It's ranting time again

What do I hate about Christmas ?

Lots and lots of things, including :

the denaturation of a deeply religious feast into a commercial holiday ;
Christmas midnight mass theatre ;
Christmas's false sentimentality : peace on earth to all people on the 25th, but rest assured : the killing starts all over again a couple of days later ;
Christmas superficiality ;
Christmas cards ;
Christmas trees ;
Christmas decorations ;
Christmas parties ;
Christmas greed and Christmas gifts ;
Christmas carols : I hate almost all of them but especially Silent Night brought by schmalzy choirs or schmalzy singers ;
Christmas movies ;
Christmas shopping ;
Christmas shoppers ;
Dickens's A Christmas Carol ;
Christmas TV programmes ;
Christmas speeches by heads of state or government ;
Christmas markets ;
Christmas cheer and jollity by people who do not have the foggiest idea what the day is all about ;
people who hate Christmas for all the wrong "politically correct" reasons.

What I like about Christmas : the message nobody listens to any more - me included. A beautifully serene midnight mass, preferably in a remote a location where commercial excesses have not yet penetrated and taken over.

I almost forgot the most important reason of all why I hate Christmas : the totally fake father Christmas, an American invention and not the best one, who took over from Saint Nicholas of Myra, whom we commemorate today.

Some of my fondest early childhood memories evolve around the mysterious St Nicholas, as personified in my sainted parents and grandparents, and about pre-commercial Christmasses. Those were the days !

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate poinsettias with a vengeance.

Anonymous said...

I hate people who hate Christmas.