Christmas Spirit

As the last post for 2013 - see, I kept my sorta-New year's resolution! - this is the only time I've found for writing this month.  The first week of December was simply planning my whereabouts and had two Christmas parties, followed by a week of decorating and shopping/gathering gifts, then a week of baking (lastly, to ensure freshness) that was also tied into visiting friends and many card games w/rum+coke+egg nog.  Christmas itself was a trek to my parents' place in the Okanagan for a few days. 

This year it seemed to take a while for me personally to wind up to the real Christmas... excitement? Or at least the calm enjoyment.  I think this is primarily because I've decided that Christmas for me is not a lot of flash+dazzle, and certainly not the commercial hype and guilt-induced spending to impress others.  It's not that I can't afford it, I just don't subscribe to that mentality and am disappointed that that is our social norm, and that it's more concentrated around the holiday season.  I dislike the 'rockin'!!' or jazzy squealing brass big-band (most prevalent in malls) Christmas songs about Santa and how much stuff he's bringing or whatever the singer is demanding, it seems so over-the-top and has stretched the classic notion of generosity to the point of ridiculous overconsumption.  Thus most of December - indeed, from Halloween onward - I limit my time in malls as much as I can and will often be frowning when I'm there.  Sorry.
   
I gave this a good long _think_ as I sat at a Christmas party table among strangers, all dressed in our finest and enjoying the meal but not really connecting.  I drifted off mesmerized at a Christmas tree in the far corner, neatly perfect and fake but its tiny lights quietly welcoming.  Dinner was turkey+vegetables+potatos typical for Canada, and it occurred to me that if one removes the "Christ" and "Mass" from Christmas, what are we left with? I propose that we are left with another Thanksgiving;
- there is a focus on a feast, and the meal is practically the same for both holidays.
- for many it may be the only time to get together as a larger familial unit or with friends that have been gone/busy all year otherwise, therefore there is heightened attention to the presence of each, whether it be baby's first Christmas or an elderly relative's last.  Be thankful that we have them in our lives.
- as the year closes it's a time to recount to others as well as yourself what's happened in the past year before asking for more _whatever_ next year.  Be thankful for what possessions you have, good health if you've got it, and all positive events in this year. 

While missionaries have spread Christianity to all corners of the globe there's no escaping Christmas as the most widely recognized holiday no matter what its expression, so we all may as well enjoy it for whatever it means to us individually.  There's a movement to take the "Christ" out of Christmas and officially make it a culturally unspecific and religion-less "Xmas" - not just shorthand for writing, it's even pronounced  ksms, which is really politically-correct overkill.  I feel that any religious holiday can be experienced or explored as long as the believers are tolerant and the non-believers are respectful.  I still wish people "Merry Christmas" and if they're going to be offended by it then perhaps they're overlooking the intention of goodwill that spans across cultures during a cold season of celebrating winter harvest/resilience amidst natural scarcity (for example, a conifer that's celebrated for staying green while the deciduous trees around them are bare and asleep).

My Christmas season was not entirely Christ-less, as I caught a Winterharp concert on the winter solstice at a church nearby.  I've seen them before and was glad that I could catch them again, as I wasn't sure I'd get tickets, this was a Christmas gift to myself; beautifully elegant music resonating in a great stone building.  That's more my style of Christmas, perhaps that's what I'd been missing in the weeks prior!

I got to enjoy the sacred space and had a good _think_ about Jesus too.  Churches usually have a crucifix somewhere, which depending on the church/artist can be more or less bloody and grotesque.  This just makes me sad.  Not only was He supposed to be a sacrifice to end all other blood sacrifices, but it was such a drawn out brutal ordeal I wouldn't wish that on anyone, let alone a nice guy teacher-and-healer.  Even when I go fishing I insist on clubbing my catch promptly.  In our time we can think we're a little more humane even in taking lives for food, sport, or war... but are we really any better off than 2000 years ago? Perhaps in the same church there could be a picture of the Sacred Heart.  That's more my kind of Jesus, or at least a more hopeful notion.  Sure He's still wounded, but He's got a glowing heart that burns with love! Says "Hi, I'm your friend! See my heart glows!" How many people do you know have glowing hearts?! We need more folks with glowing hearts!