Celebrating? Our emotions under the tree.

In Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Scrooge and his grandson have totally opposite views of Christmas: the former hates it, the latter adores it. We also have a personal view of it. For those who love it, Christmas is about sharing, fun and traditions. It is a unique day of the year when we set aside commitments to devote our time to loved ones and ourselves. It allows us to strengthen and cultivate bonds. Sharing moments, meals, traditions. Everyone has their own, personal ones, with family, with friends, like exchanging gifts, cooking together, playing board games. Traditions allow us to find familiar situations every year, which give us a sense of security. On the other hand, some may be common to many, such as decorating the Christmas tree, which make us feel that we belong to a community.

What about those who don’t have traditions? Or does not appreciate celebrating Christmas? At first glance, one might think that these people are like Scrooge, gruff and heartless… But in reality, each of us has a personal way of experiencing the holidays, which is not always necessarily associated with positive feelings, thoughts and memories. There are those who do not like to give or receive gifts, there are those who associate the holiday with a negative event, there are those who feel stressed in juggling the various appointments typical of these holidays or feel almost “obliged” to celebrate something they feel is fake or constructed.

It may also happen that our vision changes from year to year, because life events may change our perception of the holidays, such as an unexpected event, the arrival of a child, a bereavement, or such as loss or change of job.

There is no escaping Christmas, however, as there is no escaping the other holidays: advertisements on television, decorated cities, window displays set up, on every corner we come across the symbols of the holidays.

The Christmas tree is not always decorated uniformly; there are parts that are more bare, others with more balls, but both are part of the same tree. Thus, both those who love Christmas and those who dislike it are part of the same community.

So, whether we like them or not, we can seize the opportunity and question what the holidays mean to us, valuing in each case the emotions they arouse in us. Thus, we can choose whether to celebrate or not, freely, but with an awareness of the feelings that holiday gives us.

What about you, do you enjoy the holidays? What emotions do they arouse in you?