Thursday December 23, 2004

The holiday thing

The snow is coming down pretty fiercely in Cleveland. The cars are all buried under huge mounds of snow, so I didn't bother venturing outside. I kept myself busy by baking various sugary goodies and eating various sugary goodies. I had one too many Hershey's Kisses. And I've probably been thinking too much, too.

This may get me in trouble with Bill "defender of Christmas" O'Reilly, but in my life this season has become less and less important. When I was a kid I was always told that it was nothing short of blasphemy to pretend that this day was like any other. But the older I get the more I realize that Christmas is something we created, and something we could scale back if we wanted to.

Personally, I could do without the blinking lights, decorated tree, frantic shopping, Santa suits and pine cone wreaths. I could do without the fiber-optic nativity sets and candle-lit church rituals that pretend Jesus is still a baby. And I could certainly leave behind the family gatherings when relatives demand to know the date of my non-existant wedding. That, especially.

I could live without Christmas. And I'm sure God wouldn't be too pissed off if I stopped pretending it was really his birthday. An indulgent party is not what he's after, anyway. I'm sure there are other things on his agenda.

Of course, this will never happen. My family won't let it, and my country won't forgive me. I'm required to celebrate Christmas whether it's spiritually necessary or not, and my life will forever be filled with endless star-shaped sugar cookies and ceramic Baby Jesus figurines. But even though it's no longer an important day for me, I know it still is for most of you out there. So, I'd like to formally wish everyone the most wonderful Christmas ever.