The Dreaded C Word

No not THAT C word this one is the C word that brings stress, anxiety and financial worries.

Yep its that time of year again when we start to get bombarded with the C word – Christmas!

 

Image taken from Wikipedia’s page on Christmas Day

I despise Christmas Day, a day when we are meant to celebrate the birth of Jesus but instead it is a day where I have to watch the kids once again be disappointed by a lack of presents. Even though they try hard not to be, and for that I love them, but every year I die a little inside because I cannot give them what they really want. I would hate to be them when they go back to school in the new year and hear how much their friends have received compared to the single items we give them.

That in itself though is indicative to the problems of Christmas these days, even going back 20 years ago when I was a teenager it was unheard of for shops to display Christmas items before December let alone AUGUST as some shops do now! I went to my local supermarket the other day and the have started filling the shelves with Christmas stuff.

And so as summer turns to autumn we now start the buildup to Christmas day and soon we will be unable to escape from it.

It is not even about family anymore its all about gifts and receiving them, Sheryl and I have not exchanged gifts for Christmas for years to ensure the kids get theirs first.

Why is it now so commercial? It seems to be less and less about the religious aspect each passing year and more about how much money the shops can make from us.

It doesn’t help when you have children so desperate to brag to their friends about what they got, how much it cost etc and I defy any parent to not want to do all they can for their kids at Christmas. They have all the build up from the media and friends and to then wake up to one present can’t be nice for them, but its one more than I usually get.

It is all well and good saying “others have it worse than you” but try making a child understand that! The shops know this and manipulate it to their advantage.

Do children even know what Christmas signifies these days? We are so busy with this political correctness crap that Schools seem to be more concerned with children being taught about other religions in the name of “tolerance and understanding” that we are in danger of forgetting that we live in a Christian country.

My birthday is on November 29th and any talk of Christmas is banned in the moose household until after that day but that does not mean the kids are not already planning their wish lists and that we are not already counting every penny to be able to try and give them what they want.

It is bad enough that come December you cannot walk into a shop without hearing the same Christmas songs being played, the same Cd that is released every year – Now that what I call Christmas – if you have worked in retail you will know these songs back to front, word for word and could probably sing them backwards!

If I ever see Yoko Ono I will rabbit punch her whilst singing “war is over!”

A Christmas rant in September who would have thought but before you know it the day will be upon us, I know this thanks to people posting on Facebook that its less than 100 days away – gee thanks for that.

All in all it means the next few months will not be fruitful in terms of my recover because I can honestly say I am not a fan of Christmas day in its current commercial only celebration. I would go so far as to cancel it for a year if only I could get away with it, if it was not for those pesky kids!

Depression and Christmas does not a happy moose make and as quick as it comes I will be happier come 26th December when it is all over for another year, well another 9 months until the shops start the whole process again!