Most of my friends love Christmas, or at least are aware of its annual passing, but remain apathetic. I, on the other hand, have not been timid about stating my overall disdain for Christmas. The image of Christmas that everyone has in their heads is completely false. There is no Christmas spirit, as it was replaced by corporate greed long ago.

Let me say first of all, that if you enjoy Christmas because you get to see your family and eat lots of food, we already have a day for that. It's called Thanksgiving. It happened barely a month ago, and nobody even liked it then, so why would doing the same thing a month after the fact merit any different results? With how much everybody complains about having to see certain family members, why would you chomp at the bit to experience that again? It makes no sense to me.

Another thing I hate about Christmas is the gift giving.

Sure it sounds innocent enough, but it's actually one of the most malevolent things about the holiday. The only thing that the exchange of gifts succeeds in doing is giving, even more, money to fat cat businesses. They capitalize on our desire to buy the love of our families by offering low deals, which only serves to make people buy more, and further their profits.

In short, modern Christmas is a product that big business sells to you. There is a reason that every conceivable company has sales during Christmas season. There's no heart or soul in it anymore, just good ol' fashioned.

I also hate gift giving because it seems to completely miss the point of the holiday entirely. If Christmas really is all about spending time with your friends and loved ones, then why are we socially required to give these people material possessions? You would think that simply offering your love and company would be more than enough if Christmas really is as wholesome as people say, but this is easily struck down. This further strengthens my belief that Christmas is just the process of buying people's love through material gain and spending money on useless items.

In conclusion, Christmas has become a shell of its former self. I would say former glory, but that's assuming it ever had any at all. Call me the Grinch or Scrooge if you want. Honestly, I kind of revel in the name (I have just learned that the Grinch is being remade, and will be released next year, only proving my point regarding consumerism further). These days, Christmas is simply an American cash cow, no longer holding any spiritual significance, and if you think it does, have fun living in denial with all that money you wasted sitting under the tree.