The Spirit of Christmas

With Christmas being only less than a week away, it's been hard to really concentrate on the season at hand with the tragedy that recently happened in Newtown, CT.  No amount of words can really put into perspective how devastating this event is to our nation, and to the families who lost loved ones.  I'm not about to try to say how horrible this event is, or whether there needs to be a renewed debate for gun control, or any other of the numerous topics that have been thrust into the spotlight.  I most certainly have never been subjected to the kind of emotions that those families are currently feeling, and pray I never have to.  My friend Will offered a good perspective of it in his latest blog, which you can find here.

But for me, while these events are certainly fresh in the minds of everyone, it is still the Christmas season, and I wanted to get a chance to write about what truly makes this time of year special.  It is my hope in reading this, that we are able to take stock in what we have, and to cherish those times and memories we spend with our families, realizing that at any moment they can be taken away.  While many of us are still shell shocked from this tragedy, let ourselves to be reminded what this time of year usually means for everyone, and maybe we can allow ourselves just a little bit of an escape from the hectic world we live in.  Happy holidays, and enjoy.

The Spirit of Christmas

Snow covered sidewalks.  Windows with lights.  Reindeer on the front lawns.  It’s the pure embodiment of the Christmas season.  Something that is to be viewed as a time to get together with those you care about, share the memories of seasons past, and enjoy an atmosphere that for a brief, shining moment, puts all the differences and disagreements aside.  Well, that is what the season is supposed to be about.  It seems nowadays, Christmas is more of a stress-inducing holiday than the one we knew growing up.  There are gifts to buy, parties to attend, travel plans to be arranged, and making sure your mother-in-law approves of the cheesecake you made for the family Christmas gathering.  We all spend so much time worrying about how we will be presenting ourselves, that it feels like the spirit of Christmas has really become the popularity contest of Christmas.

When I was growing up, Christmas was something special.  My family and I would go to this little shopping bazaar, where my three younger siblings and I would pick out gifts for us kids and our parents, take them home, wrap them in a room separate from each other so we wouldn’t know what we were getting, and place them all under the tree, not knowing what my diabolical little brothers might have thought I would enjoy that particular year.  Granted, those Lifesavers storybooks were great when I was 8, but when you’re 14 and still getting them, that’s a little overboard.  But it was something we all got to do as a family.  It brought us all together for a common goal: to make our family Christmas the best one yet.

But that was almost 20 years ago.  Times change.  People change.  This is the first year where not one of us four kids is living at home.  I’m acting in Chicago, my younger brother is going to grad school in Florida, and my youngest brother and sister are off in college, at schools at least 3 hours away from my hometown.  And to be honest, that distance from everyone seems to make this season a little less welcoming than it used to.  Maybe it’s because we’re finally adults who have to make a living on our own.  Or possibly because it’s the week before Christmas and Chicago still has yet to have any snow on the ground.  Call me old fashioned, but growing up in northern Iowa, if there wasn’t snow on the ground for Christmas, it was a disappointment.

Either way, the idea of families together at Christmas is one of the staples that make the entire holiday season truly special.  You get a chance to reconnect in a way that makes time move just slow enough.  Granted, maybe you’re not a big fan of certain people in your family and can’t stand being in a room with them for one hour, let alone one day.  But for me, one day is what I feel is needed to truly enjoy everyone, getting a chance to sit around over a meal, banter back and forth about school, or the Vikings playoff chances, or why they thought giving you a pawned copy of Due Date as a present was a good idea.  You get to feel like a family again.

Now let me pose this question: why is it that people use only the Christmas holiday to feel like they need to act like better people?  As we all know, Santa knows who’s naughty, he knows who’s nice, and he knows who the bitter pricks are.  But for the minority of people who DON’T believe in Santa, why do we all take this time to give to charities, say yes to holiday parties, and just behave better in general?  The cliché response is that it shouldn’t just be around this time of year, but it should be a year round behavior we should emulate.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I completely agree with that sentiment.  However, the reality of the situation is that the majority of people think that they just aren’t able to afford the holiday spirit year round.  And that, for those of you who may not realize, is complete bullshit.

The idea of the spirit of Christmas is not some commercialized way of saying Thank You, or I Love You, with Furbies, or Uggs, or Tickle Me Elmo’s.  The spirit of Christmas, to me anyways, is to be kind and considerate of others, and wanting to do the best for them that you can.  Gifts are nice, but are not the only thing that can communicate that feeling of caring.  How else do you explain why Christmas Cards are so popular?

There is a picture my parents took when I was probably about 4 years old, where I am holding onto this little John Deere tractor Christmas tree ornament.  That, for me, is a picture that truly captures the joy of Christmas.  Not a Power Wheels (which were a BIG deal back then), not a GI Joe, and not even a new sled.  A simple little Christmas ornament.  That’s all it took for me to be completely content.

It may be a little bit cliché, but one of my fondest wishes for this Christmas season is that everyone can find that one memory that allows them to be completely content.   Whether it’s sledding with your siblings, seeing your extended family for dinner, or just a walk down a snow covered street with the ones you love, remembering and enjoying those memories are part of my grown-up Christmas list.  Happy holidays everyone, and Merry Christmas.

*What is your favorite Christmas memory?  Feel free to share in the comments section below*