Great Expectations

(image by Carlos Duplessis 2013)

Call me a Scrooge, but I prefer to think of Christmas as just another day of the year. I feel like the expectations around Christmas run so high that people often feel let down, lonely, or inadequate around this holiday. I am not a Christian, so I am not involved in any church rituals around this time. Perhaps if I were, the spiritual side would take over and give me a different attitude.

So many adults are not physically or geographically close to any nuclear family. We may have one sibling or cousin who lives nearby, so we make the effort to reconnect with them over a meal, which hopefully is a happy occasion and not one that feels forced. If our parents are divorced or remarried, then we may have two households to spend time with and one may feel more comfortable than the other. Others may have no relatives around and are alone. I hope that we keep an eye out for these friends and invite them over to share a meal.

Then there is the gross commercialization of Christmas and even worse, Boxing Day. I can honestly say that as a crowd-phobic person, I have never been to a Boxing Day sale in my life. The idea of cramming into a panic buying mob scenario to save a few bucks is like some sort of fresh hell to me. At some point all these gadgets lose their appeal and I have become more of a minimalist over time, constantly trying to get rid of all the stuff I don’t use any more.

Even for kids, the competitive nature of comparing gifts with what other richer children get can be painful. When the kid next door gets the newest gaming system and you get a soccer ball, you might realize that your parents are financially struggling after a tough year of Covid and business layoffs. We should all step up to donate a toy to our local shelter or food bank this year.  

Granted, I have no little children in my life anymore, so I am free to take my celebrations down a notch. Should some grand-children appear in the future, I may hypocritically change my tune and become less of a Scrooge. Merry Christmas to all and I apologize for being such a cynical realist. Bah humbug.