The spirit of Christmas truly connects us all | GARY COSBY JR.
Merry Christmas! There, I said it. And, guess what? I mean it. I hope you all have a great Christmas.
Christmas is the holiday we most romanticize in song and story. I don’t mean we romanticize with the Valentine’s Day kind of romance. What I mean is, this is the holiday we write novels about, sing songs about, and generally turn nostalgic thoughts toward more so than on any other holiday.
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, though not in Alabama. That’s more of a nightmare than a sweet dream. I’ll be home For Christmas, over the river and through the woods to Grandma’s house we go, etc.
You get the idea. And that doesn’t even touch the religious aspect of Christmas. Yes, all you critics, I understand that Jesus was not born on Dec. 25. It’s just a day selected to celebrate the birth, since no one knows the exact day he was born in that manger in Bethlehem.
In fact, what we don’t know about Jesus would fill books. The Apostle John concludes his gospel with the sentence: “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”
The point is, we love Christmas. It’s the time of gift-giving, which, for retailers means it is the season when they make a lot of money. Everyone gets a smile; seller, buyer, giver, and receiver, so it works out rather nicely. We can all moan and groan about the commercialization of Christmas — at least those of us who celebrate the birth of Christ moan and groan ― but the truth is we all like stuff. And Christmas, with its gift-wrapped packages, gives us an element of surprise that is lacking at other holidays.
But what is Christmas to you? The answer to that question is probably as diverse as the group of people who might answer it. For some, it is “chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” though chestnuts are hard to come by these days. Nevertheless, there is an implication in the lyric that suggests something homey, old-fashioned, traditional. We like traditions.
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Maybe you actually enjoy the bustle of Christmas shopping. I don’t personally care for shopping at any time of the year, so Christmas shopping is the "nightmare before Christmas" for me. Still, there are those of you who love the rush of shopping for that perfect gift.
The family gatherings are my favorite part. I love getting together for Christmas Eve with my parents, who are both, thankfully, still alive and active. The children, grandchildren, cousins, aunts and uncles all gather for the celebration. It truly is a great time of the year. Unfortunately, some don’t have great families to gather with so for that group, Christmas has to mean something else.
Christmas is a season of generosity like no other. Charities gather gifts and food for distribution to the needy and we tend to be generous in our giving during the Christmas season. Maybe it is that we are in the mood or, if you are Christian, perhaps it is an effort to honor the gift given to humanity on Christmas in the person of Christ. The bottom line is, no matter the motivation, we all tend to give more during the Christmas season.
Some other faiths also have December celebrations. Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah. Kwanzaa is celebrated by some African-Americans, though it isn’t particularly religious.
I suppose, since Christmas shares space with ancient pagan celebrations, there is room for everyone to celebrate, the religious alongside the non-religious.
The Romans had a couple of celebrations that coincided with the Christmas holiday; Sol Invictus, a celebration of the birth of the Sun, and Saturnalia, a wild party that celebrated the god Saturn. The Viking culture, from whom we draw a number of symbols such as mistletoe and the yule log, celebrated Yule.
If you observe the Christian version of Christmas as most in Alabama likely do, if you stop to think about it for a moment, the Christmas trees and the lights, ornaments and decorations really have very little to do with the expression of your faith. They are parts derived from the celebration of the season by other cultures and peoples who didn’t believe like we do at all.
In some ways, that is a very good thing. It connects us to each other. It is a tie that binds across the wild diversity of American culture and connects us to people who lived long, long ago in lands that we have never and likely will never visit. All those symbols invoke lost people and cultures and in many ways contribute to making us all one big family.
Maybe that is what is best about Christmas after all. Maybe as we celebrate, we can lift a cup of eggnog and toast other people far away in both place and time and, as the rhyme goes, wish a “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!”
Gary Cosby Jr. can be contacted at gary.cosby@tuscaloosanews.com
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Christmas is a holiday for everyone | GARY COSBY JR.
