Bah humbug

I'm not doing it this year.  The ridiculous commercialization of a date set rather arbitrarily in the late 4th century to commemorate the birth of the Christ Child. I'm not doing it. That is to say, I'm celebrating the birth of my Savior, but not the BUY LOTS OF STUFF!!!!! aspect of it.

Christmas shouldn't be about 'stuff', yet I see people rushing around, cranky and selfish, being rude to others in the stifling crush of last-minute retail shoppers.  And that was last week! I can't imagine what it's like this week!

I admit, when the kids were younger, I did succumb to the 'stuff' aspect.  We didn't do Santa in our house, so I felt like I needed to compensate, perhaps.  I did what I could to make that obligatory Christmas morning tree photo look as impressive as possible, so they wouldn't look back on childhood memories and remember that we were as monetarily-challenged as we were.  But now that they're older and know that Jesus' actual birth month and day is as yet indeterminable, I'm more inclined to stay far far FAR away from retail establishments and their in-your-face commercialization, and celebrate quietly, remembering those less fortunate than us.  I do have a few small things to unwrap on Sunday morning, and I think we may venture out next week to pick up some needed items in the post-holiday sales, like a winter coat for Sunshine, some black jeans for Norseman.  But you can keep your last-minute mad dash to find and purchase that so-called perfect gift.  My Perfect Gift arrived about 2000 years ago.