>I don't like Christmas either - overall it's my least favorite time of
>year. February is harder for me to get through (seasonal affective,
>you know), but December has the added annoyances of the shopping malls
>always being full and all the damn music and decorations pounding it
>home all the time that If You Don't Find This Time of Year Joyful,
>There's Something Horribly Wrong With You.

To heck with that. If you don't enjoy the holiday seasons like you're "supposed" to like everybody else, that means you have a grip of reality. Christmas time is the MOST stressful time of the year, there are a lot more suicides (among other crimes) and that music gets so repetitive. It's why I like listening to the worse-feeling songs I can find.

>(On a tangent, does anyone else get that feeling of unreasonable anger
>when you're just trying to go to the mall in, say, the second week of
>December to get something you need for the house or something, and you
>can't park because of all the Christmas shoppers? I always get really
>torqued off, knowing it's stupid all the while, and wishing that there
>was a special parking section for "people who would be here anyway".)

Yes.

>My mother finds this all very upsetting; she's really into the Holiday
>Spirit thing and can't understand why I always dread the coming of
>December. (Next couple of years it's going to be even more
>annoying than usual, too, thanks to the damn Tolkien movies.)
>
>Feh.
>
One of these days, I'm gonna make a post that cheers you up. :)

"Only follow the rules that make sense."