December 25: It's Just a Day Off For Some (12-25-02)

"Bah, humbug!", says Jeff, an engineer at one of the radio stations in the area. "The corporates all care about is hype and greed, all for what? A big credit card bill in January? No thanks!"

December 25 is a normally a day families get together to sing carols, open presents, and other holiday stuff, but for many loners in the lonely San Diego Outland area, especially the males over 35, the holiday tradition they once had as children have no meaning to them.

Many of them earn enough for a family of their own, yet they find that there are better fish in other seas.

"What's with the females in the San Diego area?", asks Gary, an architect who designed homes in the Temecula area. "All they want is your money, a car, and a home. They don't give a damn about me."

Gary is divorced and has no children. Up until last year, he was paying alimony until his ex-wife married a potential loser.

"I passed along my condolances to her new husband," he jests. "She's going to soak him dry too, then when he's fed up with her greed, he will leave and pay alimony too."

I asked him why he doesn't celebrate Christmas anymore and he replied, "Christmas has lost its meaning when my ex-wife kicked me out. I can't stand that holiday anymore because it reminds me of her. We used to have a great time on December 25, but now the whole glitz is just bull-[glitz] to me!"

Frank, a construction worker and single, and no desire to marry, agrees. "All I see in the weeks after turkey day is Tis The Season this and Tis the Season that, advertisements with jingle bells in the background, ads telling me to shop shop shop, and some Norman Rockwell image of a family gathering for Christmas Day. Well, I haven't spent one single dime this season for gifts because nobody deserves them. I don't have any close friends in the Outland, so the point of Christmas is moot. It's just a waste of money."

Robert, who didn't give his job description, has another view. "On the days leading up to December 25, I do the same thing with any other holiday...nothing. I do nothing until Thanksgiving, Easter, and all the other days, so why can't I ignore Christmas until Christmas Day? I celebrate Christmas on December 25, the birth day of Jesus Christ, and not on November 1-December 24 like everybody seems to want to do."

Sean, a manager at a donut shop, says, "I'm waiting for my Income Tax payment due bills to come before I decide if I have enough money to give presents to my nephews and nieces out of state in the springtime. They should have Income Tax Day on December 15 instead of in April so that we'll know if we have to pay taxes, we won't get socked twice with a bill for presents in January and Income Tax in February. Putting Christmas just before tax day is just plain stupid!"

Richard Jackson, who has just moved out of the San Diego Outland and into Chicago, Ill, has found love and a reason to finally celebrate Christmas day once again. "In San Diego, the women are in a warm place with a cold heart. In Chicago, there are women in a cold place with a warm heart. I also like the sports atmosphere better with true fans of baseball, football, basketball, and hockey talking about the game as a recreation instead of as a bandwagon thing like psuedo fans in San Diego do. There are no sports fans in San Diego, they're all fake, they only support the teams when they're winning, which is why you don't see 1/2 full stadiums when the Chargers are "oh" and nothing. The Raider fans are the most loyal football fans in California, from Los Angeles and in Oakland, and if they can come to San Diego to root for the Raiders visiting the Chargers, then I tip my cap off to the Raider fans for their support of the team that once played in LA LA Land through 1994. I'll be rooting for my teams in Chicago, where it's really Christmas with snow and everything there. There is no Christmas in San Diego."

Bernard, a chairman for a San Diego-based company he won't name, but lives in Los Angeles, also has this to say about Christmas Day, "What's the use of decorating your lights on your house for two months time? You're the one that's stuck with the bill. Why should I make my house into a circus? People are going to steal the lighted reindeer and snowman anyway, and that's a waste of my hard earned money."

Kevin, an interen at a local radio station, wonders if his employer really cares about Christmas. "Clear Channel hypes up all these charity drives for the needy, yet they contribute nothing themselves. The suckers, that is, the listeners, donate toys and other stuff to the needy, yet Clear Channel hasn't made anything known whether they give any of their own money or offer anything like a job or home to those in need and to those without a house. The WB5 is also another crappy corporate station that offers nothing to the homeless except charity drives for blankets and food, yet the stations offer nothing the homeless really needs: a place to live, job training, and employment, plus food. That's what they need. Got that, Cheap Channel and The Woe-Be?"

Steven, who works as a security guard, has his view on Christmas Day. "Where are the holidays? What holidays? You have to be either a Christian, Muslim, Jew, or some other religion in order to celebrate them. That leaves me out and I'm an athiest. Where are the holidays for athiests? Vernalmas?"

The Vernalmas Holiday season was created by non-denominational people who felt like they couldn't celebrate the holidays with their friends because they were of different faiths.

