The irony of Christmas

So, if I take it back to it's roots, past the Santa and the tree and "It's a Wonderful Life" and all that, Christmas is really about the birth of Jesus who, according to the story, died so that we may live w/o original sin.

In less fanatical language, he sacrificed himself so others could have a better life. A noble pursuit for any man, right? And darn nice of him.

So, why on Earth are we celebrating Christmas by creating so much waste? We're really blowing the deal here.

According to the US Dept. of Transportation, long distance travel goes up about 1/4 at the holidays.

Over 20 million Christmas trees are cut down every year.

There aren't many statistics about trash out there, but in the UK alone they toss about 8,000 tons of paper and 125,000 tons of plastic following Christmas. And they recycle way more than we do!

Over $2 billion is spent on tech products alone on the day after Thanksgiving.

All I have to say is --- GROSS!

Dude, Jesus was a poverty stricken baby born in a barn. His fancy Christmas presents included incense. Is it a little corrupt that we celebrate his birth by increasing carbon emissions, filling landfills and buying iPods?

And the market's proposed solutions to the problems we've created? Spend more money!

Check out the Terra Pass, a fun pass that allows you to be as decadent as you want in terms of energy use, and then correct the effects of your carbon emissions for less than $30.

Or you can go to Network for Good and get people gift cards to give to their favorite charitable organizations. Well, it's better than giving the thoughtless gift of candles, I guess.

I know when I was a kid it was all about presents, sledding, and a week off from school.

These days Christmas equals "the busy season" at work, huge credit card bills, weight gain, stress, an extremely stretched social calendar, and a bunch of odds and ends I now have to make room for in my already crowded house. I'm not sure what got lost in translation over the years, but I seriously want to move to Whoville where Christmas is all about roasted beast and singing that weird "Dahoo-Dorays" song in the center of town. I don't need any junk (as proven by the Grinch). All I need is some friends, some food, and a blessed day off. Oh, and a little bit of recognition of the fact that the decadent celebration of this holiday will soon kill us all.

Thank you.

Praise Jesus.

Amen.