Old Fashioned Christmas

My first memory is of Christmas. Sitting under colored lights, playing with a Tonka truck. I am not sure if it is real. Still Christmas looms large in my childhood recollections regardless. As something which is warm and bright and safe. Its own little world made by hand. Not so many parcels of cheap crap imported from the third world by way of discount and big box stores we open with little thought. But gone are the simple old-fashioned Christmases.

The ones that revolved around community. Not only gathering as a family, but with friends and neighbors, to share our joys and heal our hurts. My whole life people have lamented the atomization and commercialization of Christmas. They have not been wrong. But they have been willingly obtuse about the solution. It is people. If you look at a Norman Rockwell or J.C. Leyendecker of a good Christmas of old they are full of people. Caroling and tree trimming and going to school plays. Together.

Many of us forget that underneath it all Christmas is a religious festival. During which Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Traditionally twelve days of feasting and merrymaking beginning on Christmas Eve called Christmastide. Preceded by a period of fasting, abstinence, and prayer similar to the Lenten fast before Easter called Advent. Believers undertook this period of deprivation to draw closer to God through personal sacrifice. This is its religious purpose, but it had a practical purpose as well. People feasted with what was available. Contributing a goose they shot, or a pie they had baked. Most people did not live in such plenty that they could manage a feast without some deprivation during which they put things by for Christmastide.

Which is also how the tradition of giving gifts started. With almsgiving to the poor on Christmas. In merry old England young men would go wassailing. Groups of them would walk from house to house, drinking and singing, offering drinks of mulled wine or spiced cider in exchange for alms. Gifts only became a core part of the holiday when the Protestant Reformation moved away from having many feast days. It was not until the mid-19th century that reformers, including novelist Charles Dickens, made a plea for Christmas to be less of a raucous community celebration that it became more family friendly. Now it is a time when children are part of things and doted upon. It is this A Christmas Carol idea of togetherness and appreciation which feels like old-fashioned Christmas to me.

What about any of it sounds like a private affair? It is a time to be home now, but not only our own home. We must spend less time with ourselves and get out more. If you want a more old-fashioned Christmas start with going to Christmas Eve service. Sing the hymns and put something in the collection plate and talk to someone you do not know. Then come Christmas morning have breakfast before you open presents. Something to take the focus off of them and put it back on the day. Stretch out the experience. Have Christmas dinner at the table not sitting in front of a movie or some damn thing. Go for a walk around your neighborhood afterward. Say hello to friends you know and everyone you meet.

Gone are the simple old-fashioned Christmases. But we can bring them back. If we want Christmas to be what it once was, we need to do what we once did and be who we used to be. The old traditions are timeless. Adding a few of them to our celebrations deepens our sense of connection to the past and to each other. Now go forth and reach levels of festive unseen in this age.