I adore Christmas like when I was an 8-year old, but yeah, here's the same, all the radios and stations have been starting to play Christmas songs in late October since like 7 years ago, which feels somewhat weird and unfitting. Same with Shopping Malls.
However I think I know the reason. When asked in surveys, some people said that the worst thing about the Holiday Season, along with the debts, is that it feels too short. The Shopping malls then decided to make the season longer, starting at November.
Felicidad es todo aquello que nos hace recordar que la vida es bella, que diciembre es amor.
Aņo nuevo y Navidad, Caracol con sus oyentes
I offer my apologize to the guys who still want to celebrate Saturnalia; we stole your date and "Christmatized" it as our own holiday. For those of you Roman pagan worshipers, I offer my apologies.
The issue does not lie if we give too many presents for Christmas. Dickens and Carrasquilla (a Colombian author) have written about that people forget the Christamas spirit and focus more on the commercial aspect of it. But what are we exactly forgetting? What is the Christmas spirit?
The Christians celebrate the 25th of December the birth of Jesus Christ, our savior. That's Christmas. How can you celebrate Christmas if you forget the crucial aspect of it? This is a Christian holiday. We consider it a really important date. For us it's the second most important date in the year. If you take out the 'Christ' aspect of 'Mas' you have an incomplete holiday. And for that matter one that is not worth it to celebrate; or happen be the case that is necessary to celebrate it, please have the decency to change its name.
Families gather around on this date to celebrate a dinner together and exchange gifts. But the reason they gather around is to remember and celebrate the way Jesus Christ was brought to this world. The importance of His coming. The importance of family. And with this last point is what I would like to make an emphasis.
To exchange gifts, that is to buy whatever you want in order to give it to a family member, girlfriend, boyfriend, or just friend and receive (hopefully) one from them, is perfectly fine. It's a way of exchanging gratitude between loving members. If one doesn't want to receive or give a gift, I think it's perfectly fine because if you are still keeping the meaning of Christmas with you, that is to remember the nativity scene of Baby Jesus and his family, and (if possible) sharing with others then you are still celebrating it.
I think that if you just take this day off as a national holiday to rest then you are defeating its purpose. It's nice to share time with your family. If you are just doing that then please don't say you are celebrating Christmas. Christmas is the celebration of Jesus Christ's coming to this world. If you just want to celebrate a nice time with family and friends find another term to name it. It's perfectly fine to have a good meal with your beloved ones, it's also important to know the difference of a regular dinner with Christmas.
If you just buy tons of gifts for the sake of it that's not Christmas. If you buy gifts to give it to someone who is in a needed position, and give it to altruistically just make the other person happy, and give it to him or her saying Merry Christmas clarifying the reason why you are giving it to him on this date, I think in that case it's still Christmas. You are trying to make someone happy by making him remember the importance of this date.
So, buying tons of presents, exchanging them, and spending time with your family is perfectly fine if you know why you are doing it, and that is by knowing that you are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. This is Christmas, the reminder of the meaning behind it.
It's sad to see shopping malls full of Christmas related merchandise two months before the date. It's sadder, to me, knowing that many Christians are not really celebrating Christmas.
Topic: Christmas season---WTF? (Read 8055 times)
