Matt writes:
But here's what genuinely bugs me about Christmas. The roommate came home last night with some Christmas décor and I said something like "ugh." His reply was something about how I need to get into the holiday spirit. And there's the rub.
It seems to me, really, that the whole Christmas spectacular would be much better if it just went unapologetically as "Christmas." If someone wants to know why I'm not in the Christmas spirit the answer is easily enough: not Christian, don't celebrate the day, no spirit. The "holiday season" has a weirdly insidious universalizing effect. Nobody's tricked into thinking it's anything other Christmas, but all of a sudden it's for all of us instead of merely the overwhelming majority of us. There's nothing wrong, really, with an overwhelming majority lording it over a small minority in such trivial ways as putting decorated conifers all over the place, but one might as well be clear on what's going on.
But then, I'm not Christian, don't celebrate the day, have tons of spirit, and sing Christmas songs to every cashier unlucky enough to have me in line during December. So maybe there is something to the holiday spirit formulation. Because really, what we're talking about is societally-sanctioned cheerfulness, and for all us overly cheery folk, it's a chance to be more effusive and lyrical than normally allowed.
