Day One
Christmas and I have an interesting relationship, the way that gasoline and I have an interesting relationship. I don’t own a car anymore, but there’s usually a time, once a year, when I have to rent a van or drive a friend. Much like Christmas, I don’t think about gasoline throughout the year except for that one time when it becomes an omnipresent element. Much like gasoline, Christmas costs too much and it’s a pain in the ass to deal with, especially when travelling.
I think I like Christmas? I listen to a lot of Christmas music and I enjoy the scenery when it pops up, but the weather and the costly labor (gifts, travelling, etc.) makes me sometimes hate it. There’s a lot of obligation with this holiday and that’s not something that should be celebrated.
Obligation is the worse. And I’m not spouting some anti-consumerism tripe about avoiding spending to honor the somewhat-incorrect religious connotations of the season, because the moment you put the Christ back in Christmas, you’re taking one obligation and substituting it with a BIGGER one. Instead of having to buy your sister a gift or else she’ll be mad at you, you now have to celebrate the birth of Jesus or GOD will be mad at you. I think when we get caught up in the obligation, we forget that we as individuals have the power over this holiday. Until it’s legally enforced to celebrate, we can easily ignore all the “requirements” of the season. You don’t need to get a tree. You don’t have to spend a lot of money. You don’t HAVE to do anything.
I think the poverty element of Christmas, clear in the first set of lyrics of Rocket From The Crypt’s song “Cancel Christmas,” is something that is endured throughout this dumb holiday season. While the song “Cancel Christmas” is a sad, long sorrowful mourn of how someone simply can’t afford Christmas, I think we can take that lesson and use it to transform our own holiday by simply denying the holiday. Christmas is something that can be cancelled. Instead of mourning that, own it. Shut down Christmas and don’t let the idea that you HAVE to sit on a fat man’s lap make you do it, especially if it means that you’re setting yourself up for unfulfilled expectations and disappointment.
