What I hate about Christmas
1. Christmas CardsNothing says "I don"t really give a feck about you" like a Christmas card that comes out of a box of twenty identical Christmas cards. Also if anyone e-mails me a Christmas picture this year, I will track them down and do interesting things to them with a fork.
2 CHRISTMAS TREESAt our house, we have the same artificial tree for the last 15 years (Which incidently is not going up this year). So why buy a real one? For the pine scent? (Go out and sniff a pine cone) For the joy of vacuuming pine needles off the rug every day? What?? I don"t get it. And then, after New Year"s Day, you see the most depressing thing ever: all the dead, rejected trees sitting outside, waiting to be taken to the dump. Mutilate a living thing, take it home, hang shiite on it, then kick it to the dump: That"s everything evil about Christmas in a nutshell.
3 CHRISTMAS PARTIESEspecially work-related. My Christmas party this year comes after a long day for me. After such a day, I want to go home and be alone. Then every year there"s some sort of idiotic theme to the gift-giving (more on that later). This year, though, everyone has to buy something red. (I was going to give a vial of my own blood, but I didn"t think that would go down too well.)
4 CHRISTMAS GREEDThis time of year is when you start overhearing the little brats screaming to their parents that they want the toy du jour. Parents are caught in a cruel bind: They can"t very well say "Sorry, kids, xxxxxx are expensive and hard to find," because then the little shiites will just ask Santa for one. So the parents pretty much have to pay through the nose for it anyway.
5 CHRISTMAS CAROLSThere are three TWISTED CHRISTMAS records -- The cattle-prod rendition of "O Holy Night", "A Christmas Carol" and "12 Days of Christmas" ("On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me -- a beer"). All Christmas music should be dumped into a large hole, set on fire, and pissed on.
6 CHRISTMAS MOVIESI only recognize two Christmas movies: SCROOGED (for Bill Murray) and ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS (for sick laughs)
7 A CHRISTMAS CAROLThere are several good modern variations on it, but you know what? Dickens" perennial fable of redemption is the granddaddy of a thousand lame movie.
8 CHRISTMAS SHOPPINGThe insanity begins in November, when anyone with two brain cells to rub together will stay the hell away from anything resembling a shop. Somehow, though, the idiots come out in force every year. And there"s no let-up until at least the second week of January, because even after Christmas, people return their shiitty gifts. And it"s not as if the Christmas shopping season begins in November: you start seeing Christmas commercials and store decorations as early as October. Which brings me to...
9 CHRISTMAS SHOPPERS (EARLY-BIRDS)The only thing worse than the moron who waits until December 24 to do all his or her Christmas shopping is the smug woman who has all her shopping done by July. That"s not misogynist: It"s always women who shop this far in advance. (Name three men who have their shopping done before December.) Now, so as not to piss off (women) who conscientiously buy their Christmas gifts a little at a time during the year: I am speaking here of the ones who can"t resist telling you, "Oh, I got all my shopping done before July." In other words: It"s fine by me if they do it; I just don"t want to hear it. Because it makes me want to divide such people into 17 asymmetrical pieces. So for those people, some advice: If the topic comes up ... lie. Claim that you"re even farther behind on your shopping than the rest of us. That"s the best gift you can give your friends.
10 CHRISTMAS GIFTSThe whole giving-and-getting thing is complete bollix: When you exchange gifts with someone, you feel bad if the gift you gave them is cheaper than the gift they gave you; you also feel bad if it"s the reverse. "Wow, a DVD player! Uh ... thanks ... I got you a bag of crisps." You calculate just how much to spend on each person, which means you"re basically putting a price on your love. How much is your mother worth? £150? £200? How about your cousin? One great reason to stay away from romance is the agonising over what to get your boy/girlfriend that first Christmas. And what to get his/her parents, siblings, etc....And of course he/she (usually she) will say, "You don"t have to get me anything. Just as long as we can spend Christmas together." This, let me tell you, is absolute crap.
Have a good festive season