Christmas isn’t Christmas

The title is copied from a Christmas song I “learned” a long time ago. The learned are in quotations because I sang the song when I was in the choir in grade 5, and since that was before I came to Canada I never paid attention to the lyrics then. I just somehow managed to remember the title and vaguely the melody. A google search for the lyrics of the song:

Christmas isn’t Christmas
Till it happens in your heart
Somewhere deep inside you
Is where Christmas really starts

So give your heart to people
You’ll discover when you do
That it’s Christmas, really Christmas for you!

And that brings me back to the title. The argument that Christmas has become an excuse for excessive consumerism is as flooded as the pack of people in the malls and the variety of ads I see throughout the city. That’s right, I’m saying too many people are complaining that Christmas shouldn’t be just about gifts and the material goods. Not that I disagree, but it seems like a fad just to say things like that and then submerge right back into the sea of shoppers.

Christmas time these days stir up a lot of emotions for me. Brought up in a Catholic family, I’ve always loved the season because it just oozes such warm fuzzy feeling, with the obvious perks of gifts and amazing food. Since my change of thoughts about institutionalized religion (which is just this past year really), I still harbour a lot of these similar feelings, but now I feel I can objectively observe how people behave during this season. It occurred to me that even the people who criticized about the consumerist tendencies fall in the trap of thinking about this only during the seasons. Shouldn’t we be giving to others at all times of the year? Maybe it is our human nature that we get too caught up in our lives and always forget about the bigger picture. And all this begs the question then, is the purpose of holidays to remind everybody what we should be doing always – if not then what are we celebrating? Look at Valentine’s day, Mother’s/Father’s day, Family day (will be in Ontario in 2008!)…they all seem to act as a reminder of what truly matters in life, but we often let it slip as soon as the 24hour occasion is over. What does that tell us? I have no idea but I understand that our civilizations created special occasions to bring people together, either as a distraction from other issues or to create bonds. I’m not sure which category Christmas fall into, but the big winners of the seasons are always and probably will be the companies that remind us that this is the season to give.

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Random bits and pieces
• Festivus for the rest of us- POLL
• Advent Conspiracy
• How to avoid credit card debt this Christmas

~ by Timbits on Monday, December 3, 2007.