Well, Christmas is fast approaching yet again. It almost feels as if last Christmas had only just ended a short time ago, but of course that isn't the case. That aside, though, I've got to say that, at least for my family, the Christmas spirit seems to be a bit lacking this year. It just doesn't feel like Christmas this year. I'm not sure why, exactly, we just can't get into it all this year.
We've been late getting all our decorations up this year, and even when we did put them up our hearts just weren't in it. We haven't had the interest in putting everything up, and, unlike years past, when we have gotten around to putting things up, everything hasn't gone up in a single night; it's all gone up over many nights. It's strange. We can't seem to figure out what's different about this year.
I know I have things on my mind that are contributing to the season feeling less festive for me, but why is everybody else in my family feeling the same way? And there's a general feeling that others are feeling the same way outside our family, as well. There's snow on the ground, it's been quite chilly of late; everything has been very winter-like and absolutely perfect for strengthening and adding to the spirit of Christmas, and yet, it's just not happening. It's really, quite odd.
One possibility my parents and I have discussed is that perhaps Christmas is beginning to lose a lot of it's spirit. We all understand already that Christmas has changed for the worst in many respects during the late 20th century and during this first decade of the 21st century. Everything has become so much more about the material instead of family and spending time with those you love like Christmas used to be about, but perhaps even the material aspect of Christmas is beginning lose it's appeal, as well. Perhaps people are beginning to think differently about Christmas. Maybe amidst all the worthless material things everybody seems so focused on these days people are starting to think to themselves "Is this it? Is this all Christmas has to offer?"
To be perfectly honest that's how I've felt about Christmas for the last few years. I feel pleased with my gifts, and am grateful for them, but in the end I feel as if Christmas is supposed to be so much more. Particularly the last couple Christmases, during which I would have given up everything I had under the tree to be spend Christmas with my then girlfriend Zoë. And to be perfectly honest, I'd still give up all the materials of Christmas to go to Australia and spend the holidays with her despite the fact she and I cannot be said to be a couple anymore. To be with her in any capacity for Christmas would make me so very happy; it would make for a very meaningful Christmas for me, indeed.
One tends to expect so much of Christmas. Classic Christmas songs and movies ingrain in us the idea that Christmas is a time of togetherness and love, that it is a time to be happy and thankful for what we have regardless of the trials and challenges we may be facing in our lives, even regardless of whether or not we have much to call our own. Once upon a time even those who had very little were able to find some happiness during the Christmas season, but this obsession Western society has developed for the material above the immaterial and irreplaceable has definitely not improved Christmas, it's dampened it.
Don't get me wrong. It isn't my intent to attack Christmas in it's current form and foolishly try to make others feel differently about Christmas in hopes of achieving some sort of return to a past state of thinking in regards to Christmas. I am simply pondering if we as a society truly enjoys Christmas as we once did. I tend to believe we don't. We have transformed it into something so very material we have slowly been forgetting that Christmas can been so much more than what we've made it. And, to be honest, how can an occasion we've made to be so very material be special anymore? These days many of us continue to gain material things all year long. If your mobile phone you got for Christmas breaks in June, nine times out of ten you'll be getting a new one within a few weeks or months of breaking it.
As I said, material gain is something that continues for many of us, albeit slowly in some cases, all year round. That being the case, a Christmas focused on materials can never mean as much as it used to mean in the days it wasn't about material things at all, but about spending time with, and being thankful for, family and friends.
We've been late getting all our decorations up this year, and even when we did put them up our hearts just weren't in it. We haven't had the interest in putting everything up, and, unlike years past, when we have gotten around to putting things up, everything hasn't gone up in a single night; it's all gone up over many nights. It's strange. We can't seem to figure out what's different about this year.
I know I have things on my mind that are contributing to the season feeling less festive for me, but why is everybody else in my family feeling the same way? And there's a general feeling that others are feeling the same way outside our family, as well. There's snow on the ground, it's been quite chilly of late; everything has been very winter-like and absolutely perfect for strengthening and adding to the spirit of Christmas, and yet, it's just not happening. It's really, quite odd.
One possibility my parents and I have discussed is that perhaps Christmas is beginning to lose a lot of it's spirit. We all understand already that Christmas has changed for the worst in many respects during the late 20th century and during this first decade of the 21st century. Everything has become so much more about the material instead of family and spending time with those you love like Christmas used to be about, but perhaps even the material aspect of Christmas is beginning lose it's appeal, as well. Perhaps people are beginning to think differently about Christmas. Maybe amidst all the worthless material things everybody seems so focused on these days people are starting to think to themselves "Is this it? Is this all Christmas has to offer?"
To be perfectly honest that's how I've felt about Christmas for the last few years. I feel pleased with my gifts, and am grateful for them, but in the end I feel as if Christmas is supposed to be so much more. Particularly the last couple Christmases, during which I would have given up everything I had under the tree to be spend Christmas with my then girlfriend Zoë. And to be perfectly honest, I'd still give up all the materials of Christmas to go to Australia and spend the holidays with her despite the fact she and I cannot be said to be a couple anymore. To be with her in any capacity for Christmas would make me so very happy; it would make for a very meaningful Christmas for me, indeed.
One tends to expect so much of Christmas. Classic Christmas songs and movies ingrain in us the idea that Christmas is a time of togetherness and love, that it is a time to be happy and thankful for what we have regardless of the trials and challenges we may be facing in our lives, even regardless of whether or not we have much to call our own. Once upon a time even those who had very little were able to find some happiness during the Christmas season, but this obsession Western society has developed for the material above the immaterial and irreplaceable has definitely not improved Christmas, it's dampened it.
Don't get me wrong. It isn't my intent to attack Christmas in it's current form and foolishly try to make others feel differently about Christmas in hopes of achieving some sort of return to a past state of thinking in regards to Christmas. I am simply pondering if we as a society truly enjoys Christmas as we once did. I tend to believe we don't. We have transformed it into something so very material we have slowly been forgetting that Christmas can been so much more than what we've made it. And, to be honest, how can an occasion we've made to be so very material be special anymore? These days many of us continue to gain material things all year long. If your mobile phone you got for Christmas breaks in June, nine times out of ten you'll be getting a new one within a few weeks or months of breaking it.
As I said, material gain is something that continues for many of us, albeit slowly in some cases, all year round. That being the case, a Christmas focused on materials can never mean as much as it used to mean in the days it wasn't about material things at all, but about spending time with, and being thankful for, family and friends.
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