# Why I Hate This Time of Year: An Essay **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 8, 2000, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-this-time-of-year-an-essay/44583 "2000-12-08T04:52:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Scotticher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Scotticher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scotticher)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-this-time-of-year-an-essay/44583/21 "2000-12-08T23:49:37Z")
Now, now, Johnny dear. You are still trying to get to Seattle or Bellingham, hon, did you forget? Scotti ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-this-time-of-year-an-essay/44583/22 "2000-12-08T23:57:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny L.A. \* > \*\*She’s cute, she wears glasses, and her nipples are hard. I wonder how long it takes to get to Baltimore? 😉 > \*\* I don’t know, but I get to see her in less than two days. Hopefully by then she will be warmer. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-this-time-of-year-an-essay/44583/23 "2000-12-09T00:00:19Z")
Oh, **Scotticher**! Why’d’ya have ta rain on my parade? 😉 Say, did you get in touch with Caroline? She called and wanted me to tell you that she wouldn’t be able meet with you today. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-this-time-of-year-an-essay/44583/24 "2000-12-09T03:29:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nacho4Sara: > > 1. Does anyone remember what Christmas is even about? You know, that whole birth of Christ thing? \* Yes, I do. We usually end up going to church 3 times on Christmas Eve: 3:00, 8:00 and 11:00. We have several different services and we like going to all of them. My kids are in the Christmas play and sing in the choirs at church. We have occasionally gotten up and gone on Christmas morning, too, but not always. > [@](#): > > _2. Christmas music - you know, I used to like this too…but those have been eclipsed by the horror of Cher and Mariah fucking Carey hooting about why it’s not like Christmas at all._ I agree. Everyone with a recording contract has at least one Christmas album out. And then they take one track from each album and make a “Christmas With The Stars”-type thing, make you think it’s all new stuff when it isn’t. > [@](#): > > \*3. That whole must-have toy shit - go to hell. If you are lame enough to wait in line for seven hours to pay a ridiculously inflated price for a piece of talking fur, then you have some serious fucking problems. \* I agree. Luckily, my kids have never wanted the “must-have” toy, although I did run all over the place one year looking for refills for my daughter’s Easy-Bake Oven that Santa was bringing. The damn thing only came with something like 2 refills, and I wanted to make sure she had more. > [@](#): > > _4. Maybe you should wait until the actual month Christmas is in (you know, December) before putting up lights._ Guilty. We decorate in November, usually Thanksgiving weekend, but don’t turn anything on till December. I **like** icicle lights! > [@](#): > > \*5.Why do I have to do anything for New Years? - We could do nothing together, Sarah! I also have never seen the appeal of New Years. It’s a new year, who cares? Hubby and I usually get some carry-out, rent a couple movies, dump the kids at grandma’s, and have a nice (and rare) night to ourselves. This past year we did go out, although not “out-out”, just to a party at a friend’s house, with about 20 people. > [@](#): > > \*6. I hate the cold weather too. \* Oh, come on you wuss, 😉 it’s only Baltimore! What if you lived in Canada, where it’s **REALLY** cold? > [@](#): > > _7. If you are shopping this Christmas season, in a mall or any varient thereof, maybe you should stop bitching about how much it sucks to shop at a mall during the holiday._ I hate shopping, too, actually, I hate shopping anytime of year. I have solved this, though. Within my family (my side, I mean…my parents, step-parents, siblings and their spouses and their kids) we buy each other ONE gift, something simple, about $15 to $20 bucks. We’re big on gift certificates. Makes it easy. > [@](#): > > _8. I hate snow warnings. It might snow tomorrow? Jesus people that does not mean you have to run to the store, plowing down innocent bystanders in your attempt to buy all the toilet paper in the store. …Especially here in Baltimore. Even in the big bad Blizzard of '96 when I missed a week of tenth grade, we could still drive to the store to buy toilet paper._ I hear you, Sarah. “Snow? Oh my God, we have to go to the grocery store NOW and get milk and toilet paper!” I love the news remotes at the grocery store. There’s always one at the Giant in the Rotunda. “Shoppers are stocking up for the expected quarter-inch of flurries! Film at Eleven!!” One thing I really hate though, are the smart-ass grocery store clerks. I have 3 kids and a husband and we are BIG milk drinkers. We go through a gallon a day. I buy milk 2 or 3 gallons at a time. I HATE when I am buying milk in the winter, and some smart-ass check-out clerk feels compeled to comment, “Oh, are they calling for snow?” when she sees me buying so much milk. “No, you shithead, see these 3 kids trailing after me? It’s for them!” And, yes, it’s only freaking Baltimore, the stuff is gonna melt by noon! ---
**Author:** ![Randy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Randy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-this-time-of-year-an-essay/44583/25 "2000-12-09T08:46:07Z")
Try forgetting abour yourself, and all the inconviences it causes you and do something for someone else, because I gotta tell you, you sound like a spoiled-rotten, self-centered little brat. Who knows, maybe you have a good reason for being that way, but in case no one ever told you, “The world doesn’t revolve around you”. ---
**Author:** ![Lux\_Fiat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lux\_Fiat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lux_Fiat)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-this-time-of-year-an-essay/44583/26 "2000-12-09T11:06:18Z")
> [@](#): > > but in case no one ever told you, “The world doesn’t revolve around you”. That’s correct. It revolves around _me_. I don’t hate the season. I rather like winter. I hate _people_. Yeah, that’s right, you. You come to the mall butt-smack next to _my_ house, clogging up the street so I can’t get out, and clogging up the parking lot so my simple weekly trip to get comics requires a compass, two days’ worth of rations, and a team of sherpas. You’re like cockroaches. Worse, merchant cockroaches trying to sell me the howling void where you say you keep the CHEER! via some sort of weird, bastardized, pagan-orgy-as-painted-by-Norman-Rockwell. Bugger off, mall-people. Our house was here first. ---
**Author:** ![Nacho4Sara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Nacho4Sara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nacho4Sara)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2000, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-this-time-of-year-an-essay/44583/27 "2000-12-09T23:32:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Try forgetting abour yourself, and all the inconviences it causes you and do something for someone else, because I gotta tell you, you sound like a spoiled-rotten, self-centered little brat. If you read my posts, you would see that every Christmas, I donate about $250 to charity. I also spend Thanksgiving at a local church shelter serving food to homeless people, and I try to do this same for Christmas (although sometimes I’d rather go to the family party if a new cousin has been born or someone is sick). I don’t particularly like Christmas, which might make me a bad person, but the last words I’d use to describe myself are “spoiled” or “self-centered.” But whatever floats your boat! Merry Christmas! Hey **Lux** - it revolves around _me_! What are you thinking? I work across from the mall, and our two seperate parking lots merge into one gigantic monster car match. It took me 15 minutes to leave my parking lot and get on 43 after work today! I cannot even imagine living near one (Toys ‘R’ Us is down the street, and that’s bad enough). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-this-time-of-year-an-essay/44583.md?page=1)