Is Christamas getting old or am I?
I’m sure that we all love Christmas. It’s the time of the year when everything comes to a halt just to satisfy the overwhelming urge of joining the rest of the nation in frenzied seasonal celebrations. It’s a time when you can escape the world’s two most boring things; school and work. A time when people all around the world will try to show a level of kindness that they don’t often display throughout the year. And with words most true, it is simply a time for extreme frolic and delight of matchless family moments. But don’t forget the every now and then tingly feelings you get when you feel the whiz of a cool zephyr augmented by distant Christmas tunes; probably one done by the great Sinatra. But the question I’m here to ask and then answer with this hub is whether or not the Christmas you know is dying or are you growing older.
What has changed?
We should probably first ask ourselves the what has changed or if anything has indeed changed but us. What do you notice that is different with Christmas now than when you were a child? In Jamaica Christmas might be a little bit different for us when compared to the rest of the world. But holistically the concepts should be the same; a plethora of food and celebrations. Answer these for me.
Can you identify any huge differences in Christmas from now and when you were a child?
Do you remember those moments when everyone’s houses in your neighborhood would be significantly splashed with decorations from top to bottom?
Do you remember how intense it was whenever it came to buying and exchanging gifts?
Do you remember when you’d have felt Christmas approaching from the earliest days in autumn?
How much has the meaning of Christmas and its pickling atmosphere changed for you?
When is the last time that you saw a storm of carolers visiting your doorsteps?
And finally how much kids actually believe in a Santa clause nowadays?
You should see where I’m going. Things just don’t look the same again. All good things must come to an end. It is from this concept that one could use history to confirm that nothing really lasts forever. Even holidays or festivals eventually at one point either dies out or simply morphs into something else, and from what some of us has seen, the Christmas that we know is just not the same over the past years. From this we could even quantify our beliefs and say that Christmas is on a downward trend; an exponential decrease over the last twenty years.
I miss This :(
When is the last time you had you're best Christmas?
We should also remember the other part of our question; is it we who are changing?
Maybe, It could be said that it is us who have changed and not necessarily Christmas. I mean, If you were to really pontificate the differences in how you celebrated Christmas, you might have realized that you didn’t have a family then, you didn’t have the survival instincts to continuously fight for a job whilst unaware of jingling bells. But, most importantly now, you can’t be seen rolling around in the snow or on the carpet, bouncing off the sofa with your new toy; not without being insane. Therefore whilst we sometimes look for the same joy and good feelings that we experienced as children we fall short; numbed by responsibilities and overgrown stress from the adult stuff. So while we are constantly gawking off about how different Christmas is than when we were a child, we should remember that it is possible that it is us who have changed.
If we placed the two ideals in a controlled system (Christmas and you), and then analyzed the concepts of change over time; which of the two things would have emerged with the greatest systematic error or change? You I would assume!
Are you the old guy in this photo?
Holistically though I really believe that both are a part of the process of change i.e. if everything is affected by time, then both Christmas and us should directly advance in years until you both fall out of time. My finally say is that Christmas has changed and so have we; and just as how we've grown up this holiday will also grow up into something else as well.