Changing the way we think about Christmas

November 29, 2008 in personal,writing

Is it just me or does Christmas feel like sort of a sham this year? I walked into Starbucks yesterday, the day after Thanksgiving, when the holiday decorations usually begin to appear. The boards were etched with white snowflakes offering hot gingerbread lattes, stacks of attractively packaged coffee-related gifts were beginning to appear, and warm holiday music played over the speakers.

Something seemed off.

The baristas looked less than cheerful. The headlines on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal screamed of hostages being held in Mumbai and the worst economy in decades. Things aren’t the same. Is it naive to pretend that nothing has changed? Are the old ways of expressing holiday cheer becoming less relevant?

I tend to think that we can’t use the holidays as an escapist experience anymore because we’re all affected whether we like it or not. There is less money to throw around on gifts and so much going on in the world that perhaps it forces us to think about less about that latte and more about what we’re really thankful for.