{"id":2379,"date":"2014-08-26T23:48:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T23:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/top-five-things-i-wont-do-this-christmas\/"},"modified":"2014-09-08T21:21:41","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T21:21:41","slug":"top-five-things-i-wont-do-this-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/top-five-things-i-wont-do-this-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Five Things I Won\u2019t Do This Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Labor Day weekend approaching it is inevitable that my heart turns to Christmas<\/a>. I\u2019m so done with summer. And Halloween<\/a> does nothing for me. Zip. I love<\/a> Thanksgiving<\/a> but I consider it a part of Christmas<\/a>. That\u2019s just how I roll. <\/p>\n

So it is only natural for me to have Christmas<\/a> on the brain right now. <\/p>\n

Before I spend a penny, before I make a plan, before I lick a stamp, hang a stocking or string a light: there are some things I must promise myself NOT to do this Christmas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Like New Year\u2019s resolutions these are the big bad no-no\u2019s for me this year:<\/p>\n

1. I will NOT just buy Christmas<\/a> presents.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This has to be #1. I\u2019m long past caring what I spend on Christmas<\/a> (or anything else for that matter). Middle age does that to you. When you\u2019re young, you\u2019re broke. When you have kids, you\u2019re still broke but you go frugal because, doggone it, you\u2019ve got to be an example. When you realize you one day want to retire \u2014 and this hits you at about age 33 \u2014 you worry about \u201csaving\u201d. <\/p>\n

Then you hit 50. And you conclude you could get hit by a bus and all that money would end up in the hands of someone ungrateful and unworthy. So spending money on Christmas<\/a> isn\u2019t a thing. <\/p>\n

But it has been a sobering lesson from Christmas<\/a> past to think that spending money on Christmas<\/a> means it actually becomes a great Christmas<\/a>. Money doesn\u2019t make Christmas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In fact, it\u2019s just the opposite. Money ruins Christmas<\/a>. Linus had it right. <\/p>\n

The meaningful Christmas<\/a> requires thoughtfulness, creativity\u2026true giving. <\/p>\n

This year I\u2019m not worried about money or stores or shipping deadlines. And I\u2019m not worried about giving just because it\u2019s Christmas<\/a>. I\u2019ll give where my heart leads me. If that means I stiff a co-worker or a neighbor I don\u2019t really like anyway and only talk to at Christmas<\/a> and the 4th of July, so be it. I\u2019m looking for quality giving this year: both in what I give and who I give it to. <\/p>\n

Does that make me Scrooge? <\/p>\n

2. I will NOT sniff at tradition.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m blasting Perry Como this year. Grand kids and snibbling teenagers be danged. We\u2019re rockin\u2019 White Christmas<\/a>, too. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m doing bubble lights<\/a>, good old fashioned incandescent bulbs, and ornaments that break. I don\u2019t live in snow country any more but this year, doggone it, I\u2019m making snowballs. <\/p>\n

There is nothing wrong with the old Christmas<\/a>. In fact, I kind of like it and I don\u2019t care who thinks ill of me because of it. <\/p>\n

3. I will NOT be worried about being politically correct. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Merry Christmas<\/a>! There. I said it. Sue me. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not tiptoeing this year. If you\u2019re Jewish, Merry Christmas<\/a>! If you\u2019re Muslim, Merry Christmas<\/a>! If you\u2019re Atheist, Merry Christmas<\/a>! If you\u2019re liberal, Merry Christmas<\/a>! <\/p>\n

If you work for a school district, a shopping center, a feminist organization, a tree-hugging environmental group, a newspaper, a civic organization or the gay rights lobby \u2014 Merry Christmas<\/a>! And a happy friggin\u2019 New Year to you, too. <\/p>\n

This is America. Merry Christmas<\/a>. It\u2019s what we do. <\/p>\n

4. I will NOT snarf every thing I see to eat.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Man, this is the hardest one of all. I don\u2019t even like sweets and Christmas<\/a> is awash in every kind of powdered sugar something imaginable. Why in the world do I eat it?<\/p>\n

Give me the chestnuts. I\u2019ll taste anything. <\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t have to gorge myself on it. <\/p>\n

Good grief. <\/p>\n

5. I will NOT be normal. <\/strong><\/p>\n

A lot of people get sick of Christmas<\/a>. Those who do seem to go the other way in December \u2014 they overdo the anti-Christmas thing during the season. I once had a friend who played EVERYTHING Bing Crosby except White Christmas<\/a><\/em> and I\u2019ll Be Home for Christmas<\/a><\/em> in December. <\/p>\n

Not me. Give me normal of nothing. I refuse to be normal. <\/p>\n

Come December I\u2019m all Christmas<\/a> all the time. Christmas<\/a> movies, Christmas<\/a> music, Christmas<\/a> food, Christmas<\/a> decorations<\/a>, Christmas<\/a> television, Christmas<\/a> sweaters \u2014 the works. I want it all. <\/p>\n

Christmas<\/a> is a season to be savored. <\/p>\n

It is an environment to be consumed and digested fully. I will bathe in it. <\/p>\n

I will exude the attitudes that being immersed in it properly should convey: giving, loving, bright, hopeful, and charitable. <\/p>\n

Ok, even to that neighbor I only talk to once a year. <\/p>\n

(Submitted anonymously by a man who knows his wife will discover this and tell his mother.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Labor Day weekend approaching it is inevitable that my heart turns to Christmas. I\u2019m so done with summer. And Halloween does nothing for me. Zip. I love Thanksgiving but I consider it a part of Christmas. That\u2019s just how I roll. So it is only natural for me to have Christmas on the brain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}