Re-Evaluating Christmas.

I think I might have found a reason to acknowledge Christmas after all. Imagine that. But first a recap:

I’ve said before that the celebration of Christmas is driven by three factors. They are:

1. The religious base at its historical heart.

2. The economic imperative.

3. The cultural tradition.

None of these means very much to me, and that’s why I mostly ignore it. I’ve long felt that I have no reason to do otherwise. But today I was remembering that when I was younger I thought that Christmas had some sort of magic (for want of a better term) about it, something indefinable in the air which made it a special day. And now I’m beginning to think that I might have been right, but for the wrong reason.

Back then I imagined that Christmas itself produced this ‘magic’ by virtue of some arcane process connected with its roots, and that we humans were simply aware of it. Now I suspect that if this something special does exist, it’s the energy and expectation which people put into the celebration which produces it. In other words, I was getting it the wrong way round. And now I feel sure that if we all stopped acknowledging Christmas, the ‘magic’ would disappear.

So should we all stop deluding ourselves and cancel Christmas? I don’t think so. The commercial near-monopoly of Christmas is obviously the damaging one, and we could certainly do with getting rid of that. But the religious base – at least insofar as the Christian religion functions in the west – is harmless enough and the cultural tradition is perfectly reasonable. So maybe the celebration of Christmas should be maintained after all, if for no other reason than that it’s an example of how people pulling in the same direction can produce something which is subtle but verging on the palpable.

And maybe I’m wrong. Maybe my sense of an elemental buzz was no more than the product of a vivid imagination.

*  *  *

And that brings me to this year's Christmas and a confession I have to make. I lied yesterday – well, sort of.

In my last post I related how I was driven to an odd emotional state by the sound of a brass band playing Christmas carols, and I said that I had no idea where it came from. Actually I had, but it seemed too silly and too private to state. The fact is that when I heard that brass band I was struck by a dispiriting sense that this Christmas is to be my last. That was what produced the feeling of mild desolation.

I’m probably wrong about that, too. I usually am when I get such feelings. It probably had more to do with the fact that all known prospects for 2020 are things to dread. I’m not looking forward to next year at all, but enough of that for now. Right now I’m wondering whether there is a response which is both honest and good natured to that ubiquitous question one has to face every year up to the first week in January:

Had a good Christmas?

 Oh dear. Where do I start?