The Complaint Thread

TheSameIdiot said:
I get that. In my house, holidays are totally divorced from their original meaning.
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To clarify as well; I'm not a 'celebration' kind of guy in general. It's not so much that I don't like holidays because of whatever meaning anyone assigns to them. I just don't enjoy the traditions themselves. Absolutely no problem with people that do -- except people that play Christmas music in fucking October and November.
 
Alright, everyone should do their top five Christmas songs now. I'll start:

  1. Do They Know It's Christmas - Band Aid
  2. Happy Xmas - John Lennon
  3. Christmas Is All Around - Billy Mack (which is actually Bill Nighy)
  4. Fairytale of New York - The Pogues
  5. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love
For my money, the voice of Christmas isn't Mariah, it's firmly Darlene Love.
 
Damien said:
To clarify as well; I'm not a 'celebration' kind of guy in general. It's not so much that I don't like holidays because of whatever meaning anyone assigns to them. I just don't enjoy the traditions themselves. Absolutely no problem with people that do -- except people that play Christmas music in fucking October and November.
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I'm this way as well. I do like the idea of getting together with family (well, with friends, anyway) over the holiday months, but I'm not really interested in any of the usual traditions surrounding the holidays themselves. Like, my Christmas cheer this year will probably be inviting some guy friends of mine out to see the Kill Bill rerelease and a dinner after.

It definitely owes to me coming from a home where I only saw extended family on holidays and they made WAY too big a deal of the traditions, but now that I'm an adult I just like to spend those months hanging with people I like in quiet, low-stress environments.

(edit: as my spooky season marathon indicates in the other thread, Halloween gets a pass because I like the vibe).
 
TheGillMan said:
"Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues, and "Thank God Its Christmas" by Queen are the two that would find me disagreeing with you.
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There is no middle finger emoji, so I find I have to respond to this directly instead of giving it a mere disdainful emoji reaction. So I'm doubly mad now.



JakeEkiss said:
It definitely owes to me coming from a home where I only saw extended family on holidays and they made WAY too big a deal of the traditions, but now that I'm an adult I just like to spend those months hanging with people I like in quiet, low-stress environments.
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I don't know what my issue is. I mean, I'm sure part of it is just my disinterest in large gatherings AND in forced gatherings generally. But I also just actively resent traditions more broadly. I refuse to say 'bless you' when someone sneezes (say 'excuse me' when you sneeze - shit flew out of YOUR face and I'm not the Pope). I don't really acknowledge my birthday or anyone else's (besides my kids, for obvious reasons). I've NEVER lied to my kids about fairy tale creatures like Santa or the Easter Bunny. I don't think the past has any right to tell me what I should be doing in my present, I guess? I dunno.
 
Damien said:
I don't know what my issue is. I mean, I'm sure part of it is just my disinterest in large gatherings AND in forced gatherings generally. But I also just actively resent traditions more broadly. I refuse to say 'bless you' when someone sneezes (say 'excuse me' when you sneeze - shit flew out of YOUR face and I'm not the Pope). I don't really acknowledge my birthday or anyone else's (besides my kids, for obvious reasons). I've NEVER lied to my kids about fairy tale creatures like Santa or the Easter Bunny. I don't think the past has any right to tell me what I should be doing in my present, I guess? I dunno.
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This is all valid and I support you. I'll still say "bless you" and do birthday wishes (though, typically that's all), but yeah, the rest I'm pretty much the same on. It wasn't until my grandmother died that I could finally convince my mom for us to see each other on our "Christmas" holiday on a day in December other than the 25th. Like, it's not even the actual day Jesus was born (which doesn't matter to me either way, but does to her), why are we sticking to a marketing holiday where half the people on the road are stressed o the max and the other half are half asleep? Wait three days and go out to eat someplace nice where we can pay and tip well so somebody else does all the cooking and cleaning.
 
Christmas is my family's Super Bowl. No religious context. Just too many gifts, too much food, growing up we'd have 23 cousins all opening gifts together, and since I was basically raised communally with my extended family, we didn't have any of that WASPy baggage so many folks have with only having to see your relatives once a year and not even liking them that much. All the cousins are grown with families of their own now and we still have a Christmas party, usually a few weeks earlier at someone's house. We drink too much. Someone dresses up as Santa for the next generation of rug rats.

My mom and her sisters, the first thing they do when someone buys a new house or condo: "But where will you put the Christmas tree?" First thing they asked me when I bought mine. It's INSANE. And, I'm sure, people would hate it, but in a fucked up world, the fact that my kinda trashy Boston family goes ALL IN on one super capitalistic holiday and makes it a thing means it's my thing too. Hell, my partner can't stand her family and she "sacrifices" a different holiday every year so she can come to ours (and on the years she couldn't she gave me full leave to skip her miserable Christmas - "I'm not taking THAT away from you!")

Back when I was a "serious" writer I wrote a moody little Christmas story every year. Now that I'm an unserious superhero writer I have written a bunch of novelettes I give away every year around the holidays (something the publisher actually asked for).

But man, I can fuckin' DO WITHOUT CHRISTMAS MUSIC. I know Fairy Tale of New York is technically a Christmas song but I like it cos I'm a Pogues guy, not for the holiday context. "You took my dreams from me when I first found you" "I kept them with me babe, I put them with my own" is a call and answer lyric equivalent of hiding glass in a fruit cake, just laceratingly angry and melancholy.

That being said, Trombone Shorty doing O Holy Night is proof that art sits as close to the divine as humanity can get.
 
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