The holidays in France

ahh its that time of the time of the year again and i have to say that i love december and the holidays. i used to keep a countdown of "how many days until Christmas" starting from around September...but then it got too hard to remember how many actual days there were....

anyway, since i've been in france, december has always brought about a mixed bag of feelings....i'm really happy to be far away from all of the crowds, the malls, and ridiculous decorations that start appearing in october no less and just the sheer over-commercialization of the holiday spirit (and my wallet is super happy too). but at the same time, i really miss it too...i miss Black Friday (yes, i'm nuts...but i used to work at Bath and Body Works as a holiday worker and i got a real rush from it...plus, it makes you realize that there really is "one born every minute"...) and the over-commercialization, the fun sappy christmas music everywhere, stores open until midnight...

but most of all, i miss the general holiday spirit that americans do well. i miss seeing the salvation army santa and the various charities (toys for tots and adopting a family...stuff that i used to participate in when i worked in the U.S.). charity is just such a different thing here....good and bad i guess. most French people (unless they are part of a catholic church of some sort) just dont do charity (aside from donating used clothing). part of the reason is that the French (and other europeans) already pay very high income taxes and ridiculous VAT (value-added tax) on everything they buy compared to americans. all of this tax money goes towards paying for basic health care (for EVERYONE!), generous generous unemployment coverage, schools, roads, public housing....and (not to get too politically charged here) it also pays for basic costs for the thousands of immigrants who decide to claim asylum in France and the French government in turn opens its wallet and finds them housing, etc. etc. so from a French standpoint, they feel that they already give plenty...and probably too much which i can totally understand. but still, i would love to see more of the volunteering efforts that i loved seeing in the U.S. on another hand, at least the charities here are not overrun with numerous black tie functions and galas where in which the money spent for such black tie galas could be going straight to the charities themselves. but again, thats just my point of view...