Christmas?
The Christmas season is upon us again and what is Christmas 2018 going to be? These days, Christmas time begins just a few minutes after the last trick or treater is shoved off the front porch and the light is turned off. It then lasts till the dishes are being put away after the Christmas feast. In the days of yore, or maybe fifty years ago or more, things were a little different. All the shopping and preparations never seemed to start till well after Thanksgiving, being concentrated mainly in December. The daily newspapers used to publish a little calendar on the front page every day, announcing how many Shopping Days there were till Christmas. That was because just about every store was closed on Sundays back then. Families usually stayed home on Sunday, going to Church, having the Sunday dinner, or visiting relatives, or catching up on the Sunday funnies and sports. We even might be lucky enough to have a couple toy catalogs, maybe from Western Auto or some other store, and you could spend hours staring at all the great items between those covers. No scurrying over to the mail or department stores, they were closed.
As it got closer to Christmas, we might start listening to our small supply of Christmas music. We might hear, Adeste Fidelis by Bing Crosby, The Twelve Days of Christmas by Perry Como, Rudolf or Here Comes Santa Claus by Gene Autry, or good old Uncle Mistletoe. On the television, there might be a couple Christmas specials, and finally some Christmas cartoons like Hardrock, Cocoa & Joe or maybe Frosty the Snowman or Suzy Snowflake. Not a lot to choose from there. In our house, the Christmas tree would not go up till Christmas Eve. We were sent to bed as early as possible, as the tree would not be decorated till we had jumped in bed and covered up our heads. Of course it would be almost impossible to nod off to sleep that night.
I don’t know if it is quite like this today, but back in those days, the behavior of the children should have been studied by some scientific researchers. It was a mathematical fact, that the behavior of most kids seemed to get worse the closer you got to Christmas. You would start out in early December with the greatest intentions of angelic deportment, and as the days narrowed, the harder it was to stay on the straight and narrow. A couple days before Christmas and you were bouncing off the bedroom walls, sneaking around the house looking for hidden presents, trying to pry open any spare boxes of candy, looking to pull one out of the second layer and hoping no one would notice the missing chocolate morsel later. Homework was neglected, chores were done half heartedly and everyone else in the house was getting on your nerves.
Santa Claus was another whole separate issue. When you were in early grade school, you still believed in Santa Claus. You and your friends hoped to get down to the big department store or some big event featuring Santa, so you could have your faith reconfirmed and maybe even drop a hint to him about what you wanted. At night, you would think about the whole Santa thing on Christmas Eve. Supposedly he flew around to everyone’s house all in one night. With the time changes and speed of the reindeers, you could almost accept that. How he got into the house was a little tougher. He was to come down the chimney and deliver the goods to each house. The problem was, your house had a coal furnace and no fireplace in sight. In fact, none of your friends had fireplaces either. That was a conundrum. You just had to assume that he somehow got through the back door or window. The plate of cookies were always mostly eaten when you got up on Christmas morning, so that was the only proof you had. For most of us it was quite the shock when we found out the truth. It came at different ages, you might have overheard some older kids in school talking about it, and then verifying this with others and maybe even your parents. Some had it figured out early and some maybe not till they were out of high school. The only thing, most of us always tried to keep the bluff up with the younger kids, as you didn’t want to spoil it for them.
Now the other part of Christmas, the most important part was the real reason for Christmas. We would celebrate Advent, sometimes we even had Advent calendars. Each Sunday we knew we were a little closer to Christmas, and then maybe the big Midnight Mass or else going to Mass early on Christmas morning, but we all knew the other side of Christmas, why there was a Christmas celebration. In these times, there does’t seem to be too much mention of the reason why there is a Christmas season and a Christmas Day. The government and secular society want to keep Nativity scenes and any mention of the birth of Jesus, out of the public square. Yet, why are all the governmental offices closed on Christmas Day and many also closing early on Christmas Eve? Why does the post office issue stamps with depictions of the Blessed Mother and the baby Jesus? On the one hand they acknowledge the events, but on the other, they want to either ignore it or at least not endorse any belief in it, since it might seem like the state is acknowledging religion, and might insult those who don’t believe in anything or want to be reminded about a possibility of there being a God, or just don’t want to be reminded about the whole thing.
Why are so many people depressed at this time of the year? We tend to have such a heightened expectation of what the Christmas and holiday season will be bringing us. The kids all have high hopes for lots of gifts. Some adults are looking for partners to share the Christmas and New Year holidays. They don’t want to be alone, as it appears that everyone is having such a great time, at least from what they are seeing on television and the movies and other entertainment platforms. Many of us, look back to our youth or former times when the Christmas season was such a special time and maybe not so much anymore. For most of these people, it is such a let down, because what was imagined or hoped for, never can reach that point of happiness. Maybe, what is missing is that we need to remember why there is a Christmas and what we should really be celebrating. The presents, parties, dinners and decorations are all temporary things. Maybe we could be reflecting on things that are more eternal.
It is doubtful that any of us will be experiencing what happened in Dickens’ Christmas Carol. We will not have Marley coming to visit us on Christmas Eve to remind us that maybe we need to change our lives before it’s too late. Those ghosts of Christmas, Past, Present and Future will not come tramping through our bedrooms at this time of the year. We could all likely benefit from something like those apparitions to help us think about where we are and where we are going. It would be really something to see us transformed as Scrooge was. So what better time than now, to think about the true meaning of Christmas. Then see what we can do to help those who are not as fortunate as we are. Look to mend fences with those we have wronged or stopped speaking to, due to some fight or disagreements long ago. Think about our actions when out in public, our driving, our co-workers, the people who serve us at shops and restaurants, even our family members. One day it will all be gone. Like they sing in that one Christmas carol, “why can’t we have Christmas the whole year around?”
Merry Christmas
2018