Christmas is for Buying!!

Shit.

We're sellin' some shit! You want some shit?! Well we got all the shit you need right here!

Have you seen this commercial?



I'm seriously thinking of boycotting Best Buy after this whole debacle. Okay...so I understand that does nothing, really. I buy products from Best Buy about once a year. If I decide not to buy shit from them anymore because of this ad, it will have absolutely zero affect on their business.

But that doesn't stop me from going off on this a little bit in my little corner of the Interweb. (Okay, let me just vehemently stress that I do not actually think it's called the Interweb. It's just my way of making fun of our retarded president. 'Cause I'm sure he's made that mistake at least a few times in his life.)

Anyway. Enough with my digressions. Man, I do love a tangent.

Now, I realize that this isn't an original idea by any means. But what the hell has this season has become all about?! I just think the whole notion of mass consumerism has gotten completely out of control, and I really just think it's getting worse.

You know what I'm excited about? I'm excited about going home to California to see my family who I haven't seen since the summer. And I understand that makes me extremely lucky to have a family that I'm excited to go home to. But the point is, I could honestly care less about the gifts that I get. I really don't need more shit in my life. I get along just fine with the things I have. Now this is not to say that I don't appreciate the gifts that I receive during Christmas. My mom recently asked me if I wanted some guitar or mandolin lessons this year while I'm home. I think that's a fantastic gift. It's thoughtful and actually means something to me.

Now, I'm not saying that I don't get caught up in this bullshit. I have absolutely gotten gifts for people that didn't actually mean anything to them just because I felt that I had to. I'm just saying that I wish that it wasn't this way. I don't know how to change it and I can't imagine that it's ever going to change. I just feel like we've lost our souls a little bit when it comes to all of this. And I wish these things weren't so expected of all of us.

I wish that the people that we love - whether it be family or friends or girlfriends or boyfriends or whomever - would just be thankful to have us around for the holidays.

I'm not even saying I'm against giving gifts, really. I'm always appreciative when someone gives me a gift that I actually feel that he or she put thought into. Basically I'm just pissed that all of these companies have taken these holidays, which should be mostly about spending time with the people we love and not having to stress about work for once, and co-opted it into this time of expressing how much you care by buying shit that people don't need.

Anyway, this is really negative, so I'm gonna stop. I'm now going to think about how in two weeks, I'm going to be sitting in front of a fire at my parents' house, staring at the redwood trees and just being thrilled about the fact that I get to spend time with some of my favorite people in the world. Maybe it sounds completely cheesy, but that's absolutely what's most important to me in all of this. And I think it's important to step back and realize that sometimes.