there's nothing about Christmas that i don't like. even the things about it that i don't like, i like!
1. commercialism - it's only commercial if you make it commercial. nobody can make you make Christmas commercial. didn't your mother ever tell you that just because everybody else is jumping off a bridge doesn't mean you have to jump off a bridge, too?
2. bad Christmas music - i haven't heard this song in a long time and granted, the message was kinda pathetic, but even john denver's "please, daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas" had a great beat. you could dance to it! (provided you weren't drunk.)
3. the crowds - i actually relish the crowds! it means people are still out there - alive! - and, in most cases, focused on somebody else. what i love to do is, i love to go to the busiest mall in town on Christmas Eve afternoon and just sit there, smug as all get out because i have had my shopping done - and wrapped - since like forever, and just watch the people scramble around to get everything crossed off their list and finally make it home before dark. i just sorta sit there, sipping my hot chocolate in bliss and think, you silly people you, what part of "Christmas comes this time every year" eludes you?
4. tacky decorations - i like to think that i have pretty good taste and so this one - this one - really puts me to the test, but even i have learned to appreciate the, if not beauty, then at least the, well, the effort it took you to throw this low-class thing you call a centerpiece together.
(that reminds me of a true story that happened to my friend, linda, one year. at the company Christmas party - at the non-profit, social service agency Christmas party - she won an ugly wreath in the raffle. linda said the thing was so sorry that on the way home, her husband said,
"honey, that thing is a definite 480."
linda: "a 480? what's a 480?"
husband: "you open all 4 windows and i drive 80 and maybe that sucker'll fly outa here.")
well, it didn't. because linda made sure it didn't. because linda is one of those people who can find something beautiful in everyone and everything.
except for ugly Christmas sweaters. linda wouldn't be caught dead in an ugly Christmas sweater.
thank God for linda.
