Christmas.

For the longest time Christmas and I haven't really seen eye to eye. Not that I've ever gone as far as disliking it, but there was a while where I was kind of impartial to it, even though every year I'd try to get excited about it. It's hard to get excited about something like Christmas without the people around you joining in though, you know?

As I'm sure we all know, Christmas (or at least it should) revolves around family (all Jesus aside). Of course, when you're young it revolves around imagination, innocence and getting wicked awesome presents, but even then it revolves around family, even if you don't really realize it.

One of my favourite Christmases from when I was young was the one that almost my entire family, immediate, 7 aunts and uncles, grandparents, and 11 cousins, were packed into our house and we had a cookie decorating station set up in the basement for the kids. I think I mostly remember it because I have pictures to look back on, but those picures, for once, actually jog a memory still there, and a good one at that.

I find that these days, my memories of when I was young are far and few between, especially the good ones. I don't know if this is just a part of growing up or if I'm an exception to the rule, so it's hard to decipher whether I should be sad about it or not. Of course, even if I am an exception, why should I dwell on a past that I can't even really remember? That doesn't really make much sense. All that's important is that I know where I came from and that I relish who I've turned out to be thus far, because hell, I think I'm a pretty fantastic individual.

Anyways, you may be asking why I might be bringing up Christmas when it's not even October yet, nevermind December, and that's an easy one. I work for a department store, and like I said, as much as Christmas should be about family, it's really become a commercialized holiday for the materialistic masses.

For example, we sell camoflauged shotgun-wielding snowmen that shoot as they sing carols. As in "Jin-gle bells! *chk, chk, boom*". While hilarious for the obvious reasons, the fact that these exist and that they'll probably sell out faster than anything else makes me very, very sad. I'm just glad I'm not religious because is this really a way to celebrate the birth of Jesus? I mean, sure, I'm the one who created a comic where snowmen killed eachother every strip and even brought in Futurama's robot santa at one point, but that's because I'm happily blasphemous and was catering to a specific audience, which..... I really hope aren't two in the same?

Huh.

But yes, we began putting Christmas stuff out two weeks ago and recieving the freight over a month ago. This doesn't surprise me as much as it does everyone who walks through the store, though. While I don't blame them, the constant "Christmas? Already?!" gets a little old. But I guess in September everyone's entitled to saying it at least once. The second someone comes in and says it a second time though, it will not be pretty. There will be so much under-breath muttering and behind-the-back glares they wont know what hit them. Hopefully one of those glares will be so violent it will pierce their medulla or something.

As we've been setting up all of the Christmas stuff (which we still have two more weeks of, at least), a lot of people around me have voiced their hatred for the holiday season, and one guy in particular kind of pissed me off. He came through with his ugly Nickelback face and awkward stroll all "Fucking Christmas, man. I hate it," to which I asked "Why?" as irritated as possible. He replied "Because everyone's so happy!" I looked up at him and said "And god forbid anyone be happy!" to which he shot me an "Exactly. Everyones all rushing around stressed out blah blah blah.." and this is where I ceased to give him the time of day.

First of all, that didn't even make sense, second of all, you're a Dallas Cowboys fan. Go back to Texas and eat a dick, because we all know the only people who can justify being Cowboys fans are residents of the "everything's bigger" state, and if you're not from there, you're just a tag-along jackass.

Can you tell I don't like this guy? You should just never mix being disliked by me with saying something as ignorant as that. It's never a good combination.

This post is seriously straying though. It was originally about Christmas and I not getting on well and turned into my e-ripping some dude who doesn't matter a new one.

In recent years, Christmas has gotten a lot better and I owe this to being married to a woman who loves said time of year even more than I do. The month (and then some) is filled with christmas music, movies, food, gifting and everything else Christmas and I couldn't ask for more.

This is why being able to start celebrating so early at work is such a welcomed thing for me. I love the decorations and the music and all of the feelings that belong to this time of year because it brings me back to being a kid and all of the imagination and innocence that went along with it then. I welcome it all with open arms, and I welcome it as early as possible because we all need a little innocence back in our lives so we stop taking everything so seriously and remember that we, too, were children once.

So do yourself a favour and bust out your favourite Christmas movie (because I know we all have one), pour a glass of eggnog, throw a little rum in there, and celebrate with me.

You might as well get ready now, because we all know it's coming and that it's unavoidable, so why not deck the halls and embrace it?

Here's to you and yours.