Meaningless?

I'm not a huge fan of Christmas. Now wait...before you rip my head off and roll it down the lane into ten elf pins...let me explain.

Its not that I don't enjoy giving people gifts and watching their surprise as they open them. Its not that I don't enjoy decking the house out with a zillion lights and causing blackouts across our little town. Its not that I don't love being with family and friends and singing Christmas songs as we cook and dance around the kitchen.

It IS because I don't like the commercial side of Christmas and the way kids think of it. And it is because Merry Christmas seems to have become bad words.

I wonder how many of today's kids even know what the meaning behind Christmas is. I bet they think that Christmas is just the day they get to get all kinds of gifts for being good throughout the year or something.
A few years ago, J and I and my family were all sitting around the tree and opening gifts from each other with my three little nieces. I love to see those girls smile, so happy, when they open gifts. But Jade, the oldest of the three, seemed a little...angry.
She had a pile of gifts beside her that dwarfed her and it seemed like she loved everything she got. So, I asked her what was wrong.
J and I always go overboard on the gifts. We will spend outrageous amounts of money on our family and friends. We just really love giving. I remember that year, the girls being older, we had bought each girl like five gifts or something like that. (You always have to give them the same amount of everything or one will get upset thinking you love the other more or something.) And they weren't just toys and clothes. It was educational stuff disguised as cool stuff. Laptop computers, real musical instruments and such.
Jade huffed and crossed her arms across her chest, giving me the dirtiest look.
"What is it?" I asked again.
In all seriousness she scowled and said, "This is it?" She signaled the huge - and I mean huge - pile of gifts beside her. "Last year, you and Aunt J bought us ten times more gifts." She really gave us hell for not giving her twenty gifts or more. J is still shocked at the way she reacted. Honestly, me too.
I blame her parents and my "material" mother. She never even thanked us.
So the next year, all three girls got artwork from me. Winnie the Pooh scenes to hang on their bedroom walls and that was it. I got scowled at for that too but now, they come to expect it from me. And until their parents teach them what Christmas is really about, that is all they will ever get from me and Aunt J.

The other day, we were in the local Walmart. We had a box of cereal and a gallon of milk as we walked up to the check out line. The nice woman rang us up and as she handed us our change, she smiled and said, "Merry Christmas."

I was stunned. I have not had a stranger say that to me in years. I smiled so big that it hurt and said, "Merry Christmas to you too."
When we got out to the car, J grabbed my hand and said, "I can't believe she said that. It was so cool."
I have to explain. Excluding this last year, we lived in South Florida. Ft. Lauderdale to be exact. No one...not a single person...says Merry Christmas down there. I swear, its like the words have become illegal. The words have become offensive. WTF? Right?
Now, I know that not everyone is Christian and such. Hell, I'm not even Christian...I'm Wiccan. But still...what the hell is wrong with saying Merry Christmas?
I talked with my mom last night. She absolutely loves Christmas. She will go get her nails done in a Christmas design. She has Christmas pins that she will wear every day in December. She even puts Christmas decorations in her cars. Her house is decked out with lights and figures all over the place. The inside is so decorated that you would think you walked into Santa's workshop or something. Get it...she loves the holiday.
On the phone, she was upset. The company she works for (a very well known company) had so many complaints two years ago about the Christmas tree and decorations they had in the lobby that, last year, they didn't even bother to decorate. Complaints! When I asked her who complained she said it was the melting pot of different religious people that she worked with. Yet, the company decorated all of these holidays but the only holiday they felt was offensive was Christmas. Crazy, huh.
Hopefully the company will decorate this year.

I guess really, Christmas just doesn't have the same meaning anymore and for that, I'm not a fan.