Yes, it's true. I'm the actually-kind-of-friendly Grinch your mother warned you about. Well, I hope I look a tad bit better, but it's true: I don't like Christmas. Actually, let me reiterate, I don't like what Christmas has become. See, my problem with Christmas isn't the holiday itself, but what we have turned it into. If Christmas was more than just a shameless mad dash to buy things we didn't really need, maybe I would like it more. I like what Christmas stands for, not what it is now.
My problems with Christmas appeared as I got older, the disillusionment started as I became more of a conscious consumer. Maybe it was a tree falling and destroying my house that made me realize I didn't need so much stuff or maybe I just learned as I grew up. I have never worked in retail, but both my mother and father have.
Both have told me horror stories about how nasty people can be, especially around Christmas. My mom worked at JC Penny as a teenager before she went to college. This was even before the introduction of Black Friday which gained popularity in the 90's.
People would make a mad dash into the store a few nights leading up to Christmas Eve and buy whatever they could get their hands on. In other words, they are giving gifts just to give gifts. My mom would also note these same people would be the ones in line the day after Christmas returning all of the stuff that didn't fit, was the wrong color, or totally just the wrong gift.
I know what you're thinking. "Oh, she just hates shopping and getting presents." I am always up for shopping and I don't hate getting presents. I love presents. Everyone loves presents. If someone tells you they don't like getting presents, they're probably lying to you.
What I don't like is taking away someone else's holiday joy so you can save $100 on a new laptop. When I went Black Friday shopping, the stores opened the day after Thanksgiving really early in the morning. Now, they open ON Thanksgiving.
If you did not know this about me, I love Thanksgiving. I've written about how much I liked it before. In fact, it's my favorite holiday. I would be devastated if someone took away my ability to have it.
Despite the fact Thanksgiving is pushed out of the way in favor of all things Christmas by November 1st, I'm not mad at Christmas for taking over the whole month. I'm mad because the reasons I love Thanksgiving so much are the reason it's tragically ironic that stores open on the same day.
I love Thanksgiving because it's the one holiday we celebrate what we already have. It's the one day a year we get together and be thankful. In this crazy busy world where everyone is really self-oriented, sometimes it's good to just take a few steps back and chill out. So why ruin that experience by demolishing the holiday into Black Friday's poorly written sequel...
Imagine, Black Friday: We Could Have Just Done it Tomorow.
Doesn't sound too good, does it?
At this point, it's not even Black Friday anymore. It's more like a Black Month. The whole period between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve has more and more stores opening their doors earlier, shutting them later, and promoting sale after sale.
For every store you see, just start imagining all of the people that work there. It's not just cashiers, it's everyone who works in the back stockrooms, the shipping and delivery people, the people who work the night shift, and even the janitors. Most of these people have families. Because of these families, they HAVE to work or they can't provide.
They don't get the option of taking time off. so they get to miss out on a majority of the holidays because we need to shop. The companies don't care, they got the money. That's the tragedy of it all. They miss out, we get stuff. Not an equal trade-off.
I simply believe that we devalue what the spirit of Christmas is by mindlessly shopping for stuff we don't need. We don't need to be playing Christmas carols and decorating your whole house on November 1st, I bet you can wait a few weeks until after Thanksgiving. We also don't need to support companies blindly because they mark things down a lot.
This Christmas, I urge you to think before you spend and be mindful of supporting companies that don't treat their employees correctly. If you can, I suggest shopping local and small businesses or buying directly from artists at local craft fairs or online.
Instead of mindlessly buying things because of the sale price, ask yourself why you're buying it.The great holiday Christmas is about giving and receiving gifts, but it's also about love.
