Bumblebee Sweet Potato

I can’t tell if this phenomenon is more prevalent this year, or if it’s just bothering me more, but I’m getting really tired of the advertising that is permeating the airwaves this holiday season. The particular strain that is most annoying to me right now are the ads along the lines of ‘don’t forget yourself when you’re doing your holiday shopping.’

Whether it’s accruing points with your bank or credit card miles, we seem to have come to a place as a society where it’s okay to spend at least as much time thinking about what you want to buy yourself for Christmas as you spend thinking about what to give other people as gifts. And while it’s endearing when a five-year-old sits on Santa’s lap and outlines her wishlist, it’s extraordinarily unattractive in a fifty-year-old.

I’m equally annoyed by the ads that poke fun of the gifts that other people give you, along the lines of, “so Uncle Myron got you another neon hula dancing lamp,” and then encourage you to spoil yourself, since the people who are important in your life are totally inadequate as gift-givers. Why even bother exchanging gifts with that worthless old Uncle Myron, since he’s clearly a crazy old coot?

Have I ever gotten a Christmas gift that I didn’t like? Of course. But it seems ungracious to me to point that out to the giver, who was, after all, trying to do something nice for me.

I’m trying to figure out how to write about this without getting all Fox News, “War on Christmas”-like. It’s okay with me if people want to celebrate Christmas in more secular and inclusive ways, it’s just that I object to the fact that it seems like more and more, the point of this holiday is to celebrate your own greed, and the greed of your family members, particularly your children.

I’m no expert, but it doesn’t seem to me as if that’s the right message for any holiday to be sending.