About those Holidays...

Woke up early this morning out of habit. I really kind of hate that -- I get the time off and I get up anyways. Then, to top it off I have a bit of a headache and it's not even hangover related.

I know, I know -- it's Christmas, I shouldn't be grouchy.

But, see that's part of it. I know it's Christmas, but apparently a lot of other people are in denial. Because we're so inundated with political correctness that we can't even wish each other a Merry Christmas, it has to be "Happy Holidays."

I personally get a little tired of that generica. I was at the McDonald's this morning and the cashier made sure to wish me a happy holiday. It's Christmas Eve, buddy -- the jig is up. If you wish me a happy holiday TODAY, then you and I both know that I'm celebrating Christmas. It's fairly obvious I'm not celebrating Kwanzaa, Hanukkah is almost over and even though he didn't know this, I really don't have any idea when Ramadan even is. Nor do I care. It's December 24th, just bite the bullet and wish me a Merry Friggin' Christmas already. It's okay.

Obviously, there are plenty of people in this country who do not celebrate Christmas and of course, we should be respectful of that. But, it's just getting out of control. Obviously, again, this country is more interested in the folks who DO celebrate Christmas or, hello, December 25th wouldn't be a paid day off for almost everyone in the country. Let's get realistic about this. Are the people who do NOT celebrate Christmas SO uptight about their beliefs that if someone, in a gesture of good will and friendliness, wishes them a Merry Christmas that they're going to take major offense at that?? Seriously. Is this why 9/11 happened? Someone wishe the wrong person Merry Christmas and they were just done.

"Merry Christmas, huh? I'll show you what Merry is, pal."

I don't think so.

It's gotten so out of control that when I am on the phone at work and I would occasionally wish someone a Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holiday, I would find myself looking guiltily around to make sure no one else had heard the slip. Isn't that silly? Would the person have thought that I intentionally was trying to offend them? "I can't believe she wished me a Merry Christmas -- it must be perfectly obvious that I'm a Jehovah's Witness."

(Besides, those guys probably WOULD say something because they really are just weird. I have NO tolerance for any religion that doesn't believe in celebrating your own birthday. It's your birthday, if you hadn't had one you wouldn't be around to have all these screwed up religious beliefs in the first place.)

I don't know what the answer is and I'll be the first to admit that. I just can't believe that THIS is the answer. It seems sad that we pretend that Christmas doesn't even exist, when at the same time it gets bigger and broader and more obnoxious every year. How can these things be in co-existence?

And how far do the holiday wishes extend? No one wishes you a happy holiday around Memorial Day or the 4th of July. Thanksgiving seems to be the one holiday that we're still allowed to call by name -- everyone wished me a happy Thanksgiving and I said it back to them and no one worried that we were going to offend one another. Happy Day of Gluttony! At the beginning of the year, I think we should wish each other Happy Holidays just to make sure we're covering all of the major events for the year. Because when it happens in December, we're just kidding ourselves. If someone is celebrating something other than Christmas than we usually aren't going to understand it, aren't going to care that much if we do and ultimately we just want to know if they got good stuff.

Maybe we could just start saying "Happy Stuff Getting & Giving" -- even if that is a little George Carlin of me!

I have to go bake and wrap my dad's presents for him (when am I going to be too old to do this?), so I hope everyone has a MERRY CHRISTMAS and gets lots of cool stuff!

love,
HP

ps: Occasionally I will get random feedback about my writing and the blog. I love hearing it, frankly, because I have an enormous, very hungry ego. But it puts pressure on me to step up and actually write crap that's worth reading. This usually happens when I find out that someone's been reading all along and I never had any idea, much less that they were actually enjoying what they were reading... Anyways, thank you for your kind thoughts and please drop them occasionally -- but sparingly. My ego is much too large to take too much praise, though it will tell you that it needs to feed constantly. Don't feed the bears!