Christmas sucks

Do you find that the holidays serve more to drain you - physically, spiritually, and financially - than anything else?

Of course you do. Join the club.

Not even getting into the inconvenient fact that the presumed historical reason for the season is a fraud, it seems to me that most people would rather not have to deal with Christmas. And why not feel this way? Having to engage in extra, ultimately useless work and dealing with hated relatives and long lost friends is not the average person's idea of fulfillment.

The holiday malarkey is forced upon us by a vastly overextended and overbuilt retail sector that has come to rely heavily on Christmas-related consumer spending in order to meet their yearly profit targets and bottom lines. (Not to mention the millions of children and childlike adults for whom receiving fancy gifts is a long awaited and expected annual privilege, who are of course the silent complicit partners in this scheme.)

If that's become the reason for the season, then that is just another example to highlight the total moral bankruptcy of our society.

As for me, I don't even decorate. I simply refuse to acknowledge that the holiday exists.

If you feel like giving something away, donate to charity. You will feel better about yourself and know that you did right in the world, while striking a blow against the imperial cult of materialism.