by LouBelle 8 Replies latest jw friends
I am at an iffy place with christmas this year - I don't know if I'm not trying hard enough, or if this has just been a really difficult year, but I've lost my Christmas Groove.
And it's not just me.
So many that I've spoken to are saying the same things. Even the shopping malls haven't gone all out - I don't hear christmas music, they've got some decorations up but nothing that shouts ""CHRISTMAS IS HERE""
I have got to sort this out before the big day - I don't want to be a wet blanket.
Christmas has taken a huge attack
It takes away the magic.........
truth and reality or magic
Thats the trade-off, it seems
purps
This has been a difficult year for me too, and I think that's why I don't really care about Christmas right now. I don't even want to go to any family Christmas dinners. I just want to stay home with my bird and keep my phone unplugged.
W
LouBelle
I guess I've gone the opposite way to you this year - christmases past have been largely traumatic for me over the last few years - dog died, dad died, mum died... endless list but something always went wrong, right to last year when I landed in hospital - I almost came to EXPECT something bad to happen.
This year, I seem to have got my Christmas 'zing' back - real craving for a Christmas tree and to decorate it - one of my few happy childhood memories finally peeking through.
Now speaking of childhood and Christmas, take a read of this:
http://www.johnstonmckay.co.uk/gigs/sermon03_12_24.htm
Whatever happens, don't worry about how you feel - it'll just make you feel worse!!!
Blessings and peace
emo
And it's not just me.
You are correct. We walked around our neighborhood last night and there were not as many lit up houses as in the past. Its like people just aren't in to it this year. (Although the mall was packed yesterday). At least in my area, I think there is a good number of people just trying to hold on to their homes and don't have a lot of money to go all out this year. JHMO
Purza
it's because people want to be politically correct, no more Merry Christmas it's Happy Holidays, Santa can't say HO HO HO he has to say HA HA HA, it's silly I've even heard of people being afraid to decorate their homes because they don't want to offend non-believers! I think regardless if you agree that Jesus was born on the day, we are all kind of celebrating his birth, so if you put the Jesus back in christmas you will put the magic and joy back in to the holiday.
I have noticed the grinch around here, too. I have seen at night (around 10:45 PM) that very few houses are lit, and they are going up at a sluggish pace. In years past, I would notice quite a few whole blocks with maybe one or two houses not lit, and the ones that were lit had 5, 6, or 7 runs of lights along the roofline. There are also yards full of inflatables, every bush lit, and just about every kind of icicle lighting in years past. However, this year I have noticed nothing of the sort.
This year, people are wimping out. About every other place that is decorated just has an electric candle in the windows, and that's it. Most places that are lit have maybe 50% or less of the normal lighting displayed. And it's maybe 15% of the places, if that. There might be a cluster of 3 or 4 houses with displays, and then another 20 contiguous houses with little or nothing. There are still whole streets with next to nothing lit. In all, I have seen maybe three places in a 3 1/2 mile route through a residential neighborhood that are properly lit (and that is not a bad neighborhood at that).
The store I work in is also wimping out. They have no decorations whatsoever in the back aisle. The dairy has just a blue/white backdrop with a few wimpy clusters of presents here and there. The front has some tacky decorations plus vendor displays. Notably, there is still two full bags of Christmas decorations in the back room that are not even touched! This is not normal! Even in the case where one person did take the time to set up a nice display of inflatables including Christmas carols, that was running one night and silent and dark ever since. I also saw one test-run the night after Halloween and never seen it up since.
Given the embarrassment of the Witlesses about the pedophiles, I would expect more people to set themselves apart from them. Nothing sets a yard apart as "I am NOT one of Jehovah's Witlesses!" better than having every bush lit, having sextuple and septuple runs of Christmas lights along the roofline, having inflatables, and a reindeer/sleigh/Santa Claus lit on the roof. I can understand a few that are muslim and do not want to set up the yard. I can understand if this was just in bad neighborhoods where decorations would be trashed or stolen. I can see if a few had bad experiences like a loss of a child, and didn't want to decorate this year. And a few that are lazy. That is normal. But, why the fxxx is close to 90% of all people in good neighborhoods (I can safely ride my bike through it at night) not decorating this year? They have the decorations from last year, and most haven't neared the end of their life.
And I don't want to hear that it's the energy crisis, either. They did it through the onset of this energy crisis in 2003, which included the Blackout and advisories to not waste electricity. They did it through the terror attack of 2001 (I could understand people holding back sharply in 2001 after America had just got attacked). But not this year. I have my place, an apartment, decorated to the hilt within the limitations of the apartment capacity, and I have spent less than $5 a month on extra electricity for it. The lights are all LED, which use only 10% of the energy used by regular bulbs (and they last longer to boot). If people were worried about the environment or their light bills, they should pick up some LED strings and use those in lieu of standard bulbs.
I hope it has nothing to do with those few that are intolerant of Christmas making it miserable for those who wish to celebrate. I understand that some have suffered heavy losses around this time, including lost children and lost jobs. But that happens every year. I wonder why people are not going all out to decorate this year, when in most cases they already have the items. The candle in the window is puny: I ordered some from this forum (via an ad), and placed them. They were washed out by other lights. So I placed them in my bedroom windows where there are no other decorations, and those windows looked wimpy by comparison to the other windows where proper Christmas lights are plentiful.
If this trend continues, I am going to have a field day at Target come December 26. They are going to have very few sold light sets, leaving them with a ton of LED sets left on hand. And I am going to go ballistic picking them up at 50% off along with plenty of garland, bulbs, and figurines. As I am in an apartment complex, inflatables and animated structures on the lawn or on the roof and lights on the bushes are strictly out of the question. But I am going to clean out on extra bulbs and light sets, as well as figurines that can go in the hall for next year.
Also, this year is going down on record as The Great Christmas Wimpout of 2008. I sure hope Lady Liberty got that place decorated to the hilt. And, yes I have a mini disc of Christmas music that I assembled back in August going along with a bunch of Christmas carols in my computer--unlike most stores, which are just starting to play Christmas music and very timidly at that.
I just don't feel it. Hell, I haven't even done any shopping yet. We did manage to get the tree up and the indoor decorations done. I just don't feel it at all. I wish I did, because I love to "feel" Christmas, but it just ain't happening. Maybe I need a candy cane.
I haven't actually had time to start thinking about being christmassy, and I am broke (interest rate increase and petrol prices - thanks Mr Reserve Bank) and I have a sucky job, and well I am just generally feeling yugh about life, so christmas shmismas - just bring on 2008 and please make it a better year than 2007
