{"id":320,"date":"2010-12-26T17:24:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-26T17:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/12\/a-special-christmas-2\/"},"modified":"2015-12-24T08:37:59","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T14:37:59","slug":"a-special-christmas-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/12\/a-special-christmas-2.html","title":{"rendered":"A Special Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\n

I am not so old and cynical I can\u2019t remember the joy that Christmas \u2013 a traditional American Christmas \u2013 can bring to a child. Nor am I so na\u00efve I can\u2019t recognize that my disdain for its materialistic aspects comes from a position of privilege. I remember being six or eight or ten years old and enjoying putting up the tree, shaking presents, shopping for gifts for the rest of the family\u2026 Those were wonderful times and I would not deny them to anyone of any age.<\/p>\n

The problem is one of proportion and of desensitization. I remember my grandmother (who was born in 1907) telling me about getting an orange for Christmas and being happy with it. She was not an old grouch who enjoyed misery, nor was she some kind of transcendent saint \u2013 she was telling the truth. Her family were poor farmers and that was all they could afford. A hundred years ago, bringing oranges from Florida to Tennessee by train and then to market by horse-drawn wagon was costly \u2013 oranges were luxuries.<\/p>\n

When I was a child fifty years or so later, oranges were no longer luxuries. They were commonplace even in our semi-rural working class home, and orange juice was always in our refrigerator. The bar had been raised.<\/p>\n

Holidays are meaningful because they are\u00a0special<\/em>. There are special decorations, music, food, clothing, gatherings, and activities \u2013 things you don\u2019t see and do and eat every day. They are a time outside of time, when normal rules (which are necessary for day to day order) don\u2019t apply. Giving gifts is part of what has always made Christmas special \u2013 we don\u2019t do it every day.<\/p>\n

Today, all but the poorest Americans live in what would have been luxury a hundred years ago. When you have every\u00a0thing<\/em>\u00a0you need and virtually every thing you want, how can another thing be special? The attempt to keep it special leads to present-counts among children (\u201cI got nine and you got eight \u2013 I win!\u201d) and an arms race of extravagant one-upsmanship among adults.<\/p>\n

Certainly we appreciate the thoughts behind the gifts\u2026 though we know from first-hand experience that the thought behind many gifts was \u201cjust grab something at Wal-Mart so I can check him off my list.\u201d Can anyone truly understand\u00a0The Gift of the Magi<\/em>\u00a0anymore?<\/p>\n

The Winter Solstice is perhaps humanity\u2019s oldest and most universal holiday. It represents the rebirth of the Light and the promise of Spring and it is the birthday of countless Gods and heroes. It is a special time and we should observe it in ways that are special to us.<\/p>\n

Several years ago, Cathy and I stopped buying Christmas presents for each other. Instead, we take a trip around the holidays \u2013 this year we went to New Orleans. Though it is not rare, travel is still special for us. We buy presents for our mothers and a few others who wouldn\u2019t understand if we didn\u2019t. If we stress over anything, it\u2019s over the many religious gatherings we attend:\u00a0Winter SolstiCelebration,\u00a0Yule, her choir\u2019s Christmas music program, Christmas Eve services at my church or hers or\u00a0her mother\u2019s. It makes for a busy season, but it works for us.<\/p>\n

What would make Christmas \/ Hanukkah \/ Yule work better for you?<\/p>\n

And what about the children? I have no children and I\u2019m hesitant to advise others as to how to raise theirs. But I still remember being a child. Surely there is a way to make the holidays special for them without feeding the materialistic beast that Christmas in America has become. Perhaps that starts by setting a good example???<\/p>\n

The annual Halloween to New Year\u2019s orgy of excess will not be defeated by pious exhortations to remember \u201cthe reason for the season\u201d \u2013 or that \u201cthe season is the reason.\u201d Our children \u2013 and the children who still live in each of us \u2013 will never permit it. Rather, it will be defeated as one by one we decline to play by the old rules and instead find what makes the holiday \u2013 the holy day \u2013 special for us.<\/p>\n

I hope each of you has had a happy and special Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule or whichever of the many incarnations of the Winter Solstice you celebrate.<\/p>\n

\"orange<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember my grandmother telling me about getting an orange for Christmas and being happy with it. A hundred years ago, bringing oranges from Florida to Tennessee by train and then to market by horse-drawn wagon was costly \u2013 oranges were luxuries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":4521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[231,841,4,5,226,563],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas","tag-oranges","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-winter-solstice","tag-yule"],"yoast_head":"\nA Special Christmas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I remember my grandmother telling me about getting an orange for Christmas and being happy with it. 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