१३ डिसेंबर, २०२१

"I didn’t like Christmas in part because the steel mill where my father worked had closed.... The ads seemed to suggest that the more stuff you got, the better person you were."

"I learned through those commercials that good people got presents and that my family was trash.... Each year around this time, I find it more difficult to balance the awful things we see happening the rest of the year with the joy I’m supposed to drum up near the end of it.... There have even been years when I have skipped Christmas completely, taken advantage of the fact that the whole country is shut down and silent, and spent the day watching horror movies alone and eating Chinese take-away.... For those who hate the holidays, I stand with you. I understand and know what you’re going through. If you are like me, you are strapping in again, steeling yourself for the onslaught the way others might for a hurricane. I just try to ride it out."


Of course, every year, there must also be essays like that one. Is it really such a struggle, skipping Christmas? I pretty much skip Christmas, but I don't make a thing out of that. I just continue as usual, living in the day, respecting all the days as equal. I don't like feeling that a particular day is special. It detracts from the dayness of the day. 

An annoying thing about Christmas is that it's more than a day — it's a season. It reaches out and catches up many other days. And that's just greedy. 

If you're genuinely religious about Christmas, I'm not talking about your Christmas. But I will just note that there are many Christians who don't celebrate Christmas.

६८ टिप्पण्या:

tim maguire म्हणाले...

I'm a fan of Christmas. It’s the best holiday, hands down. But there are lots of ways to celebrate it. Around my house I continually try to insert more religious aspects into our observance as the traditions of Christmas are more moving if they have meaning and significance, rather than just being things you do or don’t feel like doing this year.

That said, two of my favourite Christmases came in years when I wasn’t intending to celebrate at all. They came at a low point in my life when I didn’t feel up to it. In the first, I went to a lodge with a group of people who had no families and so made their own family. The second, I hung out with a couple Jewish friends and experienced a “Jewish Christmas”—movie and Chinese food. Both were very different, the second very low key, and both thoroughly enjoyable. Exactly what I needed at those moments in my life.

But now I have a wife and daughter and we celebrate in the normal mainstream fashion and I look forward to it every year.

Jonathan म्हणाले...

If the author didn't tell us he hated Christmas, we wouldn't know, and would be okay with it. His true agenda is to impose his hatred of Christmas on the rest of us.

Tim म्हणाले...

More accurately, a few Christians do not celebrate Christmas (while 30 million seems to qualify as "many", in context, 30 million out of 2 billion seems more like a "few").

Jaq म्हणाले...

"I learned through those commercials that good people got presents and that my family was trash.... Each year around this time, I find it more difficult to balance the awful things we see happening the rest of the year with the joy I’m supposed to drum up near the end of it.

What nonsense. I grew up poor in a huge family, son of a man who grew up on an FDR country dirt farm and a war bride, and Christmas was never a shower of gifts, and I loved it.

AMDG म्हणाले...

There is something missing in a Christmas without little kids. Decorating, which we do a lot of, becomes in exercise in nostalgia. Putting the lights up outside and the wreaths on the windows has become more of a hassle. I even miss creating the mischief for that damned elf.


Plus, the tenderloin we get at Costco was $25/lb last year. This year it is $38/lb.

Chris म्हणाले...

Bah fucking humbug.

gspencer म्हणाले...

"But I will just note that there are many Christians who don't celebrate Christmas."

I'm one of those. Madison Avenue serves up a sloppy, sentimental Christmas that simply does not exist for millions. The direct message: if you're not experiencing this, then there' something wrong with you. No wonder aluminum poles and the airing of grievances have struck a nerve.

For many of us this is too hard. Somehow we buy into that message. And pay a price. For me I'm always glad when December 26 arrives. The nonsense won't show its head for another 11 months.

Lyle म्हणाले...

To hate Christmas is to hate people. To hate people is human. Circle of life 365. Personally, I'm happy to celebrate Christmas in some fashion. I put up lights.

Jonathan म्हणाले...

@tim maguire my family carols for shut-ins and other musical stuff. My mother does the Salvation Army thing but with a violin. People appreciate the live music.

