Soon Xmas Will Be Over
Many Americans are Secretly Glad
‘Tis the season.
We’re shrouded in subzero weather, a rare occurrence in our neck of the woods, but something that I was very familiar with during the decades that I lived in Maine. Brrrrrr… bundle up, Buttercup!
Yet, ‘tis the season …
Another year has almost come and gone. I think I held up well. At least, I’m none the worse for wear.
I’m not a huge fan of Xmas but I do love knowing that the working stiffs have a paid holiday. Although I am constantly surprised by how many Americans heap so much on their plates when they get a day off.
I’ve been reading lots of comments on Facebook ladened with overtones of weariness.
I see post after post of women baking for days leading up to the Xmas festivities. I detect a note of pride mixed with a bit of poor me-ism, and I’m once again reminded of just how driven Americans are to take on too much.
I think it’s a cultural expectation.
After all, no one really needs decorated Xmas cookies, homemade fudge, pies, and cakes for one meal. I know it’s a tradition. However, if I remember correctly, my grandma accomplished such impressive feats of baking, but she also never worked a day in her life outside the home.
Even back then, I detected that she was worn out by the time Xmas day had passed into the annals of American holiday history.
So, why do we do it. Well, I don’t, but many of my friends do. I think it’s because we believe we’re expected to do it. Our moms did it. Our grandmas did it. And, by gosh, our friends would think we were shirking our responsibilities if we didn’t follow suit.
Am I right?
Maybe. Maybe not. But I don’t do it. Why? Well, probably because I didn’t grow up celebrating Xmas. My very religious parents viewed Xmas as a pagan holiday. Now before you get your panties in a twist, let me just say, that there are other Christian religions that don’t celebrate Xmas. Take the Jehovah Witnesses, for example. They don’t celebrate Xmas or Easter.
Neither did my family.
Thus, I grew up with a different set of values and a different set of cultural expectations. Within the closed society where I grew up, Xmas was ignored. And guess what?
We made out just fine.
I write a lot about cultural expectations and how humans tend to march right along with their fellow citizens doing exactly what their culture expects them to do. Whether it’s Americans or the Chinese, Indian or Croatian, even subcultures like I grew up in, we all do what’s expected of us almost without question.
So do American women work their fingers to the bone during the holidays because they love it or because they feel obligated?
Who knows? We can learn to like what everyone else appears to like quite easily. After all, that’s how fads catch on. Suddenly, we’re wearing pedal pushers and feeling so cool.
I’m not here today to ruin Xmas for everyone.
I have a granddaughter who looks forward to Xmas as much as any American child. But I do think that it would be a grand experiment for more people to make the decision to not overdo, at the very least reign in the drive to wear ourselves out and deplete our bank accounts for the sake of a batch of homemade fudge.
What do you think?
Is it worth it? Most will say yes and then complain about the cost of everything. They’ll hang up their aprons and reluctantly step on the scales, hoping for a Xmas miracle, after consuming far too many sweets in a single marathon day of eating. Then, unlike our grandmas, we’ll go back to work exhausted and deep inside release a big sigh of relief while hoping that neither Santa nor baby Jesus heard us.
Merry Xmas!
Teresa is an author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
