Christmas Obsession

Call me what you like, I can't stand Christmas time. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas day. I love eating and seeing family and the like. But I hate the hype. I hate Christmas shopping, I hate Christmas music with a passion, and you know what, even Santa Claus is starting to seem a little ridiculous.

Now, I'm not making any judgments on any other country when I say this, but America has a sick obsession with Christmas. Why does the Christmas music have to start on November 1st, playing on the radio? (that's no exaggeration if you've never heard it before) Why do we need to buy not one gift, but so many gifts for our loved ones? We spend so much money on gifts. These gifts are usually things that people don't need and sit in the closet, get re-gifted or go out in the next yard sale (secretly, of course). In fact, why do we even have the word re-gift in our vocabulary? The whole idea is somewhat silly, really. We have so much stuff in our lives, yet, we give more stuff every year for Christmas, so we can add to the stuff pile.

Now, I know it's the fault of the economy, but working at Macy's this year is making me realize the extent of the economic crisis underway. Here it is, Christmas time, and the mall is quite empty. Black Friday was bad, but I'm sure if you compared it to what it was like a few years ago, I'm sure it paled in comparison. I'm hoping people will realize in this economic downturn that we don't need so much stuff in our lives. If you need to give a gift, just give some money... something that everyone could use a little of at this time.. Frankly, I hope I don't get any Christmas presents this year. My mom bought me a new ski jacket for Christmas, since mine is quite worn, but she told me it's all I'm getting. And I'm thankful. The last thing I need is more stuff.

Be wise, ask for no gifts this year. Do you really need that useless stuff anyway?

Here's a photo I found when I typed "santa" into google's image search.... this is a Korea blog... let's tie it in somehow... Are those mailmen? The definitely work for the Korean post office..