One of the Jewish adjunct professors met with his lab for the last time today and stopped by to wish me well for the holidays. In his list of holidays, he kindly included Merry Christmas but skipped right over Thanksgiving which is barely more than a week hence. He's not the only one. I saw my first Christmas decor in Wal-mart before Halloween, and the radio stations that play music for the season started the day after Veteran's Day. Monday night, on my way home after lab, I saw my first Christmas lights, and I can hardly believe Christmas is already here. It flies in the face of the traditions even of my family.
Historically, my family traditionally began to decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. We hang lights on the house, put up the tree, and swap the Thanksgiving decor for Christmas. It seems only fair to wait until after one holiday clears to start the next one, and when you're putting away one you might as well put out the next! In my own "family" I haven't done any of these things yet because it's been many years since I had a family, but it does come up when I date women, and only one Geautiful Birl seemed even willing to consider my family traditions (she was excited to have family traditions since she had none). It was something we did as a family. Well, after Christmas last year, I bought lights on clearance, so I will actually hang some on the eaves this year since the previous occupant left nails in the stucco on which to hang them, so it will finally look festive and like someone lives there. It's also the only holiday for which I plan to decorate. Period.
If they have their way, the P.C. crowd would ablate Christmas altogether. From Holiday music to Holiday cards to Happy Holidays, they are trying albeit unsuccessfully and skewly, to get around the traditions of the people who made this nation great. Of course, they don't want to hurt the economy, so they don't take down companies; they just bully them into compliance with the P.C. agenda so that companies like Starbucks stop the traditional red cups for some that look more like baubles. Maybe they are even behind the push to make Christmas start earlier so that even we who love the season and understand the Christ will help them abolish the holiday because we're put out and tired of the hype.
For many years, they have tried to take Christ out of Christmas and render it nothing more than a commercial boondoggle. I've been receiving black friday preview ads and notifications of sales and the whole lot all designed to drain me of money and energy so that there's no desire to think of Christ on the day accepted on which to celebrate His birth. Years ago, I used to play guitar in lab at Christmas and play some real traditional hymns, and I've been asked to speak in my congregation next month about how the symbols of the nativity increase my faith. Meanwhile, I'm meeting with, talking to, and doing things for people who like myself suffered tragic loss in 2015 so that they might feel a little peace at the end of next month.
It's Christmas already, and if it were the good ways that would be a good thing. Rather than the songs, the shopping, and the symbols, if we were out doing what Christ did and taught and asked, then we'd begin before anyone else really starts thinking of the needy lifting the burdens of those worn down. Each week in class, I check up on the student who lost her mother, and I went yesterday to help another woman I know whose grandmother died last month get started applying to graduate school. These people don't need money and food and the visible trappings; they do need attention, affirmation, assistance, and direction to move forward after the challenges of 2015. Last Saturday, after hiking I stayed at my hiking buddy's house for six hours because his father will probably die before the year's end, and I'm the only person here for him. I don't have any answers or magic or gifts to give besides my time, but I'll be there for him when and how I can because he has done and would do the same for me. At the end of the day, at the end of the year, the thing that brings me the greatest joy is what I do for others. For me, Christmas started weeks ago too as I started looking to others who needed my help, my ear, and my love and most of all the reminder that even in dark times there is beauty and peace.
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