Any of my friends will tell you that I'm not the biggest fan of the Thanksgiving/Christmas season (known in the My Church has taken over your Mid-Winter Pagan rites collection nicknamed "The Holidays"). While I have a great deal of personal reasoning behind this, which I'll most likely get into later on in the season when the cheerful masses will REALLY get me pissed about The Holidays, I try to put on a neutral face and let the good cheer flow around me.
Still there is a limit. For example, I heard people listening to Christmas carols today. THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN. For crying out loud we haven't even had THANKSGIVING yet, people!! Give me a little time to build up my Scrooge Shielding before exposing me to all that good cheer.
*sigh*
I hope this is NOT an omen for the rest of this season... Damn, and I just remembered, my birthday is coming up too... The big 3-4.
*fake smiles* Happy Holidays, people... *end fake smile*
I'm the complete opposite. Halloween was never celebrated in my house, save for this one time when we were kids and my mother dressed us up as pirates -- with clothes she made herself, and makeup out of her own bag. LOL! So Halloween is a bit of a let down for me. Plus, I'm not such a huge fan of horror movies, since 95% of them suck ass in the production and writing department. I was just watching From Dusk Till Dawn the other night and realized . . . damn, I didn't remember this movie being so f'n stupid before.
ReplyDeleteBy contrast, T-Day and Xmas were happy, joyful events in my house growing up. We kids were treated like royalty despite being dirt broke and on welfare. I learned so many good values about family and being together at this time of year. So I inevitably get very happy starting in November. I love this time of year!
You probably had the opposite experience, I'm guessing. I think our childhood experiences really shape how we approach the holidays.
Yes, I had the COMPLETELY opposite experience. While I never really did much of the trick or treating, I got permission to feel and partially express the darker things I felt on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteWhereas every year, the holidays were nothing more than an excuse to watch my family tear itself apart. Everything from subtle passive aggressive insults to flat out physical bouts peppered all of my holiday experiences as a child. It doesn't help that my birthday was also thrown in the mix where I got major doses of neglect.
In the end, I also learned a great many good values about family and being together during the holidays. I just do the exact opposite of my family's example. But given my history, it just feels hollow.
So, have all the good cheer you want, just don't get any on me and we're good.