Here Comes Christmas!

How can you hate the Holidays?

 I understand the average wanker's bad childhood experiences or a Holiday-related trauma. (Do you think John McClane ever enjoyed Christmas again?) But you've got to be pretty self-absorbed to hate Christmas, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, and Kwanzaa.

 The Holidays are about community - about giving of oneself, about thinking about others. Cooking for them, entertaining them, buying them gifts, spending time with them. Sure, we don't all have perfect Norman Rockwell families. There are going to be frictions and fights and disagreements and pettiness. But we're all so wrapped up in our own skulls that all we're thinking about is the hassle, the traffic, the extra work, the extra money, the family drama.

 Why don't we see those things - which are admittedly something to dislike about the Holidays - as obstacles to overcome, ways to make ourselves think, try harder, knuckle down and Nike it, put ourselves into someone else's shoes, get out of our own damn ways and become better people? Why is it such a hassle to put a dollar in Santa's red bucket, buy your Mom that sweater she's had her eye on, create, cook, and serve a delicious meal for the people who mean something to us, hang that fucking tinsel and garland and make the house look garish and barbaric and fun?

 I admit that a lot of the "fun" has gone out of Christmas. Kids these days (lord, I'm old) are very spoilt and used to getting what they want when they want it. (Remember the lousy rants on FB last year of "I didn't get an iPhone 5! I hate my parents, worst Christmas ever!!!"?) Frankly, I blame the parents, not the ads on TV. I don't think commercials or catalogues are any more obnoxious and obtrusive than they were forty years ago. The problem is, parents aren't willing to accept the fact that they're not their kids' buddies and they can't cater to their every whim. Kids are going to whine for what they think they want. They have to learn that they're not going to get it. And yes, they're going to learn that on Christmas morning. You know what? Good. Let them learn disappointment. They need to get used to it. But you know what else they need to learn? How to give gifts. How to do for others. How to set the table, make the dressing, clean up afterwards.

 Part of the joy of the Holidays is the satisfaction from seeing all your work put to good use. The hours spent decorating the house? Result: your niece's eyes light up when she comes in and she starts to clap her hands in delight. The days and labor of putting together a really kick-ass turkey dinner? Result: the house smells like Heaven on the eighth day of Creation, and everyone eats with gusto. The effort of putting on a Holiday party? Result: a house full of noisy, happy, sometimes slightly tipsy people getting to know one another and strengthening the ties that bind soul to soul. Tackling said post-fete house? Result: A still-decorated, quiet, clean house, and the ineffable, unbreakable, private and glorious reward of pouring oneself that celebratory glass of wine and putting one's slippered feet up.

So quit hating on Christmas. Get out of your own damn head and fucking DO something for someone else. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Happiness isn't about our own pursuit of it. It comes with the satisfaction of doing things for others. Sounds backwards? Yeah, I know. The good stuff always is.

 So unwrap a candy cane, put on your Santa hat, and go to the mall. Don't do your shopping ... go to Starbucks, and pay for the latte of the person behind you. Trust me. Start throwing that Joy to the World crap around, and you're going to make someone's day. You'll nourish their soul, and by so doing, nourish your own.