The true meaning of Christmas
Carrie posted in Rants on November 30th, 2009
I would like to take a moment to let you all know how many of your Yukon tax dollars have been spent on The True Meaning of Christmas thus far.
It started with an email from a representative of the Social Planning committee here at Environment Yukon. It rather innocently stated,[subject title] Christmas Gift Exchange, “We are trying to bring back this fun, inexpensive way for staff to get together and just enjoy so…that being said, please keep your gifts under $15. Be creative - there are a lot of interesting and cool gifts out there for this price range.”
Now my position on this email was to ignore it. I’m not going to be there, I’m heading home, you can exchange to your heart’s content. So I didn’t give it another thought, until this happened:
Bob emails back, “Call me a Scrooge but my feeling is that we could spend $1500.00 in a much better way that would embody the true spirit of Christmas by actually helping someone in need…” Then he went on to say that our social get together could involve some meaningful discussions on how we spend this money to help people in dire need. He provided some links to great organisations etc etc etc.
My reaction this time was to think, I guess that’s true because you usually end with a candle and some chocolates that someone bought at the last minute because it’s generic and anyone could like it, blah blah blah. And to ignore it. I’m not going to be there, you can NOT exchange to your heart’s content, I don’t care.
But then Billy, Suzie, Joey, Michelle and whoever else piped in with their support comments that were variations of this phrase, “Great idea Bob! Thanks for reminding us about the true meaning of Christmas…it’s about helping others in need/it’s about getting together and sharing/it’s about finding what really matters/it’s about thinking about others/blah blah blah.” You get the picture. Lots of people being reminded about the “TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS.”
Thing is, all these people think that everyone is in agreement, so they REPLY ALL to everyone in Environment Yukon.
But from where I sit, and I sit in a pretty central (read: gossipy/water-cooler-like) location, I’ve been hearing differently.
The people who don’t agree are grumbling to themselves. They are whispering in the hallways about so-and-so’s comment and what Whosit had to say. With malice in their voices they are gossiping to each about how they don’t want to give to a charity they just want to have a social party with their friends, and Bob is only saying this because last year he got stuck with the pink fuzzy handcuffs and couldn’t take a joke. None of these people are emailing “REPLY ALL” though, but instead just bitching to each other, so those on the fence are now thinking, “Well I guess everyone must want to give to a charity,” and a serious case of Groupthink settles in.
Now I’m a big cheerleader for good communication and saying what you mean or else shut up about it, but I understand why these rebels won’t Reply All. Because who’s going to stand up and say, “Actually, in this festive season I would not like to give to charity and instead contribute to our meaningless consumer driven lives by buying cheap Chinese junk and getting drunk with friends/colleagues”? No one is going to actually confess to that! But lots of people are thinking it.
So now there are bitter whisperings about ‘The True meaning of Christmas.’ People are saying “It’s about helping others,” others are saying, “It’s about getting together with friends and being merry.” Oh there is a whole range of responses to this question and meanwhile I’m trying to get work done because I’m getting OUT OF HERE for Christmas (that’s what the true meaning of Christmas is to me) but my Inbox is being flooded by all of these people TELLING me what the true spirit of Christmas is all about.
But I’m still reading all this and keeping my mouth shut. For a change. But here are my thoughts (you know I have them):
#1) It is true that Christmas is WAY too consumer driven. While I’m a fan of Chinese Gift Exchanges because they’re usually pretty hysterical, I agree that more often than not you end up with some ridiculously useless stuff. And $15 is a lot of money for useless stuff. It can’t be specific really to a person because anybody could end up with it, and so what are you going to get? Which is why I support the Christmas List. Though selfish and greedy in appearance, I believe that properly utilised this service actually benefits “The Christmas Spirit”.  A) You get the person something they actually want/need/value. B) You don’t have to buy random junk and hope that you can pretend you actually know them well enough to know what they’d like. C) You don’t have to spend as much time shopping for random things but instead can shop with purpose, thus freeing time for other Christmas activities such as criticising family haircuts, consuming copious amounts of Egg Nog, and working overtime to pay for your ridiculously high electric bill for all the extra Christmas lights. But I’m off topic now. Point #1 is, I see where the Charity-Hippies are coming from I don’t really feel like shopping for junk either.
HOWEVER, here is thought #2)
How dare you make me feel like less of a decent human being because I want to get together with my friends/colleagues and exchange some gifts? Because that’s totally the way ALL of those emails came across. “Thanks for reminding us about the true meaning of Christmas”? Is that a jab? What are you saying exactly? What was at first worth ignoring only, was now getting me riled up. Suddenly all of those emails translated into, “We are superior beings because we refuse to participate in the Capitalist Christmas Craze and you lowly people are so petty.” Which may or may not have been the intent but that’s what happens when you REPLY ALL. I swear that button should not exist on Government emails.
Thought #3) I don’t care, I’m not going to be here anyway. Do whatever you want.
But what really irritated me more than anything were all the people telling me what “The true meaning of Christmas is all about.” That just irked me. You can’t define what “Christmas is all about” to other people. In this day when Jews are putting up Hannuka bushes and people are wishing each other “Seasons Greetings” for fear of insulting one another, there is no set definition on the “Spirit of Christmas”.
So I can hardly bite my tongue anymore. But you’ll be comforted to know that while Bruce and I are trouble makers in the department, real rebels, we did have better sense than to actually say what I’m about to say. Instead we laughed long and hard about all the ways we could stir the pot, and then actually spent time DOING OUR JOBS. As opposed to Replying All. But I thought of replying 2 things:
#1)Â I’m Jewish.
or
#2) [picture my young, innocent face, amongst all the hippies that work for YG and old cronies that are just biding their time ’til retirement] “I thought the true meaning of Christmas was about Jesus the Messiah being sent to Earth by God to save us all from sin? I’ll pray for your souls tonight.”
Just imagine the reaction. Or lack thereof. Who’s going to actually write something down and Reply All arguing against that? Because, technically, I mean technically, I’m right. And technically, if you argue against me, I could claim discrimination based on religious beliefs or something ridiculous like that. So by saying that, my real goal, other than conversion of all the sinners in the world, is to shut-people-up. MY GOD! Move on people!
I can just picture my fellow Environment Yukon hippies being afraid to walk by the Bible-Thumper’s office. No one would come and bug me with Make-Work-Projects. I would always get what I wanted from people because they would be afraid of the wrath of God I could bring with me. I could get out of doing work by saying I have to go to church. It would be great.
It could also be career-limiting. So Bruce and I laughed long and hard about it, then moved on. I figured it would be hypocritical to try and tell other people about the True Meaning of Christmas.
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