Since we were little and eager to wake up on the 25th of December all we heard was “you have to be good for Christmas or Santa will not give you presents”. This is the main task for a kid around the winter holidays, to be good, right?
When I was small I believed this to be true. I didn’t know my parents just wanted peace and quiet around the house as they were also taking a break from work during the winter holidays so when they told my sister and I that they personaly know Santa and they are calling him right now (their hands were on the phone, they were serious!) we suddenly became the nicest and best behaved sisters in the world.
This went on for years until, well you know, it turned out my parents didn’t know Santa at all. That didn’t stop us to behave all year long though.
I was never the good girl every parent dreams of but I could never in my life understand why people are only interested in doing good when Christmas approaches.
There are many things that make no sense at Christmas (for instance, Dojo’s eternal problem with the ones who take loans and indebt themselves for months just to eat 10 times more for 1 single day). She explains that so much better so I’m just going ahead with the other nonsense: why act better for Christmas and not all year long?
There is this commercial on TV, it says “For Christmas you can do better”. Who says you can’t do better all year long ? Is it ok to do bad things all year long and expect forgiveness at the end of it?
The last few years I had the “luck” to encounter some persons who do exactly this. Act like total jerks all year round and for Christmas I’m supposed to forgive everything and be best friends again. Just because Christmas is on the way they suddenly become little kittens and ask forgiveness and come up with this ridiculous speeches that “we are family” or “we were once such besties”.
My answer has always been no. I forgive, but I can never forget, Christmas or no Christmas.
My parents thought me well. They always made me think about how my actions would affect others and if I were on “the other side” how would I feel. This has always been my way of life, so to say: always put myself in the other person’s place and then and ONLY THEN act because some mistakes are irreversable.
This year I will, for the milionth time, ignore the ‘let bygones be bygounes’ messages and enjoy Christmas without any regrets. I have no reason to ask forgiveness to anyone, my conscience is clear and I’m glad I don’t have to “do better” for Christmas. I “did good” all year long.
Well, we live in an over-hyped society and people make all this holidays more than they are. The media and Hollywood have their part of the blame too, but in the end we should know better. We’re not animals, we’re humans.
For me Christmas or any holiday is just some time off work and an opportunity to spend time with the ones that matter. All the rest is ‘junk’ 😀