This is the point in the year where it seems - almost over.
Halloween and Christmas seasonal items are now on display in many of the stores.
Halloween has become outrageousness and a festival of horror, savagery, and violence, instead of a celebration of the ancestors or a time of prayer for the deceased.
Christmas has become all about shopping.
Well, I remember what it was to work retail during the Christmas season and I can say that it made the holiday a NON-EVENT FOR ME. After you've heard the same Christmas songs for weeks, dealt with a surge of customers who are not always nice, it's not easy to center back to the purpose of the holiday, which is religious.
Although I get it that giving gifts to friends and family is in imitation of the Three Kings who visited Jesus Christ in his infancy, and that being generous and loving is good, I think even the tradition of Santa Claus, based on St. Nicholas, has become too much a celebration of materialism.
I confess to having been effected by the Hustle Bustle of shopping in years past, but mostly I try to keep holidays to a small, private, celebration these days. I give few gifts and usually small or home-made ones. I prefer to celebrate the birthday of a close friend as the time to give a better gift and to give attention to them as an individual then. I love music but I don't enjoy loud parties. I prefer to host a smaller dinner party where people can enjoy conversation and hear each other, perhaps with some low background music on. Good food, a little wine, and appreciation for what we have, to take a pause, that is a holiday to me.
