Numb to Christmas this year...

I've never really been into Christmas that much. As a young child I was. I remember leaving my uncle's house hearing sleigh bells in the sky as Santa's sleigh was near. I'd watch Rudolph and all the cartoon specials with a sparkle in my eyes affixed to the television. Something happened, though, and as I got older, I became less interested in Christmas. For the past few years it's been more of an aggravation than anything. However, I would get pissed off, going the opposite of the joy I felt as a kid.

This year it's different. I'm pretty much near indifferent. It could be because, by and large, the television remains off and I rarely listen to the radio. It's a lot easier to tune out Internet advertising with pop-up blockers and whatnot. I canceled my newspaper subscription because I didn't feel like dealing with twenty pounds of ads. I'm relatively insulated from the barrage of advertising. Perhaps the only real reminder is all the crap in the stores and the traffic. I went out for Saturday morning coffee the day after Black Friday and turned around and came home before even getting into the parking lot.

I'm not a Scrooge. No, that requires too much emotional import. I've become more of a hermit. I can't say I'm sagelike as there is no "spiritual" meaning behind what I'm doing. I'm not anti-Christmas, anti-consumer, anti-commercialism. That takes too much work. I'm just doing my best to ignore it all.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the family time and there is a certain amount of peace and nostalgia that surrounds the season. There is joy to be found.

But even church can be annoying in this regard, hocking their wares, calling it Jesus' birthday rather than Christmas, the obligatory manger scenes plastered all over town in their various degrees of plasticity (we have one nursing home that actually brings in a live camel) and those well meaning Christians who fight every year to keep the 'Christ' in Christmas.

Jesus wouldn't care. He was Jewish.