As far as I'm concerned ANY day is Christmas. To prove that I posted this today, almost a week later. One day is no different from the next.

Even Sade said it in the last verse of her song "The Sweetest Taboo" on her album "Promise" released 1985. She said "Everyday is Christmas and every night is New Year's Eve." by
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

I think I was around 6 years old when I started getting suspicious of the Santa Claus mythology. Being a curious and calculating child, I started noticing the idiosyncracies this good doing demigod. For starters, we had no fire place. I asked my dad where would Santa be coming in from, he replied the window. I was like hmm..

What about that sack he throws over his shoulder that's supposed to have all the whole world's toys in it. C'mon! I also struggled with the idea of him making it around the entire world to deliver all these toys before day break. The armies of Santa clones that flooded the city is what did it for me. When I would ask what's up with that? Grown ups would reply silly generic line "those are Santa's helpers." Really? Those are mighty tall and strong looking elves! As a child I wasn't gullible. I was born with very little innocence.

By the time I was 8 or 9 it was clear in our house where the toys came from. My parents would either asked us (my sister and I) blatantly what we wanted or get tossed a thick catalog from a company called Spiegel. Half of it had the adult boring stuff. You would then flip it upside down and start over on the toys side. We would circle what we wanted (even the stuff we knew already knew were impossibilities). They would review our choices then get forced to narrow it down to at most two items. Sometimes they would be wrapped left in the bags when they were purchased in.

By the time I was 13/14 I was taking the artificial tree out from storage in the basement, putting it up and taking down all by myself... as in, in the living room alone putting it up.

By the time I was 16, I was making my own money. I was working and had a hustle to buy my own stuff. This all caused me to give Christmas a completely different point of view especially while in my semi-independent state, I began noticing expectations staring me in the face when this commercially laced holiday comes around. Everyone is looking for something although they claim they don't want anything and that it's all about peace, love joy and giving. If only that was the case.

When I played along with this sham and went purchase crazy. I do things for the experience and documenting purposes and just in case of any future conflicts.

Just like most men I would get screwed either by not getting anything in return or getting pure crap worth a fraction of a fraction of my gift.

Rationally speaking it only make sense to buy your own wants and needs any time of the year instead of foolishly waiting for someone to buy you something you can get for yourself. Time not money is my greatest weakness. I don't have that kind of patience.

It has gotten to the point that my parents has everything. The only viable gift is money so they can enjoy themselves and indulge in whatever vices they may have. Now that's a gift that I think anyone one of a mature age can enjoy can and should appreciate that.

In the real world Christmas should be geared towards children exclusively. Adults need to control themselves and focus on being festive and leave the expenditures to the kids. Make sense?

Again, all the bright lights, bells and whistles are put in place to mesmerize children. Bear in mind they already have birthdays to go with random requests for cell phones, video games and sneakers. No one ever says wait for Christmas unless it's ridiculously close.

Due to my experiences as a child I'm still unsure if it was a "gift" or a curse. I've always wanted to see this holiday from everyone's big extravagant perspective. I instead I was granted the ability to see Christmas differently from most people Maybe I'm really seeing it for more of what it is, one "not free at all, free for all". A moment of hypnotic, technological, colorful, loud, overbearing, invasive "come and get it."