Wilbur म्हणाले...

Take a listen to "If We Make It Through December" by Merle Haggard. The saddest Christmas song ever recorded, yet absent of the hate eating up Brian Broome.

Eleanor म्हणाले...

I come from a family that loved Christmas, and I married into a family that loved Christmas, but every year I put a smile on my face and just faked my way through it. One day I mentioned it to my doctor, and it opened up a major conversation with lots of questions. She diagnosed Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). When we found ways to get more sunlight into my life from November until spring, it was surprising how much difference it made. At first I thought what she was suggesting was quackery, but I went along with what she prescribed for me to do short of moving to the equator. She not only improved the holidays for me. My whole winter attitude changed.

LordSomber म्हणाले...

Reads like a freshman essay in a college newspaper.

Brian Broome watches too much TV.

gilbar म्हणाले...

if only!
If only there was some Christmas slant about how it's Not the things It's being your best

Maybe (just Maybe!) someone could make a song (or a story (or a TV show), about someone who, as a poor young boy, was summoned by the Magi to the Nativity of Jesus. Without a gift for the Infant, the boy played his drum with approval from Jesus's mother, Mary, recalling, "I played my best for him" and "He smiled at me".

Nah!

Ernest म्हणाले...

Christians did not celebrate Christmas for about the first 300 years after Christ. That said, I think Christmas can be a significant holiday even for non-Christians. Think of the ethical themes in Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It is a good for our culture to have a season when such ethical issues are emphasized. BTW, one of our family traditions is to watch at least one film version of that story every year. Our family favorite is Muppets Christmas Carol.

Narayanan म्हणाले...

With all the abortion going on how many actually have experience of waiting in maternity ward for baby to be born? aka manger!

you could say people are rejecting christmas all year round.

retail lawyer म्हणाले...

Christmas seriously stresses out some parents. Children pick up on it, and some are forever wary of the season. Happened to me as a kid.

Lloyd W. Robertson म्हणाले...

I've become friendly with a guy in a local bookstore who is a Catholic. He has reminded me that the Advent season leading up to Christmas day is supposed to be a time of somber contemplation, prayer, and repentance. I guess reflecting the idea that the world was fallen before Christ was born. The celebration begins with the birth day and continues for 12 days: the famous Twelve Days of Christmas, reflected in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The whole idea of partying all through December (possibly beginning in the U.S. around the big day in late November) is just wrong according to some Christians.

Of course he also hates much of the music that plays in the store where he works.

hawkeyedjb म्हणाले...

My Christmas memories are of the Christmas eve candlelight service - the only time I enjoyed going to church - and the smell of roasting turkey on Christmas day. And Dad up on the ladder, stringing the lights along the eaves of the house. I never got a BB gun as a present.

Bob_R म्हणाले...

Why should I be okay with someone being consumed by hatred? Someone who thinks TV commercials are mocking him needs thicker tinfoil for his hat.

Althouse has changed the subject to indifference which I'm fine with. "Christmastime for the Jews" is one of the best SNL skits of all time. (Maybe Broome is just dramatizing his indifference by painting himself as a victim. Good work if you can get it.)

While I like Christmas, I'm with Althouse that the season is waaaay too long. I'm an academic (until next year) and Christmas starts when fall semester grades are in and letters of recommendation are submitted. Then it's 4-5 days of downtime, Christmas music, lights, food, open a few presents - done. I'll do me. You do you. Merry Christmas (after the semester ends on Friday).

stlcdr म्हणाले...

For some reason, this reminded me of the streaming services, when you start it, it always asks 'who's watching?': seems like a slap in the face to those who live alone.

If you don't have someone to share life with, where your only contact with people is social media, the barrage of ads and news of what's going on outside your four walls, I can imagine its a depressing time.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne म्हणाले...

Jonathan said...

His true agenda is to impose his hatred of Christmas on the rest of us.

It does seem to be turning more and more into 'misery loves company' with the woke crowd.

Roger Sweeny म्हणाले...

