Christmas is a special time of year and unlike Ramadan, Eid and Easter whose dates are determined by a complex formula based on lunar phases, Christmas is so soothingly predictable, falling on December 25th each year. As the season of merriment and family love approaches, for me, there are just eight things that raise the anticipation of the coming Christmas holiday: snowfall, with the big soft wet flakes, halogen Christmas lights, Andrei Boucelli singing most anything, Handel’s Messiah, Halloween because that’s when the Christmas displays first appear in stores everywhere, CBC’s Vinyl Cafe, putting on snow tires and road side police checks. A unique and magnificent time of year to be sure.
Putting up Christmas lights is mood altering especially if done in inclement weather at low temperatures while standing on a shaky aluminum ladder on uneven ground trying to reach that one last inch to attach the brittle light cord just so under the eavestrough. People who put lights up in October during favourable weather conditions, or who even worse, leave their lights up all year, are wimps.
I have put up lights in gale force winds, at minus 30 conditions, and have fallen off of ladders while my daughter, safely inside the warm cozy house, by a fire place, with yule logs and stockings hung with care can from her perspective, behind the key board of the family piano, while playing ‘Silent Night’ watched her father glide vertically across her line of sight and bury himself in a snowbank, stunned, but full of Christmas spirit.
I have put up lights in gale force winds, at minus 30 conditions, and have fallen off of ladders while my daughter, safely inside the warm cozy house, by a fire place, with yule logs and stockings hung with care can from her perspective, behind the key board of the family piano, while playing ‘Silent Night’ watched her father glide vertically across her line of sight and bury himself in a snowbank, stunned, but full of Christmas spirit.
I especially enjoy the spirit imbued in those who decorate their yards with inflatable Santas, herds of feral reindeer, sleighs, coloured, brightly lit candy canes along their driveway, silvery icicles from the roof line, flashing lights in bushes and trees and any number of electronic devices and moving decorative paraphernalia all sucking up mega kilowatts of electricity. ‘Tis the season to be jolly in brown out conditions leaving an every so tiny carbon footprint like a little Christmas kitchen mouse.
Nothing matches the true meaning of Christmas, the “Ode to Joy,” while rushing to and enjoying the immense crush of frantic days before Christmas crowds in urban shopping malls around the planet. Truly Christmas is that one and only glorious time which brings the Christian world together when asked the magical seasonal phrase, “Will that be cash or charge?”
Malls are a magical place which showcase the best in human accomplishment, good will and consumer friendly exchange policies on Boxing Day. Where else can a person go to absorb the subtle nuances and celebratory charm than at a Western style shopping mall, revved up for maximum sales with a universal multiplier effect on the entire economy.
What could be more joyful and fulfilling than listening to Bing Crosby sing 'White Christmas' relaxing the involuntary muscle system controlling the purse strings while the Salvation Army volunteer gently rings a brass Christmas hand bell seeking a generous donation for the downcast, than being in a mall at Christmas. It warms my soul.
What could be more joyful and fulfilling than listening to Bing Crosby sing 'White Christmas' relaxing the involuntary muscle system controlling the purse strings while the Salvation Army volunteer gently rings a brass Christmas hand bell seeking a generous donation for the downcast, than being in a mall at Christmas. It warms my soul.
