'You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch'

I am not at all Mr. Grinch.  I love Christmas.  I love everything about it.  Well, most everything, except for just one or two teeny little things....or maybe it's a few things.  But I love everything else, really....sort of.....Oh, all right, there are some things I just do not get!  At all!  Ever!!  And if that makes me a Grinch, so be it, because somethings that are associated with Christmas just make no sense at all.
For instance:

---  People who don't like Christmas.  They hate to shop, they pay the store to wrap their  gifts, they won't listen to or sing Christmas songs, even the funny ones.  They get depressed, they get cranky, they get snarky and short-tempered.  I can't imagine why people get that way.  They must have had a bad experience with a reindeer or something!

---  On the other hand, there are those who put out a gazillion decorations, string enough lights around their house to light up the whole block.  These folks always have the newest Christmas lawn ornament.  Their kids have the newest gadget of the electronic sort.  They have a new car every other year (whether they need it or not.)  For them it is all about conspicuous consumption.  But the joys of Christmas spirit never gets anywhere close to them.  They're too busy  shopping for the next new thing.  And heaven help you if you try to grab the last of this year's toy craze at Toys R Us if they are reaching for it at the same time!  Very colorful, but significantly un-Christmasy language will spew forth and you might find yourself sprawled on the floor with empty arms.

--- All of those people who are so busy, so important, so involved with every possible activity filling every waking moment, that they cannot find time to go to visit their elderly relatives who live in another city or who live in a nursing home just waiting to die.  This one really angers me.  Parents who gave their best to their children and did without themselves, but yet their children can't spare a few minutes to go and spend time with that parent....or aunt, grandfather, sister, or 3rd cousin twice removed.  (And I feel very guilty about this one.  My track record with my mom and my aunt, who were both in ill health,  is not one I am proud of.)

---Then there are those folks who put up their decorations well before Christmas, but they rarely turn them on!  What's the point of that?  And they are out in their yards on Christmas Day taking it all down again!  Why ever did they bother??

--- There's a special sub-species of real jerks that not only don't get the whole concept of Christmas and joy of the Season, they go around spoiling it for everyone else!  These are the vandals, the thieves, the low-lifes who chose the Christmas season as the time to wreck someone's lovely Christmas display, or break into a car or a home to illicitly and illegally and illogically steal items that are meant to bring happiness to someone who is loved.  One of our neighbors had their Baby Jesus stolen from their outdoor Nativity display! We had a visit from vandals two years ago.  They destroyed two of our favorite outdoor decorations for absolutely no reason!  It was hurtful and mean and I hope they (whoever they were), have stabs of conscience over it forevermore!

---  Then there are the stores who are so anxious to squeeze every penny they can from consumers, that they start selling their Christmas merchandise in August!  This annoys the heck out of me!  I am almost physically unable to shop for Christmas until we at least hit fall!  The bulk of my shopping doesn't get underway until after Thanksgiving, no matter what the stores do!  Enormous kudos to Nordstrom's this year for holding off their Christmas frenzy until the day after Thanksgiving.   They took a chance on reduced profits  in the name of logic and rationality.  Three cheers!  I truly hope that they don't lose a penny!

---  There are other things that bother me, but they fall into the realm of religious vs. secular, and that is a can of worms that I really don't want to take on!  Not only would it be offensive to many, but it would pointless as well.  A person's belief system is their own business.

I guess what it boils down to is that I just don't understand why the joy of the Christmas Season, appears to be such a problem for so many.  Why can't everyone celebrate and share and enjoy all the positives of this time of year?   "Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men" really shouldn't be that hard!