I truly can’t understand why any Christians are so fixated on Christmas that they will go out of their way to pressure people into celebrating it who don’t want to.

Why? What is the point? It’s none of your business!

And I mean, I was raised Christian, and I do still have some fond nostalgic feelings about Christmas! This rant is directed at people who have very similar experiences to me!

but… I still do not get it. At all.

I mean. It probably doesn’t help to be raised on such a heavy diet of fiction in which every character who doesn’t want to celebrate Christmas is a cold-hearted “scrooge” or “grinch” who needs to be taught how to care about other people… (which somehow always simultaneously triggers a love for Christmas at the same time, just because.)

But even raised on all that… how does a person go years celebrating Christmas, spending days every year shopping in crowded retail spaces, and see the way people act in that commercial hell, and yet still act as if Christmas is somehow inseparable from being a good person?

I mean. Yes, there has been constantly worsening commercialization of the holiday for decades. And, if it’s been feeling less magical for you every year, it’s probably about 5% because of that, and about 95% because you’re not a child anymore and you need to come to terms with the realization that the “magical feeling of Christmas” is mostly nostalgia for a time when being greedy for candy and presents was a new enough experience to feel Really Good.

Granted, I’ve probably gotten an extra big helping of that disillusionment, because I worked in retail for ten years, Christmases included.

…Which is another thing to remember. When you enjoy Christmas, it’s because of the labor of retail workers who are probably getting their hearts forcibly shrunk three sizes through sheer starvation from any joy in life.

But when you don’t enjoy Christmas as much as you used to …. for fcks sake think about it, and realize that it’s because 1. adult feelings aren’t the same as little kid feelings, and also because 2. you’ve started noticing that a lot of people who celebrate Christmas are assholes about it.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with people who don’t celebrate Christmas. Trying to drag them into it won’t bring the magic back.

Eyeroll.