Tuesday Thoughts | 24 December 2024 | So This is Christmas?

Almost everyone I know has Christmas rituals, even if they are not Christian.

My Jewish friends are checking the Movie listings and double checking the Chinese Take-Out Menus, my Pagen friends are marking the Yule, and my Eastern Orthodox friends are bemused by those not sophisticated enough to follow a Lunar Calendar.

While not true across the globe, here at home, while most of us have long since switched from “Merry Christmas” to ‘Happy Holidays”, today marks the beginning of the ‘holiday break’ for almost every workplace not involved with retail or essential service.

Since I was quite young, I’ve been aware that not everyone celebrated Christmas, and even more folks celebrated it differently, or even on different days. For example, I know many families will open some, if not all of their presents tonight, instead of waiting for Christmas morning – a tradition I was particularly jealous of as a young child.

As a member of a Jamaican-Canadian family, one of the biggest markers of difference for my family has often been what will be on the table tomorrow night. Mash-potatoes come and go, but Rice and Peas are a staple.

When we layer culture, on top of individual family traditions, we find that Christmas can mean VERY different things for different people.

With the marked exception of a certain family member who once took one of my aunts to task for wishing everyone ‘Happy Holidays’, it has been my experience that most people are pretty tolerant of different ways of marking this season.

This has me thinking, if something so steeped in tradition, and emotion, as Christmas, can have so many acceptable definitions and experiences; surely, our everyday differences shouldn’t be cause for alarm, or need to be hidden.

Of course, I know this could be a bit naïve, we know that we live in a world of growing intolerance, we live in a world where hate continues to be pervasive, and I would never for a moment suggest that anyone should live loudly in their truth in a way that endangers them or others – although I would suggest that it is unacceptable that this continues to be reality.

However, I would suggest that there is a lesson to be found in our Holiday Traditions, that you and I can celebrate the same holiday in very different ways; and you and I can conduct ourselves and live our lives in very different ways as well.

My definition of happiness, my goals, even (within reason) my values, may be very different from yours, and I can still recognize yours as a life being lived well.

As you gather around tables, and mix and mingle with friends and family this season, this week’s call to action is this, embrace the idea that we can live very different lives, and still be worthy of love and respect.

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