Disclaimer: This is purely fiction!The characters´s actions in this piece of fiction are in no way,shape or form meant to be taken seriously nor do they represent reality.This is purely meant for entertaiment.Dont distribute! Song : All i want for Christmas is you (by Mariah Carey)

Once a year there comes a time which awakens the most distinct emotions in the hearts of the people on earth. This time is ushered in and accompanied by the icy,supposedly most depressing of the year, winter.The icy weather of winter hides the vast landscape in its coat of white flaky coldness. The days get longer and plunge the landscape into what feels like eternal darkness. Almost everything looks bleak and barren, but this time always arouses a feeling of anticipation in the perished bodies of mankind.

This incomparable time bears the name: Christmas

Christmas,the supposed festival of love and charity,is,at least for the large majority of people who celebrate it, one of the most beautiful and anticipated times of the year. Many associate good memories with this festival, its wonderful smells of good, hearty food,distinctive decoration and getting together with family, loved ones or acquaintances with whom they decided to spend this delightful time together. Gifts, love, and a careful attitude play a meaningful role. Just as beautiful are the old or new traditions and the free vacation to simply free yourself from your stressful everyday life. All of this sounds almost too good to be true.

Nevertheless,Christmas also has its downsides to it that most Christmas fanatics do not seem to recognize. For many, Christmas creates even more stress. How many people actually hate the idea of giving and receiving presents, or would rather avoid the family getting together for various reasons. The annoying weight gain, full streets as well as the excessive media coverage all contribute to the fact that people prefer to leave the holidays behind them as quickly as possible and return to their everyday life. There are many more reasons to dislike Christmas. In addition to love and care, there is a lot of envy, hatred and resentment among people.

Christmas often brings out people's true faces and facets,whether they are good or bad. With all this in mind, the question arises: Is Christmas really that important and if it is,then what is so important about it?

Now, with only a few days left before Christmas Eve, a small,neat Christmas market had been erected in the center of a remote, unfamiliar city no one besides its citizens seemed to care much about. The narrow huts of the market stood close together so that they formed a sort of circle formation that ended in a kind of similar maze shape which nobody could scurry through effortlessly. Bright lights, Christmas baubles and other colorful decorations adorned the already decorated and painted huts of the salesmen who did their best to acquire customers for their special hand-made products. A wide range of handcrafted carvings, Christmas decoration, fashion, art, various kinds of sweets and traditional Christmas dishes could be found and explored there,at the stalls. The smell of roasted sweet almonds, gingerbread, cinnamon and hot mulled wine swirled in the air while loud Christmas music shot forth from every corner of the market . It truly felt like a kind of magical winter wonderland to those who decided to spend some of their precious free time there.Even during the day, crowds of people flocked to the market.

Now however,darkness had decided to cloud the region and more and more people came to the brightly-lit market,longing for nothing more than to be finally able to warm up and have fun after another exhausting, icy Christmas day.

A man pushed his way through the large crowd that had now gathered at the market. Every now and then he decided to take a glance at the other warmly-dressed people who were standing at some of the stalls,drinking, eating and laughing while they conversated playfully. The man could see his cold breath escaping his mouth in the radiant glow of the dim,cosy lights that lightened up the market. He gently rubbed his hands together in an attempt to warm his frozen body up again, which unfortunately did not bring him the anticipated result he so desparately wished for. Despite his warm garments, it was far too cold, not to start freezing in this chilly winternight. Resolutely, he stuffed his hands back into his jacket pocket and defiantly continued his way through the crowd, which had noticed his sullen look and was staring right after him.

Determined to reach his destination as quickly as possible,he continued his journey through the crowd.

A huge,kindly garnished Christmas tree rose straight up in the center of the market, several meters high and its needles reaching far out in the dark. It was truly gigantic to look at and the tree attracted the masses the most out of all the other attractions at the market. A splendid, golden star was placed on its top, highlighting the already decorated tree once more,seemed to be drawing even more people to the location.Green, silver,white, golden and red Christmas baubles were hung upon the dark green fir tree, which was also richly decorated with fairy lights andtinsel. Several large huts made of dark birch wood stood around the tree. Laughter and music emerged from them and quite a lot of people came out of them with a cup of hot mulled wine to stand in front of the tree and admire it.Smiles were plastered on their faces while they chattered and warmed their perished bodies with the hot beverages in their hands.

This was by far the most well-liked location at the market.

The man,now slightly frantic, squeezed his way through the crowd that had gathered at the garnished tree and found,shortly afterwards,a relatively empty spot next to another much smaller fir tree.There he stopped,stood there and kept waiting.His body had continuously grown more and more perished with time,despite wearing warm clothing.He shivered violently.

Trying to warm himself, his gaze fell upon the reflection of a shiny,golden bauble on the fir tree as he slowly began to lose himself in his own thoughts:

The cold is only a small part of what he hates about this season of the year and especially Christmas time. He would be able to rant for hours about why Christmas is not special to him if someone asked him to. Hundreds of arguments would come to his mind. Of course, as a teenager, and especially as a young child, he had loved Christmas so much to the point that he sometimes had not been able to sleep for days as his excitement had been too great to let him fall asleep. But that was perfectly normal, right? Children are almost always thrilled by the idea of a magical day once a year where a jolly old man brings them their long-awaited gifts and wishes.It had always been a delightful time to him personally. But now he was no longer a child and his opinion had changed. The older he eventually got and the more responsibilities he was given, the more his joy for Christmas stifled ultimately to the point of vanishing completely.Hardly anything was left of what he had previously found so fascinating and wonderful.

Nowadays he just felt stressed out by all the expectations that were placed on him during Christmas season.The pressure to meet people's expectations and to find a suitable gift for people he sometimes didn't know at all or hardly at all