Obligatory Christmas rant from a Jew

So tonight's the first of eight nights of Chanukah. (Yes, I do pronounce the guttural, back of the throat, hard H sound.) I spent the first night of Chanukah playing Handel's Messiah and Mendelssohn's Magnificat with my orchestra and a choir, I'm going to be doing the same thing tomorrow night. I did it last year, too, and probably the year before.

I get really bitchy about Christmas. I hate how Christmas has become this big cultural monster eating up the entire period between November 1 (once Halloween hype is over, of course. Cobwebs and chocolate make way for tinsel and candy canes) and December 26.

I hate how it's become so embedded in the western culture that Christmas isn't a holiday of the Christian community, it's moved beyond that - there are Christmas-ians: people who don't consider themselves Christian, or don't partake in any other aspect of the Christian religion, but who do celebrate Christmas, because "everyone can enjoy Christmas spirit and cheer!" It's not a holiday that you celebrate only in your home or religious centre, the way most holidays are. Christmas isn't just the tree and the family and the presents in the morning. Christmas also means invasive, irritating, ever-present canned radio music and the infinite variations on the same jingles. Christmas also means themed advertising pushing us to buy stuff even more because that's what you do for Christmas! You buy presents and expect them.

Christmas (hey, look at the first six letters of the word!) is about the birth of an iconic figure in one particular religion. That has nothing to do with spending time with your family and friends, or exchanging gifts. Why can't there be a non-denominational holiday where people can celebrate love and friendship? Why does it have to be connected to religion? There could also be a gift-exchanging holiday, where we can buy presents for each other as a demonstration that we value each other and are aware of each others' interests. It could even be the same holiday!

I was going to make a joke about being a grinch, but it also pisses me off that disliking Christmas would make one "a grinch". I don't dislike happiness, joy, family, friends, food, vacation time, decorations, or music. I really do like the idea of families and friends coming together to spend a happy holiday together. I just hate the stupid fucking commercial bullshit that takes over the western world for two months every winter, and I hate that it's such a fucking gauntlet that anyone who doesn't celebrate it must run.

Coincidentally, I am celebrating my own religion's holiday for eight days, starting today. I want to light candles on my chanukiah, sing the songs, eat latkes, and see my family. I didn't do that tonight, because my orchestra was playing a Christmas-themed concert. I won't be doing it tomorrow, for the same reason. I'm glad my holiday has six more days. It's funny how Christmas is actually two weeks away and yet it's stepping on my Chanukah from all the way over there.

I wanna go Chanukah caroling. Booyeah, trolled yer holiday.

EDIT: Some things that occurred to me post-rant venty feeling.

- I know I left out "people who do it right" in this rant - but that's mostly because people who do it right don't make me want to rant.

- My irritation with Christmas insanity is not geared towards people who celebrate the birth of Jesus by coming together with their family. And yeah, it actually is pretty nice that people who don't believe in Jesus use it as an opportunity to see their family, etc.

- I don't have anything against exchanging gifts as a commemoration of personal appreciation of friends and family.

- I would be very interested in seeing some numbers and statistics measuring Christmas-celebrators, Chanukah-celebrators and Kwanzaa-celebrators in Montreal, because I know Christmas outstrips Chanukah in terms of number of people who celebrate, but that doesn't mean there isn't a significant Jewish population that could be represented in the mainstream culture. People get irritated by "politically correct holiday greetings" but the reason they're used is because people who use them are conscious that Christmas isn't the only holiday being celebrated by a large number of people at this time of the year.

- For the record, my family doesn't actually do Chanukah gifts. When I was little, my grandparents would give me Chanukah gelt - chocolate coins or loonies/twonies, but we don't actually exchange presents. I know that's not the case for most Jews, though.

things that have been occupying a lot of my time lately
simply syndicated podcasts
watching star trek online
watching whose line is it anyway online
stressing out about school
daydreaming fiercely about moving out
amanda palmer
genderfuckery
getting excited for winter break and actual hangout time with my boyfriend and my best friend and my friendfriends
lady gaga
thinking about how much i want to inappropriately jump demi lovato's bones
raging at twilight and twihards
super smash bros melee
being really vain
adam lambert