I grew up in a house without Santa Claus. We believed in him until the appropriate ages, and then that was it. There was never an Easter Bunny in our house either. However, the Tooth Fairy had a good long reign over my pillow. During the Christmas season you will not find little Santas, reindeer, or any other commercial object adorning my parents' house. You will find many religious decorations, and beautiful trimmings throughout. My dad engrained it into us young that Christmas was about the birth of Christ and not about Jolly Old Saint Nicholas. And Easter is about the Life and Resurrection of Christ, and not about chocolate bunnies. I can only recall getting one Easter basket in my life, and that was in the fifth grade. However, my family does pull out all the stops for Christmas gift-giving.
So what's my point? I really can't stand tacky Christmas decorations. North Pole re-creations, flying reindeer, and these new monstrous sized "snow globes" people have in their front yards, get on my nerves. When I was younger (and by younger, maybe 5 or 6 Christmases ago) I didn't mind seeing decorations out the day after Thanksgiving. But now it just irks me. I get so tired of the tackiness of the winter season. I refuse to even call it the Christmas season. Christmas is a joyous religious holiday. Winter Holidays are for blinking lights in multiple colors and people who think that mistletoe is an excuse for an introduction.
I love Christmas, and I wish more people did. I wish more people put more thought into the message their front yard is sending, let alone their Christmas tree. If you want the world to think that you believe the birth of the Lord Jesus to be an excuse to go into debt, and hang tacky decorations, then by all means, go for it! If the only thing you get out of Christmas is the Nutcracker, knock yourselves out with it! But if by chance you think Christmas is one of the two greatest events in the history of the Earth, stop and think for two seconds in how you decorate your home and the message that it sends.
Can you please tell my mother this, so she'll stop sending the girls singing reindeer gifts?
ReplyDeleteI look back and I am glad we never got Easter baskets. I am glad I was taught to appreciate the reason we celebrate Easter instead of celebrating that a magic bunny was coming to bring chocolate. At least Santa has Christ like qualities.
ReplyDeleteYou tell it sister!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. My mom never put up the tree until Dec 8th (Feast of the Immaculate Conception - we're Catholic) and it came down promptly on the Epiphany (Jan 6th.)
If there is a Christmas 'Season'.. it begins on Christmas... not on Thanksgiving.
I won't even do my Christmas Shopping until Dec 1 - I don't want to see the overblown decorations.
And gifts should be a thoughtful, simple something to honor those you care for... not to go into debt!
My guilty conscience says I have to admit that I have a pooping reindeer that I put out every year. But in my defense, he's out year round, and only in my bedroom. I do not consider him a Christmas decoration.
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