Ahh the Holidays

My basic rant about holidays is this: its impossible to have holiday cheer or profess that you do if you are snatching, grabbing, cutting off and cussing at people while shopping.......

The season starts far too early and retail begins it earlier and earlier every year. This year I saw and heard Christmas being pushed like a crack as early as October 1st! I imagine that with the economy being in the crapper that the need to find financial equilibrium as a retailer is worse than it has been since the great depression. Even with that as being the case I still cannot see pimping Christmas wares before we can buy candy for Halloween or Turkeys for Thanksgiving. Long gone are the days when you can enjoy the immediate holiday coming before Christmas is pushed on you. And I think that living in the world of capitalism can help you appreciate where the retail owner is coming from and maybe even find a way to forgive them a little when you couple the crashing economy and the number of closing stores into the equation but what I cannot tolerate or forgive is the people during this time of year.

The economy hasn't always affected the people in this regard. For as long as I can remember I have been baffled by the notion that you should have good cheer because Christmas is here. I have always been of the mindset that you should be of good cheer year around and not just in the month of December and part of January as your resolutions may guide you. I am of the belief that being good to one another is something we should strive for on a daily basis. Having said all that here is where my confusion comes into play. If this is indeed the season of cheer then why is it not exercised as prescribed? From traffic to sales, people are true to their selfish and evil tendencies when the last of something is at stake. And foolish me I would think that this behavior would lessen as the internet and internet shopping become more and more popular and viable a solution to braving the weather and traffic of holiday shopping. People are rude, tired, selfish, dangerously preoccupied and most apt to cut you off in traffic for a parking space. And why? To purchase gifts to further spoil a generation of over-weight, over-indulged brats!

My family is broken and that is not a secret, so I don't spend my holidays with my siblings but I do however spend them with my child. Here's the golden rule about Christmas: she gets five presents period! 1 big item, 1 item she wants but I don't necessarily want to get her, 1 item I want her to have, 1 traditional gift she gets every year and 1 item she needs. You would think that with this formula that she would not be excited by her gifts but she is because they are still a surprise to her and the great thing is she remembers what she got and she appreciates them. I want her to focus more on us spending time together and giving rather than receiving. I want her to understand more about why we celebrate the season than to associate it with putting on a happy face because its a season of good cheer even though people are behaving badly. I want her to know its about family even thought its just her and I. That we start the year and end it with each other because after the presents are opened all that is left is the company of family. Our appreciation and joy should rest on the fulfillment and notion that family is what you need because mere things will never carry you as far or as long. The holidays are supposed to be the time when you honor and cherish your family in a relaxed and festive manner. Essentially it should be the celebration of family and loved ones that sets the tone for the holidays. That is want for me and for everyone else in the world. To have a sense of relaxed and fulfilled joy to rejuvenate you those you and those you love with good food, conversation and memories of one another than mean more than the gifts we bought one another.

Here's hoping that you are celebrating the holidays by loving your family and friends with quality time and appreciation because it has been a rough year economically, emotionally and culturally for the world over. This is a year completed with the things we love in tact so that we can love them again next year and hopefully for many years to come.

Here's to those we love, Happy Holidays!