Joy to the World? Not really,..

I am admittedly not in the Christmas spirit. I'm facing my 1st Christmas without family and have for years had a hard time with the holiday season. It's cliche but I hate the commercialization of Christmas. I hate the Christmas stuff in the stores in September. I hate advertisers taking traditional Christmas carols and changing the words to suit their products. I hate the unrealistic Hallmark families singing in front of their Wii and the pictures of them sitting around the candlelit table while dad carves the turkey.

I warned you that I'm grumpy.

Today I went to the mall, a horrible place in general. I went for a few things. First I went to Barnes & Noble to see their new reader called a Nook. I have read about it and know the release has been delayed til January but was hoping they would have a demo but nada. The guy hoped to have at least a demo by Christmas. Too late for me. I've made my last trip to the mall. Not here by Christmas? What a brain fart. Actually the 2nd one. Moving to the mall was brain fart 1.

My 2nd stop at the mall was the Salvation Army Angel Tree, a Christmas tradition for me for t he last 20 or so years. This year, there were ornaments on the trees...1st names and ages only. In the past years, they had sizes and wishes but this year, nada. I'm told by the person manning the tree and they man at the office that they made a decision this year to let me make the call for the gift. Me, the person who has no kids. The person who does not know what size a 12 year old is. The person who does not know what toys are hot. The decision I decided to make was to walk away and not get either of the 2 ornaments I normally get. The guy at the office said their donations have doubled. It's December 1st. I have a BS flag to throw on that one. I predict whining on TV about the hard times before this is all over.

My 3rd stop was Dillards to buy new perfume since mine is almost empty. I wear Armani Mania, a not really cheap perfume that they apparently have either stopped making or Dillards has stopped carrying. The perfume floorwalker actually turned her nose up at me and told me that I might get it a Drug Emporium. The good news is that I did.

Any future purchases will be made online. Buh bye mall.

I don't want to feel this way. I remember Christmas as a child and I really looked forward to it. But in the past few years, it's been little but fighting for holiday time slots and the obligations of buying presents because it's what's expected. I find no joy, thats for sure. Only 26 shopping days til it's all over.