{"id":20340,"date":"2020-12-08T09:00:43","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T17:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=20340"},"modified":"2020-12-01T15:26:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T23:26:13","slug":"open-space-christmas-is-awful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/12\/08\/open-space-christmas-is-awful\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/em>: Christmas is awful"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before Halloween was over, Costco was selling Christmas decorations, and they weren\u2019t the only company to do so. It feels like stores have started putting out candy-cane decor and Frosty the Snowman inflatables earlier and earlier every year. Honestly, I\u2019m tired of it.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong here: I like Christmas! I like picking out the perfect gifts I know my friends will love. The family time and huge meals are a staple of my December. But as I\u2019ve gotten older, I\u2019ve slowly grown more tired of the greedy corporations milking the holiday for as long as they can.<\/p>\n

The holiday has good intentions\u2014promoting kindness, compassion, and communication between people\u2014but it\u2019s been ruined for me. Starting November 1, every store you walk into is shouting at you to BUY BUY BUY! Buy presents for your family, friends, and co-workers! Spend lots of money, and if you don\u2019t, you obviously don\u2019t care enough about others!<\/p>\n

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Has commercialism ruined Christmas? (File photo.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

November\/December has become way too capitalistic. Being required by your own moral code to buy into the money-grab that is the holiday season? That\u2019s the best marketing scam in all of human history. According to a survey commissioned by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, the average Canadian spends an average of $643 on holiday gifts. That\u2019s a lot of money to dish out every winter, and that doesn\u2019t even cover the seasonal electricity or food costs. The sheer amount of money needed for the holiday makes it unenjoyable\u2014especially for students and people working minimum-wage jobs.<\/p>\n

Aside from the cost, there\u2019s the environment to consider. It’s tradition to meet up with family during the holiday season and spend time together, but doing so can create a big environmental impact. People flying out across the country (or the world, for that matter) help contribute to the annual increase in greenhouse gasses.<\/p>\n

Every year, miles upon miles of wrapping paper gets used and discarded after that one use; the exact number is somewhere around 540,000 tonnes of wrapping paper. And that’s just in Canada. There\u2019s also gift packaging to consider here, too\u2014all those hard plastic containers, tinsel strands, and zip ties end up somewhere. It\u2019s such an inefficient use of resources that it honestly boggles my mind. Please reuse gift bags and any wrapping paper that you can. We need to make sure we\u2019re doing everything in our power to lessen the impact of Christmas waste.<\/p>\n

Oh, and why do stores play Christmas music? I can\u2019t think of any logical reason other than to slowly drive their employees insane. I\u2019m not even 20 and I\u2019m sick of hearing the same carols every year, although I do take amusement from pop artists doing covers of the classics thinking they\u2019ve made something I\u2019ll want to listen to.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have cable anymore (thankfully), but those who do are subjected to Christmas TV the minute November 1 hits. Apparently, it\u2019s not enough to be hounded by the radio, stores, and online advertisements. We also need to have the \u201choliday spirit\u201d shoved down our throats in our resting hours as well. Everybody has seen Elf dozens of times, so why do they continue to play it? In all honesty, my ideal Christmas movie is one that barely mentions the holiday at all; Iron Man 3 and Die Hard are some great examples of enjoyable films that involve the festive season.<\/p>\n

This time of year is one of my least favourites for lots of reasons, but the biggest reason I hate the holiday season? Capitalism shames anyone who disagrees with its philosophy. If you bring up the fact that you don\u2019t like listening to Christmas music, you\u2019re labelled a \u201cGrinch.\u201d If you talk to a neighbour and mention how you don\u2019t like buying gifts, you\u2019re \u201cinconsiderate.\u201d And don\u2019t even think about saying you dislike family gatherings; then you \u201cdon\u2019t have holiday spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

I like Christmas Day itself, but for a holiday that\u2019s supposed to be about family, love, and kindness, it sure is easy to find reasons for me to hate it. Capitalism, like it ruins everything else in our society, has ruined Christmas too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before Halloween was over, Costco was selling Christmas decorations, and they weren\u2019t the only company to do so. It feels like stores have started putting out candy-cane decor and Frosty the Snowman inflatables earlier and earlier every year. Honestly, I\u2019m tired of it. Don\u2019t get me wrong here: I like Christmas! I like picking out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-views"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20341,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20340\/revisions\/20341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}