Bah, humbug

This morning while walking to my car I noticed that I was the only person in my building with neither a wreath nor a Christmas tree. (My mom bought me a poinsetta, but it's looking rather wan and forlorn on my terrace).

What a relief then to read this by Christopher Hitchens on Christmas:

This was a useful demonstration of what I have always hated about the month of December: the atmosphere of a one-party state. On all media and in all newspapers, endless invocations of the same repetitive theme. In all public places, from train stations to department stores, an insistent din of identical propaganda and identical music. The collectivization of gaiety and the compulsory infliction of joy. Time wasted on foolishness at one's children's schools. Vapid ecumenical messages from the president, who has more pressing things to do and who is constitutionally required to avoid any religious endorsements.

He ends with a cheerful "God damn them everyone."