Merry Christmas everyone! It's my favorite time of year, due to several reasons. One of which, it's no longer the blazing summer heat of South Texas!
Mostly, Christmas reminds me of family. My mother is from Denmark and my father from the northern climes of the US. Celebration of the season has always been done in accordance with Danish tradition.
This means food! Sorry, drooling already. It's true though; food is an important part of the celebration in that everyone in the family is there, sharing the time with each other. The yearly bickering amongst children seems to almost disappear as the kids realize they have an unbreakable bond with their siblings. You could say they even love (GASP!) each other.
My dad is a highly creative person. The first time I remember actually seeing that was watching him create Christmas ornaments from stock cardboard, glitter and a truckload of math. He created large and small geometric masterpieces, with beautiful, multicolored glittered surfaces. They hung on the tree and around the house.
Seeing those boxes being opened on December 1st brought the spirit into the household. My brother and I would help out by trimming the tree with the parentals, but we also dug into our collection of Lego bricks and built a Christmas village. That village still appears every year in my mother's home, except it's my nearly adult children building it.
One of the things I love doing this time of year is going shopping at a large mall, but not to buy anything. I usually head upstairs, to find the busiest portion of the mall below and watch people. I know, either I'm a stalker, or maybe I'm gaining skills to be a replacement Santa.
I actually do this almost every year to see a strange Christmas occurrence. I attribute it to Christmas, because I rarely see the same thing at other times of the year. Shoppers hectically gathering all the things they'll be giving to their loved ones mingle and dash about. However, suddenly, I see so many more people than normal being kind and courteous to one another. It's borderline shocking, seeing how people normally treat each other. I discovered a method to witness the Christmas effect, which I enjoy taking in every year.
No matter where you stand on the religious aspect, Christmas is a special time. Yes, there is way too much commercialism and scammers are out in force, trying to relieve people of their money. There are tons of negative to the season too. But there is something, underneath it all that still holds sway in the hearts of the people.
Peace on earth, good will to men.