Christmas Spirit Lost, Christmas Spirit Regained

There’s nothing like a Christmas ‘down under’ to make you dread the holiday season. Christmas traditions seem more like a perverse form of torture when it’s over one hundred degrees inside and out. It doesn’t help that, like our American cousins, we’ve started putting up the decorations before Advent even begins and taking them down before Christmas is even over.  By the second day of Christmas, Australians are preoccupied with cricket, the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, Boxing Day sales, and spending the rest of the summer vacation on the beach.I wish I could say otherwise, but if you’re searching for a traditional Christmas spirit, I wouldn’t be looking in Australia.

There’s a silver lining, though. Catholics in Australia have no choice but to make the best of it. It’s all that any of us can do.  So, here are a few tips from far-off Tasmania for how to regain a bit of Christmas spirit, just when you think you’ve had enough of it all.

1)  Observe the Twelve Days of Christmas.  In olden times, Christmas culminated in the most festive celebrations on the last day of Christmas, Twelfth Night. The best presents were saved until last, just like in the song, and it really was a holy-day season: Christmastide. You may not be able to take a long vacation like most Australians do at this time of year, but you can have a special dinner on Twelfth Night and keep some or all of your presents until this time.  There are plenty of old traditions you could resurrect, and it’s an ideal way to transition into Epiphany-tide.

2)  Explore other cultural traditions and go ‘old school’.  If your own family traditions feel stale, give yourself a break. Try some Italian panettone or German Stollen or even my own Tasmanian summer pudding. Build a gingerbread house with your children. Instead of putting on Christmas music in the background, gather everyone together to sing a few carols (but not before Christmas begins). Light lots of candles – but don’t forget to be safety-conscious – and go for a real tree with decorations you’ve made yourself. Make at least one thing from scratch, even if it’s just some simple brandy butter.

3)  Give spiritually as well as materially.  We could do well to learn from the Jewish tradition of giving thanks, contemplating Scripture, and doing good deeds, such as praying for others, on one’s birthday. For the birthday of Our Lord, what better gift can we give than to pray for others or to arrange for Mass to be offered for the intentions of someone in need. You can even arrange online for a Mass to be offered by a priest who himself is suffering or persecuted.

4)  Be a rebel.  Don’t put up your tree and other decorations until Christmas Eve, and don’t put Baby Jesus in His crib in the nativity scene until Christmas Day. (You don’t even have to have a tree if you don’t want to!)  Let the Magi start at the other end of the room (or house) and get progressively closer to your ‘Bethlehem’. Wish people a ‘Merry Christmas’ right through to January 5^th.

5)  Be charitable. Bring someone new into your home this Christmas. It doesn’t have to be on Christmas Day itself, but if you do know someone who might be spending Christmas alone make sure you invite them to join you in your celebrations. Otherwise, simply make an effort to be others-centred this holy season.  Introduce yourself to someone you don’t know after Mass, stop and talk to a homeless person on the street – have a real conversation with them – or make a meal for an elderly or sick neighbour.  Charity isn’t just giving money, it’s about giving of oneself. And if there’s someone you need to forgive, there’s no time like now.

At the end of the day, though, these suggestions will be of no help if you are determined to be a Scrooge. Some experience the joy of the coming of our Messiah in the worst of circumstances – we need only think of our Assyrian brethren – while others are full of despair despite good health, full bellies, and warm houses. It’s all about perspective. Ultimately, it’s up to you and me what we make of Christmas. It’s up to us to allow the Holy Spirit to reign in our lives.