2024 Issue #50 🎄

Happy Sunday, Reader!

Greetings from Sheboygan, where we've been building gingerbread houses, watching Christmas movies, and have our fingers crossed for a white Christmas. 🤞

Kim and I may have named it in 2005, but it's been around for centuries. Dickens wrote it into the essence of Ebenezer Scrooge. It was personified in the Grinch by Dr. Seuss. And Buddy rescued his birth father Walter Hobbs from it in the holiday movie Elf.

I'm referring, of course, to Adultitis.

Do you see what I see? It's everywhere this time of year, in one holiday tale after another...

The people who don't believe in Santa Claus have Adultitis.

The other reindeer who make fun of you for being different have Adultitis.

The people who run the Eastern Syndicates that run Christmas have Adultitis.

The teacher who thinks you need to rethink what you want for Christmas because you'll shoot your eye out has Adultitis.

The boss who replaces the Christmas bonus with the jelly-of-the-month club has Adultitis. (Despite it being the gift that keeps on giving.)

The thing is, while looking with scorn at the Adultitis-riddled fools in our holiday movies, we forget one simple fact.

Adultitis is coming for us, too.

Have you ever turned the other way when you saw that person in your life with the excitable, always-on enthusiasm of Buddy the Elf coming your direction?

Have you ever scolded anyone because they didn't wrap the presents or decorate the cookies quite right?

Have you ever felt disappointed because the person who got your name in the gift exchange didn't get the exact thing on your list?

Have you ever traded gift cards of equal value with someone?

Have you ever discouraged someone's dream because you deemed it too dangerous, childish, or impractical?

Have you ever lost your temper, yelled at a loved one, or insulted a family member because you've been overwhelmed by anger, shame, or fear?

Have you ever packed your December so full that you spend the entire month harried, irritable, and on edge, resenting all of it and looking forward to the moment when it's all over already?

Yeah, me neither.

Look, none of us is perfect. None of us is above being a little grinchy, greedy, selfish, or cynical at times.

Thank God we have another chance to get it right. Or at least get better.

In the next few weeks, keep your eyes peeled for all the ways you see Adultitis pop up in the holiday movies you watch. Maybe we can treat them like a mirror, seeing if those poor souls in need of some Christmas spirit might be reflecting anything back at us.

May we summon the humility of a child — the best and only antidote to Adultitis — to receive the true gift on offer.

The hope and joy that Adultitis is defeatable.

After all, this is the time of year when hearts have been known to grow three sizes, curmudgeons get a second chance, and cynics can turn into true believers.

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🤔 I wonder...what is your favorite holiday movie and what do you like most about it? Hit reply to share your thoughts with me, or join the conversation in the Escape Adulthood League!

Stay young and stay fun,

P.S.

Helpful hint: orders placed by Monday, December 16th (also known as tomorrow) have the best chance of arriving by Christmas. Although we do not discriminate, loving all orders equally, including those that include calendars that just need to be on your wall by January...ish.

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