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lauraredcloud at 08:33pm on 20/12/2007 under curmudgeonly bitch
lauraredcloud at 08:33pm on 20/12/2007 under curmudgeonly bitchTo whit: Christmas hymns are nice. Christmas pop songs are horrible.
I mean, okay: presents. Presents is nice and all, but it comes at a price. For every nice gathering of people who know each other well and delight in coming up with great presents for each other, there's a million little agonizing should-I-get-them-something, will-they-get-me-something, am-I-a-bad-person-for-not-having-got-them-somethings.
Santa Claus makes me uncomfortable because it encourages trying to trick children. I only like Santa Claus as an abstract concept symbolizing generosity and hope and wonder. In other words: religious.
Cards are a waste of trees. Next.
Except for the breakfast which I share with my immediate family, I have no particular special Christmas dishes. Cookies I could take or leave. Candy canes are sneaky bastards. They look all delicious and festive, and then when you start to eat them you remember they taste like toothpaste.
The tree is okay, but only if it has non-matching ornaments and doesn't have fake presents under it.
Okay, so I guess there are two categories of Christmas things which I like. The religious things (songs, Christmas story, candlelight service), and the personal immediate-family things (breakfast, stockings, small present exchange). But the traditions in the latter category, in and of themselves, I wouldn't care to do with people I didn't know that well. Whereas I think, if I had no other option, I could probably go to a Christmas Eve service at some anonymous church, and probably get at least something out of it. I mean, yes, I have an ideal Christmas Eve service, but as long as there's candles and carols and some mention of all the world having to be taxed, I'm really fine.
It's weird that I want Christmas to be all religious. I don't want anything else to be religious at any other time of year.
ETA: I just reread How Christmas Stole Everything, and I don't want to toot my own horn (oh, yes I do), but it's kind of great. Still so true and it's adorably whine-melting how it gets increasingly, grudgingly sweet.
ETA ETA: I just reread Laura and Anna's study guide. Over a year later and I still laugh until I cry each time.
I mean, okay: presents. Presents is nice and all, but it comes at a price. For every nice gathering of people who know each other well and delight in coming up with great presents for each other, there's a million little agonizing should-I-get-them-something, will-they-get-me-something, am-I-a-bad-person-for-not-having-got-them-somethings.
Santa Claus makes me uncomfortable because it encourages trying to trick children. I only like Santa Claus as an abstract concept symbolizing generosity and hope and wonder. In other words: religious.
Cards are a waste of trees. Next.
Except for the breakfast which I share with my immediate family, I have no particular special Christmas dishes. Cookies I could take or leave. Candy canes are sneaky bastards. They look all delicious and festive, and then when you start to eat them you remember they taste like toothpaste.
The tree is okay, but only if it has non-matching ornaments and doesn't have fake presents under it.
Okay, so I guess there are two categories of Christmas things which I like. The religious things (songs, Christmas story, candlelight service), and the personal immediate-family things (breakfast, stockings, small present exchange). But the traditions in the latter category, in and of themselves, I wouldn't care to do with people I didn't know that well. Whereas I think, if I had no other option, I could probably go to a Christmas Eve service at some anonymous church, and probably get at least something out of it. I mean, yes, I have an ideal Christmas Eve service, but as long as there's candles and carols and some mention of all the world having to be taxed, I'm really fine.
It's weird that I want Christmas to be all religious. I don't want anything else to be religious at any other time of year.
ETA: I just reread How Christmas Stole Everything, and I don't want to toot my own horn (oh, yes I do), but it's kind of great. Still so true and it's adorably whine-melting how it gets increasingly, grudgingly sweet.
ETA ETA: I just reread Laura and Anna's study guide. Over a year later and I still laugh until I cry each time.
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