What Christmas is all about
December 24, 2007You can even listen [.mp3] to this entry. Notice the professional mouseclicks.
When one of my colleagues arrived at work today, at 11 (she starts a few hours after the rest on Mondays) she told me about how she just went by the supermarket. She was flabbergasted by the insane amounts of stuff people had stacked into their trollies, especially when she realised there were couples with not one, but two trollies completely filled with food and other stuff.
I shrugged.
It’s exactly what is wrong with our Western world today. The two stuffed trollies of food symbolise our greed, our gluttony; for most people these days, Christmas is about stuff, about food, about things, about soulless materialistic objects. They stuff their faces with food, food, more food, drinks, drinks, more drinks. Every year on Christmas’ Eve, the 18:00 news tells us how much money we spent this Christmas on food and stuff, and every time, it’s more than last year.
To me, Christmas isn’t about food. It’s not about drinks, it’s not about buy buy buy buy and things things things things. To me, Christmas is not a materialistic thing, but an emotional thing. It’s about feelings, belongingness, warmth, family, friendship - and a word only seen in Dutch: gezelligheid. In other words, the things that matter. The things that will outlast money, food, and materialistic stuff.
I’m quite a materialistic guy all year long. I like spending money, I like buying things, I like things that are shiny and emit light, and I like the rush of buying something expensive. I’m honest in that; I’m a perfect little western capitalist. But when it’s Christmas, I’ve been taught to put all that aside. To stop and think for a minute, to take a breather, to… To not consume.
Take a breather, people. You don’t have to be religious to realise what you have. And that’s what Christmas is all about.
Film, Social Life | 
very true, mate.
Comment by m — December 24, 2007 @ 11:28 pm
True.
Comment by Andre — December 25, 2007 @ 3:01 am
On the 24th is my name day (in Greece, name days are more important than birthdays). On the 25th, it’s Christmas. And yet, I didn’t buy or get bought anything. I get stuff all the rest of the year anyway. ;)
Comment by Eugenia — December 25, 2007 @ 3:39 am
If only everybody thought this way!
Comment by Russ — December 25, 2007 @ 5:31 am
The amount of money spend increases every year because the supermarkets tend to raise the prices every year, it’s amazing what they ask for a tiny little christmas pudding
Comment by gfx — December 25, 2007 @ 7:32 am
@Eugenia
Like in Bulgaria.. My name day is on 7-th of January :) A lots of celebrations concentrated in two weeks.
Comment by Иван — December 25, 2007 @ 9:43 am
Did you ever stop to think that they were buying food for dinner for friends and family coming together for the holidays?
Comment by bax — December 25, 2007 @ 1:34 pm
We got that in German, too, it’s called Geselligkeit there ;-) - and yes, you’re quite right with what you write! Merry Christmas, and some wonderful days with your family to you.
Comment by Raphael — December 25, 2007 @ 7:39 pm
Thank you for sharing in the belief that I also have. The Holidays are about more that gifts under the tree and big feasts. It’s about the people we share them with. Great read! Happy Christmas! Cheers!
From the USA!
MightyJD
Comment by MightyJD — December 26, 2007 @ 2:41 am
Hi there. Sorry to be a spoil-sport, but I have to slightly disagree with the logic of your post. You are, I think, portraying, probably inadvertently (i) the myth that language can be redefined to mean whatever you want it to in this globalizing world, and (ii) the philosophy that you are not pushing your beliefs on others. Let me clarify.
The first one: I take no issue with you relaxing over Christmas, but this IS a Christian festival (if anything) by definition. You go on to say that you think Christmas highlights what is wrong with the western world (e.g. gluttony), and that Christmas is an emotional thing. Well, both of these things are decided upon a worldview (a belief system). Assuming you are a non-Believer in Jesus Christ (or other religion), what gives you the right to redefine Christmas as the things above? (Should I redefine your festivals to whatever I want?) These are surely just your personal preferences, in which case, to be blunt, who cares what you think? :-)
Secondly, your post here and on OSNews states that you are non-religious. But then you go on to assert your views: “please, emphasize not our differences, but celebrate our similarities.” As a Christian, you are asking me to refrain for exercising my beliefs about Christmas, and instead take on your worldview — the co-called ’secular’, ‘tolerant’ society. I think both secular agnosticism, atheism, and Islam, are false belief systems (similar 4 u I guess) but I think you are asking me to NOT celebrate these because they are differences between us, not similarities.
I am not trying to be nit-picky — it’s just that the thinking behind your views is not neutral, but instead pushes a secular worldview (which I happen to not like — and I guess the same goes for many Muslims in Europe too). I would like u 2 adopt my worldview re Christmas (which IS similar to yours btw) and you want me to adopt yours.
Cheers from warm New Zealand :-)
Comment by Rob — December 27, 2007 @ 1:13 am
I would have to agree with you Rob. But this, of course, is in the osnews.com tradition: editors commenting in a very profetical way (which is why I only read osn to get the latest OS-ish news, not the comments)
Comment by timby — December 27, 2007 @ 3:14 pm
Timby,
Yeah, I used to read osn but the comments just became too immature to bother with. I used to deal with similar things on our Christian Apologetics forum (www.christian-apologetics.org) where we got the same kind of person: immature, overly skeptical, lacking the ability to think objectively and not really wiling to enter into the deeper discussion. So you just move on to greener pastures. Bye4-now Timby. Rob
Comment by Rob — December 28, 2007 @ 8:23 am
It seems evrybody here is trying to make the whole world a godless society. what is chrismas? Is it written in gthe christain bible(s), NO. The root of the celebration is in books of history. why are we shying away from the truth. In less than 50 years there would not be christmas celebration because it is no of the almighty.
Comment by Osama bn Ladin — February 25, 2009 @ 12:57 pm