Many people's view of Christmas seems to be:

Christmas is not about spending money and buying things.
It is about the friends and family you love.
So to show that you love them,
Spend money and buy things for them.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

'There have even been years when I have skipped Christmas completely, taken advantage of the fact that the whole country is shut down and silent, and spent the day watching horror movies alone and eating Chinese take-away'

So you're Jewish?

The world hates poor white people because they don't have any money to buy what the world is selling.

Blacks not so much because it's not their fault...

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"The ads seemed to suggest that the more stuff you got, the better person you were."

I call BS. Who infers merit from ads?

"I learned through those commercials that good people got presents and that my family was trash"

I call BS again.

"If you are like me, you are strapping in again, steeling yourself for the onslaught the way others might for a hurricane."

And BS one more time. "Steeling" yourself against an easily avoidable "onslaught": it is to laugh.

"Is it really such a struggle, skipping Christmas?"

No.

Jamie म्हणाले...

I'm sorry for this guy's childhood experience, and I wish that his family had found a way to mark Christmas other than by comparing themselves with a television fiction, but two things: I don't care if he hates Christmas and he has no right to demand that I be "okay" with that (or indeed feel anything about his feelings at all) - I'm not the person going around telling people to smile or making my own demands that they defer to my emotional state (except my husband, who signed on for that). I'm irked at his entitled tone.

And, geez, take a little charge of your life, dude. You can choose how much influence to permit tv commercials you saw as a child to have on your adult life. If you want to ignore the bog-standard observance of Christmas, no problem, live your life, but as a grown man don't simply make (or blame) that decision on what you saw on childhood television.

Maybe a third thing: the specific choice of horror movies makes me wonder if this guy is deliberately trying to appear "dark" and "complicated" for social reasons. Who cares - but he opened up his life, so I guess that implies that I,an utter stranger, am free to speculate on his motives.

Conrad म्हणाले...

I imagine most intelligent people find that there are some things in life that they enjoy far less than OTHER people do, whether that's Christmas, the Beatles, or whatever. However, it strikes me as sort of petulant to treat what is basically just petty annoyance at the feeling of being left out of the fun as an excuse to put down the people who ARE sharing in the fun. I think the scientific term for this is "party pooper."

Critter म्हणाले...

The birth of Jesus is the most important event in the history of the world. Aside from the obvious religious reason for Christians, without Jesus every country in the world would have the values and culture similar to China. No value of life, unlimited power of the rulers. Depravity on an equal moral plane as virtue. So non-Christians please remember how much you are indebted to Christian values in our world as you proceed to trash Christmas. Merry Christmas!

Bilwick म्हणाले...

Did he REALLY learn that "good people got presents" and everyone else was trash from Christmas commercials? Or was that his own irrational projection?

Paraphrasing Art Linkletter, "liberals" say the stupidest things.

farmgirl म्हणाले...

Our celebrant for Mass yesterday was a young man, early 30s, locally grown and just returned from overseas where he’s been for the past 11months w/his National Guard unit: specifically Saudi.
Nutshell sermon- how fortunate people living in free countries were to be able to exercise their right to worship w/out risking their very lives, how happiness is not a substitute for Joy and how the build up of commercialism to peak in one day is fraudulent of the Truth.

Christmas is a season- as is Advent- which the Church is currently in. How a day/season w/the name Christ directly unit can be hated- well, I’m sorry this person still feels the stigma of shame from his childhood. He’s hunkering down. Again. Hating it all. Wouldn’t it be lovely if he plucked a paper heart from a giving tree and purchased w/his lunch money- gifts to give to kids in need? To break the cycle of Christmas shame for a child who may feel just as he did growing up?

Win win

JPS म्हणाले...

For me this is a bit like reading that David Sedaris was glad when his father died. It's easy for me to say, as I've had it so much better, but I'm sorry for him, and I wish for him that he could see it from another angle.

I like Christmas, a lot. I should be okay with Broome hating Christmas? Sure - not my business not to be okay with it. I don't doubt that the ads and all the materialism could be tough on people who had less. I'm more and more conscious of how insensitive and even contemptuous well-off people can be toward lower-class people.

