A Few Things I'm Not Going To Do During The Holidays This Year

The holidays are upon us in the U.S., and by holidays, I mean the Christmas holidays (inwhich I include Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, & Festivus). Truly, they have been upon us for six weeks or so now - quite a few stores had Christmas decorations for sale in early October, and now there are houses in the neighborhood that are covered in lights and assorted plastic Santas and inflatable snowglobes.

Dwelling on the blatant commercialization of it all is a pointless exercise - heck, Linus did an excellent job of that in the cartoon A Charlie Brown Christmas which was made in 1965, so yeah, that horse has been beaten enough.

I have though, been thinking about what I can do to lessen the effect of the over-the-top consumerism that rears it's ugly head at this time of year, at least the effect it has on me and my attitude, and I have come up with a few ideas.

For starters, I'm going to try to avoid being judgmental of people who do get caught up in the more commercial aspects of the holiday. If people want to go shopping at midnight on November 27th, if that's what makes them happy, so be it. I will not be critical of them simply because it's not something I would ever do.

Second, I'm going to try to be more aware that for a lot of people, these are very special holidays. There are people who celebrate Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Winter Solstice/Festivus with solemnity and seriousness (okay, maybe not the Festivus crowd), and I will confess to having been judgmental of them, too. When someone greets me or wishes me a "Happy...whatever," I will return the greeting with a warm "And to you and yours as well."

Third, and this is a biggie...I'm going to flat out just enjoy the fact that the majority of people who are out taking advantage of the myriad sales and promotions during the holidays are doing so with the intention of finding something nice for the people in their lives who matter to them, who are important to them, and who they want to make happy.

Because heck, if rampant consumerism can get people to stop and really think of the people in their lives who are important, who matter, and who are the people they want to make happy...even if it's only for a short while...then it's a good thing.