• FALGSConaut [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    3 days ago

    I’m conflicted about Christmas.

    I love the idea of Christmas, that is a midwinter festival that involves community, family, food, and colourful lights to brighten up those long December nights. I love that it has the power to bring people together even in the darkest of times (I learned about the Christmas truce of WW1 at a very impressionable age). I love giving someone a thoughtful gift and seeing them light up with joy. I’m even a sucker for going to church and singing Christmas hymns and reading the story of Christ’s birth even though I’m not religious.

    I detest that it is an orgy of consumerism. I detest that it’s just another empty vessel to sell crap. I detest that for two months there’s never ending pressure to buy this or that, the advertising pressure that it’s not Christmas without buying a bunch of garbage that nobody cares about.

    I still come out on the side of loving Christmas but it’s in spite of its modern incarnation, not because of it. I absolutely understand people who hate Christmas, it’s been hollowed out and transformed into just another capitalist festival of consumption

    • TerminalEncounter [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      3 days ago

      Some retail businesses make almost all of their sales in the Christmas season. With how harsh the long recession has been, I think this year is going to be especially pushy and consumeristic and despite all that advertising the money is just not there to buy. One big sigh and waste