Merry Christmas

Christmas time doesn't always mean fuzzy warmth to many people. The 'most joyous season' of the year doesn't bring joy to many, even Christians. The season always brings regrets and nostalgia to many. My faith is always tested during this period. I'm not particularly religious. As it is, I don't go to Mass often. Well, I do turn up four times a year. That's about it.

Holiday blues are real to non-Christians too. There's too many social gatherings to think about. Unless one chooses not to attend. For Singapore, Christmas 2024 melts into Lunar New Year 2025 within a month of each other. For introverts, there's hardly time to breathe. In supermarkets, Christmas gold and silver decor on sale are placed right next to the new displays of Lunar New Year reds. 

Do Christmas the way you want it. Do holidays the way you want it. Guard your heart, secure your mind space, protect your solitude. If you do it to what society and your family expects or demands of you and you're exhausted, I feel sorry for you. Learn to say NO. If you don't, then you will just have to deal with it. 

Christmas to me, is a blessed season only because it's a generic time to popularly count one's blessings. I do too. It's pretty much joy, but how much of it is superficial in saying 'Merry Christmas'? I refuse to say 'Merry Christmas' if it's just that. I refuse to send a dumb gif or pic with just that line. Whatever for. That message should be accompanied by a heartfelt line, or a note. Unless we meet regularly or we're that close to know each other's tone in that very simple line of 'A very Merry Christmas to you.'

Anyway.

[14] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 

~ John 1:14, Douay-Rheims

Illustration by artist Izumi Kamoshida / 鴨志田和泉.