Christmas, Oh Merry Christmas

 

 Well it is just around the corner. The date in which we spend the whole month of December planning for and preparing the house and home. If you guessed Christmas you are right. This is the single the largest holiday on the planet. It is celebrated by about a third of the population of the planet. It is a retail dream come true.

Christmas to me as a child was about the bobbles, the gifts, the sparkle of the decorations and the parties. We always knew in our minds somewhere that Christmas was the birthday of Jesus but that never really mattered as much. My beliefs changed over the years and I discovered many similarities from other belief foundations to be acceptable, but that is another story altogether.
 

  

I still love Christmas as a season. It has a life of it’s own and it is glorious and bright. A time of year when people come together to enjoy a good meal (or a bad one if you cannot cook), to exchange a gift and to see how much the nieces and nephews have grown over the year. It is a time of weight gain and hangovers, of good intentions an resolutions at New Years. Gym memberships that go unused after February that pile high with the exercise equipment, new and mostly unworn jogging clothes, all purchased with good intentions. It lands with the crazy crowds on December 26, Boxing Day, the nightmare of retunes exchanges and new purchases with newly gained finances that came under the tree. The traffic, the angry lineups the consumed time and money that you have worked so hard to gain just to feel obliged to give your old ninety year old Auntie that special gift that will become yours someday (make sure it is not electronics they will be obsolete over night!!!). But I still love Christmas as a season!!! 

 

Is it the glitter or the bobbles or the lights??? Have we blown Christmas out of proportion??? Some days I wonder as I add up my receipts and look at the spending done. On the commercial side of Christmas it is over rated. It is one day a year. What is next Halloween, it sure looked like it was on its way this year with all the decorations gifts and loads upon loads of candy. But remember the story, each visitor brought one gift to one child. The expense was great to each of them I am sure, but let’s get real what a cash cow this time of year is. From the tree, to the elf on the shelf, to the stocking stuffer, to the glitz and the glam, what ever happened to it being simple??? Less expensive, more real, more about the people and not about the stuff. Do we really need all the stuff???

And certainly not to complain but please bring us no bobbles, bring us no glitz, bring us no glam, no stockings, no ham. Bring us your love, your company, your voice raised in song, bring us warm memories of family and friends. Bring us just Christmas, the day once a year, we’ll celebrate a baby without any sham. Sorry for the hacky verse!!!

 

Happy Holidays from my family to yours. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

 

 

May the season be yours to remember!!!

 

1.