This is actually a man covered in pine branches. Now that’s special.
As the years drift by, it gets harder and harder to bring back that Christmas feeling you had as a child. The special aura surrounding the holiday, fueled in part by parentally encouraged delusions of a certain chubby man and his mysterious night journey, begins to fade.
Gone are the days when parents had no flaws, school consisted of Christmas parties for an entire month, and the entire world glowed with happiness because of the presents you were going to get. As we reach adulthood (and I know it’s a stretch to call myself an adult), we see the other side of the coin: the glow is actually just white hot Christmas rage, the Santa Bill needs to be paid personally, and family must be tended to.
How can you bring back the incandescent Christmas days of old, when today seemed like a day apart from all others, a day to look forward to, a day worthy of a countdown, a day of expectation and joy that ended in the ashes of wrapping paper scraps. Here are some tips and suggestions that can make this Christmas the best one of all.
Ways to Make this Christmas Special:
1. Play “family member hides.” Everyone votes on the family member they like the least, and then that family member has to hide for the rest of the day while the others search for him or her at their leisure.
2. Give the youngest members of your family bb guns, making sure they know there are no restrictions on where to use them.
3. After the Christmas feast, sit down with your loved ones and point out one another’s flaws.
4. Everyone loves singing! Give everyone a 3-5 minute solo to prepare and then go sing them at the mall in front of the movie ticket lines.
5. If you haven’t seen them already, rent the first two Alvin and the Chipmunks movies before going and watching the third one in theatres during a daytime showing. Nothing spells Christmas cheer like shameless exploitation of formerly beloved characters set to the tune of wailing toddlers.
6. Instead of fussing over a big meal, let everyone choose their own microwave dinner and heat it up themselves. Then watch television in silence!
7. Indoor bonfire, using the tree as fodder.
8. Hire someone wearing a Santa suit to come and take everyone’s presents away from them after they’ve finished unwrapping them.
9. Have a real-time response to Christmas gifts from people who aren’t in the immediate vicinity. Call ‘em up right away and tell them how you really feel about the Jar Jar Binks soap dispenser you got!
10. Go door to door preaching against capitalism. Have younger family members wail in order to remind people of child labor in sweat shops.
11. Encourage the little cousins to try to get onto the roof of the house, climb a tree, or fit into cupboards.
12. “Accidentally” misplace the remote control.
13. As you sit around the crackling fire with your family or friends, laughing about times gone by, bring up a deep seated grudge from years ago.
14. Instead of complaining about gifts you didn’t receive, speak with dripping sarcasm and spit vitriol while insisting nothing is wrong.
15. Give used toothbrushes as stocking stuffers.
Merry Christmas!!!
Snotting black 
As a non-christian, I was always led to believe that for #3, the flaw parade happened during the meal.
Thank you for the correction to my pieced together yuletide timeline.
It’s a very common mistake made by outsiders or “hell bounders” as we term them, and I’m glad I could be a source of cross-cultural education.