So This Is Xmas? Look What You're Done

Coming from someone who doesn’t believe in god, it seems odd I still celebrate the yearly holiday known as Christmas. (That is the last time you will see me use that spelling.) Outside the reality of my disbelief, I can give you a number of reasons why it couldn’t have happened, some of which being: the North Star only appears in the sky in that part of the world in the spring, putting Jesus’ birth most likely in May; the shepherds who apparently were hanging out would not have been in the fields in the middle of winter; The Bible never mentions Jesus was born in a stable, only a manger, meaning he could have been born in a cave for all we know; etc, etc.

The main reason we celebrate on the twenty-fifth is because it masks the pagan holiday of the celebration of the winter solstice. The twenty-fifth is the first day the Egyptians noticed daylight was getting longer after the solstice, December twenty-first. Still, despite all of the negativity surrounded by such an arbitrary holiday, I still travel home every Xmas.

I think for me, Xmas (and by a larger extent, the entire holiday season i.e. Hanukkah, Festivus) has taken on a new meaning, a meaning, which I feel more people should embrace due to the over-religiousness and the over-commercialization of the true holiday season.

For me personally, I think the holidays are less and less about the celebration of the birth of a fictitious character, but more about the celebration of family. It’s one of the few times each year I get to sit down with every member of my immediate family and members of my extended family and see each other and spend time together. That’s the tradition I want to pass down to my family, if I ever get drunk enough to get conned into one. It’s less about how many courses there are in the holy supper, but more about sitting together, wishing each other a great forthcoming year, and reconnecting for one day regardless of where we live in the world and what we believe.

Thanksgiving has become more about good friends who are far from home spending time together and sharing in a shit ton of food, but the holidays are always about family. The city of Los Angeles empties out and rush hour on the 405 freeway is nonexistent. Everyone goes home to the their family to celebrate in whatever way makes them happy to see each other. The looks on my grandmothers’ faces when I return from the west coast, talking video games and cycling with my cousin Shawn, doing shots of Boilo with my dad and sister, and an infinite list of other great memories are what makes the holiday season important to me and gives me a reason to celebrate the Xmas every year.

A very merry Xmas and a happy New Year… Let's hope it's a good one… Without any fear…