I recently took a trip down to my parents place, in Southern Ontario. Since my inlaws live up north, and my family is all down south, we make an effort to split the holidays each year, and swap which year we do Christmas with each family.
While I drove the wonderful six hours, Titan (my 103lbs American bulldog) snoring in the backseat, and Andre cat napping in the passenger seat, I was happy to listen to the festive Christmas station on the XM radio. I was finally getting in the mood of the holidays, because it's unavoidable when you hear 6 different versions of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer in an hour.
When I got to my home town, I thought "this is perfect, I'll finally be off the highway and be able to see the lights, snow, etc." The reality was, that the grass was green, it was 11 degrees out, and on almost every street, there were only a handful of houses decorated with lights. The shocking surprise, was it was already Christmas eve.
While I would have hoped that this was merely one street, and the rest was better, it wasn't. Every street, every road, every house I passed over the holidays, there was an average of 1 in every 7 that had lights or decorations.
The point I quickly realized, is that as a Society, we have begun to become so consumed with ourselves and personal lives, that no one could be bothered to decorate. "It takes too much time", "it's a pain taking it all down", "I don't want to pay the hydro bill", etc. are all the excuses we tell ourselves for why we don't do it. The reality is, that the people who are suffering the most, are the kids.
When I was small, I loved going to town to see all the Christmas lights, the decorations, the trees lit up. They reminded me of the season, the warm feeling of Christmas, and the excitement. Now, I'm horrified to know what kids think, because they see streets bare, and houses dark. Think about it this year for yourself, and tell me you didn't notice half the street without any lights on it.
While I was with my mom, she even admitted that she felt the need to bring back some holiday traditions soon, because she also felt that the lack of her tree, garland, and lights, made Christmas "just another day". I began thinking about it, and realized, she was right. When I was a child, we started Christmas after my birthday in November. It began after hunting season, with the hunter's ball. An evening of socializing, drinks, great food, and the company of my dad's hunting party and their families. They would joke nostalgically about the year of hunting, who fell in the river getting soaked, who missed the deer and hit that tree, and the ever illusive yet highly coveted mythical 18 point buck that they always saw, yet never got. The night would be magical, fun, and the beginning of "Christmas".
The Week my father would go hunting, we knew was the same week we could put up the Christmas tree, and the lights. The weekends that followed would include baking for the holidays, with a full Saturday of Cookie making, pies, etc. all in preparation of the week of Christmas. It was the time when we knew snow would begin falling, cousins and family would come over for cards and midnight tobogganing in the pasture with moonlight, and candles hung from the trees in mom's mason jars. We'd come back for hot chocolate, chips, veggies and dip, and a game of UNO extreme that would last until the late hours of the evening. We had Christmas Caroling, Santa Clause Parades, and large city light displays to go see while we drank hot chocolate.
On Christmas Eve my sister and I would have been up with family and friends at the house, after candlelit mass at church, and movies like the Grinch, and Frosty playing on the television, and card games, and laughing carried on from the dinning room.
When we woke up on Christmas morning, anxiously at 4am, because we barely slept and knew Santa had come, we would creep down the stairs and sit at the bottom, calling to our parents in our Pj's, asking them if we could come down, and if Santa had been there. When we got to come down, mom would let us take in the majesty of the presents under the tree, the lights, the stockings, and we could peek around and look at all the wrapping paper's, while she and Dad got coffee's and made breakfast. (The rule in our house was you had to eat breakfast before opening presents, because 90% of the time, we'd have eaten all the sugar in our stockings and then say we had sore tummies and no room for a proper meal, otherwise)
With coffee in hand, and a belly of waffles, eggs and bacon, etc. mom and dad would come back into the living room with us, and we would find a spot on the living room floor. Dad was the official present distributor, and mom would have a large garbage bag for the wrapping paper. We would each get a gift, and get to open it one at a time. The excitement filling us each time as we opened a present, and showed one another. We would slip into the bathroom to try on new Pj's, or shirts and pants. We'd be pressing the buttons on our toys to hear what they did, until Dad could undo the cumbersome ties that held them in place in their packaging. We would show mom what Santa brought and dance around the living room with excitement.
After we had finished, we would thank mom and dad for the things they brought us, and weren't from Santa. We would clean up the living room and all the presents, and play with the items for an hour or so. Then we would get dressed and get ready, going to my grandparents house for Christmas with the rest of the family. There was always lots of different food to eat and pick at, cousins to play with and show the things you got, or they got from Santa, and play with each others toys. The week would continue this way with visits from different family, more games and good eats. By New Years Eve, everyone would have seen one another at least once, and then we would have a New Years Eve Celebration to ring in the New Year, and cap off the entire week.
Christmas time was magical, energetic, and special. When it ended, you looked forward to next year, and the excitement it would bring again. However, that all seemed to disappear as time went on, and eventually it seemed to stop for a few years, when my grandmother (who loved Christmas and always made it special) passed away. The year after seemed to be one in which no one wanted to celebrate because she wouldn't be there, and slowly everyone drifted away. The Odd part was that the rest of the world seemed to feel this drift and disconnect too, and maybe it had for a while, because I could remember thinking it was slowly changing for the worse when I was a teenager. Ten years later, only five houses out of a street of fifty have lights. A week of laughter and cheer, has dwindled down to rushed visits with family all crammed in a 3 day period. The magic that was Christmas has become a consumer holiday of shopping and boxing day sales, all about numbers and financial margins for the whole of Society.
Sadly, I listened to a statistic on the radio while I drove, in which it said 58% of people would be working over the holidays, and out of the remaining people who were not working 78% would still be working from home or checking in on work. These statistics all having gone up between 10-20% from 2007.
Where did Christmas go? Better yet, Why did we ever let it go?
Next year, I hope you all think of this. Put up the lights, and the trees, and the garland. Spend time baking, and Socializing, drinking and playing games. Christmas isn't about the items, the shopping, the WORK. It's about taking some time off, and spending it with actual people, having fun, forgiving a year of stupid issues, and bringing people back together. The WORLD was happier at Christmas, and the only way to make that happen for the next generation, is if we stop thinking about ourselves, and once again remember the meaning of the season, be it Kwanza, Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever. Tradition has it's place in the world, and destroying it for children because we are too lazy, or our bosses are concerned about numbers, is a cop out. Make the time, and if your an employer of a large company, give as many people the time off as you can, because the work and the margins, are still going to be there on January 2, but your workers will be more productive and happy because of that one week they finally relaxed.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment