Is it just me, or has Black Friday reached a new level of insanity this year? My husband was heading to Walmart at midnight last night hoping to snag an inexpensive laptop (we need another now that his work computer is gone). But I told him an FB friend said something about getting "tickets" earlier in the evening for something, so he headed over at 11 to see what that was about. He was grumbling this morning about Walmart not making things clear . . . what a madhouse . . . lines up and down aisles, out doors . . .
That FB friend described fist fights over the xbox games she wanted. Insane. Do you remember the craziness over Cabbage Patch Kids one Christmas way back? Seriously, what is wrong with people?
Readers who've read my blog for a while will probably roll their eyes at my Scrooginess cropping up again this year, but here it is. I really don't like what Christmas has become. The stress, the craziness, the checklist of celebratory duties that we force ourselves through with no sense of meaning behind any of it. The stupid, formulaic Christmas movies on every night. The countdown TO the 25-day countdown to Christmas on the now inappropriately named ABC Family channel.
My family was way late this year getting our Christmas lists to family. I really wish we could give up writing out Christmas lists altogether. A friend just commented, "If you want your kids to focus on giving at Christmas, stop asking them what they want." Duh. It seems ridiculous to me that every year, we make our kids write up a list of stuff they want someone to give them. And when they can't think of enough things (as is the case with my kids sometimes), we get out catalogs, have them search the internet, watch more TV commercials . . . to have them beef up their list of wants. Ridiculous!!
I may just completely rebel next year. Refuse to do Christmas as usual. If we move and are doing Christmas in a new place, that may make it easier. It's time to redeem the holiday season.
2 comments:
Www.adventconspiracy.org
I have the DVD and small group book. Led a group of women through it last year. This year, Tim and I are using it as the adult Sunday school curriculum at our church for Advent.
Really cool stuff.
Gwen,
I totally agree with you. This year, I bought a Kindle book entitled, "Untangling Christmas" by Karen Ehman & LeAnn Rice. It talks about how to reclaim Christmas and make it a hassle/stress free event instead of the crazed event it has become. One of their traditions is to adopt the The Three Wisemen approach to gift giving for the family. In short, each family member gets three gifts only - just like Jesus on that first Christmas. The three gifts can be one really important/expensive gift (gold) and two less expensive gifts (frankincense/Myrrh). Their idea is that it keeps their family from "keeping up with the Jones" and from buying into the commercialism that Christmas has become. Anyway, I think we're going to do Christmas this way for our little family. I think its a neat idea.
Marjo
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