I have a confession: I actually really don’t like the holidays.
I’m not really sure when this started, because I have very happy memories of my childhood Chanukkahs. My mom converted to Judaism, and the one thing she couldn’t let go of was a Christmas tree. Growing up, my mom and I had a tradition: every year, we’d go shopping and each get one new ornament for our “Chanukkah bush.” Those were very happy memories, along with the memories of lighting the menorah while our dog Allie howled along to the prayers.
At some point, though, I started to really hate the holidays. I think it happened sometime during or right after college. I started to get really irritated by the commercialism of the whole thing, and despite my constant efforts not to get sucked in, it’s impossible to avoid the crowds and the advertisements, and the guilt over not spending a ton of money. I also can’t stand that people are literally trampling one another for something as trivial as a videogame system from Wal*Mart.
Last year during the holidays, I had a job working retail at Paper Source. It was hell. I had to listen to Christmas music for 35 days straight, deal with extremely rude customers on a daily basis, and participate in a ridiculous number of expensive work-related gift exchanges despite the fact that I hardly made any money. It was the worst holiday season ever. I am very thankful not to have to deal with that again!
I would probably crawl into a hole the day after Thanksgiving and not emerge until December 26th if my husband would allow it. Unfortunately, he LOVES the holidays. LOVES them. Every year, he and his 8+ cousins get together for “Cousins Christmas,” which involves a gift exchange and a while elephant. Although I admittedly feel super pressured to find great gifts, it’s actually a really fun time. When I came along (my first one was three or four years ago), my ever-accepting husband changed the name to “Cousin’s Chrismukkah.” I feel like a bit of a traitor to my Jewish culture, but I’m trying to get over it and not be quite so serious about what it all means.
Another holiday tradition we have is a 24 Marathon, in which we watch the entire last season of 24 until we get nauseous. We always complete all 24 episodes in three days. It’s wonderful.
This year I actually started to get excited about the holidays at the beginning of November. I planned a bunch of craft projects to make it even more spectacular. Sadly, I started to get cranky the day after Thanksgiving when the crowds came out, and I haven’t been able to pull myself out of the I’m-just-a-cranky-Jew-on-Christmas funk quite yet. Even the craft projects haven’t helped. We haven’t finished decorating, but I thought I’d share what I’ve done so far.
My first project was a glittery “OY” sign. After the holidays last year, Paper Source marked these giant kraft JOY letters down 50%. I think they’re about a foot and a half tall–they’re super big. My sentiments around the holidays are obviously a little less of the JOY and a little more of the OY anyway, so I thought it would be appropriate to ditch the J and sparkle the letters Chanukkah-style. What do you think?
I actually still have the J and haven’t done anything to it. I was thinking it would be a great monogram for someone marrying into a J-last named family. Anyone need a J?
The other thing I created was this felt “Happy Chrismukkah” sign:
Close up:
I actually really like how both projects turned out, and they got me excited enough to take out our fake tree (we’re hippy environmentalists, what can I say?), but not quite excited enough to decorate it yet. ;)
I know I’m not the only cranky one on Christmas. Anybody else? Anybody got any tips for me on how to keep the crankypants level down? I would LOVE to be like my friend Marianne, who absolutely adores Christmas. Please, someone teach me how.
