The confusion of Christmas, I wouldn’t say I like it
We… at least for me and some people I know, cannot enjoy Christmas, it is so confusing, different from what it used to be back when I used to celebrate it with my family in our town. Now it is a sad day we remember many lovely things, many people we loved but they are not around anymore. And every year, we are getting closer to the reality that those things will never have it again in our life.
Christmas -for me- used to be a time where the family gathered around, cooked together, celebrated together, and ate together Christmas food, which is whatever the family would cook. Now it is different…. Very different.
There is no family or friends around anymore; there is no town around, people whom I used to celebrate with them are gone… some of them are gone forever.
Funny and sad memory for me is how I used to fight with my family every Christmas morning, every single year, for any reason we had to fight; that was natural fighting for not being on the Christmas breakfast, or being late on visiting my grandparents, fighting over not finding proper socks, or fighting over something that happened weeks ago.
We had to fight for anything, but it was full of love; it bothered me back in time, but now I wish those days would come back, and I don’t mind being blamed for anything, even for classifying Jesus twice a year between orthodox and Catholics.
Now, people are even shy to say Merry Christmas, saying Happy Holidays. Even my Muslim friends used to say Merry Christmas; now, I feel I walk on eggshells when I greet someone or send a Christmas/holiday card. Just this year, the first one who greeted me for Christmas was my Muslim friend who lives in Turkey after being displaced from his town in Aleppo…
Refugees, displaced people, and anyone who was forced to be living in a place where they didn’t choose would not be comfortable on this day; we were pulled out of our childhood, out of our families, out of our community, they confiscated our memories and still punishing us and teasing us by not being allowed to go back, and putting borders in between our beloved ones and us. Out of their mercy, they allowed us to be planted in a place where we don’t belong.
Still, we are trying to bloom and engage and participate in the new world, but if you see someone of those people being sad on that day, don’t ask them why, try to keep them warm, and maybe offer a drink, because talking it out on that day will just make it sadder.
They are organizing Christmas into political correctness, putting rules for what to do, what to say, and how to act on that day is just washing Christmas from its natural way, of being full of joy, a rough day for kids to have fun, toys, and a lot of candies.
But now we are in a world where people are arguing about the ginger boy cookies if it should be called that or to be called the ginger person!!!
Nothing wrong with Christmas; it is just a group of adults or people who are trying to be adults, working hard on showing how strong and intelligent they are by enforcing their thoughts on society and kids, to raise them in the way they think it is better for them because they think they know everything, more than anyone else.