A Christmas addict's "bah, humbug!"

This might seem odd after the "yay Christmas!" elements of yesterday's post, but I really hate that Christmas is such an in-your-face event, beginning every November. I'm actually something of a Christmas addict: I obsess about finding the perfect present for everyone, bake up a storm, wear a lot of red sweaters and usually continue singing Christmas music well into February. It's my favorite holiday, but its pervasiveness in our society just doesn't seem fair to those who don't celebrate it, which, given the diversity of the American people, is presumably a fairly large minority.

I know that commercial businesses feel the need to use Christmas decorations as a way to entice Christmas shoppers into their stores, but can't the merchandise speak for itself? Scrambling through the aisles of Target yesterday (pre-kitchen time), I was way too busy concentrating on not stepping on small children, avoiding their parents' carts and elbows and keeping my eyes open for the elusive Lucky the Wonder Pup I was on a mission to find for my niece (who, fortunately for me, is too young to read this blog!) to even notice the store's décor. And I would have bought the toy there regardless of what the store was decorated for (Eid al-Adha, Hanukkah, the Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa...whatever!), because they had the best price for it.

I guess my point on that score is that commerce is commerce and a free market economy is pretty much going to do whatever it's going to do, regardless of what color lights a store has strung up, so why can't they focus on doing something more productive with their holiday profits than buying tinsel and sucking up even more electricity than usual?

On the non-commercial side of things, I get that decorating is a way to express the spirit of the season, which I love - from carolers to those goofy light-up Santas and snowmen people put on their lawns and in their windows. I actually talked my mom into buying a pair of vastly oversized candy canes to flank our front door when I was maybe nine or ten, pestered my dad to find an extension cord long enough to accommodate them and couldn't wait to plug them in every evening (sorry, Mom and Dad...).

But the metro stop closest to my office is decked out in red and green tinsel, my apartment building has two Christmas trees in the lobby and 2-foot-tall nutcrackers flanking the doors and my gym has been playing nonstop Christmas music since last week. Especially in a city with as diverse a population as Washington, how is that okay?

Yes, I appreciate the effort made to spread some Christmas cheer, but during a season that - for those who celebrate Christmas - is all about bringing joy to others and the spirit of giving, how can we justify actions like these that exclude so many? My Hindu and Jewish friends and colleagues are no less deserving of goodwill, peace and happiness than I am, yet there's nothing for them in this flurry of red and green, often not even the token gesture of "Happy Holidays!" in a store window instead of "Merry Christmas!" Isn't it bad enough that they spend Christmas Day on the outside looking in on a society that's almost completely shut down for the holiday, without adding the insult of a month and a half beforehand when they're made to feel isolated from the rest of the country?

On a personal level, celebrating with decorations and music is one of the best things about a holiday - it fosters togetherness for friends and family and gives us a reason to spend a little more time with the people we love. But that celebration should remain personal - it shouldn't be a societal free-for-all of "Merry Christmas, everyone! - unless you don't celebrate Christmas, in which case go away and don't bother us until it's over. We'll start bugging you to take a more active (fiscal) role in society again on December 26th. Thanks. Bye."

In the 21st century, we should certainly be capable of wishing people peace, joy, love and grace without tying it to one religious holiday. And I think we owe it to one another to do so.