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kleenexwomanSubstitute teacher tells kids that there is no Santa, reporter writes deliberately melodramatic news story to horrify soft-hearted townspeople.
When or if I have kids, I'm going to show them "Nightmare Before Christmas" and tell them that Jack Skellington is bringing their presents. Actually, I'm going to tell them the story of Hogswatch, assuming that PTerry comes out with "The Night Before Hogswatch" or some other similarly adorable kids' book.
Actually, I think more people should conspiciously celebrate Hogswatch. It's a very, very honest holiday. It acknowledges the true origin of all those winter holidays--that people are scared because the sun went away, and they want to put up a bunch of lights and offer up sacrifices of huge meat dishes (or the weakest person in the tribe, depending on your local customs) to the Big Prosperous Fat Man who is tough enough to live in the cold year-round, so that he will bring the sun back. This cuts nicely through all the Christian-specific stuff. Also, the "peace on Earth, give geese to the hobos" bit. I'm not totally sure how charity and presents became so closely associated with Christmas, unless it's some kind of spin-off of the whole Amerind potlatch impulse. "Check out how rich I am! I'm so rich that I can afford to give people expensive presents and tasty food, even though it's the coldest and poorest part of the year." Or maybe it's a communal thing. It's nice, I suppose, but I am with those who would rather not have charity especially associated with a particular holiday. (Which is only a little hypocritical, as I save my own Big Charity for the High Holy Days. I figure that it makes more religious sense, as it's more constructive to give food and money to the unfortunate to atone for your sins than to just fast for a day and be cranky and headachey, and more economic sense to the giver, as Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah fall right at the harvest, when the Cohenim and rich landowners had the best opportunity to divvy up the goods to the peasants.)
And it's time for Rachel's Annual Frantic Hunt For Her Copy of "Hogfather." I've gone through three copies of this book because I keep losing them. Particularly unhappy about losing the first one, which was my first Discworld book ever and was given to me by my favorite teacher in middle school, Ms. Layman--she found it on the floor and thought I'd like it. I may have to go to Border's and pick up a fourth, because it is a damn good book. Where the fuck do all my books go? Are they stolen by the Book-Stealing Fairy? *glingleglingleglingle* Well, now they are.
Anyway, I trudged out in the cold and snow and dark and all that other winter crap last night to buy a copy of "Nightmare Before Christmas" for my very own.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thatnoise agreed to split the cost with me, which is good of him, particularly since he's only going to get to see it the 3,000 times I plan to play it this vacation before it goes back up to the dorm room. (Unless he draws satisfactory lizard punks and lizard Nazis for me, in which case he'll keep it until I fly back on my broom and steal it.)
Going up to Ohio tomorrow morning, will be back the 26th. I hope everyone who celebrates it has a good Christmas, and that those who don't celebrate it survive all the good non-Chinese restaurants not being open and there being nothing on TV except for heartwarming holiday crap.
ETA: It occurs to me that my very fondest and clearest memory of Christmas is the last time I did Meals on Wheels with Dad. I was in middle school, and I'd gotten the Elfangor Chronicles book (Animorphs) that day, so I sat in the back and read it while Dad drove us around and delivered cafeteria meals to people in the worst parts of Detroit. Everyone's house had bars on the windows and doors, and they were so happy to see us. I asked Dad why we couldn't do that every day, and he told me that if we did it every day, we'd probably get shot.
When or if I have kids, I'm going to show them "Nightmare Before Christmas" and tell them that Jack Skellington is bringing their presents. Actually, I'm going to tell them the story of Hogswatch, assuming that PTerry comes out with "The Night Before Hogswatch" or some other similarly adorable kids' book.
