The warmth of Christmas
This week I attended my first Christmas party. Yup. First! I am not really sure if there will be any more parties that I will attend after it, but at least, I managed to join one, right? There is something about these parties that signal the official beginning of the Christmas holidays for me.
When the invitations start coming in, it means we have to get ready for a lot of things like gift-giving, sharing and an immensely crazy increase in foot traffic to the malls as well as the worsening of traffic conditions in the city! Keeping your cool while stuck in traffic on a hot midday is indeed a true test of patience and probably a good argument when you discuss with Santa how much you have been good this year! Yep, the traffic seems to be a tell-tale sign that the parties have began!
Incidentally, this year also marks the first time that I have ever managed to attend a SunStar Christmas party. I have been.attempting to come and join the yuletide festivities but each year, I had good reason (to my dismay), to skip it! After seven years, I finally did it! It was fun to be part of the party, to see people you work with (although I usually just submit my articles by email) let their hair down and have fun. It just amazes me to witness people enjoying each other’s company! The good vibes just rubs off on you and that feels really good!
I guess that’s what Christmas is all about. To celebrate the year that has passed and rejoice in the fact that it is the season that commemorates the birth of Christ. It gives us, the people who observe the season, the opportunity to remember good things as well as do more of it, because it is the season for giving.
Now that December is here, we will be walking around trying to be nicer, just because this is that time to be less naughty and be more nice. I guess the mere thought of Christmas makes us more mellow, more forgiving. We are less grouchy and more good-natured. Yup, Christmas makes us more likeable!
I think that this is the perfect time to be more relaxed. Stress sticks out like a sore thumb and it kills the spirit of Christmas if you ask me. I have always been.thankful that Christmas comes at the end of each year because I believe that by being so, it softens life’s blows, especially if you have been taking quite a beating throughout the year.
I think that Christmas provides a perfect ending for any year, especially for Christians/Catholics/believers and for people who celebrate with us. To end the year celebrating life can lift any downtrodden spirit, and perhaps even fill it with.much hope for the coming year.
Things may have been challenging, if not difficult. The demands at work or even within family circles may be a bit too much for comfort. We may be plagued with various illnesses and might still be continuously suffering from them. We may have unresolved conflicts with others as well.as within ourselves that continue to trouble us. But hey, it is Christmas! It is the perfect time to just be happy and be thankful!
For once we can choose to be positive and lighthearted. We can perceive things in better light so that we can go about our usual business happily and sincerely, with a smile on our face. We can choose to see what’s around us in a more positive light, be more hopeful, less pessimistic. Maybe we can even manage to really laugh heartily, expelling sad emotions so that we can appreciate the beauty of life more than its dark recesses.
We should really take advantage of the Season. To rejoice amidst the happy carols that play over and over day in, day out. Allow ourselves to swayed into being jolly, just because it is the season to be so! Bask in the happy twinkling of the Christmas lights that dance before our eyes, coaxing us to do the same! Really, we should be happy because it is the time to be so! It really is that time of year, let us all take the celebration.of Christmas to heart so that we can keep its warmth within us the rest of the new year so that it will always be Christmas deep within each one of us!