But I wonder how much of this was inflicted on him and how much is chosen. When I read, "The ads seemed to suggest," I think of how popular it's getting to say, "So you're saying..." and then get furious at someone for something they didn't actually say, and may well not have meant. I wonder how much of what he learned from those commercials was what he read into them.

Wa St Blogger म्हणाले...

I do not like the 3 month log Christmas orgy, and even disdain how some of my fellow churchgoers revel in the season long celebration. I think that much attention to something robs it of its specialness. We got our tree yesterday, and haven't even set it up, much less decorated it. Christmas songs are banned in my house until 2 weeks before. I turn off most radios and turn to streaming because some of my favorite radio stations start playing Christmas songs the first of November. While it is a meaningful holiday to our family, I do not like the complete cooption of my life for so much time doing all the obligatory events and activities. Used to be there were Christmas parties for my company, the blogger spouse's company, Church, family, friends all had parties. There are pageants and plays and lighting displays. All magical and fun by themselves, but compacted together it is overwhelming. Turns me into a grinch every year. I want a simple Christmas with meaning, not a life sucking extravaganza that lasts for months.

Left Bank of the Charles म्हणाले...

I hate to break it to Brian Bloome, but watching movies and eating Chinese food are very much Christmas traditions in the United States of America. That doesn’t count as skipping Christmas.

Jokah Macpherson म्हणाले...

”I learned through those commercials that good people got presents and that my family was trash.... Each year around this time, I find it more difficult to balance the awful things we see happening the rest of the year with the joy I’m supposed to drum up near the end of it.“

A lot of people blame others for filling them with nutty ideas when they should probably at least share the blame for being the one foolish enough to believe them.

Jokah Macpherson म्हणाले...

I’m not a big fan of Christmas myself. I’m pretty indifferent about both giving and receiving gifts and being a single guy I don’t have anyone to celebrate it with other than my parents. The one part I do find worthwhile is singing sacred Christmas music in the church choir.

mikee म्हणाले...

On October 15, Home Depot ended its Halloween sales and installed their Christmas displays. I don't need two and a half months of Christmas season, and neither does anyone else. Fortunately, HD held out on playing holiday tunes until after Thanksgiving, or I'd have been forced to boycott. YMMV, and if so, you're a stronger person than me.

Leland म्हणाले...

I have no issues with people that don't celebrate Christmas. I have issues with people that think I must care that they don't celebrate Christmas. That doesn't include the host. Althouse is just commenting on the subject, as am I here.

For those that think Christmas is too commercial; consider that it is media companies, such as WaPo, that for decades in America, promoted Christmas, and now other various holidays, to cash in on the commercial aspects of Christmas. It's the media that stopped discussing the biblical aspects of Christmas, not Christians. I don't know church going Christians that really get excited about Santa Claus compared to experiencing the visual and performing arts of the nativity.

Jake म्हणाले...

Everyone's got a gripe.

ALP म्हणाले...

Generally agreed that Christmas fuss is not necessary, but I do think a winter long "festival of lights" of some sort is in order due to the darkness for those that live in particular areas on the globe. It is depressing and there may be some value in at least trying to cheer ourselves up somehow. Doesn't have to involve buying shit.

Doug म्हणाले...

Typical WaPo anti-Christian bullsh*t.

Here's a suggestion for the author of this crybaby tantrum: Worry less about how other people celebrate - or commercialize - the Christmas holiday, and concentrate on how you do or do not that brings you the most satisfaction.

The washington compost gives you access to their dozens of readers - why not write something of more use than your bitching about what other people do that so irks you?

Doug म्हणाले...

Sebastian at 8:16. Brilliant.

Sydney म्हणाले...

What a terrible reason to hate Christmas. It’s not like one of his parents died on the holiday. It’s basically because he’s a materialist. He mentions in the essay that he know it’s supposed to be about family and that doesn’t help because he doesn’t like his family. No, it isn’t about family, anymore than it’s about gifts. It’s about God coming here to this wretched, miserable thing we call humanity and entering into our wretchedness to show us the way of a new covenant of life everlasting. Regardless of where you come from or what you have been or what you have done. It’s about hope. I feel sorry for him that he was influenced more by commercials than the church he attended as a child. May God grant him the grace to receive that hope this Christmas season.

joshbraid म्हणाले...

