Happy Humbug

[W4MAJ]

[gripe on]

Between my full-time job, my part-time job and grad school, I may have a free moment to soak in some holiday goodness... eventually. My next day off is in two weeks. Until then... I am too busy to play Secret Santa. Counting today, there are 21 shopping days left until Christmas and I am officially sick of the decorations, music and the weirdos. Retailers started putting out leftover Christmas goods a week before Halloween. Enough already!

Every year since I left high school this time of year has gotten busier and busier and not always by choice. I've worked two-thirds of the Christmas days since I got married. (People still want to listen to the radio, watch TV and expect the military to be ready.)

Okay, I'm done complaining.

[gripe off]

[AG3Y]

Couldn't agree more! The trappings of commercialism have RUINED the holiday for most of us !

However, when I used to work in Christian radio, I really ENJOYED working Christmas day, or Easter Sunday ( did more than my share of both holidays ! ) I imagined our listeners getting a real blessing by enjoying their time together, with beautiful music and Christ-centered thoughts playing in the background.

You would have to experience it to understand that, I suppose. But it did give one a real "family feeling" !

[G0GQK]

Its quite sad that people have to take on numberous jobs to enable them to feed the family and pay the bills, and have to work all hours round the clock. There's no fun in life when you don't have the time to relax, enjoy the company of those around you and you are assailed at every turn by retailers who require your money to maintain their lifestyle and achieve their sales targets.

Think about it, what is being achieved by the average Joe Bloggs, he spends his years working himself towards death, has money set aside for his retirement and then the greedy members of our society create havoc around the world.? Your dollars are then worth cents, your $250,000 house is worth half of what you paid, and your pension has virtually gone up in smoke.

Because of the incompetence and connivance of politicians your lifetimes work is in the ash can. Some people are making money out of this chaos and the starving poor all around the world find their miserable bags of rice, their lifeline, have increased in price three times and now they, and their children, now can't eat every day.
Have a nice Christmas.

G0GQK

[N0SYA]

things can always be worse

[N3UUX]

things can always be worse

Agreed... and it seems they do on a daily basis.

[W4MAJ]

things can always be worse

I've seen people born and I've seen people die... I take that back, I've never seen anyone be born, not even my children and I regret that, but it chaps my behind knowing it can be worse. I hate how commercialized, scheduled and contrived this time of year has become.

[W5JBP]

things can always be worse

Yes, they can. My wife and I deliver "meals on wheels"
and the other day we were at one of our regular stops. The sheriff was there and putting all their belongings out on the street. How would you like this just before Christmas.

Jim

[WF7A]

To us areligious people, it's just another day. If you don't get sucked in from the commercialism and hype where your self-worth is judged on how much you spend on prezzies and gifts then you're more the better for it.

One of the few Christmas movies worth renting/watching: An American Christmas Carol. This version takes place during the American Depression (the 1932 one, not the 2009 one.)

If you want a delightful take on Christmas commercialism, a must-watch is "Ah-nold" in Jingle All the Way.

...and if you want a hilarious take on the Christmas Carol there's always Blackadder's Christmas Carol.

Fece Navidad!

[AF6LJ]

This is a holiday season for children and the religious. If a person is neither it's easy to feel out of place and somewhat put off by all the apparent sillyness. As I have become older I use the time to reflect on matters of religion even though the day chosen to celebrate my personal lord and savior's birth and accomplishments falls on a Pagan holiday.

Also this time of the year is the time I choose to make sure those in my life know how much I appreciate having them in my life. Life is far too short and often squandered on material gain alone. We all too often find ourselves loosing the opportunity for ever to say what we always wanted to say to those people in our lives.

While I do my best to stay out of the stores this time of the year for a lot of reasons not the least of which is the hoards of preoccupied people who have left their manners in the back seat of their cars or at home on the dresser next to last month's credit card bill I cut them a little slack knowing many of them have children. Seeing the faces of my past coworkers light up when they replay Christmas Day over lunch at work makes it all worth it.

And regardless of what the politically correctness NAZIs force upon us I shall and always ####inue to say

Marry Christmas
And may the season bring much joy to you all.

[K8MHZ]

At the Christmas party, everyone was feeling merry...so she left.
Then they jumped for joy...she left too.