From my experience, the true meaning of Christmas has really gone to the dogs. Christmas is about celebrating the gift of life with your loved ones, something everybody should be able to appreciate in these times, and every year—COVID or no COVID—that concept seems to be getting dragged farther away from us.
Here are some of the main reasons why I believe we’ve lost touch with a meaningful Christmas.
1. Holiday shopping
One of the main things people dread—even more than Christmas Eve with sugar-high children everywhere—is the blasted Hunger Games-like state that is called holiday shopping.
It’s exhausting, and everybody is in so much of a bad mood that the mall might as well make Grinch or Ebenezer Scrooge costumes the new holiday season dress code for employees and shoppers.
In my experience, at least, most stores only have either one of the toys you want or none of the toys you want, and if it is there and there are other people who want it just as badly, it becomes this awkward version of a Mortal Kombat match. It truly is lovely. In fact, I would argue that if you had brought your kid with you, he would get more of a kick watching that than actually playing with the very toy you are trying to get. Why am I playing the newest Need for Speed game? Watching my father play chicken with another person’s father is way more fun.
Anyway, what I am trying to say is that Christmas is truly a time where we are supposed to be celebrating the gift of life, not fighting over who gets the last iPhone.
2. Phones during family time
As a child of the roaring days of the technological revolution, I understand that the way of the world today is that people spend a huge amount of their time on their phones. But being a kid of a large family of writers and computer people, I also understand the connection between family and Christmas, and I understand the importance of being present during family events.
So my message for everybody is to please be present this Christmas. I know that hearing your siblings spell out how their Prius is much better than your old Mustang can make you want to set their car on fire, and hearing your parents talk politics makes you want to scream. But the true meaning of Christmas is not about ignoring your family; it’s about being present and celebrating another wonderful year of joyful life.
3. Out-decorating your neighbours
Every family has their own holiday traditions. To be clear, I’m not saying that all holiday traditions are bad, but some of them are just silly. A good example of this is the idea of having to out-decorate everyone else in the neighbourhood.
This is a preposterous trend, because every year neighbours spend hundreds of dollars going to the nearest Canadian Tire to buy thousands of Christmas lights, inflatables, and lawn ornaments so that random people can drive by their houses and go, “Oh look, honey: that Mickey Mouse inflatable looks so much cooler than Dave’s Frosty the Snowman one next door.” Who cares?
This is a ridiculous trend that I have, frankly, just never understood, and it has nothing to do with celebrating the joy that life gives us every year. Please: somebody put an end to this nonsense.
Let’s put all these things aside this year and try to reconnect with the holidays, and let’s make Christmas 2021 one to remember.