Xmas Stress Update 3

[muckefuck]

Finished my shopping in a rush this morning, spending an average of $3.20/min. Of course, fully half of the total amount spent went for a single gift for someone who doesn't know how fucking lucky he is. The funds for that came from two years' worth of Christmas money, allowing me to finally write my grandma to thank her. (Her not-100%-Miss-Manners-approved method of getting thank-you notes from her grandchildren is to ask that they tell her what they spent the money on.) Don't say I didn't do my bit for the economy this year!

When exactly did the economic health of the whole goddamn nation come to depend on binge spending in the month of December? Does anyone remember? I remember how long ago it was that box office receipts for films was relegated to the pages of trade publications and didn't appear on the nightly hews (it was back when car ads still reported gas mileage), but I can't remember when last it was that constant reportage of retail figures combined with increasingly desperate admonitions to get out there and consume conspicuously--lest we swell the welfare rolls and condemn Southeast Asia to another lost year--wasn't commonplace.

Be that as it may, I hope to slip off in a few minutes and attack the wrapping, since we may exchange some gifts tonight. (Strangely, I haven't felt like starting it until I have all the gifts in front of me.) Mom and my younger brother are fixing dinner, my sister and her family are at "4 o'clock midnight mass", e. is reading, and my older brother is following me around nattering on obsessively about the D&D session between him and my younger brother last night.

Snow continues to fall and it's sticking, so it should last through at least tomorrow. Dad told me yesterday that the chances of a white Christmas are 1/13 in this part of the country. I've been trying to figure out for the past couple of days what the big deal is. I mean, snow is nice and all, but when and why was it decided that a brown Christmas was a terrible disappointment? Family theories:

• Like more than half our Christmas traditions, it dates back to Victorian Britain, birthplace of the Christmas card. Snow scenes are popular on cards, so we've come to believe that's what Christmas should look like. (Me.)
• Santa rides a sleigh, not a wagon. He needs snow to land on. (e.)
• It's because of the song. In the movie, they needed snow so the resort could attract skiers and they wouldn't go bankrupt. (Mom)
• Christmas is the main winter festival and snow represents winter. (Bunj)

Got a theory? Prize for the most convincing one will be first pick of the unretunrable Christmas gifts I got that I don't want.

Comments

[lhn.livejournal.com]

When exactly did the economic health of the whole goddamn nation come to depend on binge spending in the month of December? Does anyone remember? I remember how long ago it was that box office receipts for films was relegated to the pages of trade publications and didn't appear on the nightly hews (it was back when car ads still reported gas mileage), but I can't remember when last it was that constant reportage of retail figures combined with increasingly desperate admonitions to get out there and consume conspicuously--lest we swell the welfare rolls and condemn Southeast Asia to another lost year--wasn't commonplace.

It comes and goes, but it's been there quite a long time. There was a big controversy in the 30's over the date of Thanksgiving which stemmed, initially, from the Roosevelt administration's trying to set it earlier in order to lengthen the Christmas retail season. (Ultimately, the result was different Thanksgiving holidays depending on one's location and/or the politics of one's employer, with predictably unhappy results for families trying to coordinate their celebrations.) My guess is that the level of concern over the Christmas season fades in good economic times and returns in bad, but it may be more complex than that.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

I hope to slip off in a few minutes and attack the wrapping, since we may exchange some gifts tonight. (Strangely, I haven't felt like starting it until I have all the gifts in front of me.)

For some reason, I really don't like wrapping presents. I always end up putting it off until Christmas Eve. I'm sitting here at the computer stalling on the last couple. On at least one sorry occasion, I managed to put it off until Christmas morning, and ended up speed-wrapping gifts so I could bring them downstairs and hand them to their recipients for opening. I might as well have just held up wrapping paper in front of them and then whisked it away on command.

snow is nice and all, but when and why was it decided that a brown Christmas was a terrible disappointment?

Several tongue-in-cheek answers come to mind. But I actually think it has a great deal to do with the history behind Bing Crosby's 1941 song "White Christmas." It had an enormous influence on pop culture - the best-selling single ever, the Academy Award winner for Best Song - and it was a ubiquitous tune that's burrowed its way into people's minds. At the time, it hit a nostalgic, peaceful note with a war-nervous America, and by creating a tie between nostalgia and snow at Christmas, and between nostalgia and the song, it locked a generation into the idea that a non-snowy Christmas was a bad thing. I think that's just a value that's been passed down to future generations along with the song.