Hurray, the 'Silly Season' is over!!

[naturagirl]

While I am melting away here in the scorching heat of central Australia I thought I write another blog about something that goes through my head every Christmas time. I would love to hear thoughts about it.

Now that the 'Silly Season' is finally over life starts to become almost normal again. Friends are back from holiday and are contactable again, shops open up again, services are becoming available again and all the single people, who were not lucky enough to have someone to share this 'jolly' time with someone, can take a deep breath, because they have survived yet another Christmas.

Now comes the time for most to fix the big financial hole Christmas-Mania has ripped into the yearly budget ( perhaps by starting with selling unwanted presents on Ebay or the flea-markets) and to work out a diet to get rid of the extra pounds unhealthy over indulgence has added to our physique.

I did neither of all that, except I scoffed to much ice cream to keep myself cool from inside. My family decided many years ago not to join into the shopping madness and just have a lovely meal together, basta. It feels great to answer questions like: 'Have you finished your Christmas shopping," with:" We don't do Christmas.' Even so until recently, when I voluntarily moved far away from my kids, we still got together for the opulent meal with the usual trimmings, I was wondering why we actually celebrated Christmas when no one except me believed in Jesus Christ(us) (also called Christ). Yes, for many it might come as a total surprise that Christ-mas is actually the birthday celebration of Christ and has nothing to do with Santa, the reindeer's, the flying sled or the North Pole. As a matter of fact Jesus was born in Bethlehem which is situated in a very hot country now known as Israel.

Coming from a North European country which celebrated the birthday of Christ for 3 days. The 24th of December we celebrate the 'Holy Night' of Christ birth. We s talked through high snow and bell ringing to church, which usually had a big nativity set at the altar. That night was just for the closest family and the night we open our present under the tree. The 25th was the first Christmas day, when usually the whole extended family got together and the 25th was the second Christmas day when we met close friends to share the joy. Boxing Day, a day invented by the clever business community to leech the last cents out of our wallet or Visa card while we are still in spending mode, was thankfully unknown.

I used to love Christmas, I loved the preparation, the smell of spices in the house , the times when I sat together with my kids making Christmas decorations and little presents, the Christmas markets and the lovely decorations and the whole count down to the 24th of December.

I remember exactly when I decided to stop decorating my mantle piece with little ceramic Christmas figurines, it was when my son had them re-arranged in more than questionable positions, which where anything than holy. Instead I made it a habit to invite a lonely neighbor to join our Christmas dinner.

I asked myself why celebrating Christmas with people who don't believe in Christ and often make a mockery out of his birthday, why not just get together on any other day?

When I got older and had to spend many Christmases alone I realized that Christmas is not a celebration of love but of selfishness. That is the time when the most lonely, most poor and most vulnerable people are forgotten and ignored, a time when most suicides are committed, and most people loose their marbles temporarily. In my case it triggered another negative response: Aggression.

Every person who knows me knows that I am probably the least aggressive person in the world, but in the days leading towards another lonely Christmas I was close to punching peoples face in, if they throw another 'Happy Christmas' in my face, knowing very well that I would be alone and anything but happy. Sadly having such undesirable knowledge did not fit into the happy-season of Christmas when everyone was too busy to care.

I know I am rambling a little here and I hope you will forgive me.

The bottom line is, next Christmas holiday make it a celebration of love and care for your fellow men, if you can not make it a celebration of Jesus Christ's birthday, he who was and is pure love and care.

I can guarantee you that the feeling you get from helping a lonely friend or stranger exceeds any feeling you will get from shopping, receiving expensive presents and from over-indulgence. You will get the real feeling of Christmas. Perhaps you might want to make that your New Years resolution.

Lot's of love and a very happy, pain-free new year from Tess-Naturagirl

[Crusee]

Never a truer word said naturagirl

Happy new year to you too.

Crusee

XX

[uggycat]

Morning lots of love back to you Tess xxxxx

[naturagirl in reply to uggycat]

Thank you Uggycat

[angiesmith50]

Morning naturagirl very thought provoking message xx

[naturagirl]

Thank you Angie, I hope it does provokes thoughts and not just criticism because of bad spelling and punctuation, lol.

Love Tess

[Hidden]

Hear hear Naturalgirl never a truer word is said.

I love Christmas but hate the way shops start in September putting things out like tins of biscuits etc - I also don't like when people put Xmas on cards 😝 as you say it's the money peeps who keep the pretence up. New year to me is just another month with a different year on it plus these days it puts so many people in debt - although I was an only child but born 4 years after war was finished everything I was given at Christmas was second hand as money was scarce - we made paper chains - we had a real tree remember my dad whisking up LUX flakes in a bowl and using it as snow on the branches - it did me no harm plus it wasn't a time for keeping up with the Jones's whereas these days I want what they've got only better and bigger.

Sorry to all those peeps who love everything about about Christmas and New Year. Love to everyone 😘😘😘

[naturagirl in reply to Hidden]

Hi Toolie, your early Christmases sound very familiar to me. I grew up on hand-me-down clothing and to be honest today I love second hand shops, even so I can buy new stuff. Buying pre-loved goods is part of my contribution to keep the rubbish tip of this world a tiny bit smaller.

I love your Dads way to use Lux soap flakes to create snow for Christmas. In times when we can not just go out and buy everything in shops people discover their inventiveness.

Love Tess

[bluebell99]

I wish the world of commercialism would take stock and find the true meaning.

It is not all bad though when you have time to catch up with friends and loved ones. We made a point with friends that there would be no present exchanges, gone is that awkward moment when your friend has spent more money on presents than you.

That's one burden less and we are cutting down on the amount of food too, especially as there is no way we could eat it.

It all helps

Xx

[naturagirl in reply to bluebell99]

Thank's Bluebell. I congratulate you to have taken the first steps to a more meaningful Christmas. Can you imagine that Coles had already hot-cross buns for sale just one week after Christmas?

I wonder what they will come up with in the future to manipulate people to buy more s..t they don't need, because everyone else is doing it. Christmas in July, Boxing Day and Valentines Day are some of these stupid occasion I have in mind.

I do apologize to everyone who treasures these days. It is only my personal opinion.

Hugs from Tess

[naturagirl]

Thank's Mydexter. I reckon it's easier to protect yourself against the cold than from immense heat (43 degree cel. today) . One can only take off all clothing and unless one has a good working air conditioner and the electricity does not break down, one can only sit in a tub of cold water to cool down. Haha.

Hugs from Tess

[naturagirl in reply to naturagirl]

You might have a point there, hahaha.