Don’t stress Christmas

My family has decided not to celebrate Christmas this year. Sure, we’re still carrying on the important traditions like traipsing about in the woods to hack down a tree then covering the tree with glittering heirlooms and electric lights. We are also continuing the tradition of burning fossil fuels for a few hours on Christmas Eve looking at light displays. Screw the environment; the perpetual 5-year-old in me must have the twinkling lights. I’m also hoping to continue my personal tradition of having a Jewish Christmas with a certain Jewish friend back home (going out for bad Chinese food on Christmas Day). Like I said, we’re keeping the important traditions.\nThe tradition we are not continuing this year is the one of guilt-induced giving. We have decided to simplify our lives this year and not buy into the stressful cultural phenomenon of holiday spending. On every newsstand, the periodicals scream out various ways to deal with holiday drama and ornery relatives, right next to the articles outlining the most popular holiday gifts, where to get them and what to buy those hard-to-gift people in your life. Even the latest issue of my yoga magazine is filled with ideas to manage “holiday stress” and mantras for dealing with consumer culture. \nStill reeling with disgust from watching consumers indulge in Black Friday, I am struck with the question of why we have invented holiday stress. Because that’s exactly what it is – a cultural invention. Soft news stories and otherwise intelligent people tend to treat this holiday madness and the personal drama that plagues it like an inescapable fact of nature, when indeed it is not. Our culture’s urge to buy gifts just for the sake of doing so, buying for fear of the social faux pas of not giving, is certainly a perplexing phenomenon. And, what’s more, we all lament the existence of the cycle and buy magazines that tell us how to lessen this beast we’ve created. Why do we continue to feed this monster we all loathe?\nThe only way to stop this cycle of holiday unhappiness and consumer glut is in a conscious decision to be honest about the nature of the beast. For example, if a person is hard to shop for, that might be a sign that there is nothing they need and they’d probably just prefer some quality conversation time with you, perhaps over a good meal. And if they don’t want your company, then you probably don’t want theirs, so drop the pretension and spend time only with those you really care about and who really care about you. \nVoila! How much cultural strife could be eliminated if we were simply more discerning with our time and refused to buy into guilt-induced socializing and gift giving? With Dec. 25 only a month away, now is the time to start combating “holiday stress.” Eliminate it before it even begins by refusing gift- and social-guilt. Give from your heart, remember what truly matters (hint: it’s not an iPhone) and let the Holiday Revolution begin!