Why I don't like Christmas

I went to Sam's Club today to pick up my monthly prescription, and I was rather shocked, amazed, and offended at the length of the checkout lines. The part that offended me so much was that it was abundantly obvious that the Christmas season is just about rampant consumerism. It's about money--lots of money. People spend far more than they can afford on other people just because that's what they think everyone expects. I've seen people get yearly loans in order to buy presents that they can't afford, just to turn around and do it all over again.

Growing up for me, Christmas was all about presents--and vacation from school, but that's not the topic here. Christmas wasn't about spending time with family, or giving to other people, or about helping people out, or Jesus' birth, or celebrating anything. Christmas was about presents. I grew up in a Christian household, so celebrating Jesus' birth was what it was supposed to be about, but the only thing on my mind was what I was going to get for Christmas.

One year, everything changed. There was no abundance of presents under the Christmas tree. Nothing odd financially had occurred--we kids had just grown up. It cames a major shock and disappointment to me, as I felt like I had gotten next to nothing, and the magic of getting presents on Christmas was gone. I knew I was being selfish in being disappointed, but this idea of Christmas was so ingrained in my psyche that it was impossible to ignore.

Since my mother had gotten married and there were now two step-siblings included in the "family," the decision was made that instead of everyone getting presents for everyone else, names would be drawn out of a hat. Each person would get two names, and two people would get their name. The extra difficulty for me with this was that I had also gotten married and moved away from home. My two younger siblings were still in high school, my older brother was off in Seattle, or France, or wherever he was at the time, and I knew next to nothing about the new additions to the family. It's extremely stressful to be the primary gift-giver for someone that you know next to nothing about. As a result, I wound up relying on my mother most of the time to basically tell me what to buy for people, since I didn't even have the chance to sit down with the person and figure out for myself what they might actually enjoy. Christmas, therefore, wasn't even about getting to know my stepsisters or my new stepfather. Even though it was financially easier on everyone, it was still about receiving gifts, and it was unfair. It was obvious that if our grandmother got your name, then you would be getting something nice--something you couldn't afford on your own. However, if I got someone's name, it wouldn't be--it would be a Big Dog fleece jacket, or a calendar with pictures of North Carolina in it.

Last year, I boycotted the thing. Bonnie had a great idea to help out a friend of hers who had opened a new business, and we sent either brownies or cookies to everyone. That was great, because we were able to include people we otherwise wouldn't have been able to include.

However, it was still about spending money and sending stuff to people. Even though I had the week off from work, I didn't even get to see my family. I haven't seen my older brother or sister since September of last year. I've seen my dad three times since then, and my mother once. I even spent my birthday alone. (Here I am pulling an Annika, bawling as I write this.) For the first time ever, Christmas this year is about spending time with my family.

When I walked into Sam's Club today and I saw how long the lines were, I was deeply offended. Sam's Club was trying their absolute hardest to make sure that people spent their money at Sam's, and not somewhere else. For the first time ever at this store, there were enough registers open to handle the demand. The lines were short, and it appeared people were getting through. This offended me because it was clear that Sam's Club was not doing this in order to reduce the stress of shopping or to give people jobs. They were doing this to make more money. Any other time of the year, when I walk into this store on a Saturday afternoon, the lines are so horrifically long that you have to take a detour around the front of the store in order to get to the opposite side. This time, there were probably 50% more cars in the parking lot than I usually see, and the lines were not frightening. Sam's Club was doing their best to take advantage of the rampant consumerism that defines Christmas in our country. If they cared about their customers or offering jobs, this is what the place would look like year round... not just when they higher-ups *think* people have money to spend.

What's to like about that?