Boyle McCauley News

Since 1979 • April-May 2024 • Circulation 5000

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This is Christmas?

I can hear them in the distance. I do believe those are jingle bells jangling just over yonder. It’s either that or my seasonal psychosis is taking effect. It means the same thing either way. It must be Christmas time.

Now, I feel that I may have misrepresented myself in previous holiday articles. I don’t hate Christmas. I enjoy the idea of having a space of time cut out of the year to spend with family and friends. I enjoy buying obscure presents that people will spend the rest of the year trying to figure out. I enjoy indulging in all the sweet stuff.

I don’t hate Christmas. I hate all commercialism that we’ve come to associate with Christmas. I loathe hearing holiday muzak playing in the malls the day after Halloween. I despise that countdown of shopping days left until Christmas. I detest the commercials trying to goad me into buying more stuff than I can afford because if I don’t spend obscene amounts of money the people in my life won’t know that I love them. Really, is this all necessary?

When exactly did Christmas become this great overbearing beast? When did this time of peace turn into a stress headache? I suppose it all happened when someone figured out how to make a buck off of it. What’s supposed to be a time of serenity enjoyed with family and friends has turned into a monster of corporate proportions. This in turn establishes Christmas as one of the high stress times of the year.

It’s is time to revolt, people! Get out of the stores and into the streets! Put down those charge cards and pick up placards and let them know we aren’t going to take it anymore!

Isn’t that silly? This year let’s do ourselves a favour and re-think our holiday priorities. Let’s spend more time with the people in our lives then out shopping for them. Let’s laugh more and stress less. Let’s overindulge in those sweets with our friends and forget how to calculate calories. Let’s just chill out and make a point of actually enjoying ourselves.

Outrageous idea? Well that sounds more sensible than spending too much time in the mall and getting more and more frustrated by your inability to find a gift that expresses your feelings about a person. A material thing can’t express your feelings about someone – it’s inanimate! That sort of gift does not exist. You spent years trying to find it and it continually eludes you because it isn’t there! So why don’t you just go spend time with that person and tell them what you feel? Have a coffee, go for a walk, or just give them a call. Get out of the shopping mode and into the friendship mode and let the people in your life know your regard for them.

It’s is time to revolt, people! Get out of the stores and into the streets! Put down those charge cards and pick up placards and let them know we aren’t going to take it anymore! There’s no sense in plunging yourself into debt over the spending frenzy that is the holiday season. Revolt! Revolt!

Okay, don’t revolt but take it easy this season and remember to slow down and enjoy your loved ones.

Keri lives in Boyle Street. We hope her Christmas is filled with tidings of comfort and joy.

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