Two days ago I went into one of those big home improvement stores and I was shocked to see aisles and aisles of Christmas decorations — right in front for everyone to see. This was October 16th — a full two weeks before Halloween.
It’s no secret — I let Twitter know how much I hate Christmas yesterday. It is my least favorite time of year. The gaudy decorations. The stress of buying presents. Having to socialize. It’s definitely not for me.
Christmas would be more tolerable if it was only one day, but no! It has to last for two goddamn months!
Okay. I’m done bitching.
My husband and I really only celebrate Christmas because the rest of our family does, but we keep it secular. Yes to Santa, no to Jesus.
What about Halloween? My husband and daughter love Halloween! Please don’t skip over it! We picked out our costumes and we have decorations all over our yard.
Since the beginning of September, we’ve gone to the Spirit Halloween store every Thursday after my daughter’s swimming lesson. It’s a treat for her that she looks forward to.
Trick-or-Treat is really quite the event in our neighborhood. I think our neighbors try to outdo each other every year when it comes to decorations. There are lights and sounds up and down the streets. And so many kids! I didn’t know we had so many kids in our neighborhood! Where did they all come from?
It’s a lot of fun.
And then there’s Thanksgiving. That’s my favorite! It’s a little less pressure and we all get to enjoy my dad’s fabulous cooking! No spirits. No ghosts. No Jesus. Just a glorious secular feast.
So what do holidays look like for you? Do you hate Christmas as much as I do or do you get into the spirit of the season? Does your family keep it secular? I am writing this post from the viewpoint of an American from a Christian family. Fill me in if you have other holidays that you celebrate!
Personally, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year although I don’t really do anything special for it (although I have leeway to change that now). I’ve always been a horror movie fan.
While I am an atheist, I still like having Xmas decorations and the sort of celebratory aspects of it although I don’t believe in the religion at all. The single holiday I’d most want to excise personally is Thanksgiving. Its politically problematic and for years I haven’t particularly enjoyed the company that I had been forced to keep via family obligations which I don’t have as strongly any more. I’d just as soon go out to a restaurant and call it quits and one holiday with more…elaborate obligations is enough.
Hallowe’en is my only major holiday, though I’m willing to do Dia de los Muertos (I have a friend here from Mexico) and enjoyed Walpurgisnacht the last two years. With Hallowe’en lost this year (no parties to attend), I’ll do something next April.
Cripes, xmas crap is already in stores here, and this country is daoist and buddhist. Why do they buy this stuff? I would have thought the Taiwanese would enjoy Hallowe’en more, since “Ghost Month” is a thing (eighth month of the lunar year).
The christian cult is a tiny minority here, so it hardly rates. But I have huge issues with all the fireworks around major holidays (Lunar New Year, Dragon Boat Festival, etc.). However, 10/10 day (Taiwan’s independence) just passed and it was the quietest it’s ever been; the closure of public events is nearly over, but still on enough that everything was cancelled, just like Hallowe’en parties. And there won’t be a pride parade this year either.
Oh, at least as much. I’d be willing to bet there’s a near-dichotomy with very little exchange: you’re either born into a (almost always) Christian family that celebrates Christmas, or you’re born into the tiny minority that don’t celebrate it. Converts away from religion from the former seem to want to salvage fond childhood memories with a secular celebration; in the latter, as is my case growing up in a minority religion that didn’t celebrate almost any holidays, I learned to associate Christmas with bullies who took personal issue with me because I didn’t share in the festivities. It probably wouldn’t surprise you that I didn’t embrace the so-called secular trappings of the holiday when I became an atheist, and I think it will be an improvement on the month of December when Americans eventually stop celebrating it.
I warmed up to Halloween and Thanksgiving, though. Holidays centered around junk food are redeemed in my estimation.
A time for Friends and Fiends to Gather ’round
Roasting Babies over a Pit
Screams and Dancing all ’round
Rousing Reggae from the Pit
Ghouls and Goblins flying all night
Dropping presents from a sleigh
Red nose glows all night
Bombs away to slay
These are their favourite claims
Ages old, timeless
They aren’t what I claim
Silly customs, rhymeless
(Further evidence I can’t write poetry… Sorry!)
Love it!
I’ve always loved Halloween because when I grew up, it was a time for kids to go out for an evening with their friends and collect candy. So much fun! So many surprises in the bag; would it be THIS candy or THAT candy?
Christmas was a chore to be endured, full of over-the-top drama from insane narcissists and disappointments aplenty. A typical Christmas at my house when I was growing up would include fragile collectible dolls (I never enjoyed dolls and had no interest in collecting them–and this was no secret) and clothes that didn’t fit because they were meant for a much-younger child. For these things, you had to show GRATITUDE. Then came the writing of the thank-you notes for gifts you neither wanted nor appreciated–always a grind. Then came the meal, which was fraught with drama over What! A! Chore! it was to cook (poorly). But don’t you dare ask to help prepare because that would take the martyrdom out of it.
This year I notice the news is all full of ginned-up drama about shortages…for people who have way too much in the house. Buy NOW, buy NOW. Where I live, the cheesy Christmas crap has been in stores before back-to-school and Halloween stuff.