I am what some people would call a Christmas junkie.
Seeing what Christmas has evolved into over the past few decades – the commercialization and disregard for the true meaning of Christmas that is widely spoken of –some of you readers would say that is a bad thing. It is not.
Arguably though, there is a breed of Christmas junkie who will take a step, or many leaps further than the traditional Christmas Junkie (CJ for future reference).
The less conventional CJ would start listening to Christmas carols in July; contemplate gift ideas not long after, take Christmas décor out of storage months before Christmas, "just to check that rats haven't attacked anything", and in general get into the Christmas mode. This does not necessarily mean getting into a frenzy and running around like a headless chicken – which completely takes away from the typical Christmas feeling.
The popular opinion of CJ's is that they are shallow and materialistic, forgetting the Christ in Christmas.
In our defence, Christmas junkies are a sentimental lot. We believe in good times, and remembering them. This does not in any way mean that we forget the joy and hope Christmas brings in the birth of the saviour. We believe in celebrating with family and the people who are special to us, and festivity is a part of the celebration.
And festivity is not a bad thing, as long as no one goes overboard and celebrates as if festivity is the only important part of Christmas.
But people do go overboard. It is part of their nature – that tendency to go the whole hog with the celebration. Make no mistake, the enthusiastic celebration does not essentially stem from a desire to celebrate the joy of Christ's birth. Most of the time, it is simply the desire to impress and outdo fellow celebrators.
They will give their homes complete makeovers. They will hire professional decorators for their homes, which will have varying Christmas themes from year to year. They will make massive amounts of food which will eventually go to waste. They will make Christmas visits and compliment hosts on Christmas décor while secretly congratulating themselves on having nicer Christmas décor. Oh, and Christmas mass has to be at the most "prestigious" church and it is also an opportunity to make a fashion statement.
This may sound like an epistle written solely to vent and to place judgement on a group of over-zealous celebrators, but the purpose here is to point out that a lot of Christmas festivity does not necessarily mean that we have completely lost sight of what some people call the elusive true meaning of Christmas and the Christmas spirit.
To me, the Christmas feeling is not elusive. It lies in the tingles of excitement and happiness we feel when we remember the nativity scene. It also lies in festivity. In that inexplicable Christmas feeling that you get when you sit with your family on December 1, and listen to the first Christmas carol of the season; a child's excitement as he or she anticipates Santa's arrival; the flurry of work we go through to get the house spruced up before Christmas; a family coming together to prepare Christmas cake; mixing the Christmas pudding with Mum; carefully selecting gifts for each member of the family; staying up till the wee hours of the morning decorating a Christmas tree which to us, looks better every year; attending Christmas mass and the fellowship of a happy family sitting down to a Christmas meal.
Nothing can beat these experiences. And no one should be allowed to make any of us CJ's feel guilty when we put up a few more lights or hang out more decorations, just as long as we remember those who cannot afford much festivity this year; and most importantly the baby that was born in a cattle shed on a cold winter's night… |
E-mail