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As Christmas gets closer, people seem to be happier. People are happier because he/she knows that he/she will be receiving gifts from other people due to the gift exchanges that happen during Christmas. These same people are also happier because he/she will be shown the happiness of other people when those people open his/her gifts on Christmas. The emotional take on Christmas effects everyone whether he/she knows it or not.
For some people, Christmas is just another way to get a long weekend for example this year; Christmas falls on a Thursday and Boxing Day falls on a Friday. For anyone that doesn't work on a Saturday or a Sunday, this year is a super long weekend due to only working for three days for the week. It almost seems useless to go to work for those days, and for many people he/she will take them off as vacation days. This will allow the person to stay at home, preferred with family somehow, and use the time that he/she has available for Christmas needs. I am not that lucky, however I would be spending it with family & friends if I had that time off.
There is always the odd person that is selfish throughout the Christmas season. I say selfish because all the person will do is drink as much alcohol as he/she can throughout the Christmas holidays. This time is supposed to be used to be happy and giving to other people, better known as socializing with family & friends. Those that abuse this time of the year should be forced to work while the rest of us that will treat the Christmas holidays properly have the time off. I personally, do not see the reason to drink for the whole Christmas season especially where it is suppose to be a "happy time" not a "stupid time". This statement is not against Christmas parties in general, just the one-person party that lasts for multiple days.
For every year that Christmas Eve and New Years Eve fall on working days, there are some places that try to close early because of the employees would like to get home early. Many businesses lose business when they close early. For the place that I work, it is expected to close early however I have told the employee that works on those days to use his/her best discretion. In other words, it is the employee's hours that would be sacrificed if the business were to close early. Other years the business has closed yearly, however I will not force an employee to lose hours due to the closure. It is rather said that the Head Office will not pay for the 3-4 hours that the station is closed for on the two Eve days, however for the business that it is I can understand why the Head Office doesn't pay for it. Just as I said, the business loses business when it closes early. There is no other store/business that closes as early as we do on a normal day, and we are closing even earlier for those two Eve days. Makes little to no sense to me however I have been told not to question it.
My plans for the Christmas holidays have yet to be finalized. I hope to be with a friend(s) on New Years Eve, however nothing has been mentioned. I know that there will be a lot of the usual stuff going on this year, such as visiting family that is approximately 2 hours from my parents' house, and the usual Christmas dinner (stuffing is more like it - lots of food) that goes with it. I know I will be one of the sober drivers for this trip because I will not drink around these family members. I will allow my parents/sibling (the one that is old enough) to drink and I will drive them home afterwards. If I were to drink with everyone else, there is a high possibility for me to say something to these specific family members what I think about them. These specific family members have annoyed me greatly with what he/she has said about how I have treated my life. Where the Christmas season is about happy things, I would prefer to keep my opinions buried for now. There will be a time that I can say what I really think that will be the right moment, however not during a form of celebration.
Most stores, especially jewelry ones, will target their customers more frequently. Having sale after sale of everything in the store. Sometimes having multiple sales at the same time to cause people to believe that it is a good deal. The reason for this is because the stores want very little stock left at the end of December. Stores will do this because the employees that have to be at the store at the end of the month to count the inventory would rather be with family/friends. The store will sell as much stuff as possible to give the employees less stuff to count. This will also allow the store to have more new stuff when the order in January comes in. This is one of very few times that stores are being sincere. It is also sad to see an item in a jewelry store that was approximately $1200 go down to $600 for the Christmas sales, and it is also sad to say that the store is still making a sizable profit on the item. Really sad when you look at how much stuff will be sold are Valentine's Day, knowing that those sales will be higher than the sales on Christmas. I pity all those people that buy jewelry as presents for Valentine's Day when knowing how the store thinks.
This Christmas seems to be different compared to the rest of them so far, or at least to me. I seem to be seeing this Christmas, as it is suppose to be seen, not as the annoying family dinner that I have never wanted to go through. I am actually seeing this Christmas as something good. It seems that I am starting to understand the happiness around the Christmas season, however I still find a lot of the old Christmas songs (especially those played by the radio) very annoying. I may be changing for the good and seeing the good in others, however that music is just annoying and I will not change my mind about it. I may sing the carols if I am told to (or requested by certain others), but I will still think that they're annoying songs.
Christmas has a lot of religious beliefs that are tied to it. I know of many people that believe in each of the beliefs, and this time of the year he/she is praising his/her religion more than usual. I am not religious, however I will not put down anyone due to his/her religion. I know that there are many others that would take shots at the religion to have the person keep his/her mouth shut about it, however that isn't something I would ever do. I have had only 2 times that I had a religious person try to "drive" his/her religion "down my throat" and required a severe response to have him/her leave me alone. I feel bad about those 2 times because I am not a violent person, however I will defend myself if provoked. Thank goodness neither were around Christmas because that would make it worse. I hope not to experience that again due to the severity that happened for those 2 times. As I look back on those 2 times, with Christmas so near, I feel bad that those had to happen and hope that those people learned a lesson about hassling people after the person has said "no" already.
Depending on what happens for this Christmas, many people may see a bigger change in me than anyone has seen before. I have surprised many people this year, with showing understanding for any emotional situation. In other words, able to talk with someone and help him/her without causing more emotional problems from saying the wrong thing. I have also caught many of my family/friends off-guard for being a more open person than I once was. These traits, I believe, have transformed me into a better person. This all started last Christmas when I decided to come out of the shell I had been in for the last 10 years, and hopefully I can make that big of a change in my life this Christmas too. With help from those that I trust, very few of them, I will be able to become a better person than what many people would think is possible.
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