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I was watching Christmas with the Kranks the other day, and oh could I relate to this middle class couple who just wanted to trade the Christmas busyness for a relaxing (and warm) cruise in the Caribbeans. As I sat in traffic with a bunch of holiday-crazed drivers this week-end trying to get to one more overcrowded store playing one more overplayed Christmas tune, I couldn’t help but thinking “This is why the holidays suck!”…

Other than the heavy pressure on your already light wallet, the holidays can be especially hard on everyone who’s not the picture perfect family huddled around their tastefully decorated Christmas tree. For grieving families who’ve suffered losses, all this cheer is a constant reminder of what no longer is. Economically speaking, despite the 4.1% increase in sales this holiday season predicted by the National Retail Federation, most of this spending will be made by the wealthiest among us, with the rest of the population “bracing for a have-not holiday“. Not to mention the stress of the extra spending, extra time, and extra exhaustion during this time…

As a society, we’ve managed the extraordinary feat of turning a holiday about love and family into the biggest commercial challenge of the year. And we’ve willingly, in the process, piled on  more obligations and requirements onto our already overflowing to-do list. Hence the lady in the mall’s parking lot just stole your spot and gave you the finger, or that you caught yourself elbowing the cutest little girl to get the last Frozen Snow Glow Elsa doll for your daughter (I didn’t do it!). Well, this, all this craziness, all this time and money spent at getting things we won’t remember for people who won’t remember them in five years (or next week), and all this do that, and cook this, and buy that, this is why the holidays suck…and why it’s hard to be cheerful when you’ve got to fight with a 5-year old for a toy…

And since we all, deep down inside, in that still warm corner of our hearts that’s not trying to get back at that crazy driver in the Walmart parking lot, really like the holiday season, it may be high time to put down the to-do list, drive away from the overcrowded stores, and give that poor kid at the store the last doll…After all, it will be over in a few days, and no one, not even you will remember what all the fuss was about (except for that giant headache that won’t quit)…And if you must, order online, get everyone the same ugly sweater, or heck…book that family cruise!

Happy…ahem…holidays!

The Corporate Sis.