Since the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, my television has been inundated with Christmas commercials with their happy jingles about the money I’ll save this year. Since they started, I have been taking mental notes on which companies do this, and I will not be shopping at their stores out of sheer annoyance. I’m looking at you, Walmart.

Yes, I’m a bit of a Grinch, but there’s something about Christmas carols that puts me in a sour mood – and I don’t like that to start in October. 

My family and I don’t celebrate Christmas the way other people do. We don’t buy presents for each other, but instead enjoy each other’s company. It has turned into a great tradition started when my sister and I began college and university. Most of us hate being in malls, so why put each other through the horror of a shopping mall pre-Christmas just to select a gift?

Last year I didn’t really have much of a Christmas. I flew out of Whitehorse on Christmas Day because it was the only affordable ticket available. My airline treated me to an entire can of Coke, instead of the traditional quarter they give you with the plastic cup full of ice. What a sacrifice. This all happened as I clung to the armrests with my six-foot tall body scrunched into an airline seat, as the tiny plane struggled to get out of Whitehorse’s notoriously turbulent valley. At that moment I could have used any number of sedatives or perhaps a bottle of festive Christmas champagne, and I was offered a Coke. This isn’t even close to my worst airline experience though, so I suppose I should consider myself lucky. 

This is becoming a bit of a theme, if you haven’t noticed. I missed a lot of holidays last year living so far away. Being in Jasper is great when it comes to getting home to see my family – unless you count the six-or-so trips down the Icefields Parkway I have to take this winter. 

What it’s not great for, apparently, is people coming to visit me. Believe me Jasper – I am your biggest failed marketing campaign. I spread the word of Jasper to all of my friends and family, and have yet to yield a single trip besides the one my Mom and Aunt took when they helped move me here. 

In fact, while working on this very article, I have been negotiating with a friend to come up for Jasper in January for a ski trip. I hold my hopes high this time, but we’ll see.

It’s their loss though, we all know that here in Jasper, and I will continue to fight them on every Calgary trip they invite me on. 

Next summer, I think I will simply refuse to travel, and see how far that gets me. I’ll either finally have everyone scrambling over the parkway to visit, or they’ll ignore my cries for attention and I will see no one for an entire summer. 

DISCLAIMER: The Last Word is an opinion column, it is meant to provoke thought and debate. As such, any opinions written here are the writers own and do not reflect the viewpoint of any other Fitzhugh staff member or the directors of the Jasper Media Group Inc.