Well, what became this event called Christmas? It is not anymore what it is used to be. One big change is the weather, global warming is killing the Christmas I knew. There is a term “White Christmas”, which became a lie within the last years. Christmas is everything else than white. It’s brown and green and grey, but there is no snow anymore. 10+ degrees at Christmas evening, hello?! Something is wrong here.

But that’s not the only change. Another change is the materialism, and the pressure of society to give each other gifts. And it has to be special gift, something coming from heart, something unique, something new, something with value. And all this in a time where everybody has everything already. So people tend to spend days and weeks to find the perfect gift, until they fail and buy some socks as every year. And what do people do with those unique gifts then? They pretend to like them to not insult the giver. What a hypocrisy.

And then the pressure to give gifts to everybody who gave a gift to us last year. Are people aware that this has the potential to grow exponential? Anyway, Christmas is munificence, so let’s give. But looking deeper into this, it simply means: “I feel I have to give you something, just because you gave me something last year, something I didn’t want or needed, but something which forces me to give you something back, but actually I don’t care about you and even more, I hate you because you brought me into this situation”. When did Christmas became such a hypocrisy?

It hasn’t been some years back. I am sure. Or maybe I did not realize since I have been part of that game? Hmm, interesting question. Or think what we do to our kids. We shower toys on them, many. But why the hell do they need that many toys? What will happen? They start to take this as the new “normal”. Check their wish lists next year. They’ll grow too. And if they don’t get what they asked for, they become angry. Toys and presents are expected, plenty of them. But children don’t even have time to play with all those toys, disregarding from the space they occupy. Their rooms burst already from all those toys. And much worse, they don’t value those things anymore. Hey, there are plenty of them and if something breaks, I just ask for a new one. This is what we teach our children with this. Well done parents. You are trying to buy your kids with showering them with material stuff. And know what, exactly this will make it worse.  But it could be so simple. Of course do they like toys, but one or two are sufficient. Just shower them with love and time, instead of teaching them envy and greed.

What became of Christmas. It was used to be the celebration of love, family,  satisfaction, happiness, care, affection, peace, reflection, gratefulness and thankfulness. Actually I don’t care about the religious background. The entire purpose of my Christmas is to spend it with the people close to me, to be grateful and to reflect the previous year, to enjoy the silence and harmony. And not to forget to remember the people we’ve lost and the people who cannot be with us anymore. This is Christmas for me. This and only this and I do not need a single gift to enjoy Christmas.

But unfortunately things don’t work out all the time, hence Christmas was kind of sad this year. Some of the important people in my life have been missing. But sadness is part of life, same as joy. Maybe next year. So let’s hope that we all will stay healthy till then to enjoy another Christmas. And another thing made me sad and thankful at the same time. Due to the mild weather I was running through the forests from my youth, exploring the paths I knew so well many years ago. The paths my dad showed me when I was a kid. He knew every path and mountain by name and height and he knew a story for everything there. And when I passed those places, paths, trees and forest junctions, I remembered those stories suddenly. I had forgotten most of them, but running there alone through the mountains brought them back. Very emotional moments. And then I felt gratefulness, I felt thankful that I had those moments with my dad, up there in the mountains. That he took me with him to those places.

And suddenly my little world became peaceful and silent again. Merry Christmas to all of you!