Happy Holidays! I love Chirstmas time, don’t get me wrong,
but there are a few things that really bother me when it gets closer to the big
day.
1.
People are RUDE. I understand that everyone is
rushing out to get all those fabulous gifts on their Christmas list for their
family and friends, (or for themselves, because we all know no one else could
get us everything we really want) but
that doesn’t make it okay for them to trample fellow shoppers or be nasty to
the salespeople trying to help them out. Spending a ton of money on presents is
stressful, sure. Spending money in general is stressful, but we don’t see
people throwing a hissy fit in a store every single fricken time they buy
something.
2.
The constant “Holiday Sale!” advertisements. At
work, we had door-buster sales for Black Friday, ads sent out with almost a
third of our merchandise on sale, clearanced almost the entire store, our “Something
Unexpected!” commercials. Not only our store was filling the space between TV
shows with repetitive slogans and jingles to advertise the “great deals” on
merchandise that everyone must have
for Christmas. Have you ever noticed those “must-have” Christmas toys that pop
up every year? This year, they brought back the ungodly annoying Furby. Those
things gave me nightmares when I was a kid because mine would. not. shut. up. We
also had a pretty high demand for Easy-Bake ovens this year. Why are we
bringing back all these old toys again?
3.
The instant pile-up of assignments at school.
Every teacher schedules an end-of-the-unit test plus a 50-page paper and a
presentation project due ON THE EXACT SAME DAY. Come on! It’s Christmas Break, not the end of the term! Their excuse is
always, “You’ll forget everything if we wait to take the test after break.”
Probably, yes, but cramming the night before to study for six different tests
doesn’t really make for a good grade either. At least if we waited until after
break, we’d have some extra time to maybe study for them. Maybe.
4.
Last-minute shoppers. This one drives me
absolutely nuts because EVERYONE knows when Christmas is; couldn’t they do their
shopping ahead of time? Why must they all wait until the last minute to bomb
the store? It makes their gifts seem not only half-ass because their being
bought on Christmas Eve right when the store is closing, but also it pisses off
the store employees. (See post about New Year’s Eve…it gets better.)
Once Christmas Day gets here, a new
round of annoyances make way.
5.
When your younger siblings don’t appreciate the
presents they get because they’re selfish little shits. My mother spent MONTHS
trying to find left-handed golf clubs for my little brother. She finally found a
set and was very excited to give them to him; my parents have this thing where
they like us to open the “big present” last. My brother had one gift left, his
clubs, and up until then he had gotten other nice presents, too, but he
apparently didn’t think they were that good. So, he started to cry. And he wouldn’t
tell any of us why he was crying. My
little sister also was upset because my other sister got a colorful pillow that
she was jealous about. What the hell, kids?
6.
When you go over to your grandparents’ house and
it’s full of screaming children. I have a very big family. At Christmas, we all
cram into my grandma’s small house, thinking we’ll all fit comfortably. Nope.
Not when a new bundle of joy (or multiple) are born every year and are added to
the already-loud-and-chaotic family mix. The older kids, like 11 and younger
but not quite a baby, like to run around with their new toy guns and yell and
wrestle on the floor. The big kids, including me, just seclude ourselves in a
back bedroom and watch TV to get away from the insanity. Christmas time makes
me rethink having children.
I’m sure everyone else has little
pet peeves around Christmas, too, so I’m not the only Scrooge around here. I
hope.
Word count: 703
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