Thursday, December 22, 2011

Advice Illustrated: Why one might hate Christmas

No illustrations this week. Suggestions welcome!

Letter 1 is from a woman who is still a baby and wants Xmas to always be just her nuclear family. Now her brother’s inlaws are inviting everyone over and it’s just sooooo hard to bear, because they’re STRANGERS to her (of course, one might think that after a few Xmases like this, she might get to know them a bit). Prudie says to grow up.
I say: Get laid. This sounds more like jealousy that your brother has a spouse and a new family, while you’re still a bitter spinster.

Video letter is from a woman whose family wants to be together for Xmas, but no one wants to host. LW can’t host and wants someone else to do it. Prudie suggests she organize a family dinner at the nearest Chinese restaurant with all the Jews, then return to her place to exchange gifts. If that doesn’t work, she should find another “family” to spend Xmas with.
I say, OK.

Letter 2 is from a woman whose been estranger from her evil brother. Other families have made some sort of peace with him recently, but she doesn’t want to. This year he sent her some Xmas presents. She fears that acknowledging the gift will send the message that she approves contact.
Prudie says this is a peace offering from a changed man, and to give him a chance.
I say, do as you please and stop worrying about him.

Letter 3 is from a child who doesn’t want to go to Xmas mass with her virtually non-religious family. Her father wants her to go so that her mother’s feelings won’t be hurt.
I say: go to the damn mass. And if you really want to play some board game, do that too.
Prudie agrees.

Letter 4 is from a woman whose aunt and uncle keep sending her and her sister a 30 USD check each year for Xmas. She thinks it’s silly, especially since she has to go to all the trouble of sending a thank you card (which she doesn’t: a handwritten note on her own lovely embossed note paper would be even better).
Prudie says with some vehemence, with which I thoroughly concur, that LW simply has to look forward to the wonderful day when the death of her aunt and uncle will free her from the burden of thanking them for their gift. Here’s another idea: how about offering them a gift?

1 comment:

CoolOne said...

The poor widdle baby in letter 1 forgets, as you point out, that she is not so much being invited to spend Christmas with her brother's in-laws, as she is being invited to spend Christmas with her brother.

My guess is she's 16-19 years old, and is dealing with the stresses of her impending adulthood. If she doesn't throw a tantrum, she'll get over it. If she does, she'll be too embarassed to face everyone again (perhaps she threw one last year?) and will make excuses every year not to join them - at Christmas, Thanksgiving, the birthdays of each niece or nephew, their graduations, ...

In 10 or 20 years, she'll be the one writing about how she's "never been close to" her brother's family, and does she really have to send them cards or presents for various occasions?