"If you're genuinely religious about Christmas, I'm not talking about your Christmas. But I will just note that there are many Christians who don't celebrate Christmas."

Correct, the Holiday Shopping Season is not the Christmas season. The first ends on Christmas Eve and the second starts on Christmas Eve. I celebrate the Christmas Season and never participate in the Holiday Shopping Season. Nowadays this takes a lot of effort as the Holiday Shopping Season is so pervasive. However, we still do some things put on in name of the Holiday Shopping Season, such as concerts and lighting displays (I enjoy the ones that don't include Holiday Shopping Season icons as they are much more creative).

All practicing Christians celebrate Christmas because it is the birth of their Master and Saviour.

It is true that celebrating Christmas with one's children in the house is much different than not having any children. We have a much less stimulating Christmas celebration with simpler decorations and meals.

M Jordan म्हणाले...

Not so Ann: ithink my last comment, unfinished,accidentally was sent. Please omit or delete. Thanks.

Nichevo म्हणाले...

If you want to ignore the bog-standard observance of Christmas, no problem, live your life, but as a grown man don't simply make (or blame) that decision on what you saw on childhood television.

Why hate Christmas? Why not hate TV? Or at least the ads.

Narr म्हणाले...

I grew up with lots of brothers and nearby cousins, and boy did we get a lot of stuff for Christmas! I don't recall ever being disappointed in any major way. Christmas Eve and Day were a moving tableau of kids and plastic junk, as we crowded into cars and made a circuit to Oma's, and the cousins' houses.

My wife's experience wasn't too different, except I was a boy among a majority of boys and she was the only girl among boys.

BUT. The older I got the less I cared for the hoopla and excess. My mother in particular would stress herself out trying to make everyone else happy. But now there are only a handful of that generation left here, between death and scattering, and no kids at all.

We didn't have a tree last year except a little ceramic tabletop jobby with lights, but my wife pulled the small artificial tree out the other day and will decorate it. She likes that stuff.

rcocean म्हणाले...

I'm not celebrating Hannaukuh this year, despite whole foods constantly telling me my Hannakuh Dinner is ready for order.

Generally speaking, every person I've known in real life who runs about saying "I hate Christmas" or "I wish Christmas was over" was/is a complete drip. Or they were a contrarian oddball, who liked black if everyone else like white, or vice versa.

I get the feeling there's also a Puritan/American Protestant dislike of Christmas, which comes from their lack of appreciation for beauty, fun, or western civilization. That sort of dried out, money focused, Kill joy attitude toward life.

Mark म्हणाले...

Writes Brian Broome: "I hate"

Seeing a problem with that is rather self-evident.

Mark म्हणाले...

Washington Post's ad campaign used to be "If you don't get it, you don't get it."

Appropriate for the Christmas hater.

And with MOST of the people here who also "don't get it," come on, man, haven't you at least seen Linus in A Charlie Brown Christmas or the end of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas?? The answer is there right before your eyes.

Richard Dolan म्हणाले...

"I learned through those commercials ... If you are like me, you are strapping in again, steeling yourself for the onslaught the way others might for a hurricane. I just try to ride it out."

He seems too tightly wound for his own good, and on top of that he's taking his learning from all the wrong places. But, whatever, do the best you can with that, Brian. AA says she's not talking about how religious people may respond to Christmas, the day or the season. And Christmas without the religious content is a bit lame -- just another excuse for party-time and spending. There's also something to the idea that a non-religious Christmas "detracts from the dayness of the day" -- it's just an ordinary day celebrating the birth of "a marginal Jew," to borrow the title of JP Meier's opus.

The flip side of that "dayness of the day" idea is that each day is like the next, nothing special about any one of them, no rhythm other than sun and weather to the seasons and no particular significance to any of it. The emptiness of that strikes me as pretty good ad for a religious, or even just a religiously infused, view of life and its cycles. But to each her own.

