In Search Of Christmas Spirit
Here we are, count down to Christmas. Can you believe it? We
are 10 days away from the jolly old man making his appearance for the umpteenth
time in history. It would be redundant to ask, where did the time go or man,
how did it sneak up on us? Like every year we know it comes around and as we
get “older” each month flies faster than Santa’s sleigh!
Am I prepared? Am I ready? Hell no to be honest! I am not even in the Christmas spirit. I can’t find it and as I have looked around at others they are not much in the jovial spirit either. From what I have seen most would like to postpone, suspend or make the darn holiday completely fall off the calendar…forever!
It shouldn’t be like this but it is… Christmas spirit is
gone. The true meaning of Christmas spirit disappeared several, several decades
ago.
Industries have capitalized on the economy’s misfortunes. Big
box stores and advertisers have ruined what we as children looked forward to and
as much as I don’t want to talk religion… (not that I am NOT a believer) but
church??? Does anyone go to church any more? Does anyone sit around the dinner
table and talk about the birth of Jesus and what hope that star that brightly shined
in the sky really meant? I hate to say it but I think not!
Our lives have become so commercialized and our values on family
traditions and faith have been diminished and other than a second coming, (God
forbid, no pun intended!!) I don’t know how any of us, our children and their
children will recover from this lack of.
Now don’t go and get your tree skirt all in a bunch! I am
not saying that most of you do not get together with your family and that you
don’t have some kind of tradition but look at what happens during that rush of…
You are rushed! You scurry! You search! You check your bank
balances! You decide what can be paid later… You fuss over what to cook, what
to bring and what to wear! You frantically think…Does he have that? Would she
like this? Or worse… I’ll just give them cash! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH THIS IS WHERE
I SCREAM!
You dread those family conversations. How is work? What’s new? Why aren’t you married? How’s your health? Which then Aunt so so and so goes into this longggggggg unmerited uninteresting conversation about someone you could give two jingles about that died from something or another! There is not
enough bourbon in that cookie to deal with that conversation!
You watch the clock. You watch a game or two or three or
four just so you don’t have to talk to anyone! You have a cocktail to numb the
nonsense. You feed your face. You stuff your belly and you open a present and
whether you like it or not…You put Kringle face on and say “oh thank you, it is
just what I wanted!” Reindeer poop!
And you all know I am right!
I have not had to deal with any of this for years… the
hustle and bustle of the season for me has been gone for quite a long time!
I lost my Christmas spirit pretty much after I lost my dad.
Although I still had kids to pretend for that is all I did … pretend. I imagine
it is still what I do! I still put on Kringle face…I drink a cup of cheer and I go through the motions of “Tis the Season”.
Family functions in general are just different and there are no tricks in Santa’s bag that will bring any of it back. Christmas past is just that the past.
I remember a classic dad
moment!
It could snow in Oct and my dad would call and ask, “You
ready to put up the tree?” It was the magic that he put into the holiday. The
stories he told. It was about the ridiculous wrapped gifts, Christmas Eve mass
and the music the sights and the sounds. It was hope that he gave even if it
was just for a day! It was magical and
full of spirit, wonder and awe.
Do not get me wrong … I do purchase a few gifts. I still wrap
presents. I do enjoy the decorations; I love to look at the lights and love to
hear the carols. I still do all the above for my youngest and my grandchildren but it is just not the same.
(Next year I am praying to have WORKED more so I can
vacation in the Caribbean so I can write about a holiday in the tropics! And if
I get my Christmas wish, the guy that puts the jingle in my jangle will STOP
being the Grinch and get on board with me so I can make sure we are rock’n
around the tree on some island or anything else he would like to rock around! (Hey even at this age, I still hold out for my
“Christmas Magic”!)
Oops sorry got side tracked by all the merriment of that
thought! (wink wink)
I look back and laugh at the thought, dad would break out this massive Styx, Baer and Fuller box (if any body remembers them!) the sides would fall open because it no longer held its creases and fold. It had been opened and closed more times that Rudolph guided Santa’s sleigh. To the top was filled with the largest Christmas bulbs known to man kind, who cared if they were not regulated by the electric gods? As soon as you saw those lights you knew it was Christmas time! Not sure what to say about the lights we have now, tiny, inexpensive, wide variety, made in china …they are safe!
Let’s not forget the tinsel either… that glorious stringy
spaghetti like substance that filtered through our fingers. You held it to the
light delicately examining it trying to figure out exactly how it was made!
Oh and don’t forget the ornaments that were as old as the
first advent wreath… Gingerly they were wrapped in tissue paper and holy angel
of Jesus if you dropped it! There was no gluing that baby back together!
It is just not the same… Big lots and the Dollar Tree plastic
decorations do not say Christmas Spirit!
It was a festive occasion to get the tree. You anxiously waited to go pick it out, you begged to go and get it! You couldn’t get it too early or the needles would dry up and fall off. And then you’d be picking up pine needles til Easter! You would drag out the tree stand and pray to the baby Jesus that the tree would not fall over after it was decorated! Carefully every other day you would crawl underneath it to water it.
Some I do know still keep this tradition but for most (uhmmm this would be me!)it’s a tree that has had a plastic bag put over it, stored in the basement only to bring it up , take off the bag and say, “oooooohhhhh ahhh, Merry Christmas??? I’m sorry but have
you priced real trees?
The baking factor that I use to do, the generation after
generation of family recipes, the dough that was formed cut out and iced perfectly. It is not the same either. There is an
element that has been lost with this festivity, lack of money, lack of ingredients
and worse lack of time. It is just as easy to buy the premade dough break apart
and bake!
In all honesty I am not Scrooge nor am I any close resemblance
to the Grinch… I am just not there this year and I can not stress enough we are 10 days away! I want it!!! I just can’t find it!
I drove around yesterday. I meandered up and down the
streets. I searched for Christmas. I desperately set out to find the spirit
that I lack.
What I found was children playing, houses decorated. Christmas tree lots empty. I saw mall parking lots filled. I saw churches brightly adorned with wreaths and life like manger scenes that sprawled.
I saw an enormous amount of unsightly inflatables! Can I please ask when did it become fashionable for a whole
front yard to be decorated with inflatable balloons? For what purpose does this
serve?
Even if I don’t feel the spirit YET, I will try to sing a
song. I will have hope and love and faith in my heart. I have said a prayer, I
intend to go to church and light a candle, I have gone to dad’s grave and I did
bow my head. I will give a hug and give a kiss under the mistletoe. I might
even hand out a candy cane or two… Eat a Christmas cookie or three… home made or store bought!
All for the sake of Christmas Spirit!
For all of you though, I hope you have found the Season of
Joy so it may wrap itself around you. I pray you have found your own wonder and
awe. I encourage you to look for the magic in Christmas. May the Spirit of good
things to come flourish to all those that you love during this magical season of hope!
Merry Christmas!
Meet Me in St. Louis,
Kitryn Marie
