Jolly Ho Ho Holiday
So there I was, enjoying my alone time off time from work. I was writing 4th part of my SciFi Dystopian story "Aftershock".
I have a radio on, chill out music and suddenly I hear that typical jingles that many Christmas songs have at the start and the chills flash down my spine. I think to my self. "For crying out loud, here we go again". It cuts through my ears and reminds me about all the things I profoundly don’t like about this “Jolly Ho Ho Holiday”.
Make no mistake about it. I like Saturnalia, with the addition of Yule tree. That is what the holiday as most know it as Christmas really is. (Ancient Roman Holiday to celebrate winter's solstice with the Ancient Germanic tradition of Yule tree and gift giving. Catholic church simply stole the two holidays, rebranded them and sold them as the carpenter's birthday).
It is a season for families to enjoy time together, to give nice gifts to the ones most dear to the one’s heart. Kids are easy. Overdose them on sugar and buy them a bunch of electronic toys so they become even more asocial, self centered and insensitive to the world around them.
It is also a time for special Christmas family dinner where most people at the table pretend to like each other. There is that crazy uncle who really doesn’t give a shit about political correctness. There is also that annoying aunt with screeching laughter. Then there are kids forced to wear obnoxious Christmas sweaters because granny needs to be happy. Great home cooking, and a laugh or two, because in the end there is no family which is normal or perfect. (I know I sound grumpy and in my day I was attending such dinners often enough. Now as I have no family to speak of, I get to avoid all that drama).
However, if all that psycho lunacy would be limited only on December it would not be so nerve wrecking. Unfortunately the madness begins already at the end of September. I swear to all mighty Thor and Odin that I heard electronic Christmas music in shopping center that early and the melody stuck in my head. Not pleasant. Not pleasant at all.
There's never enough stuff for decorating your house and the tree for Christmas. Oh and don't let me even get started on the overdose of lights that you can see from ISS International space station.
Those from last year are not "in vogue" anymore as wife / girlfriend would tell you, which is a code for; "I do not like the colors from last year and I want to change them". Men out there know what I am talking about and it is not easy to keep your cool because "you" know that a nice bundle of money will be wasted on decorations you use only for few weeks in a year and "you" know that the ones from last year are perfectly fine. But what in Hades do we know. We are just members of Homo Sapiens species with male persuasion that carry all the bags from Christmas shopping as we follow our madam through the shops.
The magic of Christmas, whatever that might be is lost on me. I never really felt it. I mean, here we have, Coca Cola version of St’ Nicholas, whom was invented in the 1920’s and the image we see today has nothing to do with actual Santa Clause. They bombard us with all sorts of commercials to buy crap we don’t need. Kids are already over-spoiled and they are never happy with what they have.
Saturnalia has nothing to do with "gift of giving" or family anymore. It is all about competing who is going to give a better present, about buying kids things that they do not need hoping that they will not go into full drama mode when they don’t like their presents. Then you have loads of relatives you need to buy gifts for and in the end, you are broke, thinking about jumping of a bridge and just hoping for this time to pass so you can relax a bit. There is no season more stressful than the end of December.
So to all of you freaking about it, cherish one another because many do not have what "you" have. Forget about "what you must do because it is the season and that is what you are supposed to do". . . . . Go and do what makes you happy. Be with those that make you happy. Family is not about blood relations. Family is about the deeds and those who are close to your heart.
Till next time,
