Long Lay The World

iTunes songs left: 29!

Yes, I'm still having a wonderful Christmas time, but all the holiday cheer has kept me from really having time to write in the blog, or think about much else other than doing the shopping, spending time with everyone, and otherwise generally being busy with the hustle and bustle of it all. Tomorrow, I'm leaving to go home for a few days. I'll be posting from there, most likely.

Some things are different about this Christmas. First, more than any other year, it has come quickly, with nary a whimper in my normal everyday life. That is to say, until this week, it didn't even hit me that the holiday season was upon us (despite putting up the tree in our apartment). It was only after shopping and participating in Gina's family's Christmas traditions that it even started to set in. I didn't even load up all my Christmas music on my computer until a couple of days ago, which is certainly different from last year, when I was poring over different versions of every conceivable song for my Christmas CD compilation. It's not that I haven't been enjoying myself - from the holiday parties at work to exchanging gifts at Gina's last night, it's all been a blast - but I guess the fast-paced style of this year's holidays has just left me with very little time to reflect on anything. This weekend, though, I should be able to recharge and do just that, with family.

This is all assuming, of course, that Christmas isn't erased by political correctness and commercialism, right? Gina was telling me recently of a company who canceled a holiday-themed wall-decorating contest because it might have been offensive to employees who didn't want to participate. For those workplaces and organizations that get itchy even mentioning Christmas for fear of offending someone, I propose an opposite solution: include everyone. Have all kinds of holiday celebrations. Make everyone happy. Have everyone decorate walls in their own style. From Kwanzaa to Chanukkah and everything in between, have an area designated just for the people who celebrate that holiday. As for the atheists? Give them some coffee and let them leave their wall completely blank. I don't care; that would be fine with me.

I'm not sure how much I believe all this "Christmas is under fire" controversy going on around the land, but it seems like the very fact that people are making a big deal of it is causing it to become a big deal. It's nothing new, but as time goes on, the real world could actually succeed in sucking the fun and joyousness out of the occasion... but only if we let it.

Have a safe and happy Christmas, everyone. If you celebrate something else, have a safe and wonderful one of those, too.