If you have read even my few previous posts, you have probably realized that I don't celebrate Christmas. No tree, no presents, no stockings, no Christmas dinner, no midnight mass, etc. etc. In fact, I have never had most of these experiences, though once in the distant past I helped someone decorate a Christmas tree ... It was on the stern of a sailboat, in October, and that's another story.
If you live in the United States, or Canada, or pretty much anywhere in the western world, Christmas is a big deal. Even folks who don't celebrate the religious aspects celebrate the social ones, the tree, the gifts, the big guy in the red suit. The excitement used to build around me in mid-December. Lately it has been creeping backward, though creeping may be the wrong word, perhaps it should be dashing? I have seen signs of coming Christmas as early as Halloween. (Another holiday I don't celebrate, but again it's a different story.)
If you don't celebrate Christmas in the States, you often feel like you are on the outside looking in. Everywhere you go there are trees, wreaths, carols, Christmas songs, Christmas episodes on TV, Christmas articles in the magazines, Christmas sales in the mall, Holiday (read Christmas) parties at work. For the most part I don't mind, but some years are better than others. Last year was a bad year. I'm not sure why, but I can remember having that Bah Humbug feeling from the beginning of December. This year, it's an about face. I don't seem to mind at all. Not the music, not the parties, not the good wishes.
I don't have an explanation for why this year the Christmas hype isn't bothering me, but I am going to enjoy the fact. I don't much care (and certainly haven't explained why it's wrong) that someone says Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. I have even said MC first, instead of always being careful to say HH. I am enjoying the decorations in the office instead of stressing, and I haven't made a point of explaining that I don't celebrate.
So Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays. This time you get to pick instead of me.
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