My roommate, Marcie, wrote a blog about why she loves Christmas and why she wants to celebrate Christmas all year round. Christmas is wonderful in how it livens the snowy, cold winter and it is fun to celebrate but I don't agree that Christmas is the epitome and seed for joy, hope, and love.
I have mixed feelings about Christmas. I think it is wonderful that we have chosen to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world. I think that the kindness, joy and charity that people show throughout the season are beautiful expressions of the love and humanity found in those around us. Christmas is a joyous season but sometimes I feel that people forget that part of Christmas.
I hear all the time that Christmas is a consumer driven holiday and as true or not true as that may be, Christmas makes me a little sad. I feel like although people choose to be charitable and kind during that season but not always for the right reasons. Plus, it seems like people forget why we celebrate this holiday. Christ is a key figure in our eternal happiness. Isn't if funny that even on the celebration of his birth we are more concerned about the number of presents we get or the dinner we are eating or the little family quarrels that drive us apart? No, it's not. It's sad.
I think the thing that makes me the most sad about Christmas is simply the fact that people can't remember or can't be nice, kind, charitable people if it is not Christmas. Is there something special about stockings, presents, lights and a tree that make people remember that life is wonderful and that kindness heals all wounds? Why don't we all just want to be good people all the time?
I don't think we should extend a holiday throughout the year to find love, charity and kindness. Instead, we should look deep into our hearts and find the pieces of us that care. Service and kindness are the sweetest when they are needed.
Happy Holidays!
Split pea soup with salt lamb - Saltkjöt og baunir
11 months ago
3 comments:
Christmas killer.
:)
I have found myself agreeing with you a lot lately. Christmas is fun, but I resent the superficiality that has dominated the holiday. My favorite Christmases have been those that deviated from tradition and didn't really feel like Christmas at all. I think I'm just a cynical person in general :).
When I was younger, in order to re-direct my focus at Christmas, I started the tradition of reading the Christmas story in the BOM--you know, beginning where Samuel prophesies of the birth of the Savior, and then the miracle where the signs are finally shown at the last minute and save the believers from being sentenced to death. I have always loved that story. It gives me chills to imagine the joy the people of God must have felt when they recognized that the signs had been fulfilled, and the Savior had come.
ha. Here's proof of just how absurdly over-commercialized the holidays have become:
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4AR4QU20081129?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
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