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Nov/ 6/07christmas bitch
it's november, and you know what that means... the dreaded holiday season is upon us.
now, i am obviously a part of the retail world... therefore i have no right to complain as my clients, and thus i, benefit from xmas…but i am going to whine anyway.
bah humbug…it hasn't even really revved up, and i am already over it.
i went into walgreens this morning, and swoosh, presto, whammo, halloween is gone and christmas is here! omygod. it makes me sweat.
now, i am really, by nature, not such a scrooge...i like festivity, i like cutting and pasting and making ornaments…i like cookies (i don't really like making them, but i like eating them). what i don't like is the beast that the season morphs into, somehow...
it becomes such a big deal to have the cutest holiday card with the most fabulous picture of your children looking perfect and angelic.
and it is sooo important that you get your decorations up in a timely manner and have a picture-postcard looking house for the season (and it had better smell good, too)
and the tree -- good god, have you priced xmas trees lately?? i really love spending $180 on the tree so that billy can have a complete temper tantrum trying to get it to stand up straight, and then it is around for all of 3 weeks, shedding and making a mess the entire time.
and the whole making a ginger bread house with your children thing, well, i love the idea...but, i've tried that and i can't ever go there again.
oh, and i really love standing in line in an overheated mall with 3 overly excited and strung out children to sit in fake santa's lap.
and then i really like to pay the 19.99$$ for the extremely unfortunate photograph.
i, obviously, could go on and on in my nasty tone, but i will spare you that...here is what really freaks me out: the presents. now, i don't mean presents in general. i think gift giving is good and fine in moderation. i am talking about the amount of presents my children get each year. it's gross. it's revolting. it's sick-making. really, every year i look at that crap strewn all over the floor and i get a stomach ache. and i wonder, how did this happen? of course, a lot of it is not from us...it's from grandparents, and aunts and uncles, and godparents, etc...but it is too much, and it needs to stop. and my kids, i swear, don't get nearly as much stuff as their peers, and that freaks me out even more. when did we become a nation of such monstrous consumers?
here is my plan for this year, and i've already started talking to my kids about this. they are each going to get one small present on each advent sunday…and they can open it then...but, it will be small...like a book, or something reasonable...and then on xmas day they will each get one present from mama and daddy, and then, hopefully, santa will bring them each something. and then the money we save not buying all the other little crap that gets tossed in the toy box never to be seen again, can be used to go shopping for xmas presents for homeless kids…and we can do that all together, in lieu of baking that ginger bread house.
jane gray/designer and christmas bitch
By Stray Dog 4:19 PM
