Mariah and the Meaning of Christmas

Mariah's best feature...

I am not a Mariah Carey fan, as a matter a fact I detest everything about her. To me, Mariah is the epitome of everything that is wrong with women's perception of ourselves-everything about the woman screams insecurity. Her skirts always seem a little too short, her makeup a little too overdone,her boobs a little too on display. I just want to slap her, remind her she is a beautiful woman with a ridiculous amount of talent and tell her to settle down. Her songs seem the same way to me. Why scream when you have a beautiful voice? We know you can travel through multiple octaves, it's not necessary to do it on every note. In short, Mariah, calm your spandex-encased ass down and just sing. Enjoy your smoking hot husband and stop traipsing about needing everybodys attention, Mariah-you are the original attention whore.
Which is why I wonder if it's a sign of the impending end of the world that I find myself enjoying Mariah's Christmas melodies. That's right, now playing on my Pandora- All I Want For Christmas Is You....and Christmas music by The Jackson 5. And a lot of Christmas Music that would best be described as Chamber Music, as in Hark The Herald Angels Sing by Felix Mendelsshon (who's name I probably misspelled, but that's okay, you probably haven't heard of him anyway). Felix would be playing on the Classical Christmas Station, which I listened to on a two hour drive the other night. Many hymns were sung and much of the music was instrumental on the Classical Christmas Station, there were several offerings from the music of The Nutcracker. This might not seem like a strange choice of driving music unless you know me very well and know that my other Pandora stations are things like Gucci Mane radio, Eminem radio, Jay-Z radio, and for light listening-Kanye radio. When I am feeling whimsical, I have Beyonce radio. It may not seem odd I listened to two hours of Christmas music except that I work in retail, where Christmas music is piped in my ears 8 hours a day, much of it Mariah. And I mostly detest Christmas music.

 I eat these, I don't make them

It might not seem odd except that I am an extremely anti-tradition person. I shop in Pink, not Coldwater Creek; I'd rather watch ESPN than HGTV; I don't do marriage; I live in Missouri and cheer for Kansas. And when it comes to Christmas, I'm not exactly decorating sugar cookies and gingerbread houses. But tradition and meaning are not the same thing. When you work retail, Christmas can quickly lose any meaning. Hours a day assisting people with their gift lists can reduce the holiday season to more cranky customers spending money they don't really have on people they don't really like. A few extra dollars in your paycheck can come at an exhausting price, as anyone who has ever worked Black Friday will tell you. If you want your Christmas Spirit crushed like a roach under someones shoe, try "helping" that customer who is in hour 4 of sleepless Black Friday shopping, they are not exactly merry. They aren't jolly. They are an angry elf and the little voice in the back of your head might be reminding you how little you get paid.
When you are a single mom, it's easy to be stressed out in the holiday season. Those long hours don't produce very large paychecks, and bills don't take holiday vacations. Stretching them to find a way to put anything under the tree isn't easy. Holidays can bring depression and stress and can morph into a nightmare when life seems like a struggle anyway. It's a time of questioning if you're actually doing the best you can when you can't even give your kids a nice Christmas, a time for feeling lonely because while having children is fulfilling, you are also reminded of your aloneness. Christmas can be a wonderfully romantic time with all of the lights, and gifts, and parties  to attend together. Unless you are single, when you admire Christmas lights ALONE, attend parties ALONE, and awkwardly tell your family (again) that you are ALONE because No, you're still not dating anyone. Which is why you are ALONE.
But, for all the stress and exhaustion, I still love Christmas. I still find meaning in Christmas. Even though I work in retail, I know the meaning of Christmas has nothing to do with anything I'm selling. The meaning of Christmas is why I listen to songs like Joy To The World instead of White Christmas. I find the meaning of Christmas when I go to midnight Mass, or if I'm exhausted after working Christmas Eve, Christmas Day Mass. I find meaning in Christmas when I watch the movie The Polar Express, because I still believe in the magic of believing. I find meaning in Christmas when I watch It's a Wonderful Life because "each man's life touches so many others, and when he's gone it leaves an awful hole." & "no man is a failure who has friends."

All I want for Christmas

The meaning of Christmas isn't about all the stuff that magazines and shows tell us we are supposed to do, unless we enjoy doing them and they bring us closer to our family and our God. Baking, shopping, parties, even family get togethers shouldn't be stressful. If they are, then somewhere, the meaning has been lost and you are becoming the Mariah of Christmas-and not the one who actually does a good job on O Holy Night. The one who looks like she should be paid by the hour in that stupid Santa getup. Don't turn Christmas into an attention whore holiday, find your priorities.
As for me, it will be a meaningful-and for us, traditional- Christmas, at my house. There will be no big turkey dinner (I don't enjoy cooking), and anything that is baked will probably be burned because I will be distracted when Dwight and the Lakers are on. There will be gifts because retail hours are good during the holidays. There will be Mass, where we will celebrate the real gift of the season. There will be basketball, because Aaron and I always watch the NBA on Christmas. And there will be Elf,  because it is my favourite movie. Buddy the Elf is everything Christmas should be-genuine, happy, and excited. And not afraid to believe, and believing is the true meaning of the season.
The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. Obviously, Mariah listened to this advice.