spend Christmas (or something close to it, on a weekend) with family friends. Or are they a family of friends? I'm not sure. They might drink, but they don't get drunk and we never argue. We eat together and exchange a few presents, then play games until we collapse. We do the same on birthdays (or a weekend near them) too.

[Shockwave]

I think another of my New Year's resolutions will be to stop celebrating these festivals. Not so easy when everyone around you is stuck on the idea, so maybe I'll have to educate them a little

Anyone else feel like this, or am I just turning into a grumpy old git? :lol:

*Hands Liver his new membership card to the Grumpy Old Git Club*

I'm still a religious person but I stopped celebrating in the traditional way years ago. I still attend the family party but I don't buy presents for anybody.

The one song that really annoys me is I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In. What the Hell does that have to do with Christmas?

[spacegirl]

i don't hate christmas, persay, but it's meaning less and less to me every year. i really like the story of christmas (birth of baby jesus, so on) but i certainly don't consider it factual nor did i ever feel it was my reason for celebrating christmas. i've moved away from home and am on my own now. no decorations, no tree, no presents--my family has asked that i do not buy anything for them as they've really got nothing for me and i can't afford anything for anybody in particular anyways, so no big deal. also, my mother has to work on christmas (she drives bus at disneyworld, busiest time of the year) so when i go home to visit i'll just be around by myself anyhow. bah humbug etc

i DID manage to scrounge up about 70USD to buy toys for sick children, but it didn't really make me feel any better.

i make cards every year that are more a celebration of winter than anything. just nice to send those around, i guess. lets folks know you're still alive ;)

eh, whatever, just another day i guess

[dabishop]

A homeless guy on Nicollet Avenue said it best when he told me, "Christmas is for kids."

[Lors]

I'm not a fan of Christmas, but I wouldn't say I hated it.

Christmas just isn't special anymore. It's just another day in the year. There's nothing you do on christmas day that you can't do any other time of the year.

Thankfully, my family aren't big on Christmas either. We have a meal (I never refuse good food), open one or two presents each, have minimal decoration, and then go and buy what we want in the January sales.

I never really saw what all the fuss was about even when I was small. Yeah, I got loads of presents but I never used most of them.

I actually used to be scared of Father Christmas. Every xmas eve, I prayed that I wouldn't see Santa. Think about it, big, loud man in red suit with white beard creaping around you room and house. Didn't that freak anyone else out?

There's so much wastage (cards and wrapping).

we eat too much, we drink too much

What's the point in spending loads of money on presents from other people, and then recieveing loads. You might as well have kept the money and treated yourself to something you actually want.

I like some carols in moderation (although, "let it snow" is one of the most annoying songs on the planet, also Away in a Manger really gets to me), but I hate it when carol singings turn up at your door sing one line of jingle bings (badly) and then demand money off you!

And what really gets to me is all the stuff they "bring out of christmas". When me and my family saw a trailer for Polor Express our reaction was "that looks awful. Totally over the top, clearly no plot, bad lines, I can't believe they actually expect people to swallow crap like that just because its christmas."

And guess what. Every person I've spoke to has said something along the lines "Polor Express looks good. So magical."

Then again, maybe that's just my taste in films... but you get the point

Plus, I'm not allowed to study on Christmas day so I get really bored.

That's all i can think of at the mo.

Ok that turned out be slightly more negative than I expected.

[Silly Green Monkey]

You'd probably agree with the dream I had a few months ago, I was sitting at the computer playing games when I heard Santa sliding a key in the lock. I frantically dove out of the chair, scrabbled across the floor to the bedroom and reached the bed as the door slammed. My husband and I cowered on the bed listening to the crashes in the living room, I was hoping that he wouldn't tear a hole in the carpet like he did last year. When the noise died, we ventured out to find a lovely decorated tree, some presents, and huge gashes cut in the carpet.

Santa's scary.

[bard of aven]

http://home.infionline.net/~jebande/Mundane/athcarls.htm

boa

[(SP)]

"Christmas is for kids."

I think I might still be a kid. Without the immaturity and stupidity.But the way I see things with my eyes sometimes seems like a kid.(Why is everyone so jaded about everything, all the time?)

I've always liked this time of year. In fact I love October through January. I think it's beautiful, and I'm glad I live in a northern region.

I have some sort of Tim Burton-esque interest in Halloween, Christmas, Autumn, and Winter. At the very least it's all aesthetically pleasing.

I also like traditions.

All of the commercialization is disgusting and worthy of condemnation, but I don't participate in it.

It's not great to get strung along into something cheap and empty, but being anti-something in its entirety just in reaction doesn't seem pleasant either. Divorce yourself from what's bad and create something pure on your own.

By the way I have a slice of pagan roots in my background so the Winter Solstice has been of minor importance to me. And by 'Pagan roots' I don't just mean my Mom bought a new-age book at the mall when I was a kid, or I thought Wicca 'sounded cool' or something.

[emmaseek]

I'm with winged - Christmas and the holidays as a whole just don't impress me. I'd rather buy a gift for my loved ones because I knew they really liked that item than feel obliged to get something for everybody in my address book "because it's Christmas oh my God!" I'm going home to see my family for the holidays, but flying back on Christmas Day. Everybody I've told about this has been horrified and expressed sympathy, but honestly? I'm HAPPY to be home on Christmas Day. It'll be nice to have the apartment to myself! :lol:

Now I have to figure out what to buy twenty people over the next week... bah, humbug! :evil:

[VivreEstEsperer]

*drowns in Christmas songs*

Way...too...many...Christmas songs.

Argh! I hate this time of the year for the radio. Honestly, I was trying to find a decent song to listen to today and like 4 out of 6 stations all had Xmas songs on at the same time. They're doing 'em like every 15-20 minutes. I hate Xmas songs.

They're taking over my radio! and I don't even celebrate their holiday!

Although to be perfectly fair, I DID hear Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song on the first night of Hanukkah....on a country station, surprisingly enough.

I also hate the year-end countdowns because they're boring and keep me from hearing new songs!

Kate

[Bian]

I hates it. I hates it my precious. Yesss my precious. It burns uss.

Nasty christmas. Evil christmas. Stressful christmas. Over-commercialised christmas.

Hahahaha!!! That's great!! :lol: :lol:

To add to what a few people have mentioned or suggested already...

I don't celebrate holidays. I do appreciate genuine sentiments, expressions of love, unity, giving, and spirituality. “Holidays” in and of themselves represent restrictiveness for me. I don’t like their obligatory implications. While I do have a passion and a respect for traditions and cultures, or better yet, I have a passion and respect for the Spirit* of traditions and cultures… anything that has that element of rigidity to it turns me off. I do however, recognize the value and the significance that “the holidays” holds for people on a broader sense, and I feel that aspect of it is great.

We hates commercialized Christmases :evil: It burns uss.