"Bah, Humbug!" A popular phrase that has been defined for decades as an exclamation that conveys or speaks of one with curmudgeonly displeasure. But is it really?

Charles Dickens cleverly penned this as an often spoken phrase, used by his Ebenezer Scrooge character, in the 1843 book, "A Chrismas Carol."

But I think the phrase goes deeper than that.

It's a relatable phrase for many, born out of frustration for the holidays. And, no doubt, people have their reasons as to why they are so frustrated with it.

Moreover, many people don't even want to participate anymore. Is that sad?

Just off the cuff, I'm thinking that people have a very good reason why they really dislike the holidays, at least in their mind and according to their personal experiences.

For instance, some people are frustrated because they see Christmas as nothing more than a push by retailers to sell more widgets, food, and anything else the can find to get their store out of the red and into the black.

Others are frustrated with the holidays, and especially Christmas because they hate the feeling of obligation.

They themselves really don't want to participate, but because they are married with children or because it's so important to the extended family, they feel obligated to go out and buy gifts for people when they have no desire to do so.

This can make a person like this feel like a hypocrite really quick.

Probably one of the biggest reasons that people dislike the holidays is that it is too commercialized.

When you think back to the origin of Christmas and how it began and think of what it has become, it could cause anyone to have the desire to remove themselves from the fancy, red wagon and head off into the sunset and leave it all behind.

However, with pressure from family, friends, co-workers and their company parties, etc, etc, the jump from the fancy, red wagon, is not a task easily accomplished.

And I didn't even mention the fighting of people in the department stores over the last hot item that's out there, people getting killed at some superstore almost every year and the beat goes on and on and on.

Thank God for Amazon! You can at least bypass the crowds and the drama by buying gifts online during Cyber Monday. At the very least, you can do that.

To be honest, when looking at the holidays you can choose to either look at the glass half empty or half full. But make no mistake, the choice is yours. Or is it?

I don't know, maybe the holidays aren't frustrating for you at all. But if they are, feel free to share some of your holiday frustrations with us in the comments section below.

 

 

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