Mrs. Scrooge

Bah Humbug. That's been me for the past...8, 9 years maybe. Let me spell it out for you. I worked in large retail stores and photography studios from my senior year in High School until 4 months before my daughter was born. Christmas was always hectic for me. The stores were always filled with frantic shoppers and not so merry customers. A few of those years I worked customer service counters. I can't tell you how many times I was called colorful names because I was following store policy and not giving people things for free because they were inconvenienced. It seem especially prevalent during the holiday season. The good cheer we are supposed to have is just a front. People become insane cruel maniacs during the holidays. They will stop at nothing just to get that silly toy for their kid. Knocking people over with their carts, mothers fighting over the last Elmo. OK, I never did see things get that out of hand, but that's because I didn't work in a Toys R Us. But, sadly it really happens. Didn't someone get shot in Chicago while standing in line for a PlayStation 3? Merry Christmas.
Then there were the photography studios. I think that was about 6 years of my life and every year I would say "I'm not doing this again next year." We would fill the schedule with people who wanted their holiday picture. We had 15 minutes per customer. 15 minutes to get the perfect shot. Of 2 year olds. 15 minutes. We, of course never were able to accomplish that goal. We would end up taking a few extra minutes with each customer trying to get Timmy to stop crying and sit on the stupid chair and smile. It doesn't happen folks. If your kid is crying and doesn't want to do this because he is scared, don't do that to him!! I always thought it was mean and cruel to force a kid to take a picture when he or she was scared. Or even to force them to do it again if the previous smile wasn't perfect enough. For a stupid Christmas card?? Why would you do that? Keeping up with the Joneses? I had to walk out of one sitting because I had gotten several good pictures of this little 6 month old baby, but the mother just didn't think they were very good because it wasn't her normal smile. I spent about 30 minutes with this woman who was practically panicking over these pictures. The moment she picked up her baby, yelled at her to smile and slammed her little butt back down onto the table, I had to walk out of the room before I punched the woman. Meanwhile the lines of families and screaming kids waiting to show other people how happy they are at Christmas time grew and grew and grew. Christmas time in a photo studio is insane.
Hence the reason I hate Christmas time. It's not even celebrated for the real reason. In fact, if you do celebrate it for the real reason (Christ's birth, in case you have never seen A Charlie Brown's Christmas) it's considered offensive now. If you work in a retail store, you have to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" so as not to make anyone gasp in horror. Everyone puts it on their Christmas cards now too. I did it this year and I think last year too. I'm regretting the decision though and I think next year I will have cards that say "Merry Christmas" on it because that is why I celebrate Christmas. Why should I worry about offending other people with what I believe? I'm surrounded by people stuffing their beliefs in my face and yet if I mention "Jesus Christ" to anyone and it not be a swear, it's wrong. Well, I'm offended.
But that's a whole other blog in itself. The point of my blog is that I'm being visited by the spirit of Christmas. Christmas past haunts me, but present and hopefully future will be much brighter. I don't have to surround myself with all the craziness of the secular Christmas. I'm not saying that I'm going to give up the whole Santa thing and not give out presents or anything. I think that part of it is American and I will celebrate the wonder of that with Ava. But I'm not going to immerse myself in the whole we must get TMX Elmo, gift competing, who's house is brighter with lights, Christmas frenzy this year. It's ridiculous. I just want a nice quiet Christmas with my husband and daughter. I'm going to enjoy it this year because I'm not going to be a part of the commercialism. It's going to be a good one!
So MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! May God bless us every one!