I should have known when I read the Jewlicious post on former "Sex & The City" writer Cindy Chupack's NY Times Style section editorial entitled, "Jewish In A Winter Wonderland," that I'd get eminently pissed off. That every shred of moral integrity and depth in my being would cringe. My body elicited the same gagging reflex reaction every time I turned on an episode of "Sex & The City" and watched these four single woman describe their worth and those of the opposite gender in terms of Manolo Blahniks. It was the height of shallow, phony self-indulgent materialism.
In her latest chef d'oeuvre, Chupack translates her materialistic tendencies into a blasphemous ode to Pottery Barn and, in her signature self-satisfying style flagrantly boasts about her "subversive" behavior by deciding to celebrate Christmas over Chanukah. Why does she make the jump? Because a Pottery Barn catalog made her lust after the commercialization of Christ's birth.
So as I browsed past velvet monogrammed stockings and quilted tree skirts and pine wreaths and silver-plated picture frames that doubled as stocking holders (genius!), I said to myself, as much as to my husband: “This is why I sometimes wish I celebrated Christmas. Everything looks so cozy and inviting.” And much to my surprise, he said, “We can celebrate Christmas if you want.” And like a 12-year-old, I said, “We can?” And he said, “Sure.”
After Chupack and her hubby succumb to the Holiday season, she expresses some initial remorse, but it doesn't last too long:
But despite our differences, we both love our little winter wonderland. Some nights, I put on our Starbucks Christmas CD, light a fire, turn on the tree and play with the different settings, put liquid smoke in the train’s smokestack and turn on the choo-choo sound effects and then I sit back and enjoy my first Christmas, in all its kitschy splendor. I feel a little guilty when I look at our lone menorah on the mantel (the only evidence of my faith other than my guilt), but I ask you: how can this much pleasure be wrong?
And then comes the rationalization/absolving of guilt:
On the other hand, maybe it’s nice to teach children that holidays can be done à la carte. Every religion, every culture has so many beautiful rituals and traditions to choose from. Maybe celebrating is a step toward tolerating. I can hardly wait for Hanukkwanzaa.
Sometimes, blogging is a bit tiresome specially if you need to update more topics.’”‘,’
Many thanks for taking a few minutes to line this all out for us. This kind of blog post has been very helpful to me.