I love Christmas, I really do. But every year I say I’m going to do better next year, get the house decorated earlier (or in some cases, get it decorated at all,) get cards mailed out earlier, clean up the house better, bake a lot, buy gifts throughout the year, so I’m not rushed, etc. etc. etc. And every year, it seems I get later and later and less and less and……. *sigh*
And this year, on top of all that, I seem to be feeling a bit strange. I'm starting to see that Christmas really is too commercialized. What happened to the true “Spirit of Christmas”?? Don’t get me wrong, I love Santa (I'm looking forward to having my little boy sit on Santa's lap again this year) and giving and receiving gifts, and who doesn't enjoy a Peanut's Christmas or Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?!But why do I need to have this particular day to ask for something I want and why do I need this particular day to give someone, whom I care about, a gift? Why can’t we just give gifts throughout the year… when we see that "special thing” that just cries out someone’s name and we think of that person, why then, can’t we just buy it and give it to them right then and there? Why can’t we show them that we really care and think about them all the time and not just once a year? And therefore, in that sense, if we’ve been showing that sentiment all year, why can’t we then spend the Christmas season focusing on the one who gave us the holiday in the first place? Jesus Christ. You can’t have CHRISTmas without CHRIST. At Christmas, we could then just have everyone get together for dinners and focus on what the season truly means to us.
I suppose that would put Santa and a whole lot of elves out of work at that point, and then having all those little people out of work would flood the job market, making it even harder for anyone to get a job, but that’s already impossible at this point in our economy anyway so….. Couldn’t we have a “Santamas” in July or maybe some other month that doesn’t have a major holiday in it? A different time of year for Santa to do his thing so everyone who’s stuck on using the “Naughty vs. Nice list to keep kids in line” trick to still have.
I’m totally torn on the subject, though. I love decorating (in a very tacky way, I must admit) for Christmas and I’ve been quite enjoying all the Christmas movies on tv and the songs on the radio. But I’ve really been seeing how we’re losing the meaning of this time of year. I know, I know, there are other holidays around this time as well and I haven’t mentioned them… well, I really don’t know much about them, I’m sorry to say. But with all the commercialism, they seem to be getting lost in the hustle and bustle as well. When was the last time you saw a Kwanza sale or a Hanukkah sale? But then again, there are the atheists who would miss out on all the hullabaloo if Christmas was moved. And of course, there's the day after Thanksgiving. We wouldn’t want to take the tradition of Black Friday away from anyone and what would the purpose of Black Friday be without Christmas?!
Another thing that disturbs me is the fact that so many are taking away "Merry Christmas" and replacing it with "Happy Holidays." But then again, that's the Christian in me coming out and probably should be in a totally different post.
So, where does that leave me and my blog post? Well, I still say Christmas is way too commercialized and we all need to step back and take a moment, perhaps at Christmas dinner or wherever you feel comfortable in doing so, and reflect on the origin of the season. There is really way more to this holiday season than most people realize. Go ahead, look it up. I’ll wait….
http://mormon.org/searchResults?theme=blue&query=christmas (Scroll down to where it says "The Christmas Spirit - Video - 3:57") I think this last link, the video, says everything that I’ve been trying to get across. We should focus on the “Spirit of Christ” rather than just “Christmas”
So, in the Spirit of both, God Bless and Merry Christmas!
As an aside:
American Psychological Association (APA):
hullabaloo. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved December 20, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hullabaloo
Origin:
1750–60; apparently variant of haloobaloo, rhyming compound based on Scots baloo lullaby
1750–60; apparently variant of haloobaloo, rhyming compound based on Scots baloo lullaby
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