Christmas Time

Christmas is a time of trees, ornaments, advertising, shopping, contradictory feelings...
Christmas is a time of presents, gift wrapping, secrets, surprises, expensive plane tickets...
Christmas is a time of tourists, uninvited guests, meat, tree-cutting, noise, music, snow...
Christmas is a time of snow, rain, hail, sleet, slush, ice, thunder, lightning, power outages...
Today we're proud to present--

THE CHRISTMAS TIME!!!
What Santa's Ho Ho Ho means to a lot of
People. Assembled and partially written by
Adora Svitak.

WRAPPING PAPER
Written By Joyce Svitak
It's the time of year when many people buy wrapping paper for the traditional gift wrapping ritual. I am never fond of spending money on buying things that are not meant to last. I can never understand, or more accurately speaking, I refuse to understand, the purpose of spending money and time wrapping presents to hope to get few seconds of anticipation and excitement from the receiver. The receiver of the present often has to prentend his/her excitement when the present itself doesn't meet his/her expectations.Are a few seconds of excitement (seemingly) really worth the trouble, furthermore considering the effect on the environment? This type of short lived euphoria doesn't have a long lasting effect on our overall happiness, does it? Shouldn't we spend more energy and time on creating more sustainable happines in our lives?

PRESENTS
Written By Adora Svitak
There was a mad rush about a week ago. What was it about? Why did hundreds of anxious, worried, pessimistic, optimistic, tired, eager, or happy shoppers crowd stores nationwide? Presents. Christmas presents. Black Friday was quite a day for both shops and shoppers. Video games, MP3 players, iPods, cell phones, and laptops fell into the "technical" category of presents. Everything from plastic bracelets to porcelain dolls to new backpacks to--everything fell prey to gift-shoppers. Advertisements flashed across the TV. Great New Deals At So-and-So! So-and-So has the best bargains on winter coats! So-and-So has wonderful discounts on high-tech gifts! I have gotten a variety of presents over the years. Frisbees, P.J.s, gift cards, books...one of my favorites was a red "Happy Pig" T-shirt from my aunt and uncle, last year I believe. The T-shirt showed two pigs, front view, in the front of the shirt, and the pigs' rear ends in the back of the shirt. It was not only a nice shirt, it was big enough that I could wear it for at least two years. It still fits, although of course I wouldn't think of wearing it in this weather. The kind of presents I have objections to are ones that only last a few days, a few weeks, or a few months, and are parasitical objects that require your time and attention but are not very useful at all and do not produce anything. My laptop, for instance, requires time and attention, but I produce things with it. This blog, for instance, and my political satire, Yang in Disguise, and a variety of other things. So if you haven't gotten your shopping done, try to get a useful present. And also don't sweat if you haven't gotten presents yet. My sister's birthday is on December 16th, and I still haven't bought her anything.

To Be Continued In The Next Issue of:
THE CHRISTMAS TIME!!!