A Christmas post

    Some thoughts on the Yuletide season before the end of the day.

    Is Christmas a bad thing? Well, of course not. But looking at society's reaction to the season leaves a bad taste in my mouth. A highly commercialized holiday, with one of its most prominent marketing figures (heyyy Santa Claus) overshadowing the birthday boy Himself. Lest one forgets, it's CHRISTmas. I mean, really.

    But of course, with all the flak Christianity's been receiving, especially from the atheists and agnostics, I shouldn't be surprised with the decentralization of Christmas from Jesus Christ to more, uhm, "acceptable" models. Sometimes though, I just find it lousy that people argue for the removal of religion from different areas of society because it's a "global village" and we should "respect the beliefs of other communities" and that "Christianity is nothing but a massive brainwashing movement designed to dumb us down to the monkeys we evolved from." Christmas is a Catholic holiday. Don't celebrate it if you don't at least understand the meaning behind it. You don't have to go all Catholic-ey to understand the essence of gift-giving, or the other values associated with Christmas. :/

    The hypocrisy of that statement might stem from the fact that most Christians don't even recognize this. Or even if they do, it's all face value. Like the family who hired a caterer for their Christmas party but said that Christmas "isn't about the food or the new clothes," (I quote Kevin on this, I didn't see the actual news report). But I disgress. It's times like this that one should affirm the values that he or she learned and put them into practice. Sacrifice isn't hard on its own; it's just this lazy laid-back society that does nothing but whine that makes it hard.

    Blah, blah, blah. I'm rambling, and no one probably cares about that. The atheists/agnostics would probably say go to hell (wait, no, they can't because they don't believe in it.. hehe) and the hypocrites will say how dare you say such a thing, et cetera, et cetera. Anyways. If taking Christmas as a Catholic holiday, just take it as a Christian holiday then. With that in mind, keep Christ as the focus. Jesus Christ, whether you believe He is the Son of God or not, makes a pretty good model (WAY better than Santa Claus, kids).

    On a different note, let's talk about Christmas as a season of giving. Hey, this was the first Christmas I've ever had where I actually made a list, checked it twice and went out to shop in Greenhills and Glorietta (what, it doesn't rhyme?? Such a travesty! :o). In short, this was the first Christmas wherein I was actually giving away something. Of course, I ended up bankrupt, but seeing (or hearing, kinda hard to see people opening the gifts when you're cities away) the people you gave gifts to accepting them and saying thanks just makes you feel good inside, doesn't it? It may sound self-serving, but all truly selfless acts are two-way anyways (this reminds me of that Friends episode). The priest in the Christmas mass I attended put it so succinctly, "God Himself went bankrupt on the day of Christmas, giving away His only Son to man to be the instrument of their salvation." What a cool way to put it. Just puts everything in perspective.

    Anyway, enough rambling. I'm already thinking of something else that's not Christmas-related, and I don't want this to turn into an entry full of ramblings. So there. :P