It's not exactly unusual, unexpected, or even unreasonable to lose a bit of the feeling of Christmas magic as you get older. When you're a kid, Christmas is getting off from school, enjoying the anticipation of Santa, and getting presents to tear through under the Christmas tree. When you're older, there's no Santa, you get maybe two days off, tops, and you have to spend hours of time and tons of money getting everyone something. Feel the magic!
Still, and maybe it's just nostalgia talking, I really think Christmas isn't what it used to be. There seemed to be a heyday of Christmas between 1930 and maybe like 1990 when almost all the Christmas classics in terms of songs, movies, and TV specials were made, and just about everything since then sucks. I think it might have something to do with the cynicism and jadedness we have today, as well as our gross superficiality and media-saturation. Christmas is concentrated schmaltz and sentimentality, and in today's hyper-slick, hyper-sleek, hyper-hyper world, schmaltz and sentimentality just don't fit in very well. It's difficult to be Christmas cheery when we know just how crappy, and getting crappier all the time, the world is. It makes the "Christmas makes everything better and special and shiny!" delusion that is necessary really, really hard to maintain.
And though I always roll my eyes and want to cry, "Bullshit!" when people deride how commercialized Christmas is, because it's always been commercial, at least since the end of the 19th century, but today's commercialism does seem to have an uglier tone that sort of weighs everything down, as well. I don't know quite how to explain it, but there's a desperation and an emptiness, even a listless mechanistic-ness, to it that doesn't leave one with the holly-jollies. (I'm convinced that holiday specials are a cause of this, in a perverse way. After decades of cloying, preachy, "True Meaning of Chrismas" stories beating us over the head with "Christmas is about family and friends and love, not presents and money and superficial things!" I sincerely believe Americans half go Mammonic at Christmas out of spite.)
Am I a rose-colored glasses-wearing old humbug who just thinks that everything's gone downhill since "my day," or does anyone else feel the same?
4 comments:
I think it's largely a matter of perspective. In youth it can be the central focus because you have no other concerns. but as you get older you have more concerns than just christmas.
In the 80's people fought over Micheal jackson dolls and cabbage patch kids. Now it's Wii's and robot dogs. Don't worry, just find a way to make the christmas season more personal maybe with traditions you found and try to keep. That's been the best part of the holidays for me.
gotta love it right?
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"but today's commercialism does seem to have an uglier tone that sort of weighs everything down, as well. I don't know quite how to explain it, but there's a desperation and an emptiness, even a listless mechanistic-ness, to it that doesn't leave one with the holly-jollies."
Umm, so is that the reason that you sent me an unsolicited gift list of twenty porno movies that you wanted? To you know, break the listless mechanistic-ness of it all?!?!?
Tim: You're right; for kids, the whole year is focused on Christmas, and they don't have budgets and jobs and mortgages to damper their spirits. And don't worry, I have plenty of Christmas traditions, I was just commenting about the overall culture.
Scott: You mean porn doesn't scream Ye Olde Traditionale Christmasse to you? Why, it's as Christmas-y as Dickens, I tell you!
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