Christmas spirit? Are you there??

When I was a little kid my mum couldn’t put me to bed every New Year’s Eve due to my excitement for Santa Claus and the presents he would bring me. When I grew up a bit she couldn’t handle the excitement of three kids and Santa used to come before we went to bed. Later on, my inherent curiosity for life made me realise by myself that there is no Santa Claus – I was very proud to announce to everybody that “I KNOW THERE IS NO SANTA CLAUS”. But I was still expecting my New Year’s gifts. But why? The reason is simple as that and comes under two words: habit and commercialization. 

You see, rehab is painful. Especially for a kid who is suddenly denied its gifts due to the fact that he/she is growing up. This is the part when society is starting to teach us that growing up is no good (welcome back my inner Peter Pan…) and also that everything comes at a cost. So my pride that I was mature enough to deny Santa came with the realization that I ‘m not gonna have all the gifts I ‘d like. Stubborn as I was I still managed to get my presents. But was it only the fact that I was persistent enough? No, I would say. But that’s a whole different story. The point is that I was taught that Christmas means presents. Period.

But wasn’t Christmas about something else too? Some of my dead brain cells start to wake up from their lethargy…Yeah! That’s it. Christmas used to be a religious celebration. What happened to that? Was poor Jesus bored to be reborn every year and handed over the business to Santa? He is more modern anyway…nice uniform, dwarfs, flying reindeers…and gifts! Many gifts! What did Jesus bring along? Promise to save our souls? Lol, good one Jesus!

So, here we are today, 2011. For some people Christmas might still be a religious thing (I don’t know any of these fellows – If you read this raise a thump please) – and that’s a good thing. For others it might the gifts – and that’s also good. For others, like me, it might be all about being brought back to origin. I do admit, I can’t imagine Christmas without my mum’s gorgeous, huge, sparkling, one of a kind tree or her Christmas sweets (and that’s why this Xmas sucks). But subconsciously or not, we all feel like spending time with family at Christmas. Maybe it is the bad weather, maybe it is that we take days off and just lie around the house – inevitably with family - or maybe it’s because  you just feel like bringing back your childhood (shut up Peter Pan again!). But who cares what the reason is? Gift-with or Gift-less, Jesus-with or Jesus-less Christmas has established itself as a family thing - maybe the only one alive…! So, at last, Christmas is all about showing love….just that people express their love differently. And that’s perfectly fine!

Love you all,

Enjoy your Christmas