Christmas ….. a day we rejoice the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God but over time it became a season of joy. Just thinking about December gets wide smiles on people’s faces irrespective of their age, it is the one time of the year when the whole world celebrates the joy of giving.
My love for Christmas began back in my school days, initially, it was exciting because of the parties, a time to flaunt our dresses and receiving lovely gifts from our teachers followed by “The Holidays.” But, as we matured the joy kept escalating, from taking part in the play recreating the birth of Christ, singing hymns, decorating the school and ideas kept popping up to top our Christmas parties year after year and once again the gifts, (well they do have a massive and the most important role 😉), from our classmates who played secret Santa, teachers and of course personalized gifts for our BFF’s.
The love for Christmas was not only at school but also at home, we had that one spot dedicated for our, at that time a small, Christmas tree and a box set aside in the attic labeled Christmas decorations (OH the excitement was the only thing we didn’t have a box for 😊), how we waited all year long for December to come so that we could set up all our Christmas decorations, then at Christmas Eve our whole family would watch the season’s movie, set aside cookies and a cup of milk for Santa, get ready for bed early and try to catch some ZZZ’s. I still remember after being tucked into bed how my brother and I used to make plans to keep up into the wee hours just to get a glimpse of Santa, well to date, only plans, we were snoring up before the clock could ding dong to 11 O’clock.
As I mentioned Christmas always held a special place in my life, coincidently enough it was this time of the year that I happened to meet a boy who not only became my best friend but also the most significant person in my life, my better half. Once I started setting up a home of my own along with the essentials the Christmas Tree was on top of my list, and of course, I had to make a box of my very own decorations which today is not so much of “A box” but rather an entire loft above my cupboard and to that, I added the tradition of making a “To-do list” of things to be done by December and a long shopping list of gifts and of course budgeting all my expenses (which btw has already begun 😉). As toddlers, my kids were gifted by one and all my friends (and I would be burning up in jealousy ☹), but as they grew up I wanted to inculcate the joy of giving and started teaching them to donate the toys that they were not playing with anymore to goodwill so that some other children would have the same joy they once had with it, so over the years it becomes a tradition to donate. Being a mother of kids from two different worlds still poses me the difficulties of gifting them, because I need to find gifts that are of the same size and shape, so they don’t feel they were on the naughty list of Santa.
What I really appreciate about this season is that regardless of caste, creed, or color everyone is invested, the colossal of this season only increases year by year. The malls have a Santa’s Grotto where the kids get a chance to meet Santa, maybe not the real one, but as I said hope is what thrives during this part of the year.
As I grew, my love for Christmas boosted by leaps and bounds, till date never figured out a reason though but I for one am completely crazy about it. As I recollect, no matter what roller coaster ride life takes us on all through the year, by this time we hope that all will be alright. The new year is like hitting the reset button of our life, we all know it is the same and in fact, we would be losing one year, but we humans are a hopeless species we see every year as a new opportunity for a do-over in our lives and believe that every year will be different.
Decorating the trees, covering the city in a blanket twinkling lights, and spreading as much joy as we can, especially this year, we need this ray of hope in our lives as we were hit by a bag of unexpected and unwanted tragedies.
We believed that luxury was the rare, the expensive, the exclusive, everything that seemed unattainable only to now realize that luxury is the little things that we did not know how to value when we had them and now that they are gone, we miss them so much. Luxury is being healthy, luxury is not stepping into a hospital, luxury is being able to walk along the seashore, luxury is going out on the streets and breathing without a mask, luxury is meeting with your whole family and friends. Luxury is the privilege of loving and being alive. I guess what I am trying to say is that as we look back on this year, we will be learning to truly appreciate what we have in life and wish to get a small glimpse of the whole family together celebrating “the Holidays” together.
Humans …. Hopeless species thriving on “faith,” and Christmas always has a ton of miracles up its sleeves, can’t wait for another 6 months for it to bring back the “Joy to the world.”
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