If you are sitting there dressed in a cupid suit and writing out Valentine’s Day cards right now on this Dec 29th, then you’d probably want to skip this blog.

One of my favorite movies is Back To The Future. However, in real life, we have to deal and a Flux Capacitor has yet to be invented. If it were possible, it would be nice to go back and do something to reset things when it comes to celebrations.

I realize that my being a man does sort of make things different. Most men just aren’t usually into celebrating and decorating. It’s just not in our DNA to have a need to fellowship and bring drinks and a trophy because Johnny hit a home run. And it’s certainly not in most of us to bring Johnny a trophy if he just showed up to the game. Most men believe in earning a trophy and celebrating accordingly.

But starting in the mid-80s when everything went big, so did our celebrations. What once was a 2-week festively decorated and happiest time of the year has turned into a year-round red and green gaudy debacle that’s becoming nearly laughable and we call it Christmas. But it doesn’t stop with just that holiday.

Now, wait, you’ve got to hear me out before you click off of here. There’s nothing wrong with celebrations. We should. But if we celebrate and decorate every single thing that comes along to it’s fullest degree and months ahead, it’s just one long weird and EXHAUSTING celebration of different colored decorations. Landfills are perpetually full of decorations from Halloween, Valentine’s Day, 4th of July, Christmas, Saint Patrick’s Day, Mardis Gras and the day that Henrietta the poodle had her litter of puppies.

All of this celebratory continuum thereby poses a problem: what if someone doesn’t want to commemorate a day or event as much as the over-excited crowd does for that event? Well..that person is called a ‘grump’ or a ‘grinch’.

Just because a person doesn’t want to engage in participating in a constant state of celebratory bliss doesn’t mean they’re a grump or grinch. Maybe they like a low profile celebration. Maybe they enjoy not being on Paxil that others are on because of their self-imposed pressure of keeping up with the Jones’ for holidays.

But they still have to endure this ridicule of their more reserved holiday values while people prance around them and fling Mardi Gras beads over them while they are in the check out line at Kohls with their Kohl’s Cash.

Maybe they just like to celebrate simply and enjoy a low-pressure holiday without the need for medication for holiday-induced stress. After all, there are churches now that have stopped the handshaking and stepping-out-to-meet-people thing because it pressures people. And that’s ok. It doesn’t mean they’re not Christians. It just means that they prefer to meet people if they want to meet them.

So we all need to remember that we’re all different. And some of us might not want to wear deer antlers and put a wreath on the grill of their truck in September. But that doesn’t mean that they have a hard heart or they are a grinch.

Maybe there should be a new term for these people that prefer a simple and uncluttered holiday and I proudly belong to this tribe: holiday introverts.

This select group of people lives by the mantra that

if everything is special,

NOTHING is special.

Celebrate wisely.

That’s the best that I can tell about it,

~Mark