The True Meaning of Christmas… (Generation X Turns 50)

Presents, when I was a kid the meaning of Christmas was…PRESENTS! Every year I’d make a list for Santa Claus and attempt to do the right thing all that year in hopes I would get what I asked for on the big day. Then the years go by and stuff you want at a certain time of year becomes less important and you just look forward to some time off, being around people you care about and remembering good times together.

What I never realized as a kid or most of my young adulthood was how seriously some people take “the true meaning of Christmas”. One religion heavily coopted this time of year and made it the official time that they celebrate the birth of their savior. Which is fine. The reality though is this time of year has always been recognized by humanity as a death and rebirth part of the solar cycle. When I was young I would sing carols by the fire just because they sounded good and felt “Christmassy” as I got older I realized the words of a few of these songs and came to the conclusion that they did not fit my world view. (You see I was luckily raised in a house where any type of religious talk was put on the back burner…aka, was not talked about at all, other than “how stupid it was for some people to attempt to push their views on others”. Yes, there were mentions of a “god” and Christmas celebrations, but there was no push to think in one religious way. The general rule in my home was, do the right thing and the actions you take are your own and there is no one else to blame for them. I am one of a very small amount of Generation Xers that were raised by late in life “Greatest Generationers”. Let me tell you…by the time The Greatest Generation got into their late 50’s and 60’s…their view of things…well if you were lucky enough to be raised by them you got quite an education.)

Now…did I stop thinking carols were fun and joyful and embodied the spirit of this season? Hell no. They just went back to being what they were to me as a child, happy songs. I learned though as I was growing…older, that too many people take this time of year too seriously for their particular view. They feel persecuted if you say, “happy holidays”, or “seasons greetings”, instead of “Merry Christmas”. They get affronted if others point out how the holiday is just a reimagining of ancient traditions rehashed to fit a newer religion. Now I’m not going to get into the truth about all the different little festivities and other goings on that permeate the season, a search on the internet will get you all that information. Instead I just want to point out what I have learned in what will be a short almost 50 years on the blue ball of Gaia.

This season, this time of year is a great big mish mash of different traditions, different mythologies, all put together to let us remember that according to the calendar, humanity has made it through one more year here without completely destroying itself. A miracle unto itself. The long darkness and cold in one part of the world, (everyone knows that in different hemispheres it’s actually the warmest time of year and also the longest day…right?) is giving way to more light and the eventual return of warmer weather. We should all take pause, at least for a day, and realize that in the short time we have here with each other, we should pretty stoked on what we have because even though we would all pretty much like things to be better for ourselves, the truth is they can be worse for us at the drop of the proverbial hat.

So what is the “true meaning of Christmas” to a Gen Xer who is staring down 50, who was told what the answer to this question was as a child in Charlie Brown Christmas Special but realized that isn’t the full answer…

Be kind. That’s all, it’s pretty simple. If someone says Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, May Odin Bless Your Home, Happy Yule, Seasons Greetings, Happy Festivus or just plain ‘ol smiles at you during this time of year, smile back and return the greeting in any kind way you can. We’re all in this together, one little furless species scurrying about trying to take care of things we love.

In fact, I think that’s what I am going to say from now on during this season…Merry Kindness…because that is what we should all, always be practicing.

Merry Kindness everyone and to all a good night…