RMc म्हणाले...

Of course, every year, there must also be essays like that one. Is it really such a struggle, skipping Christmas?

There's no point in being bold and transgressive by giving the finger to a cherished tradition if everybody doesn't know you're being bold and transgressive by giving the finger to a cherished tradition.

robother म्हणाले...

I have played many roles in the Christmas pageant over my 74 years. From Baby Jesus (in my first year debut) to Ebenezer Scrooge (burnt out lawyer dad from multiple year-end closings more years than I care to recall). Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, Myrrh-bearing King, dumb ass behind manger. A born method actor, I inhabited each year's role completely. Hope Dante was right, twas a divine comedy!

Howard म्हणाले...

Jeebus weren't even born in December. Actually, there is no contemporaneous evidence of Christ being born, living or dying at all. Christmas was invented as a Christian marketing and recruiting tool.

The holiday called Christmas is really a polyglop of pagan traditions and more recent secular additions. It's to celebrate love among family and the lengthening of the days following winter solstice. Peace, love and goodwill towards all genders.

Jim at म्हणाले...

Maybe if they didn't start shoving Christmas down our throats the day after Labor Day, some people would 'like' it more.

Michelle Dulak Thomson म्हणाले...

Ann,

But I will just note that there are many Christians who don't celebrate Christmas.

IIRC, the Pilgrims hated Christmas; Thanksgiving was meant to replace it.

I think the "I-hate-Christmas" thing is uniquely American Christian. You don't see it even in Europe, let alone in other religions. "I hate Yom Kippur"? I don't think so. "I Hate Diwali"? I should like Mr. Broome to try on "I Hate Ramadan" for size. He needn't even move to a majority-Muslim nation; there are lots of Muslims right here. I'll wait.

As for "Christmas music," depends what music. I haven't so much as been to a mall (airport concourses apart) in over a decade, so I don't get subjected to Muzak. But here -- ah! Half a millennium of glorious music celebrating the birth of Christ. There is no reason to hate that, still less to call attention to your preposterous bitterness so that everyone else can share your sucky mood.

There are two houses nearby my own that are illustrative of the attitude towards holidays. One is owned by a pair of people active in the Democratic Party -- lots of campaign posters, BLM, &c., and door-to-door visitation round election times -- and they do a great big Hallowe'en display. Tombstones all over the yard ("Ken Lay -- Condemned by GOD!"), cobwebs, skulls, everything. The house next door to theirs features nothing for Hallowe'en, but now they have up the usual cheesy inflatable Santa and snowman, an electrified reindeer, candy canes, &c. I know which house seems more inviting to me.

JaimeRoberto म्हणाले...

This is more evidence for my belief that the media are full of really unhappy people who want to make the rest of the world as miserable as they are.

Blair म्हणाले...

Christmas is the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which I'm a big fan of. Commercialized American Christmas, not so much.

I hate how much Americans secularize Christmas. They play the same five Christmas carols, none of which mention Jesus, just chestnuts roasting on fires, slurs against Inuit people, and snowmen performing marital rituals. This particularly grates on me because in New Zealand where I grew up, Christmas is the start of summer, and involves cold ham, pavlova meringue dessert, ice cream and backyard cricket games. New Zealand, despite being more secular, seems to emphasize the Nativity more for this very reason. I don't relate to American winter Christmas very well. That may seem weird to most people, but it's how I grew up.

rcocean म्हणाले...

Actually, Jesus wasn't born on CHristmas. WHere you dare Charlie? And if he wasn't born on Christmas so what? But, hey "Smart Take". Only heard it about 1,000 times. But Smart.Take.
And actually, Christmas has pagan root. Another "Smart take", heard 1000 time.

More interestinly, there is some weird Puritan Anglo-American dislike of Christmas that goes back to Cromwell. What's interesting about the New England Puritans was their complete lack of art, good music, or beauty in any form. Life was basically religious intolerance, bible thumping, and making $$. lets just all sit in a bare wooden church and eat gruel.

You can see how that ended up being a strand of American thought and life.

Narr म्हणाले...

