Why I hate Christmas

I know, I know, a previous post of mine was titled 'Why I Hate Mother's Day' so I look cynical as hell, but hear me out...

My 'Christmas cheer' sort of left me when I was seventeen - I stopped and asked myself why I was celebrating xmas; I mean, I wasn't religious, and I didn't really care for presents or the holiday as a whole, for that matter. It became a habit from then to regularly question the things that I took for granted.

So, my 'old' reason for my 'Scrooge-like' behaviour was that I didn’t want to take advantage of a holiday that I didn’t actually believe in the history of (‘history’ being the birth of Jesus etc etc).

My current reason is that I don’t want to ask for or expect presents for a dumb reason. Xmas has essentially become the ruling class' wet dream - people getting themselves into mass amounts of debt for one day of the year every year. I'd feel incredibly selfish actively asking for a gift, even if people don't mind buying me things. It’s a money-making/taking holiday, as are all commercial holidays, and I dislike those ones, too….but xmas is like TOP DOG of commercial holidays.

I could ask for a present, but then I ask myself…..why?

Because it’s xmas? Yes, and?

I don’t want to have to rely on people to give me things that I don’t even need. I don't want to be spoilt, you know? Yes, I'm an adult, but I don't want free things just because society dictates that I should, it's just the way that I think.

I’m not very materialistic (in my eyes) so I don’t want people to spend money on me just because it’s culturally accepted. If someone wants to give me a gift because they feel they need to….well, that’s their choice, I’m not ungrateful, I’ll accept it…but I don’t need anything, you see?

This is not an issue of pride, I just don't understand why I should be getting a gift. I don't like traditions that carry no significant meaning to me - that sums it up nicely.

Also, people who aren't happy at xmas sometimes get shit for it. "Cheer up, it's CHRISTMAS!" Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to sellotape my smile onto my face this year, gosh darn it. Don't dictate when I should and shouldn't be happy. If you're not happy at xmas, you're going against the social norm and are therefore deemed weird or questioned for it, it's OKAY to not follow everyone else, no-one's gonna die.

The Death of Cursive Writing

 I just read a post on sourcefednews about how cursive writing is becoming obsolete, so obsolete in fact that the Kansas Board of Education is debating on eliminating it from the school's curriculum and instead teaching the kids to type.

At first I was a little taken aback because I really like to handwrite (....okay, when I can be bothered), but then I thought...in what career do you really need to be able to write cursive? Is it so essential that it needs to be taught, or would it be more beneficial to have typing classes?

Children will still be taught how to write (I assume...), just not all joiny uppy. To be fair, at 23-years-old, most of my letters don't connect with each other when I write, and I was taught cursive in primary school, so I obviously took a lot from those lessons...

When I first read this article, I think that I was thinking about handwriting in general being replaced by the digital age of iPads, laptops, and iPhones as opposed to good ol' pen and paper. It's on a level with books being replaced by e-readers and that's a little scary....but WHY is it scary? Does it need to be scary?

What do you guys think about cursive being replaced? Is it a big deal?