The end of the semester arrives with the promise of three stress-free weeks sans schoolwork. After the grueling stress of finals, this is a welcome release. It seems that the ability to simply relax complements the holidays perfectly. But, are borderline Christmas sweet gluttony, marathon shopping trips and seemingly endless “Frosty the Snowman” repeats really the correct spirit of the holiday season?
Consumerism has already been vilified due to Black Friday sales which seem to promote utter boorishness in the service of bargain-shopping, but even this isn’t the real impetus besides the qualms most people have over Christmas. The necessity to find the perfect gift engenders stress amongst many. As a result, foul attitudes, and so does the pressure of throwing the perfect celebration. It seems these things have come to define holiday revelries. But, again, these things are not really what the holiday season is about.
Christmas, by far the most widely celebrated holiday, is foundationally about humanity. Whether or not one believes in Christianity, the holiday exists to celebrate the birth of mankind’s savior. Regardless of an individual’s religious preference, basic human compassion is something that, surely, even the most avid of secularists is something that is essential to civil society.
Department store melees, mass-produced toys and constant repeats of Christmas special have a tendency to strip the humanity from the holiday.
This is not because, with the exception of violence and general callousness, there’s not necessarily anything wrong with the trappings of holiday celebrations, but because they become the entirety of the season rather than just entertaining aspects of it.
Spending an evening in front of the television to watch Christmas specials and shopping trips are not antithetical to the spirit of the holiday in the right context. Frustrated necessity to uphold a certain standard of celebration merely because it’s a certain standard of tradition is not the proper context. This kind of attitude is perpetuates shallowness.
It is in the service of some emotion, whether it be personal enjoyment or desire to please another, when these activities become truly in the spirit of the holiday.
Joy of others, and equally important, joy of self, is something that serves humanity as it contributes to that happiness that is so highly prized in society. And it is prized because few things are more fulfilling than the knowledge that one has completed some task by pursuing their abilities to the fullest potential. Contributing to the happiness of the individual, whether family, friend, self, or even stranger, is very much in service of this ideal.
This can be as complex as spending as spending an evening participating in some activity that is tedious because it makes someone else happy, scouring the mall for the perfect gift for someone special or as simple as listening to a Christmas song that never fails to amuse.
In any of these cases, happiness to some actor is the end result. And a little personal happiness can contribute to a higher level of personal satisfaction, which can in turn get passed on, through kind interaction, to others. And this most certainly serves the humanity that Christmas’s foundation seeks to better.