First posted on December 18th, 2006 – exactly five years ago!
I still feel the same about the scrooges…

It seems to be turning into an epidemic.

Lately I’ve been coming across so many people complaining about the Christmas season in various ways, ranging from mild dislike to out-and-out hatred.

It seems that those who dislike/resent/hate Christmas the most are those who feel somehow pressured or obligated to do things they don’t particularly like doing during this time of year, or they dislike/resent/hate the way other people celebrate Christmas.

But surely they are placing the blame erroneously. If one cannot say no to family and/or friends, should they blame Christmas? If they don’t like the manner in which some people exploit the holiday season and the crass commercialism that goes on … why say it’s the fault of the holiday? And if it’s the religious aspect of it that they dislike, well, this is easy enough to ignore.

It seems to me that these scrooges are redirecting their frustrations in order to avoid acknowledging where the real problems and issues lie. Though of course there are some people who just complain for the sake of it because they enjoy complaining. 😉

Another anti-Christmas argument I often hear is that people should always behave with compassion and generosity towards their fellow man, not just once a year. And I quite agree. But like birthdays, anniversaries and such, Christmas is a once-a-year reminder to behave this way and I see nothing wrong with that.

Anyhow, I really love Christmas, though my best Christmases started happening after I left home at age 15. I’ve had a few nice family Christmases since then, but my best ones have involved cherished friends and loved ones. And one quite memorable one when I was in my early twenties, doing my laundry and then going out to the cinema as I was on my own. I reckoned that since I was all alone I’d get all pathetic and do all these sad and pathetic things … but then I saw that I wasn’t actually on my own. There were plenty of other people at the laundromat and at the cinema and it was somehow comforting to be in their company.

So basically, Christmas is what you make it, though it may not always turn out to be exactly what you expect.