Hal McCabe, who created the holiday season, has his own reason. "For one, it runs in the early Spring season, the first two weeks of Spring from March 15 or 16 or 17 or 18 or 19 or 20 or 21 up through April 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 depending on where the third Friday in March sits that year. Putting the holidays in the Springtime instead of winter affords us the opportunity to travel when the weather in the north is warming up and there is not much of a threat of snow-ins. So far, there is no holiday commercial hype, which is also why I put the holidays in March instead of December. The Spring Equinox is really the time for celebrations because the sun is back at its mid point at noon, not in December where all the other fools celebrate the so-called holidays who have no clue that the sun is still at its lowest noontime points in the horizon. How stupid are they to celebrate when the sun is down and the weather is cold!"

The Vernalmas Holiday season has holidays even athiests can celebrate with friends who are of religious faiths. "There is no religious basis for these holidays, so they can commercialize it all they want with Tis the Season For Buying hype. I prefer to keep Christmas commercialism-free. Vernalmas has its own version of Christmas Day called Equimas Day on March 21, the first full day of Spring for most of the Earth. December 31 is too cold for New Year's celebrations, so we put it back on March 25th. Next, we need to redo the Gregorian Calendar so that the first day of the year lines up with March 25th. The new year and season really starts in the Spring where the year seems to wind down after October and it's time for hibernation and low-key activities. You just can't do anyting in the winter except freeze your appendages off!"

Equimas Day is a day of gift giving and the climax of the Equimas Shopping Season starting on February 28th. "After finding out whether I have enough money left over after taxes, or if I'm getting money back from Uncle Sam, then I can do some shopping for the kids so they can celebrate Equimas Day," says Jennifer, who doesn't celebrate Christmas because she's Jewish and her best friend, Loretta, is Islam. "Equimas Day is truly a day of togetherness for all instead of a day of exclusionary, so friends of different faiths can enjoy the day together, and best of all, its not in the coldest month of the year."

Christmas Day may not be the kind of holiday the mass media is making it out to be. Advertisements that constantly remind you that Christmas is coming and you need to shop is falling flat on many ears as people are either shopping for gifts on the Internet, or shop during the Equimas season, or shop other times, or don't shop at all for that matter. The radio and TV stations that do charity drives are doing them only for the purpose of persuading the donators to listen and watch their stations spewing out mindless homogenized crud on the terrestrial airwaves while doing nothing themselves in terms of directly helping out the communities they say they serve. You don't need "Cheap" Channel for toy donations; donate them yourself to Children's Hospital, Goodwill, and other places.

And to the middlemen charity drive organizers such as WB5/69, Papa John's, Clear Channel, KGTV-10, and all those other middlemen companies that love to use the listeners' generosity for the business' own monetary gain in terms of making them look good when they're giving out YOUR donations in THEIR name (which is why David Tanny never donates to middlemen, but directly to the charities themselves), I am making a donation to them in my name: A huge telepathic lump of coal! Next time, middlemen, offer your own money and leave the sucker listeners out of your own monetary gains!

And furthermore, to WB5/69, offer something I can watch such as classic western shoot-out movies and 60's sitcom reruns instead of crap like dating game and courtroom drama clones. And to "Cheap" Channel, offer some music programming people over 35 enjoy and I'm not talking about playing [crap] we heard what was once popular to teenager 25 years ago.

And piles of cowpies go out to the Clear Channel programmers and music directors who are doing nothing themselves to improve the declining state of music while programming homogenized pop music with no distinctable personality instead of playing new music we elders won't be embarrassed sharing with our friends. The Clear Channel music directors must come directly from the School of Radio Disney the way they keep progamming for the teens and kids with their silly outdated hip hop, pop, and fluff all the time.

No wonder sales of records are down, especially during the Christmas season. Radio stations are not playing music people with disposable income want to buy, or want to give to their kids for Christmas, which brings me to another point from a reader.

"There is nothing in Tower that I heard on the radio I could give to my children for Christmas," says Dianne, a homemaker. "I watch MTV to see what the teens are listening to and a lot of the music is not suitable for the teens they are aiming the music at. Listen to the lyrics such as taking off all your clothes by some ugly rapper who can't sing and you'll hear what I mean. I'm giving them anything but music for Christmas."

The local brick-and-mortar businesses are reeling at the relatively lame Christmas shopping season for three reasons: there are six fewer shopping days than last year due to a quirk in the way the calendar schedules Thanksgiving (it's November 28 this year vs November 22 last year, always on the fourth Thursday), it's safer to shop on the Internet because at the mall, you can get robbed or your car can get broken into or stolen. And the last reason: it's the economy, stupid! And reason number four for those in the Northern latitiudes: SNOW!

It's not Christmas season for the retailers because people just don't want to fight to buy. Fortunately, there is time to prepare for the Equimas Shopping Season starting at the end of February and ending on March 20th, Equimas Eve.

Enjoy YOUR holiday season in December. I'm looking forward to MINE and a few growing number of others in March when I know how much I have left after taxes for Income Tax Day 2003.