Why I really don't do Christmas

Why I Really, Really Don’t Do Christmas

“These are the shadows of things that have been”

              The Ghost of Christmas Past

                         (A Christmas Carol) 

I am sorry; I really just don’t do Christmas. I know that is heresy and even blasphemous to you southerners and sentimentalists out there, but I really just don’t do Christmas, if “doing Christmas” means fighting and almost killing my neighbor for a parking spot at the mall for that one last materialist creature comfort that will be thrown in the trash come February…

Call me a Grinch, Scrooge, Goblin or whatever, but I just am not very interested in perpetuating wanton consumerism and greed.

Now, I can relate to the “Jesus is the reason for the season” Christian motif. I am fine with that, if that is what Christmas really means.  However, I am just not sure if “Christmas” is anything but a display of abject materialism.

To me, if Christmas “means” anything at all, it means that Jesus the Son of God was born into this world. He was born to die on the cross for my sins and rise again from the dead. He did all that if I would simply repent and believe in His name.

As a conservative, I also get that celebrating Christmas means honoring tradition and family to so many Americans, but to me it only brings back horrible memories of alcoholic relatives getting liquored up and acting badly.

So, for me and probably many other Americans, the holiday conjures up the “ghosts of Christmas past.” That is why many people are depressed during the holidays.