My Christmas

For me Christmas was never about church or Jesus or Christianity. I wasn't raised a Christian but I did and still do celebrate Christmas. Sure, my father is a Christian, which is why when my brother and I were young, we decorated the tree and waited for Santa Claus. Christmas was a happy time for us, lunch at either my aunt's or uncle's and lots of fun.

However, since I was very small I understood that Christmas wasn't a Buddhist thing. My grandmother, I think, once gifted a copy of a Ladybird hardcover on the Christmas story to my brother and I loved reading it. It told me about Joseph and Mary and the Three Wise Men. I knew that what made me a Buddhist prevented me from being a Christian. My father would go to church early Christmas morn, and we would wait for him to get back home to open our gifts. I never wondered why I never went to church with him. However, those were happy days, when all we fought over was what to have for breakfast or which TV show to watch.

Then my father went abroad and we grew up. In a home where only Buddhists live, the tree is still put up a few days before Christmas. My mother still buys us all gifts, even though Christmas means noting but family movies, songs, sales and discounts. In our home, where flowers are offered to the Buddha twice a day, during Christmas time, the tree stands high, and the ceramic Santa who is older than me, waits to greet visitors, although we have none.

When I pasted some paper Santas on the wall closest to me at work, a [Christian] friend told me Santa has nothing to do with Christmas. And of course, at nineteen, I know Santa has nothing to do with Christmas. I know Holy Night is a carol while Jingle Bells is a song. So then what is Christmas?

Its certainly not the birth day of Jesus. Whether it was 'stolen' from the pagans or some other people, however, Christmas is now a Christian holiday. Sure, it has been commercialized. And yet, isn't this to be expected?

Look at me. I grew up believing in the wrong kind of Christmas.

And yet, isn't what I believe in, not that wrong either? For me, Christmas is a time to give, to love, to be with family and friends. Its about having fun, and having a good time. Its about crying watching that sad movie or bobbing your head to that catchy Christmas song. You can't complain about people who say 'x mas' when Happy Birth Day has been brought down to a simple 'HBD.'

So has Christmas lost its meaning just because we associate it with Santa Claus and trees and reindeer? Do we not still give, and love?


I read a story by the editor of the Nation recently. He wrote about his daughters and how one made Santa and Christmas seem real for the other. It reminded me of the time my parents told my brother and I that Santa wasn't real. We were shocked and so met up with our cousins under the mulberry bush which was where we held all important meetings. There we came to the conclusion that our parents had lied to us just so they wouldn't need to buy us gifts.

My cousins are Buddhists, and yet, last Christmas, we decorated the tree together. We wished each other, even though we didn't believe in Christmas. And we left gifts for each other under the Christmas tree.


That Christmas reminded me that, love doesn't belong to just one religion, or one race. Love isn't a human thing either. There is love in us all, and it may take special days like birthdays and Christmas to show it openly, but love; its somewhere in our hearts.



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