Getting into the spirit

Ben — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:53:19 +0000

Getting into the winter spirit is always a catch 22 for me. I love the snow and being able to go snowmobiling and enjoying the outdoors (a topic of which I will go into further in a following post). But events leading up to said activities almost always end up driving me mad. The holidays just before, as well as during and some right after are what makes the time such a drain for me. I was raised in a house and family that, up until my generation, has been gung-ho about holiday and the decorations involved. The main offenders that I will refer to are Thanksgiving and Christmas, but Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s both have their annoying qualities. Come, let’s take a walk down the twisted path that leads to the soul rending story of my youth.
From the time that I was very little up until around the time I moved away for college I was bombarded with holiday cheer. This, of course, means anything and everything from decorations to music to activities. Both my mum and my aunts are all very big on playing Christmas music during the months leading up to Christmas. This could mean that you started hearing jingle bells sometime around anywhere from just after Thanksgiving to more than a month before it. Then, when you go out to a store or event or restaurant, if you are past Thanksgiving, chances are you will be hearing “holiday” music. It was for that reason that I now loathe almost all forms of aforementioned “holiday” music. The few songs that somehow make it into my enjoyable list are those which have appealed to my music loving side. Songs that still convey a holiday message, yet are encapsulated in a much more appealing music genre are those that can make me listen. Songs such as those performed by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, or those that are done by musical artists that make the songs in their own style are those I make exception for. One such exception is something I actually just came across, and goes by the name of Weezer!! (Christmas With Weezer) Now, I know that sounded like they are some band I’ve never heard of before and now am hopping on the bandwagon. To the contrary, I have been a Weezer fan since partway through high school and was simply unaware that they had made a Christmas CD. Well, that basically covers my beef with Christmas music, most of the other holidays don’t have a specific genre of music that is overplayed and makes me hate life, so I will end here.
The other half of why I have issues with the holidays, and I guess it goes for all holidays not just those around the winter time, is all the fracking decorations. Again, my mum and all of my aunts are pretty “in to” the decorating thing, and it drives me bonkers. All the effort of buying things, wasting the money on them for one thing, and then storing them baffles me. Then comes the time to get them all back out of storage and the pain of putting them all up. For less than a month in most cases. Then, lo and behold, its a new holiday! Time for different decorations! Quick, take the turkeys and leaves down, its time for Santa’s and snowflakes! Holy crap, up until just now I had forgotten about Halloween! Now, Halloween I like, and I do enjoy putting up some of those decorations, but those are the kind I would also have up at almost any time of the year so again, there is an exception. But here, as with all holidays the family goes overboard with Halloween. Any way you look at it, the end of fall and beginning of winter is the worst of all decoration nightmare’s. This is because there are so many of them packed into such a tight timeframe that it is a constant up and down in and out of decorations and hassles. I for one choose to simply not decorate for the most part because it is just easier. I end up with less headaches and backaches because of it, and also have more time to spend doing things I have to do or want to do.

Spherical Thinking » Holidays

Getting into the spirit