It hadn't dawned on me what a (traditionally) female festival this seems like.
Immediate apologies to non-traditional females and males.
Of course, childbirth sits at the centre of the Christian part of it (with cuckolded Joseph standing sheepishly in the corner); then quite a lot of cleaning and cooking gets involved; get-togethers with family members and in-laws(even when you don't get on with them); feeding of the 5000; decorating the house, and wrapping and decorating presents; shopping, of course; giving; selflessness.
For macho males who still believe in bread-winning, and bringing home the bacon (eeurgh)the only game in town seems like the 'my present (given or received) looks bigger than yours'. Conspicuous spending and flaunting of wealth.
I don't really buy that the 'pagans' do shopping, and the Christians do frugal...
...although I do feel amused that the only person who doesn't 'Bah Humbug' me professes Christianity. Not only does he not judge people, but he dislikes the fact that a Christian festival got co-opted by commercialism. As he knows I do not have a faith, he entirely understands and agrees that I shouldn't celebrate Christmas (any more than I do Hannukah or Ramadan or any similar event). Funny that.
I don't understand any of it, so I have tended to sleep through as many of the days as I can and wake up after the fever passes. I don't eat birds, or chocolate or sugar or cream, so most of the 'fun food' passes me by. Like most vegetarians I eat little and often, and don't like the stuffed feeling of one big meal, and I already drink slightly too much, so I don't want to increase that. Funnily enough, I just watched 'The Thin Man', set in the Prohibition period when the US had a law against the sale and consumption of alcohol (although people from all classes consumed it illegally) and marijuana had not yet got banned.
Now I might have enjoyed Christmas in the USA in 1936....
One day I may understand, I suppose.
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