Christmas Spirit

Merry Christmas Everyone,

I hope this finds you all full of stuffing and good cheer. As I find myself alone for the first time in my life on Christmas morning (even the cat went back to sleep after I fed her), I've decided it's been too long since I've written down my thoughts for publication. Today, my little rant will be holiday appropriate.

As several of you know, I love Christmas time. It's my favourite holiday-time of the year. I love Christmas songs (good ones) and I start playing them at the beginning of December. I have a tree that takes up a good portion of my apartment, and I usually put that up the first weekend of the month. I also host a Christmas soiree every year. I love shopping at any time, but it's even better when it's Christmas, because you get the added bonus of picking out presents for other people. I take time and try to get things that people will want (and I have twelve neices and nephews folks... yes 12). I always send out nice Christmas cards (as early as possible) to everyone I can think of (whose addresses I have), and, I invariably buy myself a gift (or two). It's also the time of year when I sing with careless abandon regardless of where I am or whom I am with! Well, perhaps not careless abandon, but certatinly in my car and at home. It's the only time of year I would consider going to church if I knew there would be a choir with which I could sing Christmas carols.

As some of you also know, I've not been having the best year. As a result, I have not yet been infused with the Christmas Spririt. I didn't do any shopping until December 23rd (I finished it that day too), I did not send out Christmas cards, I did not put my tree up, I did not have a party, I did not break out my Christmas CDs until today (I'm listening to one now) and I still have not yet been overcome by the joy of Christmas.

This is unfortunate for me. I miss the Christmas feeling. However, there may be a couple of different reasons for the absence. Grandma's gone. That's a big one. I didn't have to go to Crabtree & Evelyn to get her marmalade this year (although I was halfway there before I remembered). Also as a result of Grandma's absence, there are no Quality Street chocolates at my mom's house this year! How is Christmas supposed to happen without Quality Street I ask you? But I digress... I think the main reason I don't have much Christmas spirit this year is that I've spent so much time lately being not well. I'm still there despite valiant efforts from my doctors.

This brings me to my central theme today, Christmas (as anything) is what you make of it. You only get out what you put in. People complain frequently about how the Christ is gone from Christmas, and how it's been commodified, and that it's no longer a celebration of peace, love, joy, sharing and all that good stuff, but is rather an expression of greed, consumption, capitalism and careless abandon of any thought of the environment. They are right. If that's what you believe that Christmas has become, then that's what it is. However, many of the people I hear making these complaints aren't celebrating the birth of their saviour the Lord Jesus Christ either. They just have some sort of vague memory of Christmas's past when people were a little nicer around Christmas time, and they went to Christmas mass / service, and there were only about 18-20 million people in Canada, and there were not nearly so many cars on the road, and women didn't all have two jobs (inside and outside the home), and people didn't have to commute for two hours a day to get to and from work. I have no empirical evidence to back any of this up, but I also think that when I was a kid, I just didn't notice things like traffic, or parking. My parents didn't swear in front of us, so maybe parking was bad, but they didn't indicate it the same way we do now.

As most of you know, I am not religious (despite having received a thorough Catholic education and upbringing which included going to mass on Sundays). That's not what this is about. I don't get all spiritual around Christmas and think of the baby Jesus and all that stuff, I just like Christmas time. I like the season. I like the songs. I like the smell of it. I like the family time. (It's also the only time of year that I like the look of snow in the city.) Again, I digress... Christmas doesn't have to be about religion (I'm sure all the Christians in the world will rail at that thought) anymore; clearly. However, it can still be a wonderful time of year. But you have to want it to. I wasn't so much into it this year, so I'm not getting so much out of it.

A little story for you before I make hors d'ouvres... I was in Japan at the end of November a couple of years ago and as I was wandering around, I couldn't help but notice that the stores were ready for Christmas there. My hosts had been taking me all over the place showing me temples and mausoleums and stuff, and telling me all about the Japanese culture and the Shinto religion. When I was with my interpreter in a mall, I asked her if they celebrated Christmas. She giggled and said "No, not the way Christians do. We don't celebrate the Christ part, we just like to buy things and exchange presents and have parties. It's a very fun holiday." And, as we all know, she's correct. Christmas is the most fun holiday I know of. Just not so much for some people every year. It really does depend on you and yours.

Thus ends my Christmas rant. And remember folks, as Stephen Colbert said, saying 'Merry Christmas' to someone is not excluding them from your holiday, it's INCLUDING them in it.

So, Merry Christmas Everyone, I hope you all have fun!

Peace on earth peeps