Even when you love the season, it's easy to get cynical about certain aspects of it. Materialism is at a peak between Thanksgiving and New Years, and it's easy to get a little grouchy when you have to sit in traffic moving at the approximate speed of a glacier on a Saturday afternoon because everyone else lacks the good sense to Christmas shop on Amazon.com. Not that I'd know firsthand. There's also the fact that the primary message of the season tends to get lost in the "traditional" Christmas shows and movies. Christmas is fundamentally a Christian celebration that has been all but completely secularized. Yes, I am aware that before it was a Christian holiday, December 25 (more likely the 21st) was the pagan celebration of the winter solstice, later Saturnalia, that it was chosen for convenience by the first Holy Roman Emperor, and that in all probability, Jesus was born sometime around April. So? I suppose I should also acknowledge that there is only marginal biblical authority for the existence of the Easter Bunny. So what? I'm making a point here.
Despite the many aspects of the season there are to be cynical about, most people who grew up in the U.S. have pretty fond memories of Christmas (because, despite what Occupy would have us believe, the poorest U.S. Citizen is still in the 1% of the rest of the world). With a few notable exceptions, most of my own best memories of Christmas have little or nothing to do with the gifts I received. They have more to do with the people I spent the holidays with, the traditions we observed (sometimes unwillingly), and, inevitably, the food. Based on common wisdom and a complete lack of personal research, I know that the sense of smell is the most prominent memory trigger we have, so it's really know wonder we develop strong memories of Christmas and Thanksgiving, when we are surrounded by scents and tastes that we might not have any other time of the year.
As time goes on, my memories of Christmas actually seem to get stronger (probably more exaggerated), while my enjoyment of the season itself .... I suppose the best word for it is "matures." I remember as a kid experiencing this overwhelming anticipation for the day itself. Christmas Eve had me wound tighter than a guitar string. Christmas Day was an explosion of gift wrap and boxes, and flurried visits with cousins to compare loot, and finally, the inevitable crash. Not like a let-down crash, more like a kid coming down off a sugar high (which more often than not ran parallel to the Christmas adrenaline). You enjoyed your gifts and started counting down for the next year, which never seemed to come.
These days my experience of Christmas is a lot more sedate. I find myself more and more often asking for "practical" presents and finding myself overjoyed with them. Christmas doesn't seem to take anytime at all to get here, but the enjoyment of it seems to start a lot earlier - maybe because the family has grown, and our get-togethers have started spanning the entire month. The gifts are nice, but the gatherings, the food, the planning, the parties, the cards, the songs, and the general feeling of the season ... none of these have to wait for a date on the calendar. Neither do the gifts in point of fact, but the Wife still won't let me open any.
I am overjoyed that my Christmas experience will now include building traditions and memories for our little girl. I know - this year she's a touch young to actually retain anything, but it will come. I can't wait to enjoy watching her ever-growing anticipation, helping her decorate the tree, singing hymns with her at Christmas Eve services, and holding the ever-present threat of Santa over her head for her obedience and cooperation (though I draw the line at that creepy Elf on a Shelf).
I hope to share some of my best Christmas memories with you in another post in the near future, but for now I'll just say that I hope you and yours are enjoying the Christmas Season. Watch a bad clay-mation movie with a fire in your fireplace and apple cider or eggnog in your mug. Kiss your wife under the mistletoe. Put reindeer antlers on your dog and take bets on how long they last. Mostly, have a Merry Christmas.
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