On Christmas traditions

Disclaimer: I come from a place where Christmas was never a big holiday. I am learning all Christmas tricks and traditions bit by bit every year, but they don’t come all that natural to me. So you’ll have to excuse my perverted point of view.

There is this Christmas tradition that kids follow when they gather together, go from place to place, sing Christmas songs and tell poems, and get “paid” for that with candies, cookies, and, sometimes, money. It is a well known tradition and it is not by any means limited to Christmas. It is usually followed on some other major holidays. For example: Easter.

I knew about this tradition for some time now, but it never stops to amaze me how early local kids start to go around. Today I was visited by a few young girls. Today. 24th of November. Exactly one month before Christmas. Something tells me that if I “paid” them today, I would have these visits on a daily basis until one month after Christmas. Evil me closed the door on poor young ladies.

Another interesting detail about local kids is that they expect to be paid with money. No candies. No cookies. No nothing. Money only. A few times in previous years when I was, as a joke, trying to give them some sweets, they stared at me like I was an alien or something. These days they come with a box that has a whole that only money can fit in. Nice. I guess they would accept checks and credit cards in coming years.

Yet another interestnig detail is that they don’t even think that doing anything is important. They don’t sing. They don’t dance. They don’t tell poems or stories.

Now, put all these together and imagine how it looks. A bunch of local kids knock at your door. Look at you like you are supposed to understand why they are here and what they want. They hold this box with a hole for money and they expect some from you. I stare at them with my “Eh, WTF?” look. And they go as far as saying “Christmas”. Cool.

I am all for Christmas spirit, presents, Santa and everything, but this looks like poor extortion to me. And that, of course, puts me in the right position to slap the door in front of their faces. Which is exactly what I did.