Happy fifth day of Christmas!
You Should Know It’s Still Christmas.
We are not yet half-way through Christmas and already I see people asking how Christmas was. This is one reason, I think, that people find jolliness, a simple version of joy, so hard. You cannot rest, consider, or even enjoy a great, good, splendid thing in one twenty-four hour period.
Advent is a season of getting ready for Christmas and the secular world has an equivalent run up to the holiday. It is a long preparation that then ends before the fullness of time. Recall: Scrooge and Cratchit were working on the second day of Christmas, but had time for a nice bowl of Christmas punch. They had to go about their daily tasks, as farmers (our ancestors occupations for most of history), do on every day.
On Non-Santa Jolliness
However, the holidays were a moment when some time was set aside for jollication: a feeling not reserved for jolly men in red suits.
We cannot choose everything, but we can choose jollification. That does not mean depression, loneliness, and pain are not real. They surely are and there are no simple solutions to any of them. Church helps some people and does not help others of us. There is no “cure” for loneliness or simple steps to take to end it. As for pain, we cause and receive pain all the time. Life itself delivers pain as time passes.
Let me define “jollification” as a deep sense of happiness. You can have more than one emotion at the same time, so this sense of happiness is not incompatible with sorrow. Do not misunderstand: we can choose jollification, but that does not mean jollification will come. However, I suspect that even when we do not find joyfullness, that turning our minds toward joy is better for us.
Six Ways to Turn toward Jollification
We need twelve days of Christmas, because, unless you are very blessed, finding joy, or even it’s simpler cousin jolliness, takes time. Life is hard and so we need a bit to detox, leave social media aside, spend time with friends, and enjoy simple pleasures reserved for the season. Christmas is the one time of the year that I can sit of an evening next to a tree with lights and reflect on memories of my family and Christmas past. That does not always make one jolly, but it does not hurt!
Most of us have to do some work during the Twelve Days just like most human beings in history. This is fine, since joyful activities are often best in the context of our normal routine. The bowl of Christmas punch indulged in at work (in moderation!) is special, because work does not normally include such indulgences. The problem with many an office “Holiday party” is that they once again cram too much indulgence into too short a time and trouble ensues. The chances of jollity are sparse.
If we do have some time off, turning towards jollification is easiest when we actually rest. Rest need not be sleep, though most of us do not get enough sleep. Rest can come when we do work that we enjoy, but normally put off. I am working on a belated sequel to my novel and a new book project on Plato’s Republic. Those have to be put off during the work year, but I can think about them during the Hols. This is restful to me.
I also play a few games, including video games. They are “time wasters” I mostly avoid, but Madden calls me starting around Thanksgiving as I play my annual season. This year I did not make the playoffs, mirroring the Packer’s actual season. Blame me if you must.
We don’t need to spend Big Money. A pack of cards is within the budget of most of us and that is all that is required for some mentally restful fun. A card game in a group (I prefer Hearts) is a way of talking without the game getting too much in the way. A card game alone (forms of non-computer Solitaire) is restful. Don’t forget some old-school computer games. The computer game “Majesty” functions that way for me in the Holidays or one of the classic Civilization games: cheap through Steam, not normally on my schedule, but mental activities that leave me rested!
Many of our activities are low stress, low preparation fun. The great Saint Stephen’s Day feast is hard work for some of us, so we look forward to planning game time (after work) or a film marathon. A group of us may go to the shooting range together, something we rarely have time to do.
Finally, if you are the type of person who needs permission to do something you enjoy for a day: do so. Enjoy something. The rest of us will thank you when you are rested. If you are the kind of person who needs to remember the joy of others, then make sure that at some point in the Hols, you provide fun, joy, and happiness for other people you love.
During the Hols, I make sure that my daily spiritual practices continue. I read my Bible and do daily prayers (almost) daily. This helps me put Jesus firmly in the center of my turning toward jollification. This begins in the repentance of Advent and ends in the feasting of the Twelve Days. Do not forget we are His guest at His feast!
Joy is rare, passing rare. My own faults are the main reason, but life herself is a hard school of souls. Jollification, the simpler sibling, is much less rare. We can find jolliness at the Hols, if we let them unfold over the Twelve Days.
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