The feeling of Christmas

I was talking to someone yesterday about how it does not feel like Christmas…but what does that statement really mean?

I don’t know what you mean when you say, “Why doesn’t it feel like Christmas anymore?” Do you mean at this time—that it doesn’t feel like Christmas is coming—or it hasn’t felt this way for years? Are you young and remembering the excitement of Christmas when you were a child? Christmas is quite different sometimes once you’re grown up. When you’re a child, you have parents to create all the magic and do all the work. When you grow up, you have to do it all.

Not everyone celebrates Christmas or feels the need to make “the spirit of Christmas stronger.” Some people prefer to just live their lives as best they can throughout the year and not make a big deal about holidays. Some people get depressed around the holidays because they think about past holidays and may miss the people who have died. Is it because somehow, though, we remember the small joyful moments and feel that now as adults and having to do all the prep work, we feel we are missing out.

To me it means it does not feel like it used to feel as a kid.. I can remember back and smile when I think of school Christmas parties where we picked a name and brought a gift for that person, we would all eat in our classrooms together with the special snack that our parents would prepare for that day, then we would exchange gifts and we always got the teachers a gift. 

We would usually have a short assembly and then we would all run out the door for a two week vacation. Then when we got home Mom was likely in the kitchen making cookies or in her bedroom wrapping gifts and we had better not go in there snooping.  We would snoop though to see who’s name was on the biggest package and then we would tell each other who owned the gift. 

On Christmas Eve we had to go to bed at 9:00 at the latest so we could be sure to be asleep so we wouldn’t see “Santa”. We would wake really early, creep to Mom and Dads room and wake them then we would all go to the living room and start with opening our stockings. It wouldn't be long and the smell of turkey would be going thru the house as we started playing with our toys and going to visit cousins.

I think after a certain age Christmas stops “feeling the same” because our brain develops and stop functioning as it did when we were young children. Christmas is so magical and fills our hearts with warmth and comfort because as children that's how we stored it in our memories. But as we grow older we start producing more cognitive thoughts. Children are so happy because they don't process things the same way. Everything is surface level- what you see is what you get. We get older and even though holidays like Christmas come around, life still goes on. We have the same problems, the same pain, etc. We didn't have those problems at Christmas as children. Christmas was just Christmas: a time for gifts and great food and beautiful surroundings. We had no worries or stress. We don't have that luxury as adults. It's sad, but it's just true.

Christmas begins with Christ. Embrace him with all your heart and soul and receive the gift of eternal life through salvation. Think about that first Christmas when he was born, how did Christmas feel for Mary? 

The Spirit of Christmas is about joy at the birth of the 

baby Jesus. Nowadays things are so commercialized

that we might not feel the spirit of Christmas any more. 

One way to feel it is by spreading the happiness to those

who might need it, like the elderly or those who live in a

shelter. This can be done through donations, or 

volunteering, or by handing out gifts. One can also spend 

time with one’s family in a meaningful way. Maybe attend 

a Christmas concert, or have a quiet dinner, or invite the 

whole family over to exchange gifts.  

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Who is your neighbor?

Anyone who needs you.