They’ve started with the Christmas music in the mall where I work. It’s still about a week until Thanksgiving. I used to love Christmas. In some ways I still do. The crisp wintry air, the cozy warmth of a low-lit tree, the reds, greens, golds and silvers…But, the last several years, the holiday itself just seems to be a huge anti-climactic affair.

The marketing seems to have a hollow air to it too. The last decade or so, the Christmas shopping season has felt less like a cheery act of gift giving, but more a desperate attempt to squeeze consumer spending out of a dying economy. Of course, retailers have always seen Christmas as their huge cash cow to cap off the year. But, lately, it seems as if it’s the only cow. Sacrifice Jesus to resurrect American capitalism.  This overarching fear over the season, leaves a sort of a macabre taste to it. It’s as if it’s the empty attempt to hold onto whatever scrap of Normal Rockwell Americana we have left, after global socialism has taken its hold over the last decade.

I’ve even heard Christians, once valiant defenders of “Merry Christmas,” now start to question the validity of the holiday at all. Does Christmas glorify Christ? Honestly, I don’t know. I guess it does in that we do think of Him…at least when we’re not too busy out spending money. I can see how giving gifts to everyone you know is an act of love, and we’re all for loving others. And spending time with family and friends is good. But, going broke until practically February to do it? Ehhh…And I’m not anti-gifts. I’ve heard some people rant against gift giving of Christmas. I love giving gifts. It’s fun and exciting. It’s just Christmas puts so much pressure on it. It’s like, you have to assign an annual price tag to every relationship in your life. That’s stressful.

Maybe I’m just cynical. Maybe I’m just over Christmas. I guess if I had a family of my own…husband, kids, and what have you, I’d feel differently. But, for a single adult, Christmas just seems to be an inconvenient, and expensive, interruption to regular life.