Arghaweikhwaesdhjaewgarbledina!
It's no real secret that Christmas, as a whole, pisses me off. No, I am not angry because of the holiday itself, but the people who celebrate it. And no, I do not hate Christians for being Christian, but rather they attitude they take on once Thanksgiving is over. Christmas truly brings out the worst in people.
I've had the misfortune to work at a toy store once again this Christmas, and it's been bad as ever. People shove each other, get a snippy attitude, and act like general asshats in order to get their beloved children (read: spoiled brats) the gifts they want.
Now, as a Buddhist, I do not believe in Jesus. I believe he was a person, and he had some pretty groovy ideas about how to live, but I just don't believe in God or that he is the son of said god. However, I am not a hardass about Christmas. I will tell people Merry Christmas if they say it to me first although I don't believe in Christmas. Why? Simple. I live smack dab in the middle of Redneck Northwest, USA. The majority of people around here are either Christian or Mormon (mostly the former). I understand this, and I respect their religions respectively. I celebrate Christmas because my friends and family celebrate Christmas. I don't think that I should lecture people about their religion, but in return I would like for them not to lecture me about mine. The next person to say "It's not 'happy holidays', it's 'Merry Christmas'" will find my foot connecting with their throat. I do not say "happy holidays" because of this. In fact, I just do the usual "have a nice day" canned greeting because Nazi-esque Christians running around. Thanks a whole lot for making our lives in retail miserable, Bill O'Reilly. Some places will not allow people to wish others a merry Christmas. You just made life harder at an already stressful time of year. Mostly I do not like that line because you're excluding other religions. And thusly, I call the month of December "Ramachaunnukwansolsmas".
Just a word of advice to the idiots who parrot the phrase "It's not 'happy holidays', it's 'Merry Christmas'", it IS disrespectful to other religions for you to force yours on top of theirs whether you realize it or not. Ignorance is not an excuse.
Christmas is a depressing time of year for me. Every year seems to get worse. People trampling each other for the coveted "hot items" of the year make it impossible to go outside from two weeks before Christmas. I don't mean that metaphorically either. People literally will trample each other for items if they want it bad enough. Christmas embodies the soul of heartless consumerism that grips America so tightly. Because, you know, Christmas is found in a box. Not in the heart. Dr. Seuss was wrong.
It's not my intent to sound like a Grinch (since we're doing Dr. Seuss references), but I wish people would tone down Christmas. It's a time to be together and to love each other, not make a complete asshole of yourself. I guess what I'm saying is... Christmas pisses me off. Yes. I said it. The traffic sucks, customers switch off their sanity and go into OMGWTFBBQMUSTHAVEITNOWOMGOMGOMG mode, and the weather isn't too uplifting either. Oh, and buy your gifts early. Seriously. Do not come in the day before Christmas, complain about the lack of selection, then whip out fifty coupons, most of which will not work with the items you are trying to purchase or are expired, and force me to stay after thirty minutes because your ass doesn't know how to read. No. This coupon is NOT for movies. Do you see the "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and "The Incredibles 2: Rise of the Underminer"? Those are not movies. Those are games. The Harry Potter movie is in theaters still. There's no way that could possibly be for the movie, even though the morons who printed this coupon lacked the foresight to say "on these game titles" instead of "on these titles". Yes, I know what I'm doing. No, I know what I'm talking about. Now shut the hell up. Herbie: Fully Loaded is retarded anyway, and you deserve to be smote Old Testament style for even buying it, much less trying to whip out fifty thousand coupons to get two dollars off.
Maybe next year I'll hibernate through this month. That sounds like a good idea.