How is it year after year we go thru the bull-hicky of life, and it’s all good! But this time of year always seems to bring up misery for many?
Working on a sdkfz251, flipped on to FB. some friends I know personnaly, others I just know thru FB(have phone conversations with,but consider them friends also). day-day life is easy,for most parts, but when holiday time comes up, brings out our worst statements and feelings.
any opinioins???
Well…it could be what the shrinks call “Seaonal Affective Disorder” (aka the winter blahs)- basically, it’s a lack of sunlight which causes depression, this condition may or may not be associated with bipolar disorder. It could also be the holidays just stress the crap out of people ($$ issues, family issues, etc. issues…) - or a combination of the two.
Just my UNprofessional (as an EMT for 11yrs) opinion…[whstl]
I’ve seen the perceived increasing materialist nature of people get them stressed out when it comes to realizing the awful financial burden of providing “appropriate gifts” to people these days.
The commercialization of Christmas gets ME personally in a bad mood., I hate to see the focus on store profits and all that superficial nonsense, And the shopping on Thanksgiving thing this year–for the sake of oh glorious profit!–made me rather ill.
I’ve actually somewhat stopped buying gifts, and asked people not to buy for me. If I need something during the year, I generally get it for myself. If I see something for someone that I think they’ll just love, I’ll buy it for them. But the whole “requirement” of getting a gift for someone because they think this other person is going to buy THEM something has been a source of stress for some in my immediate circle, and it’s just getting out of hand and ridiculous already. People shouldn’t be measured for how “special” the gift they get–or give–is.
doog, I am with you there. I just tell my mum and partner that they don’t have to get me anything as if there’s anything I want, I will just buy it myself. And it all gets silly when people are asking you want you want for xmas. And you can’t move in town this time of year. I went in yesterday for some things nothing to do with xmas, I usually go in early on a sat to avoid the rush, but even then the traffic was horrendous and the town centre packed, all for what.
My brother gets the SAD thing, he puts it down to the cold and the short days. But for me I love this time of year. I have always liked the dark and I am not a fan of hot weather. The only thing that spoils the winter for me is bloody Christmas.
Bah Humbug.
Glad I’m not the only one with the humbugs, its getting to where I’m really starting to hate the whole time of the year, I recently heard a young 'LADY" say if she gets gifts that aren’t worth at least a hundred bucks she gets rid of them !!! N0W on to a more enjoyable subject, been building cars/trucks for ages, originally started with military things tanks/planes and the like. Would like to get back into them again, What do you guys/gals suggest , for a person to start with I’m looking for something straight forward, easy to build straight out of the box. Nothing to complicated!!!
If that was a relation of mine, I know what she would be getting off me. And it wouldn’t be gift wrapped.
For armour, I would suggest a Tamiya kit.
Doog,
Amen! Well said.
To add to what you wrote: check out the videos of “Black Friday” shopping. Just nuts. Further, there is “Small Business Saturday” and “Cyber Monday.” Sheesh.
I feel the same as all of you. What I really hate is having to buy gifts for relatives and business associates that I don’t even LIKE, and vice versa.
Here’s my take…
First, we have to understand that the event celebrated by Christmas was most likely in the spring, The celebration was moved to the common and happy Solstice celebrations to reduce the possibility of persecution by the early Christians. Most of the trappings are pagan in origin or relatively recent additions. Most recently, the holiday has evolved into a very commercial event.
So, in my mind, there are three events going on at once in western culture: a Christian one, a pantheist one and a commercial one.
Let’s call the commercial one, which is what we are all subjected to, Krissmuss. This features Santa Claus, shopping, reindeer, shopping, snowmen, shopping, c old weather, shopping, Currier and Ives, shopping, sappy music, movies and TV shows, shopping, decorated trees, shopping, shopping, a bogus “War on Christmas” (with its genuinely stupid, pointless and manufactured controversy of Happy Holidays vs. Merry Krissmuss and the dang your beliefs and feelings I want to make myself feel superior by saying Merry Krissmuss attitude that it fosters) and shopping. Somewhere in there are a crèche and a menorah. Oh, and shopping.
