Christmas Spirit

It is the time of the year again. Christmas has always been a major holiday for various reasons. However, with years going by, the more and more that I feel this festival is being commercialized to a point that many regular people almost don’t remember what this festival is all about. To me, the religious and official theme of Christmas is for celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. For people who are not into Christianity, Christmas should be regarded as an occasion to remind us the spirit of ‘giving’ our love and care to the unfortunates. However, most people that I see on the street and in the media, simply treat it as an occasion to have fun, to party and to shop. The spirit of Christmas has been hijacked by extreme commercialism that money instead of love becomes the measurement of anything related to Christmas.

Why would there be a lavish Christmas dinner that cost hundreds of dollars?
Why would hampers and gifts for Christmas cost so much with environmental-unfriendly packaging?
Why Santa becomes more prominent in Christmas than Jesus?
Why?

I’m not a very religious person. I believe in God and Jesus though I’m neither baptized nor a church-goer. I think that people entitle the freedom to do whatever they want (given they are legal) in Christmas, like taking vacation trip overseas, or having family gathering. However, please don’t ‘hijack’ Christmas to do things that have nothing to do with the spirit of Christmas, and tell people that they do them in the name of Christmas!

All through these years, I’ve been going through all kinds of Christmas, doing different things, like going to parties, being invited to family gatherings, by myself for a lonely Christmas, etc. However, the most memorable one was visiting a children hospital ward and singing Christmas hymns for them many years ago on one Christmas Eve evening. I think that was the most heartwarming Christmas experience that I’ve ever had, and that matched closely to the truth Christmas spirit.

Well, people might say that if that is so memorable, why don’t I do that every year? Well, there are reasons and conditions that cause certain things happen, those conditions have just not been there for various reasons since then….anyway, sometimes, like many things in life, I’ve learned that I should cherish the chance to be able to ‘taste’ certain things, but don’t drill on the reason why I can’t taste it all the times….

Going back to the theme of Christmas, as my wife is not religious, neither our family life in general, and my son is still too young to understand what the Christmas spirit is all about, I think I’m just gonna take it easy with him for now in this occasion. I hope I can relax a bit in this holiday, and hope to find moments to really think about things and do some planning for the future. Cos, New Year is just right at the corner….

Merry Christmas to everyone! Wish you all to have warm and wonderful time in this holiday!