VA: Christmas is Consumer Gluttony Masked as Religious Sentimentality
Nov 5th, 2007
(21 votes, average: 2.76 out of 5)
Loading ...I tuned into a local radio station yesterday to find a poor DJ in very hot water. While he didn’t make fun of a basketball team or fantasize about raping […]
Original post: Christmas is Consumer Gluttony Masked as Religious Sentimentality
What really makes this one amusing is the Ebay advertisment right underneath.
Dude, I could totally go for a basket of salami right now.
Like everything else on the planet, things should be taken in moderation. Buying 20 presents for each of your friends and family is not moderation.
One thoughtful present is always better than 20 presents that will be forgotten in a few days in a closet somewhere.
What everyone fails to acknowledge is that they dont “celebrate” christmas, they are slaves to it. Me I stopped celebrating it years ago. Its just another day for me,..hmm think I’ll paint the basement and have a curry that night,…
Nevermind that christmas isn’t even in the bible, or has anything todo with Jesus.
But do you know what the kicker is? Whenever I tell someone I dont celebrate christmas, I’ve never once heard them say “Oh thats too bad,..dont you feel like your missing out?” No, they almost always blurt out “WHY NOT!” as if I’ve found some magic loophole that gets me out of jury duty or paying traffic tickets, or some other unpleasantness that we are all forced todo,… kinda like slaves.
OMG, I know! I was disgusted to find my local stores putting up Christmas displays even before Halloween! I can’t take it anymore.
And this part of V’s astonishingly eventful life can be summed up as “She heard stuff on the radio.”
Agreed. I stopped giving gifts for Christmas a few years back. The reason wasn’t to be cheap, but because I felt that when people gave me presents for Christmas I was drowning in junk. I didn’t want them to give me junk, so I decided not to give them junk either. Not everyone entirely stopped giving me junk, but it was definitely reduced. I do like celebrating the day with family and food, though.
A Charlie Brown Christmas always cheers me up…
But…but…but the economy will fall apart if we don’t buy crap! Imagine the destruction if everybody paid off their bills instead of buying crap they didn’t need! People out of debt, with savings in their pockets, would realize how good it feels not to be a wage-slave, and they’d want to start saving more, & spending less, and then they wouldn’t be buying so many poorly-manufactured products from China! Oh the horror, don’t even suggest skipping Christmas V! With so many readers, you could start something!
Ha, I actually know someone who adores scented candles and soaps. Easiest Christmas shopping ever.
(And Trillian, you’re right — when is there a bad time for salami?)
I like to do my Christmas shopping at thrift shops and antique stores. It’s not so much about cheapness — you can blow a lot of money on antiques if you’re not careful — but there are two distinct advantages:
1) it looks like you put a lot of thought and effort into finding a personalized gift, and
2) the retail industry doesn’t get any of your money.
From the Jew’s perspective:
Sometimes I think Hannukah is just as bad. All the Jews do is bitch about Christmas being intolerant toward other religions and being such a consumer holiday blah blah… and then they spend just as much time and effort competing with their Christian neighbors, spending shit-tons of money so their kids “won’t feel left out”. That’s bullshit, too. My mother used to put up lights over the winter. But they were blue. That made them “Hannukah Lights” and God would smile upon ours and smite those consumer whores with the red and green lights down the street. .
I forgot to mention that Hannukah is one of the least important holidays in the Jewish faith. That is a big part of my angst and woe, too.
I like Christmas, but I hate pre-Christmas time. During Christmas is brilliant! Work is slow, no-one’s in anyways. You can just sit around, surf the net, drink coffee until your heart says bang. Bars are silent, and you don’t need to queue for a beer! It’s brilliant!
Kinda like mondays when you are working 3-shift job and have odd days off and one of them happens to fall on monday. Brilliant! Absolutely magnificient!
I avoid shops during the Christmas period, and if I need to do groceries, I use me iPod* and blast some music to block out the carrolls.
If anyone asks what I want for Christmas (or my birthday is someone happens to know when it is…) I have a standard reply:
“Anything you made yourself. Otherwise, nothing.”
Works for me. And I usually get the latter.
People don’t want to put effort into making gifts. It’s easier to buy affection than it is to put thought and effort into a gift.
* - Not a paid commercial. ;)
Oh yeah… forgot to mention. The recent posts have started to feel like the ol’ bitter V I fell in love with in the first place. After a period of posts that made me yawn, it’s again interesting.
Maybe the producers replaced the writing staff?
Two things.
1) Bad examples with the salami and mustard, food is always good (except when its not=))
2) Actually buying something on sale isn’t a bad idea, just depends on the motivation. If it’s to save money on something useful, then by all means, take advantage of the sales.
Look, some of us LIKE mindless consumerism!!!
Christmas is nothing more than consumer gluttony masked as religious sentimentality?
Welcome to 50 years ago. Will your next blog entry be about how we should pull out of Vietnam?