Opinion: The Conversation: A less-indulgent Christmas season with a twist of dread, cynicism and the ‘Dec. 26 curveball’
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Guess they still send Christmas cards in Scotland...
Whatever happened to coming home to a mailbox full of holiday cards? Slate’s Kate Julian predicts that ‘2010 will go down as the year the holiday card lay dying.’ Could it be frugality, Facebook, the fact that women now make up the majority of the workforce? Here are her theories.
Still wondering what to get the Republicans on your list? In her version of The Gingrich Who Stole Christmas, the New York Times’ Gail Collins compiles a ‘holiday gift guide for those especially excited about the Republican presidential primary season.’
If Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, happens to be on your list of people to gift this year, he wants support for the arts.
If musician John Manchester is on your list, however, don’t bother. Here, he reflects on how he came to dread Christmas, all due to Jackie Kennedy.
Joel Pett’s not in the Christmas spirit either. ‘Peace on Earth, goodwill to all. Nice sentiment, I suppose … unless you’re a cartoonist,’ he writes. Here are three cynical cartoons.
Of course, Vice President Joe ‘Don’t tell me about Christmas’ Biden isn’t thinking about this Saturday’s holiday yet. But he has a pretty good reason.
But as soon as he rolls around to the holiday, Biden will have to be ready to catch the ‘Dec. 26 curveball’ -- you know, the day advertisers start rolling out messages of cleaning the Christmas clutter with all the storage systems, gizmos and gadgets you can buy! Veronique de Turenne on the ‘Seasons of selling.’
Still, there is some cheer to be found this Christmas. Simon Heffer for the Telegraph: Non-Christians make Christmas happier. ‘If we understand that one of the messages of Christmas is ‘peace on Earth and goodwill to all men,’ then the participation of non-Christian minorities in the festival is a ringing endorsement of it,’ he writes. And, he says, ‘To have an extended party in the depths of winter is a good idea, of course, irrespective of any religious motivation.’
-- Alexandra Le Tellier
ALSO:
Should we really glorify Larry King?
The meaning of John Boehner’s tears
Mixed messages for today’s schoolchildren
