Mr. Anonymous – Tell us how you really feel about Christmas

We decided to bring back Mr. Anonymous to take a real, honest look at Christmas. Holiday times and holiday traditions are so often painted into rosy perfection, we wanted to hear how you really feel about it. So we took calls and used the voice anonymizer to protect people’s identities. This is what you had to say about how you really feel about the holiday season:

Anonymous caller going by Beth: I’m a dog groomer and I absolutely hate the cheap scrooges that think $5 is a good Christmas bonus. These people go on vacation, expensive homes, they have money coming out of every orifice. Yeah, tip me $5 for Christmas bonus, don’t bother.

Anonymous caller going by Carrie: My gripe is my spouse’s family requires that we buy the adults in the family gifts in addition to the children, and there’s already quite a number of children in the family.

Anonymous caller going by Jeff: My gripe is that – I hope you don’t think I’m a bad person – but I hate spending Christmas with my family. The ones I’m related to by blood. We’re talking about extended family that I have to go see every holiday. I wish I could stay home with my wife and my daughter […] If I don’t take a trip to spend with my family, then I take a guilt trip.

Anonymous caller going by Steve: Mine is kind of a two pronged situation. The first one, Black Friday just makes me so angry. It didn’t even seem to exist when I was a kid. Now when I watch the way people act on Black Friday, it makes me want to hurt somebody sometimes, I just cannot believe what we are devolving into.

The other prong is – I think this may be a real serious thing – those Christmas movies that they make every year. They usually star some country Western star as the local guy, and then some actress like Andie MacDowell. She goes back to her hometown for Christmas or whatever and then of course they’re going to fall in love, and it’s going to be the perfect Christmas movie. And I hate them all, and my girlfriend loves them. I’m never marrying this woman if I’ve got to go through this every year.

Anonymous caller Lee: I can’t believe it. The previous caller, it’s like we’re twins. That’s what I’m calling on. I’m calling about the [Christmas movies] on television. And they started this year even a week earlier. They’re getting earlier and earlier. And they’re all over TV, not just on Lifetime. And what I’ve noticed is they’re all these stupid Canadian actors from the same stable. And the teenagers are 30 years old. And the stories are nothing. They’re always the same. They’re fake snow, and all the actors and actresses are ones that have never made it. I hate the whole stupid message and that they insult us and think we actually like that crap.