An 11 Month Christmas Season

Christmas is a time to gather with family and friends, catch up with their lives and reflect on the year before returning to the busyness that defines our lives. But Christmas tends to be overshadowed by a long to-do list with a hard deadline of midnight on the 24th. It is ironic that what should be an enjoyable season turns into perhaps the most stressful and there is a certain sense of relief when it is over. Frequently one hears that the meaning of Christmas is all but lost.

This year, I found myself in a strange predicament. I usually finish my holiday responsibilities early; all my shopping was done and cards were sent. But furthermore, through a strange twist of events, I found myself in between jobs and my holiday plans did not start until Christmas Day. The upshot: it was two day before Christmas and I had absolutely nothing to do.

“This,” I thought to myself, “gives me the perfect opportunity to search for the elusive Christmas spirit!” But where does one begin this search? I decided to go to where one finds the most number of people in one place during the Christmas season: the mall.

The mall, at 9:30 PM, was a place inviting chaos. Lines for registers wound around stores while shelves looked disheveled and unkempt. All of the stereotypical shoppers were here - last minute shopper carrying multitudes of bags, the mother with her whinny child and the unruly high school mob on holiday. Exhausted sales clerks sat on the floor while yuppie families browsed for the latest gadgetry. The food court was crowded with people taking a break from their shopping marathons. All of this happened over the din of Christmas music played on loop - done, redone, until it’s overdone.

While sitting at the food court, I realized that there was a common theme in all of the pandemonium. The mall, for all its frenzied and materialistic nature, became a nexus for people to gather. It became a lively meeting spot for friends to converse over a plate of Lo Mein at an hour most people usually reserve for bedtime preparation. Families chatted the hours away as they rested their feet. Since the mall was open later than usual, homeless people had a warm place to stay for a few extra hours. In essence, the act of shopping for gifts had brought people together in ways that do not happen during the normal year. During Christmas, we go to parties that are held once a year. We spend time with family that we see infrequently. We meet new people through mutual friends. The only problem is that we are so busy we do not enjoy each other's company.

So as we recover from Christmas and clean up the mess left behind, let us stop and be thankful for the friendships that we already have. Now that the holiday responsibilities are over, let us spread the holiday spirit throughout the year. Let us spend time with friends old and new no matter what the occasion and take the time to truly enjoy their company. After all, we only have eleven months before we will have to ignore everybody in order to shop for them.