I'm sure that you've seen it by now. The general hostility that is present in holiday shoppers and the merchants who serve them. I've coined the term Holiday Hostility to describe this free-floating anger that seems to only come out during the Christmas Season.
Oh, and if you haven't guessed, the free-floating anger will only increase as we slowly creep towards Christmas. It will taper off after Christmas, though.
Now, what causes this Holiday Hostility? Stress, of course. The stress of finding that one perfect for someone you love. The stress of finding a parking space at the shopping center so you can shop. The stress of having to cajole a disinterested vendor to help you find a gift. The stress of being a vendor and having a customer be adversarial as soon as they walk through the door. The stress of budgeting your gift-buying with a bank account that seems woefully limited. The stress of your boss deciding that Christmas Bonuses will no longer be given out to company employees who are not a part of management. All of these things are just examples of what kinds of stress can be generated by the Christmas Season.
Oh, and that's another thing to stress over. Do I call this time of year Christmas Season or Holiday Season? Do I say Merry Christmas or Happy Holoidays? Damn, its tough to try and be politically correct.
Here's an example of this phenomenon that I witnessed last year. I was at a Kinko's and the customer in front of me was tring to get a calander made with pictures of her pets on it. The CD that she was using had not been burned correctly, so the pictures weren't on the disk. The counter girl politely explained this to the customer. The customer began yelling and screaming at the girl behind the counter and as a final act before storming out of the store, threw the CD at the counter girl. Holiday Hostility.
The thing to remember about Holiday Hostility, especially if you work in retail, is that if someone is dealing with you in an antagonistic manner - its probably not something that you have done. Many people tend to wrongly take out their frustrations on retail workers. This is, unfortunately, just the nature of retail. I'll note here that I do not condone this boorish behavior, only that it happens and that it happens a lot around Christmas. Yes, the customer may have had a bad day that is not your doing, but the retail worker is still the one who has to take the brunt of the Holiday Hostility and should not have to.
So I'm going to ask the readers of this column to remember this while they are out shopping and feasting during this time of year. Use some politeness and kindness to those you are dealing with, because Holiday Hostility is not the way to enjoy the season.
