Christmas

Since the last essays' topics were rather heavy and because it is less then one week away, I thought that today I should share my thoughts on Christmas with you.

Although I was brought up as a catholic I am pretty far away from being a religious person. I am not an atheist, but no catholic either. This made me wonder, why christmas is still so important to me. It turned out, that Christmas for me is about the people I care about.

This time of the year is about calling people you have intented to call for months and to spend quality time with your beloved ones. We sent out cards, celebrate christmas parties and meet for christmas dinners. All to show: Hey, I still think about you and want to catch up. Usually all these events end with a promise of meeting more frequent in the future and in too many cases this promise is broken.

Many people think Christmas is about gifts and in a way it is, but think about it closely: What do you enjoy more giving gifts or receiving them? Of course everybody likes to receive gifts, but most of us are in the situation that we can easily get ourselves the jewlery, DVD, book or whatever. I find that the true joy is in giving. The happiness I feel, when I find the perfect gift for someone I love. Often a gift they were not aware they wanted until the unwrap it. Also when receiving gift what is most important to me is not the material value, but that the person thought about what I would enjoy or remembered something I said months ago. It is about knowing each other and this way showing our affection.

These are beautiful concepts, right? But what makes me sad is, why do we need a certain time of the year for this? Wouldn't it be better to have "christmas" all the year?

With these thoughts I wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!