Well, the holiday season is upon us and I would like to complain about it. However, before I do so, let's just close some lose ends. This will be fun because I get to use bullet points.
- Just because Gervais/Merchant wrote a few episodes of the American Office does not mean I have to like the show, or even like those episodes. In fact, I probably won't because I was talking about the different tones in each show.
- Just because I have never seen a blu ray movie does not mean that I can't say that I do not view a better quality DVD as a necessity, which was my argument.
- The run the cop off the road thing, ugh, let's just move on.
Back to me complaining about things. The holiday season has become a topic which has made me divided. I don't want people throwing around words like "scrooge", "no good atheist" or "guy who is complaining about having some time off from work," but there are some issues I have with this holiday season. I don't care what anyone says, this season does not bring out the best in people. It brings out the worst. I will not step foot in any type of store because of how insane people are. remember the movie Jingle All the Way? Yes, I know a waste of Phil Hartman's talent and some of Shwartzanager's best work. However, I do not want to talk about the acting. All of those store scenes are so accurate it hurts. People are insane and are going nuts so they can get three cents off a firby, tickle me elmo, tomigotchi, pet rock or whatever crap is deemed "hot" this season by toy producers and consumers blindly follow. Yes, consumerism bothers me. In fact, gift giving bothers me. Can't we all just agree to buy ourselves something we know we will enjoy and forget the gift giving? This gets rid of the whole I don't know what to buy for anyone problem.
Now, let's get to the bigger issue. The holiday season and what it really is. I personally find little religious significance in the holiday. I celebrate Chanukah's and Doc celebrates the birth of Martin Luther or something. I have to ignore the religion issue for the time being, just to say that I don't assign much to it. Perhaps, it is the absence of this which makes me have trouble with the season. In fact, and I am not going to hold any punches here, Santa Claus legitimately freaks me out. Creepy old man wanting kids to sit on his lap, gross.
The multitude of holidays also brings up the awkward issue of being politically correct and bizarre people arguing that they need shop keepers to wish them a merry Christmas instead of a happy holidays. This does create an awkward feeling in areas with much diversity. In fact, and I am not offended by this, but I never know what to say when people with me a Merry Christmas. My parents, for example, would probably stop and point out to this well-meaning person that they do not celebrate Christmas and give a lecture about diversity. I usually just say thank you or wish it back, but there is that awkwardness there that does annoy me. Perhaps it only annoys me because I react the way I do and hear my parents' voice in my head at the same time. Anyway, I have successfully explained the title of my post so let's move on.
I was watching community the other day and it really made a great point. In reality, there is no meaning to the holiday season. We all push our own meaning into it to give it a purpose. Its lack of true meaning, due to their being different holidays being celebrated and all combined into a season, is its meaning. It gives us something to assign meaning to just so we can spend time with friends and family. That is why the holiday season is so great. That and those red and white tic tacs. Why can't they just make those all year round? Oh, and I also like A Charlie Brown Christmas and my parents think this makes me a bad Jew.
Well, that was my first attempt at doing a "complaining" post. I think it was OK, I look forward to Doc agreeing with me about the annoyances of the holiday season and see what he does with it.
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