Holiday rants

[design_mom]

Holiday car commercials are crazy. Who buys their spouse a car for Christmas?

"Merry Christmas, sweetheart! I got you a car payment!"

The first time we saw one of those my husband looked at me and said "You'd kill me if I did that, wouldn't you?" Um... well, at minimum, I definitely think that a purchase of that size should be discussed in advance, not "surprised."

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

There is absolutely no reason for the driver's door of my brand new car to be completely caved in because you're too lazy to carry a kid from the cart coral back to the car.

Had the car for 2 months. It has 198,000 miles on it now, still with a damaged front driver's side door. No excuse.

Merry Christmas

 

[Heigh-Ho]

I really dislike when someone says they love everything about Christmas and then when you discuss specifically what it is they love they don‘t even mention Jesus. I totally understand that not everybody who celebrates Christmas celebrates the birth, but I do wish people who do that would at least drop the hyperbole.

Are you like that with every topic that someone says they love everything about?

I guess I don't take that phrase, one used by many people in many different situations, to be 100% literal.

It's like people who say "I love everything about winter" I don't think they are saying they love blizzards, power outages, pipes bursting from freezing, car accidents people dying of the elements and more. It's just a phrase.

 

[Heigh-Ho]

Why do the lights work when you take them off but as soon as the next year rolls around somehow half the lights are out..never fails.

 

[Kitty 34]

Why do the lights work when you take them off but as soon as the next year rolls around somehow half the lights are out..never fails.

My DH is on board with that one!! Never fails.......except the lights!

 

[piccolopat]

I wish there was a lot less of the buying frenzy. For me, Christmas should be about spending time with family and friends (unfortunately not so much this year). Christmas should be experiences and good food that create lifelong memories. How many of us remember what we got for Christmas last year or the year before? I also agree that the Christmas season starts too early. Growing up, Christmas started the day after Thanksgiving. The music, the lights, the advertising all kicked off the season on Black Friday. I wish we could go back to that but I realize that is very unlikely.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

Not a problem this year but I despise that fake cinnamon pine cone spell, a little is ok but my goodness, must it always smell like a bunch of elves yacked in EVERY atrium from November through blizzard season?

That fake cinnamon smell gives me the worst headache.

No rants so far this year. In-laws are staying home (!!!!!!!), DH and I are doing a big purchase as our present, kids lists have been reasonable so far. All the work and school events that I hate dealing with have been cancelled.

 

[maxiesmom]

My rant is from a work standpoint: Don't place an on line order to pick up an item at a store, and then show up before you are told it is ready! Soooo much of this happening. You will be notified when your order is ready. And no, the over 6,000 other orders we are trying to fill ( I wish I was kidding about that number, but I'm not) are not less important than yours! Showing up before your order is ready makes extra work, and is a pain in the rear.

And please make sure you are going to the right store. Had a fellow associate getting ripped up one side and down the other, only to find out the idiot was at the wrong store!!!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Christmas should be experiences and good food that create lifelong memories.

At my mother-in-law's we have to open gifts one at a time in a circle (complete with pictures of each gift usually). It's a big thing for them and it isn't about the stuff per se. Plus bonus the pets play with the tissue paper lol. I'd be happy with gift cards most of the time honestly but mother-in-law likes to give actual gifts most of the time (and so does father-in-law) so I usually add just a few gift cards that I'd like leaving the rest for physical gifts.

How many of us remember what we got for Christmas last year or the year before?

Generally I remember but then again I remember wedding gifts still and housewarming gifts. Ask my husband and he wouldn't have a clue. I mean give me decades down the road maybe not but I presently do have a pretty good idea.

I think there's being materialistic in things and I agree about that sometimes we get too focused on an item. But there's also enjoying seeing others open and use the gifts you've given. And then there's the joy in remembering how you felt when you received something and for me that includes gift cards. Before our 2019 DLR trip sister-in-law gave me Disney gift cards for Christmas (we used that for a DL Christmas ornament). The other sister-in-law gave me a Disney gift card for my birthday and I used it in part to purchase a Disney Vera Bradley purse. Then there's the year early on in my relationship with my husband (then boyfriend) who for Christmas used a website to insert details about us into a specific plot and theme and it created a romance novel using that information. And that's just a wee bit. See now I'm just conjuring up those memories just typing

 

[Uncle Coaster]

Are you like that with every topic that someone says they love everything about?

I guess I don't take that phrase, one used by many people in many different situations, to be 100% literal.

It's like people who say "I love everything about winter" I don't think they are saying they love blizzards, power outages, pipes bursting from freezing, car accidents people dying of the elements and more. It's just a phrase.

No, I'm not like that with everything. And I'm really not trying to say that someone would have to be a Christian to celebrate Christmas. I accept that that changed somewhere along the way. However, in this specific example to leave this out is a pretty large dismissal, imo.

 

[Heigh-Ho]

No, I'm not like that with everything. And I'm really not trying to say that someone would have to be a Christian to celebrate Christmas. I accept that that changed somewhere along the way. However, in this specific example to leave this out is a pretty large dismissal, imo.

I don't really see it as a dismissal but I can see how you view it would make it that way for you. Things evolve over time and Christmas is cultural as much as it is religious. I'm sure there have been millions of people who were not raised with Christmas being about Jesus. I'm thinking there are people who do advent calendars who aren't Christian because that has also become cultural rather than being tied only to a religion.

But fair enough and thanks for answering!

 

[Luv Bunnies]

Not a fan of that Trans Siberian Orchestra Carol of the Bells song, it's Christmas rage in a song, when I hear it I sort of twitch.

Ahhh, feels good to get that out.

I'm a huge fan of Trans Siberian Orchestra, but I agree with "rage in a song." In fact, I refer to their music as "angry Christmas music" and one of their singers as "angry Christmas man." When you leave one of their concerts, your senses are fried. There's a lot going on including a wall of fire on the stage. It's an awesome experience, but it's not a warm, fuzzy, traditional Christmas concert by any means!

 

[LilyWDW]

NM... not worth the risk./

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

The usual stuff.
People clogging up the aisles conjugating as though they couldn't possibly be in the way.
The constant "Marco!/Polo!".... I have a fantasy of kids shouting "Marco!" and suddenly there's me around the corner near, wearing a Michael Myers mask whispering "POLO".
Unruly, unattended kids in general. You can start to see why Germans invented Krampus.

I have a tom cat called Marco Polo. You would hate me calling him in at night.

 

[VandVsmama]

I did not put a grocery cart in the cart corral a couple of days ago.

 

[tvguy]

"A Christmas Story" being a holiday tradition. It was a BOMB at the box office in 1983. In 1997 Turner Broadcasting was looking for an inexpensive movie to use for a holiday movie marathon. It is a CULT film now, just like Rocky Horror Picture best watched while intoxicated.

Elf on a Shelf is another.

 

[takemethere]

I'm sure this is scrooge like, but I hate Christmas lawn decorations. I don't mind holiday lights. But the blow up stuff and figurines, I think they just make yards look tacky.

totally agree can't stand those blow ups

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I really am not interested in how clever you are with your Elf on the Shelf.

I don't usually care about seeing those pictures either, but I have to say my great niece had a brilliant idea with her kid's EotS. Her kids have a boy & girl elf. When my niece got them out, she immediately put them in a 2 week quarantine.

 

[low-key]

Why?

cause every time you leave a store they are ringing there bells wanting money

 

[disykat]

Gift exchanges. I thought with a pandemic, we'd be off the hook this year. Apparently not. ARRRRGH!

Gifts are not my love language. I don't like getting them or giving them.