Its Beginning to Look Alot Like...

by Tasha in Epigrams and Interludes 

Let's start with a little confession.

I love Christmas.

...I mean I really love Christmas.

It's easily my favourite time of year. It has candy canes and Christmas carols and - although tainted somewhat through consumerist coloured glasses - a general air of love and hope and forgiveness towards all people.

And yes, I realise that it is primarily a religious holiday, however I like to think that the spirit of goodwill through December trancends the bounds of religion and race and all other shackles that divide us and brings us together as just people.

Okay sappy I know, but what can I say - this season gets to me. And I'm not the only one. Turn on the TV - pick a channel, any channel, it's the week before Christmas and all through the world there are a rash of clumsy, sweet and overly sentimental Christmas-themed episodes, Christmas specials, Christmas movies and.... you get the idea. Every one of them - trying desperately to define the 'meaning' of this holiday. And it's not an isolated idea. Now is the time when every Tom, Dick and  Harry spurts off their own interpretation of what this season really 'means' and what is the right way to celebrate it.

Personally I think it's all too easy to get caught up in frivolous semantics and so wanted to share my three favourite examples of the deeper meaning of Christmas:

3. Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas - Community

Now I love Community. It's a great show, with some really funny spoofs of genres, movies, cliches. You name it - they've spoofed it. However, somehow in Season 2 - during a somewhat adorable stop motion animated claymation adventure - they embraced a somewhat unconventional idea. That the only important meaning Christmas has - is the idea that christmas has meaning, no matter what you believe or how you celebrate it.

 

For those of you who cannot watch the above clip, I'll include the lyrics (yes lyrics - they express these awesome ideals in an adorable song.....ending in an exploding pterodactyl...why don't all christmas songs end that way!!!!)

Christmas time is a time to sing

That’s what Christmas is for

Christmas can even be a Hanukkah thing

That’s what Christmas is for

And for a huge percentage of this God-fearing planet

It’s about the birth of Jesus Chri – i -ist

But for the rest of us it’s still a good time

To remember that it’s good to be nice

Music and cookies and liquor and trees

That’s what Christmas is for

Video games for two straight weeks

That’s what Christmas is for

Hanging out with the people you love

And saying ‘I love you’

That’s what Christmas is

That’s what Christmas is

That’s what Christmas is for

 

2. White Wine In the Sun - Tim Minchin

Tim Minchin is a fairly famous Australian/British Comedian. And while I don't always agree with him 100% on all topics - it's hard to disagree with his lovely Australian-themed addition to the Christmas fare. As the song is quite well written I'll let it speak for itself (lyrics below), but please forgive the scary-as animation - it's well worth it!

I really like Christmas
It's sentimental, I know, but I just really like it
I am hardly religious
I'd rather break bread with Dawkins than Desmond Tutu, to be honest

And yes, I have all of the usual objections
To consumerism, the commercialisation of an ancient religion
To the westernisation of a dead Palestinian
Press-ganged into selling Playstations and beer
But I still really like it

I'm looking forward to Christmas
Though I'm not expecting a visit from Jesus

I'll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They'll be drinking white wine in the sun
I'll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They'll be drinking white wine in the sun

I don't go in for ancient wisdom
I don't believe just 'cos ideas are tenacious it means they are worthy
I get freaked out by churches
Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords but the lyrics are dodgy

And yes I have all of the usual objections
To the miseducation of children who, in tax-exempt institutions,
Are taught to externalise blame
And to feel ashamed and to judge things as plain right and wrong
But I quite like the songs

I'm not expecting big presents
The old combination of socks, jocks and chocolate is just fine by me

Cos I'll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They'll be drinking white wine in the sun
I'll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They'll be drinking white wine in the sun

And you, my baby girl
My jetlagged infant daughter
You'll be handed round the room
Like a puppy at a primary school
And you won't understand
But you will learn someday
That wherever you are and whatever you face
These are the people who'll make you feel safe in this world
My sweet blue-eyed girl

And if, my baby girl
When you're twenty-one or thirty-one
And Christmas comes around
And you find yourself nine thousand miles from home
You'll know what ever comes
Your brother and sisters and me and your Mum
Will be waiting for you in the sun
Whenever you come
Your brothers and sisters, your aunts and your uncles
Your grandparents, cousins and me and your mum
We'll be waiting for you in the sun
Drinking white wine in the sun
Darling, when Christmas comes
We'll be waiting for you in the sun
Drinking white wine in the sun
Waiting for you in the sun
Waiting for you...
Waiting...

I really like Christmas
It's sentimental, I know...

1. Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire

The Simpsons have a timelessness that I adore - any time of the year. They are a purely disfunctional family....but they work because underneath it all they love each other and they are all united as they are all Simpsons. Now they have many a Christmas special but I think none drives home this point better than the very first Christmas episode, which was also the very first Simpsons episode ever. 

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last 20 or so years, (What...The Simpsons started the same year I was born. That...doesn't make me feel old at all!) I will try to sum it up here in 30 words or less - Family goes through credit crisis during Christmas. Dad tries a last ditch effort to make everything better....which fails horribly. However nobody really cares in the end because they have a new addition to the family and we are all reminded how important and awesome family really is. (47 words....so close!!!)

The brilliance of this Christmas classic is how simple it is. How many of us are in a credit crunch this Christmas? How many of us make silly mistakes that let down the people we care about most? It's a timeless concept that suggests that all of us together are all screwups - and therefore let's embrace the idea that all the little silly differences that keep us apart should really be bringing us together, that family and friends are important and time spent with them is special, not because it's Christmas - but because you love them.

 

Merry Christmas everybody!!!!

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