A poll was released this week that showed that 45%--that's right forty-five percent--of Americans would prefer to skip Christmas because of the financial stress.
I realize that we may be a bit different--the Beautiful Boy is eight and Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town are still a lot of fun to watch, and the thrill of opening presents on Christmas morning hasn't waned due to Christmas lists ending the element of surprise. We also don't go into debt for the next year to pay for it. We're glad it only comes once a year, but it's still a happy time.
But you can see their point. Christ, Black Friday now starts on Thursday night. The amount of commercials on T.V. touting one half-assed store or another has reached the point where they rival those for political campaigns at the height of election season, which is really saying something. Worse, the products they're selling are just the same shit in a different year.
We are probably a bit past the point where a roasted goose, some plum pudding, and a lively jig a la A Christmas Carol is going to be a very special Christmas, but if we want to find the root of the problem we need look no further than corporate America, which always manages to turn everything it touches into more work than it's worth, while giving it all the joy of a dead tree stump.
Peace,
emaycee
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