It’s true! And you can, too!
I mean, it all depends on what you really want.
I also celebrate Solstice AND Yule. Separately.
And Samhain and New Year’s, too, but they’re beside the point.
My whole point is – well, I suppose it’s that I’ll take any excuse for merriment. But really, my point is that these holidays are what you make them to be.
I’m not going to convince you that Christmas is originally a pagan holiday if you don’t want to believe it, there are plenty of other websites for that.
I’m not going to convince you that Christ was born in summer, either, if you don’t want to believe that. And yes, there are other websites.
But I don’t see why they can’t get along. The main things that occur to me when I think of Christmas are: family, fairies, elves, Santa, presents, Christmas Trees, candles, avoiding the mall for a month, and Jesus, in that order. YES. Even Jesus. Regardless when you think his birthday is, I DO believe he existed and I think he’s a guy with some really good ideas. I don’t believe he’s the son of MY God, not anymore than I am, anyways. So him and his ideas can be in there, too. But mostly I think about my wonderful family, our family traditions, how great it is to see everyone and get caught up, how much I miss them when we can’t get together. I think of how magical snow is and how elves suddenly have free reign over everybody’s living rooms and are welcome to it, and all the pretty lights and sparklies. Christianity rarely comes to mind and, as such, it doesn’t bother me when it does.
Oh! Did I mention I use unpolitic.me for Chrome? It’s awesome! So unpolitic.me comes preloaded with a bunch of phrases you can disclude from your Facebook stream (I am all over Facebook!) that are political in nature. I don’t mind the politics now that the election is over, so I deleted them all and added one and only one phrase to my banned list: “war on Christmas.” (You can have as many as you want, though) Now, thanks to the extension (and they make one for Firefox, too), anytime anyone uses that phrase, their status is blocked and I get to see a picture of a cute kitten. It has surely saved my sanity this year!
But even more importantly, the brain automatically filters things that you find important from the things that you don’t. Which means that if seeing the magic of Christmas is what’s important to you, that’s what you’ll see. If it’s Jesus, that’s what you’ll see, and if it’s footie pajamas, well, that’s what you see. If it’s seeing how Christianity has stolen and bastardized a sacred holiday, well, you’ll see that too.
For sanity’s sake, though, see the important things you want and do with Christmas what you will – it doesn’t mind. Be proactive and create the reality that you want to have. The day will come or go whether you want it to or not. Why waste a chance at a special day that means what you want it to?
