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A friend of mine is a Scrooge. Bah humbug and all that. He hates Christmas (I think) because of what it has become - another excuse for rampant consumerism. Personally, I love Christmas. It’s the only thing I like about winter, being a big fan of summer. Why? What is it about Christmas that appeals to me? I think, deep down, because of what it represents to humanity over the ages. To me, Christmas is about celebrating the idea that rebirth comes from death. Winter means death, hibernation, bare trees, gray skies. Christmas is a symbol of rebirth - the first flowers poking their heads up out of the melting snow.

Think about it: Evergreen trees, symbol of long life. Bright colors of red (blood, vitality) and green (plant life, rebirth). A symbolic human being’s miraculous birth. Legends about the birth of the sun. Warm, hearty, sweet, fattening foods to help get us through the period of lean times. Happy songs echoing through thin, cold air. A symbolic entity of jolliness, giving, magic and miracles. The wonderment of wide-eyed children. People that spend hours decorating their lawns for other people’s enjoyment. Deer that fly. Bright lights outlining bare bushes and trees. Charlie Brown’s lovable, pathetic tree. Families together once a year around a groaning, over-laden table. The 3 hours I spend obsessively, lovingly, carefully polishing a once-yearly-used silver platter to a mirror finish. Spending two paychecks on the people you love the most, thinking long and hard about what will make them happiest and then braving the traffic, the crowds, the poorly designed e-commerce websites, to track it down for them. Remembering what’s good about humanity and why the world is really not such a bad place after all. Wondering how to tactfully dispose of well-meant horrible gifts.

Dude! Tell me what’s not to like about all that.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 16th, 2005 at 2:54 pm and is filed under Life in Marisaland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.