The Grinches of Triton

At every Christmas party, there’s at least one Grinch.

“I don’t really like any of them [Christmas carols],” said junior Grace McLellan. “When you’re shopping for Christmas, they will play it, and it loops over, and it’s all you hear for 25 days straight… I really don’t want to listen to it for 25 days.”

Despite the Christmas cheer, fun decorations and time honored traditions, people still find something to complain about every holiday season. While many people look forward to Christmas, there are certain parts of it that make people cringe every year. For some it’s an annoying Christmas song, for others it might be a cheesy Christmas movie or a weird family tradition.

“I don’t like “Deck the Halls” and I don’t like “Silent Night” or “Baby It’s Cold Outside”. That one is creepy,” said McLellan. The song “Baby It’s Cold Outside” has recently been criticized, as people have found that the lyrics can be interpreted as coercion. People have pointed out that certain lines the female part sings such as “Say what’s in this drink?” and “The answer is no,” make the song sound like a woman being coerced by a man. According to CBS News, many radio stations have banned the song from their Christmas playlists, due to it becoming outdated in light of the #MeToo era. Supporters of the song say that it was written in a different time, 1944, and that it was never meant to be interpreted the way it is being interpreted now.

Other students are more annoyed by the extravagant and over the top Christmas decorations people pull out every year. According to the National Retail Federation, Americans spent a whopping $6 billion on Christmas trees and decorations alone.

“What I don’t like about Christmas is how crazy people get about trying to outdo each other with having the best lights on the house or who can get the best Christmas present,” said sophomore Alexandra Flodman.

The figure above does not even account for the money spent of Christmas shopping, another thing that annoys some people about the holidays. Christmas shopping not only affects shoppers, but can put a strain on retailers and employees.

“Well, I don’t particularly enjoy that TJ Maxx stays open to 11 p.m. leading up to Christmas,” said junior Naomi Bell, an employee of TJ Maxx. “That’s really not chill, because I have sleep that I’d like, but whatever. It’s fine.”

The movie-rating site Rotten Tomatoes made a list of the 50 best Christmas movies. In the first three places were “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Meet Me in St. Louis,” and “Miracle On 34th Street.” Rotten Tomatoes also released an editorial about some of the worst Christmas movies. This list included movies like “Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas” (rated 0 percent), “Nutcracker in 3-D” (aslo 0 percent), and “Santa Claus: the Movie” (rated 21 percent). Although many of the “classic” Christmas movies have very good ratings, some think they’re getting a bit old.

“[I don’t like] “It’s a Wonderful Life,” because it’s very overrated and everyone gets so excited for it, but it’s not really that exciting,” said junior Abbie Magee. “You see it every year and it’s just boring after a while.”

Others are less concerned with the material aspects of the holidays, but more concerned with the mindsets of some Christmas fanatics.

“I hate it when people are like, ‘Oh my God I’m gonna be so mad if I don’t get the new iPhone’ or whatever for Christmas,” Flodman said. “I think that totally defeats the purpose of why we even celebrate Christmas. We should be more focused on being with our families and being able to celebrate the holidays with people that we love.”