I'm not posting a Christmas poem tomorrow, and that's mostly because, as I've established, I really don't like Christmas. I don't like it because even though no one's forcing you to celebrate, there are a lot of societal forces acting upon you that expect you to celebrate Christmas. Not an issue for most, as it is the kind of holiday that's malleable enough to be meaningful to most people, but if you don't find it meaningful, it's impossible to escape from it. I don't object to commercialism most of the time, and I won't pretend that I think Christmas counts as an exclusively religious holiday, but so many people celebrate it that it feels weird and unnatural to me. Partly because, even if you don't celebrate Christmas, you're still expected to celebrate something. Is this time of year inherently meaningful? Have we just celebrated so often that we've convinced ourselves it is? I don't know, but I do know that while Valentine's day, Easter, and Halloween are just as commercialized they don't bother me nearly as much. I think I just view Christmas as a holiday blown out of proportion. It's a day off and a chance to have fun with family, nothing more.