Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Bah Humbug

I don't know about you, but I fucking hate Christmas. I actually LOVE the idea behind Christmas -- you know, that whole 'peace on earth, goodwill toward men' thing -- but, at the risk of sounding all Charlie Brown-ish, I hate the the commercial side of Christmas.

Every year I remind my family of the important Christmas lesson the Grinch learned:

"Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe Christmas. . .perhaps. . .means a little bit more!"

Every year I email them The Center for the New American Dream's guide to simplifying the holidays. Every year I threaten not to come home for Christmas unless they agree to dial down the crazy. Every year I go home for Christmas anyway and spend all day talking about how I'm never coming home for Christmas again.

Then I go to Anthropologie for the after-Christmas sale.

Anyway, I mention all this because my mom called me the other day to ask me for approximately the tenth time for my Christmas list (see?) and to tell me about an organization she'd recently heard about. "I know you hate Amazon.com," my mom said, "but I got a letter from them about some charity thing they're doing and that hunger group you like is part of it."

It turns out that the charity thing is GiveandShop.com, a website that earns commission for referring shoppers to various online retailers and then donates half of that commission to a charity of your choosing.

So if your Christmas comes from a store -- and let's face it, whose doesn't? -- at least you can save the world just a teensy bit while shopping.

10 comments:

Coaster Punchman said...

Like you, I often threaten to stay away during Christmas unless my family agrees, as you so brilliantly put it, to "dial down the crazy." Unlike you, however, I usually follow through on the threat. Mainly because the "crazy" I'm talking about has little to do with the commercialism of Christmas.

Melissa said...

I love Christmas with all my heart and soul and it's not for the presents - I actually hate getting presents. I love it for everything else - the lights, the decorations, the food, the carols, the movies, the family/friend get-togethers, etc. etc. But I also love saving the world.

vikkitikkitavi said...

Thanks for the GiveandShop link. I will use it. I have many close relatives in other states and unfortunately Amazon is a kind of necessary evil for me.

Mmmm...Anthropologie....

Frank Sirmarco said...

I'm with you; DOWN WITH CHRISTMAS!

Every time I get cut off in a parking lot, or shoved in the check-out line during the height of the holidays, I want to scream, "If I could work my will,every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart!"

Megan said...

CP - We have that kind of crazy too, although probably not as much as you. The commercialism just adds to it.

Melissa - Although there are far better ways to save the world, if people are shopping they might as well shop through these guys.

Vikki - Yeah, good point. Why the hell ISN'T Anthropologie on the GiveandShop list?

Frank - Um, I don't know if I hate Christmas THAT much. But I haven't been in a parking lot in a while.

Frank Sirmarco said...

On-line Christmas shopping is the way to go. I haven't seen the inside of a mall during the month of December in at least four years.

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