"Christmas was close at hand, in all his bluff and hearty honesty; it was the season of hospitality, merriment, and open-heartedness; the old year was preparing, like an ancient philosopher, to call his friends around him, and amidst the sound of feasting and revelry to pass gently and calmly away." CHARLES DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, 1836
I vividly remember the feeling I had as a child, driving to and from church on Christmas Eve. From the dark and windy Daniel Webster Highway to downtown Nashua, Main Street lined with trees elegantly lit with white lights. All radio stations' holiday music catalogs wide open, cheerful spirit across the board. A light snow falls from above, illuminated by headlights and streetlamps.
Entering church; "halls" decked, large advent wreath with a single white candle hangs front and center wrapped in a large white bow. Stained glass windows back lit by floodlights, cast iron candle holders fashioned at the ends of each pew, 3 glowing white candlesticks in each. The full choir uniquely accompanied by the young bell ringers; pipe organ full tilt in the front, brass horns in the back. The musky scent of incense throughout the cathedral.
It had been nearly a decade when I attempted to recreate this scene last December 24th.
I've made quite a habit; indeed a ritual, of walking down memory lane as much as possible when visiting home. I suppose the older we get, the more we cling to those memories that want to fade as the years roll by. Lately, the Christmas season has assumed a different shape than the one built by the post-WWII baby boomers. The loving couple with their adoring 2.5 children remains the idealistic American vision; however with the changing times come changing traditions. As with most evolving traditions, it's best to recognize the motion of the times, and adapt . .
All things exist in cycles, the calendar year is a prime example. The energy felt in our daily lives is shaped by the days, weeks, months, and seasons constituting our year. I was just commenting the other day about how much our lives are geared around visits from, and to, our friends and family. As the years progress, relationships grow better defined, as does my appreciation. Time, distance, maturity, and evolution combine to generate understanding as traditions continue to spring fourth . .
It's a Wonderful Life, The Nutcracker, Bing Crosby, Charlie Brown, A Christmas Carol, Home Alone, The Polar Express, Nat King Cole, Star Wars, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, The Grinch, The Messiah, The Night Before Christmas, 24 hours of A Christmas Story, Die Hard, Elf; the list has no end . .
Traditions come about in all shapes and forms at all different times. What constitute holiday traditions in some homes are the furthest from in others. For me, the trick to keeping Christmas time special is the practice of separating the commercial from the genuine. When holiday goods are displayed in stores at the beginning of October, I smile and recognize the comedy of our economy. As cashiers continue to be replaced by automated self-checkout machines; as the morale of those who remain continues to decline; I relax and take peace in the fact that it's only capitalism.
It's not real.
As you watch the classic, golden tungsten Christmas lights steadily replaced by the futuristic, bluish "long-life" fluorescence around town; please remember that the true value of the holiday season is not found in external materials, but in the hearts and memories of all people.
While much of the world finds great comfort in the religious, faith-backed causes for the season; and they should . .
I suggest a new tradition . .
Let's recognise and dissolve all categories which separate us for this brief period of time; and recognise how easily this experiment could be stretched out over the entire year. Let's recognise the true value of our time and those most deserving of it. Let's look through the superficial, man made classifications which plague most of us . . and celebrate the unlimited opportunities available to us if we could only evolve to our true capabilities.
Peace and Love to each and all of you.
"I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." A Christmas Carol, 1843
