Where are you Christmas?

So I am driving to work and dodging stupids on the road when I spot a sign.

“We hang Christmas lights!!!” (insert phone number here)

I didn’t think about it until I had a stupid moment myself and went Christmas shopping with my husband at the mall. All I could hear and see were unhappy people trying to fill their Christmas lists and being upset about having to buy something for XXXX. While I was also being lead unhappily around the mall, I thought to myself…when did Christmas stop being fun?

Christmas is either a religious holiday, a family holiday, or both (because I so know what the word EITHER means :P). No matter how one chooses to celebrate it, the key word is CELEBRATE! That means coming together to recognize the birth of Jesus Christ. That means signing Christmas carols, attending parties with your loved ones, and exchanging thoughtful gifts that you LOVINGLY picked out. It is a season of good will, great food, and togetherness.

Apparently this has been forgotten by the masses. Gifts are not picked out with love but with the thought you MUST one up the Jones even if you are going to go into debt during the process, this gift is just a FAD gift anyway, and you hate the Jones! People feel the need to have a huge Christmas gathering/bash and become so overwhelmed with all the tiny (useless) details they fail to have fun themselves. People are only getting a card this year if they gave YOU one last year, not because you genuinely want to give them one.

Christmas trees are not lovingly cut down any more. Families are not all gathered around to decorate the house and tree. I mean, why bother when you can PAY someone to decorate for you. Because in America, you can pay someone to do a task you find inconvenient. Christmas decorating has apparently made it to that list of tasks we hate to do. I won’t get into how most stores offer to wrap your presents for you, since heaven forbid you do it yourself.

So….what is the point? I suppose it could be all the fake cheerfulness push on all of us. This season of stopping to appreciate what we have is turning into a joke and a marketing ploy by Hallmark movies. Shopping is too competitive to be fun and it’s turning into something beyond making the other person happy. People can’t be bothered to decorate for the holidays and leave it up to a stranger to do. People are rushing around to do all the things they feel they HAVE to do…but don’t take any enjoyment in any of their activities. Maybe if one of those Hallmark movies actually came true and were not the exception to the rule, Christmas would serve it’s true meaning.

I think I will end here, as I am afraid I might break into song. MS. Cindy Lou Who sings it better anyways.