Tis The Season?

My calendar is telling me it's Christmas time.  And whenever I watch American television on the Slingbox I'm seeing commercials for gingerbread pancakes at iHop, listening to WalMart and Kmart spar about who has the best lay-away program and oh look, Kohl's is having the biggest sale of the season. (Isn't Kohl's always having the biggest sale of the season? )

And around here it seems like Christmas.  We've had our fake tree up and decorated since Thanksgiving weekend.  There's a smattering of random Christmas cards displayed about the apartment.  Downtown I've seen icicle lights dangling from buildings and racks of felt Santa hats for sale over in Central.  Heck, I even hear Christmas carols every time I step out of the elevator into the lobby of our building.  And check out this gingerbread house we happened upon at The Peninsula Hotel over in Kowloon.

The malls all have elaborate decorations to mark the season.  See Reagan in front of a big tree at Pacific Place mall?

Of course both kids have had their share of school holiday crafts, concerts, assemblies and chapels. Tripper sang about Santa Clause coming to town and wanting some teeth at his pre-school concert on the beach. Check out his Mr. Clause hat.

And The Lily even had a really nice tree lightening event complete with the jolly old elf himself. That's where we snapped this little Tomczak family picture.

But even as we are going through the motions of Christmas, it's just that, going through the motions. There is something missing and I've spent some time trying to figure out what. What is it? Why is this Christmas just not seeming like Christmas? And it all comes down to this.

You know all the crap that you are complaining about right now? The long shopping list and short time frame, the heavy traffic, the weather that's too cold, the weather that's too warm, the over-priced ham, the Christmas cards that haven't been addressed yet, the Christmas cookies you burned, the teacher's gift you forgot to send to school, the holiday carols that have been on the radio since Thanksgiving, the poinsettia that died too soon, the scrawny trees at the corner lot, the hustle, the bustle, the holidays? That is what is missing. All that crap, all that stuff that is so tedious, so stressful, so annoying. I miss it all. Why? Because in all the activity there is unity. During the holidays we are all doing the same things, all reaching for the same end goal. And as my friend Margaret wisely pointed out, we feed off each other during the holidays. There is unity.

And here, try as they might to make the holidays something special, sometimes it just seems like an empty Christmas package, all tied up with pretty bows, but nothing really inside. No togetherness. No unity. There is just so much going on, some many people, doing so many different things that the spirit of Christmas gets bogged down. It gets lost.

So, as you go about these final days before the 25th and busy yourself with all those holiday tasks you hate, think about it. If you didn't have all that, you wouldn't have the same kind of holiday. Last year I was doing the same, cursing every chore, every tradition, every task on my list. This year, I'm wishing it all back.  

Merry Christmas, everyone!  And it will still be merry here, but merrier still in a few more years.