Actually, I think more people should conspiciously celebrate Hogswatch. It's a very, very honest holiday. It acknowledges the true origin of all those winter holidays--that people are scared because the sun went away, and they want to put up a bunch of lights and offer up sacrifices of huge meat dishes (or the weakest person in the tribe, depending on your local customs) to the Big Prosperous Fat Man who is tough enough to live in the cold year-round, so that he will bring the sun back. This cuts nicely through all the Christian-specific stuff. Also, the "peace on Earth, give geese to the hobos" bit. I'm not totally sure how charity and presents became so closely associated with Christmas, unless it's some kind of spin-off of the whole Amerind potlatch impulse. "Check out how rich I am! I'm so rich that I can afford to give people expensive presents and tasty food, even though it's the coldest and poorest part of the year." Or maybe it's a communal thing. It's nice, I suppose, but I am with those who would rather not have charity especially associated with a particular holiday. (Which is only a little hypocritical, as I save my own Big Charity for the High Holy Days. I figure that it makes more religious sense, as it's more constructive to give food and money to the unfortunate to atone for your sins than to just fast for a day and be cranky and headachey, and more economic sense to the giver, as Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah fall right at the harvest, when the Cohenim and rich landowners had the best opportunity to divvy up the goods to the peasants.)
And it's time for Rachel's Annual Frantic Hunt For Her Copy of "Hogfather." I've gone through three copies of this book because I keep losing them. Particularly unhappy about losing the first one, which was my first Discworld book ever and was given to me by my favorite teacher in middle school, Ms. Layman--she found it on the floor and thought I'd like it. I may have to go to Border's and pick up a fourth, because it is a damn good book. Where the fuck do all my books go? Are they stolen by the Book-Stealing Fairy? *glingleglingleglingle* Well, now they are.
Anyway, I trudged out in the cold and snow and dark and all that other winter crap last night to buy a copy of "Nightmare Before Christmas" for my very own.
thatnoise agreed to split the cost with me, which is good of him, particularly since he's only going to get to see it the 3,000 times I plan to play it this vacation before it goes back up to the dorm room. (Unless he draws satisfactory lizard punks and lizard Nazis for me, in which case he'll keep it until I fly back on my broom and steal it.) Going up to Ohio tomorrow morning, will be back the 26th. I hope everyone who celebrates it has a good Christmas, and that those who don't celebrate it survive all the good non-Chinese restaurants not being open and there being nothing on TV except for heartwarming holiday crap.
ETA: It occurs to me that my very fondest and clearest memory of Christmas is the last time I did Meals on Wheels with Dad. I was in middle school, and I'd gotten the Elfangor Chronicles book (Animorphs) that day, so I sat in the back and read it while Dad drove us around and delivered cafeteria meals to people in the worst parts of Detroit. Everyone's house had bars on the windows and doors, and they were so happy to see us. I asked Dad why we couldn't do that every day, and he told me that if we did it every day, we'd probably get shot.
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Happy Christmas, baby...
Date: 2005-12-24 06:18 am (UTC)Have a good one, hon. I love you!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-24 08:43 am (UTC)Christmas Day at sundown. Happy partying.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-24 04:30 pm (UTC)Anyhow. I have no fucking idea what holiday I'm really celebrating, but I'm going off with my family for Christmas, did a bit of Solsticey things with some friends...
I don't have a holiday, I guess. Happy suicide season. Your post made me laugh.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-24 05:58 pm (UTC)*cracks up*
Happy Hanukkah, Rachel!
-Jen
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-28 03:59 am (UTC)As a kid, my theory was always that the giving at Christmastime had to do with the Bible story of Christ's birth and the wise men trekking across the desert to give the kid gold and frankincense and myrrh. (I did not believe in Santa for very long. I was a skeptic. I mean, he always had the same handwriting as my parents.) *shrug* It could be that. But yours seems more likely.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-29 10:00 pm (UTC)> deliberately melodramatic news story to horrify soft-hearted townspeople.
"I've got it! The perfect headline! 'Event Participated In By Some'!" -- some one-off journalist character on The Simpsons
All journalists are smarmy and sanctimonious little bastards who exist for no purpose other than boosting their ratings and selling their broadsheets full of advertisements. Let no one ever tell you otherwise. All "news" is lies. There's no such thing as objectivity. There can't be.