Black Friday and Christmas Consumer Craziness

I have been reminded that it is Black Friday. This is going on as usual in Canada and the United States. A day when frenzied shoppers try to get the best deals that are supposedly marked down.

I used to work in retail at a mall and I know that when we had a midnight madness sale, the deals weren't that great if it was a deal at all.

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I was reminded of Black Friday by things I saw on Facebook. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't have realized that Christmas is coming around in the next four weeks and all its glorious shopping insanity.

I have never been one to care about traditional festivities. I had a Thai mother who died when I was young and my Canadian father didn't really know how to go through the Christmas motions as a single father of an only child. So most of the traditional family Christmas gatherings that I participated in were usually other people's families.

There were only a few years in my childhood where we had a tree. I caught on almost right away, soon after I arrived at the age of four, that there was no Santa. Oops did you still think he was real?

I have never enjoyed Christmas shopping, not just because of over spending with money I didn't have. I just saw through the madness that ensues on a yearly basis. The madness that starts sometimes two months before the actual day. It's like foreplay for Christmas-aholics.

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In retail I have seen customers that have come in looking for a special gift for someone who has everything, and being in an unbelievable state of anxiety.

After Marc and I met sixteen years ago, we have never exchanged gifts with each other, for any occasion, and we have barely been involved with gift giving with his family. I have one daughter that I stopped giving gifts to. He has nieces and nephews that we stopped giving gifts to as well.

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Wow! That sounds so cold, stingy and lacking in the giving spirit. Call me Grinch, Scrooge whatever you like. We feel a sense of peace and freedom when looking onto the masses and the culture of unhealthy consumerism.

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If someone we care about, needs something, we will gladly give it to them. But giving a sweater to someone in exchange for a necklace,at a delegated time, seems uninspiring.

I'm not saying that if you truly enjoy this, that you should feel the same as I do. I just can't get into it and really never could.

I have been in Acapulco Mexico for almost two months. They do celebrate Christmas here but as of yet there is barely a sign of it.

There are no decorations, no snow, no Christmas music reminding us that Santa Claus is coming to town and no extra shopping hype. Life seems to be going on as usual here for now and this is a relief for me.

I usually associate Christmas in Canada with extreme cold temperatures, annoying piped in Christmas carols with the same songs over and over each day for a month, and needless over consumption.

I am sure I will witness at some point next month some traditional signs and rituals for Christmas. For now there is nothing to think about and on Christmas eve, and day I will be hanging out by the beach.

Thanks for stopping by

@carolynstahl