The calendar flips as we start preparing for another yule tide cheer.
Except cheer we, or at least I, dont.
Another year to prepare for a hetic season of what to buy for who, who buys for who, and can I afford it yet again.
Growing up looking forward to Christmas year after year spoils the child into thinking Christmas is the best time of the year.
Then we grow up and realize, "Holy shit - I have to buy all this crap..." and what for who, etc.
The weeks leading up to this wonderful day are hampered with loads of traffic trying to find that one thing that can show that person just how much they love each other.
Rude people slamming their fists into the air and cursing an elderly person, trying to get to a doctor, because they have to wait a few minutes more to buy this love.
And that is what it is - buying love.
Having your teeth pulled seems easier during this time of the year.
Please doctor, admit me to the hospital for the first 25 days of December.
Another reason to plan a party.
Hell, when did anyone need a reason?
"Let's drink tonight"
"Ok"
"What are we celebrating"
"The fact that I didn't have a hangover this morning?"
"That'll work"
Buy this, no that...give this, take that.
Even the most dysfunctional families stop being dysfunctional for one day to say Merry Christmas.
I suppose that is at least worth something.
But the media, the shopping media, presents the idea to the nation, nay to the world, that we need to buy more this year because the numbers were down the last.
How many stores would shrivel up and cease to exist because they floundered around all year expecting the holidays to make up their losses during the year?
Prolly a good few.
A friend of mine decided not to do Christmas this year, opting to stay from buying and celebrate Festivus instead.
Is that what we should go to?
Be patient, I have a point here somewhere.
Oh yeah, I remember now.
This Christmas was actually not as bad, but each Christmas seems more and more forced.
Mindless people doing what they have done for years and years.
I had to sit this year and watch someone open gifts with the giver sitting right there telling them how this was the most expensive kind and supposively the best on the market.
That is not what Christmas is about.
It is about giving a token to show that you are thinking about them this year.
Whether that token is part of your love you have broken off and offered or a meaningful gift that you know they will like.
It could just be money to help pay the bills that are inflated during the Christmas season.
It is about the children who need to learn the lesson of what Christmas really is - whether it is the birth of Christ - or just the simple lesson to love thy neighbor.
Not about how much we gave or spent.
I urge our generation to stop the meaningless practice of greed and start teaching just to be good to one another.
For the record, I am just a guilty as the next person. In my defense, I try to give from the heart.