Opinion: Reluctantly celebrating Christmas

[W]hat is the purpose of sawing down a tree to prop up in your living room? Some folks say it’s because the evergreen symbolizes eternal life, the promise of Christmas. But they don’t stay ever green. So you pay through the nose for a dead tree that you drag inside. And if it doesn’t burn down your house, you drag it back outside after New Year’s, where it’s picked up and likely ends up in a landfill, releasing harmful gases into the atmosphere.

Don’t you love Christmas? asks my teenage son. This is a time-honored ritual. He starts asking before Thanksgiving, and tortures me straight through to New Year’s. I do not, I say every time. And when he insists, Yes, you do, Mom, you love Christmas, say you do, I stick to my lines. It’s not that I object to Christmas, I don’t; such a nice holiday, who could object? But it isn’t mine to love. Don’t be ridiculous, says my husband. Christmas is for everyone.