This leads to unachievable expectations, from the weather (snow for a White Krissmuss) to false memories of a simpler, happier time. The reality is it forces people to socialize with folks they often would rather not and to make nice when they don’t want to. They have to struggle with buying presents for people they don’t really know and get presents they don’t really want while acting like the Crapco Grilled Cheese Sandwich Maker ™ and another pair of tube socks will make their lives perfect. Throw in one unstable person and you have a recipe for emotional disaster.
Add the judgmental aspect of Santa’s naughty/nice list and people find themselves undeserving and having to deal with guilt, real or imagined.
The celebration and decorating part goes on for a month or more then suddenly ends. The musak starts in mid November (one local station I used to have in the car, one year started introducing Krissmuss songs on October first, yes, 1 October, the day after September ends…they still go 24-7 from Thanksgiving on).
Pity the poor people in retail…been there, done that. They are subjected to extended hours, low pay, a disrupted Thanksgiving, and a constant flow genuinely nasty people who don’t want to be buying the stuff they are buying. With the so called Black Friday Doorbuster sales, people aren’t buying gifts for others, but hording stuff for themselves. Nothing can turn a Tiny Tim into a Scrooge more easily than working in a store in December.
So, yeah, Bah, Humbug.
so someone else remembers RED/GREEN, now that restores my faith in humanity!!! And don’t forget the duct tape!!!
Duck tape…the handiman’s secret weapon!
If it ain’t broke, ;you ain’t tryin!
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
I’m a man…I can change…if I have to…I guess…
I have found the perfect gift- parties.
I invite twenty people and spend 40-50 $$ each.
Memorable to the max and we all feel like we had a gift.
I am a mail carrier so this time of year the number of packages that I deliver go up exponentially. Within the next week by the time I’m finished loading in the morning you wont be able to put a paperclip in the back of my postal truck. I LOVE CYBER MONDAY …NOT John
Aside from all of the negative things about this season listed above, the one thing that I certainly do enjoy is the ability of children to absolutely believe in magic. I remember that ability and sorely miss it. I mean it, really! Magic is positively real to a child, what a gift! Even if that ability is short lived, at least they can enjoy it while it lasts. I believe that this season is all about children.
It’s funny (not really), lately, I find myself feeling genuinely sorry for children. For the very reason of “magic and Mickey Mouse” (etc)…life is grand. Poor souls have no idea what they’re in for.
Subfixer, it is absolutely about children and the short window of “magic” they enjoy before discovering that Christmas is the “gateway” to consumerism. I remember very well when I thought it was all real, and how disappointing it was to learn it was just a collective myth (I didn’t appreciate that it was done for my benefit).
I’ve had a thought lately, I’m not very religious and don’t mean to offend anyone, but it’s seems to me that the devil himself could not have devised a better way to destroy the meaning of Christ’s birth and message to the Christian community than the way we choose to celebrate the holiday. It would be great if we could all decide to switch gears, but there’s probably just too much “tradition” to turn it around. So sad!
Well, I love Christmas, and the whole holiday season for that matter. It still conjures up many of those magical feelings I had as a child. Does the overly-commercial aspect of the holidays bother me - sure, a bit, but I don’t let it ruin the season for me.
I’m a man, but I can change if I have to…I guess.
My favorite time of the year is November-December, specially Christmas. Many people loose the true meaning of Christmas and get hung up on the gift commercialization and Black Friday garbage. For me, it’s a time to enjoy with family members who may not be around next time and to celebrate the birth of Christ. The one thing I do miss terribly is watching both my small kids open up their gifts on Christmas morning. They are both grown up and still open their gifts with us but not quite the same effect as when they were children.
i love Thanksgiving with all the childhood memories of going to my uncle’s and riding horses and shooting and just being a kid. and the dinner. now it’s just the 2 of us and it’s still nice. no sales, no stress we like to cook so dinner is fun. Christmas doesn’t do much for me anymore though i relish in the joy it brings to Christians and Hannakuh for Jews.after Christmas starts the dying season through mid February when too many parents, relatives, and friends have died. But i get through that by escaping into books, jigsaw puzzles with my frau, computer games, exercise and model building.
WOW what a downer this turned out to be. think i’ll put on some happy music, finish my 88, and start laying out a base. oh and it’s still single digits in colorado.