I love Christmas.
I know lots of people, whether Christian or Jewish or Muslim or atheist (should that have a capital?) or just generally vanilla living in a predominantly Christian world do not love it. They feel it's overblown, too commercial, too much of everything.
Yes, I guess it can be. But here's the thing. It's commercial (and I do concede that it can be) because people want to give things to the people they love. They want to give them happiness and love and the perfect present can say that, can't it?
Don't you think all of us look back on those perfect Christmases or birthdays, those perfect gifts when we were little or not so little. Those times when we got exactly what we wanted, sometimes more than we expected? I think that's what we try to recreate with the buying we do. We want that moment of perfectly pleasing someone. We want to give that moment of perfection.
As we get older and have to buy stuff for people who we know we probably won't please, it can be frustrating or make us sad or resentful. And yes, that can be hard. I remember looking and looking and looking for something spectacular for my Dad. But of course he didn't need anything from me. And gosh he was hard to buy for. As I look back I realize that he was pleased by everything I gave him, because the gifts showed love and caring and thoughtfulness, things he would have valued greatly.
What I love about it is how many people do take the time to think about others. Sometimes it's in the context of religion, sometimes it isn't religious at all. But people give to charity and to others, giving is way up this time of year. People think more about others.
And it seems to me that in the midst of this crazy season of hurry and parties and buying and traveling and cooking and consumption there's a moment, an hour, a day even when we stop, when we are forced to stop, and enjoy our families and the people we are with.
I love that time. It's still and white here. Peaceful, though there are sounds of kids playing. I love the trees and the lights and the presents. I love knowing I'm going to my moms to eat dry turkey with lots of gravy and play games with my family and laugh and shout and ...
I wish some of that for all of you.
Merry Christmas.
8 comments:
Merry Christmas sin
This is beautiful.
You have captured the spirit of why so well.
Merry Christmas, sin.
Dear Sin,
Grinning... YES. Me too.
aisha
I will confess that I'm a bit of a cynic about Christmas myself. I like it simple, without all the social obligations that have built up with a burgeoning family and all of the whacko in laws and grumpy grandparents that go with it. But it's good to know that there are still some folks who have the purer simpler Christmas that I can remember, and can look forward to. Plus, there's always next year, plus the simpler moments you can grab from time to time in between.
Mick
Merry Xmas Sin! It's the bestest time! And the oddest, it seems we crame so much fun into such a short amount of time. 12 months of gratitude crammed into less than a month! Kinda wild when you think about it. But it is soooo much fun and mouse wouldn't trade it for the world.
Hugs!
mouse
Happy Holidays to you and your family.
smiles
butterfly
I wrote a long response about what it's like to be a Jew at Christmas time, but here's what it boils down to: it's a time of year when it's particularly evident both what a tiny minority us non-Christians are, and how uninterested in and unsympathetic for our experience the vast majority of Americans are (at best - more often, it's particularly evident how hostile they are).
That's too bad, because Christmas really is a lovely idea.
(And, fwiw, I'm coming to enjoy Christmas more in spite of what I just wrote above, though I'm not coming to feel it any less.)
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