I don't hate Christmas, I hate what others expect me to feel about it.

I had an uncle--self-described Christian--who claimed that modern American Christmas is a scheme by Jews to make money distracting people from the real message of the day.

I don't need or want to hear Christmas songs "as if written by Mozart or Haydn . . . "

Urk.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

'Jeebus weren't even born in December.'

Why are you wasting time here, bigot?

Don't you have a church to burn?

Now do the thing where you rip on Muhammad.

Michelle Dulak Thomson म्हणाले...

Narr,

I don't need or want to hear Christmas songs "as if written by Mozart or Haydn . . . "

Who asked you to? I've never even heard of a Christmas song "as if written by Haydn." Though I imagine there'd be some rhythmic trickery in there somewhere. (I do remember Bruce Adolphe, at Juilliard, improvising on carols in various classical styles, but they weren't for general consumption.)

Re: "commercial" vs. actual Christmas, C. S. Lewis put it best, in the mouth of a fictional chronicler visiting "Niatirb." There is this long, miserable festival called Exmas, where the entire populace is forced out onto the streets buying things and procuring bits of cardboard decorated with snowy trees and holly and birds and such. Someone calls it a "racket," which he understands to be a device used in a game called "tennis." And then there is another festival, called Crissmas, celebrated by certain people rising early with shining faces and going to certain temples to partake of a sacred ritual of some kind. The chronicler can give no credit to those who insinuate that the two festivals are the same.

Assistant Village Idiot म्हणाले...

Brian Broome internalised what the ads at Christmas said as something of importance? Srsly? Middle-schoolers know better. Why does the WaPo even give space to such cliches?

@ rcocean - get over your factual ignorance of puritanism, please. I've only heard your Smart. Take. about 1000 times, too. I usually like your stuff, but you have to work harder here. The puritans had plenty of appreciation of beauty. I recommend the cult classic by the historian David Hackett Fischer Albion's Seed.

Narr म्हणाले...

I pretty much dislike most of the big calendar-day festivals. New Years, and July 4, those are good.

About 2005 or so, the U admin sent out an email at the beginning of a semester with a list of all the legit holidays that term, so faculty could accommodate absences. It was an impressive thing, with about 13 or 14 (!) special days.

The Big Three Faiths of course, Diwali, some others. It made me glad once again that I wasn't a teaching faculty member--every week would have required some special arrangement for 10% or more of the class.

Bunkypotatohead म्हणाले...

If the old Christmas advertising made him feel like his family was trash, what affect do the horror movies he's gonna watch instead have.
This guy sounds like a future mass murderer.

Narr म्हणाले...

You're right, MDT, nobody is asking me to listen to bad music--except the people at WKNO who I pay to provide me with good music. All this month they play different settings and arrangements of traditional/spiritual and commercial/secular songs and carols. Not all day every day of course, but more than enough.

I'm surprised you haven't heard of the genre. "White Christmas" a la Mozart, or "if Mozart had written Frosty the Snowman." You can find it if you try. I feel the same way about Swingle Singer arrangements of famous classical pieces.

I'll check their playlists and try to give some actual cites.

Michelle Dulak Thomson म्हणाले...

Narr, I have heard of the genre, of course, but have never, ever seen Haydn connected with it. Mozart and Bach, sure.

If WKNO wants some actual classical Christmas music, there's no shortage. I don't know that I by myself could provide music enough for a month of actual classical Christmas music, but I bet I could manage a week.

Tina Trent म्हणाले...

There are no Christians who don't celebrate Christmas.

It is so precious, cutting down or buying a little tree, putting up some lights, celebrating the birth of Christ, sending something nice like a homemade apron or ornament to someone.

Would you mock Hanukkah, Ann? Ramadan? Of course not. So stuff it about the birth of Christ, or at the very least acknowledge your nasty pinched double standard.

Narr म्हणाले...

WKNO has a very large music library, locally developed and curated. As they never tire of informing us.

Which makes it all the more ridiculous for them to devote so much air to seasonal cheese.

Tina Trent म्हणाले...

Howard: now do Isam. And use your real name and Adddress.