A Bright Spot in the Darkness

I am something of a holiday junky: I enthusiastically celebrate them all.

But I really love Christmas. I am one of those people that everyone hates who starts listening to Christmas music the second Thanksgiving is over. I fight with myself every year to wait until the first day of December to put up lights and decorations.

However, Christmas means something a little different to me than a lot of people. I’m not religious. I don’t celebrate Christmas as a Christian celebration. I should probably call it something different, but I feel that the idea of Christmas has evolved to the point where it can mean whatever we want it to mean these days.

For me, I see Christmas as an opportunity to celebrate time with friends and family. It’s an excuse to spoil them by buying them things that they’d probably never buy for themselves. It’s also an excuse to eat, drink and be merry with all of my favorite people. Whether we call it the birthday of the baby Jesus or not, it is a state holiday so it is allowable for most people in the country to be off work and put aside other obligations for a day or two. That, along with Thanksgiving, are sanctioned days to spend with your loved ones.

I also love Christmas because even though it’s been pretty unseasonably warm the past couple of years, I’ve always seen it as a bright spot in an otherwise dark and dreary month.

The days are short, it gets dark before I even leave work. It’s cold. I suffer pretty badly from seasonal affective disorder, so getting excited about Christmas helps me self-medicate through the most difficult month of the year. Christmas is a light in the darkness. I can look forward to cozy days with my family – warm drinks, bright holiday lights, hauntingly beautiful music, happy decorations, colorful packages, and bringing joy to people by given them trinkets I think they will love.

It’s a time of reflection, of forgiveness, of giving thanks, and celebration of the people we love in our lives. So I love to celebrate Christmas, even if it means I’m celebrating a religious holiday. And I will happily celebrate the birth of a man, savior or not, who was as amazing as Jesus.

Merry Christmas, everyone. May your day be merry and bright.