Christmas Spirit Takes Precedence Over Christmas Season

By Bud Focht

Hi, my name is Bud and we had snow over the weekend. With the first snowfall of the season, I’ve had a change of heart when it comes to beginning the Christmas Season.

I used to hate it when we no sooner changed the clocks in the fall and the stores would start playing Christmas music and people in the neighborhood would start putting up Christmas lights.

It was always too soon for me.

It ranked right up there with seeing Back-To-School sales in July newspapers when I was trying to enjoy my boyhood summers.

Even starting the Christmas Season on Black Friday used to bother me, when all I wanted to try to do was digest turkey, stuffing, yams, peas, biscuits, ham, turkey, sweet potatoes, string beans, corn bread, cranberry sauce, turkey, gravy, carrots, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and turkey from the day before.

I now know that my own ‘War on (the rush to) Christmas’ was because, with my work schedule, I was never ready to deal with all of the commercialization of the holiday. You know, having to fight the crowds to buy gifts, putting up tacky decorations on the house, drinking way too much eggnog. Instead of putting me in the Christmas Spirit, it was making me act like Ebenezer Grinch.

I have a neighbor who lets everyone on our street know when to celebrate what. October 1 the witches, jack-o-lanterns, fake grave stones and skeletons are in place in the front yard. November 1 the giant turkeys and pilgrims inflate. And on Black Friday, when everyone else in the neighborhood is either in a shopping line or trying to find a parking spot at the mall, he is hanging his Christmas lights.

When I was growing up in a Catholic family in the 60s, taught by grade school nuns, the Christmas season would begin with Advent, usually the first Sunday of December. Four Sundays to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Christ.

We believed Christmas was all about what Linus told Good Ol Charlie Brown. “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

I still believe that, but I am afraid I have grown to know that the chronology doesn’t work for December 25.

Santa from the North Pole works well with the pagan winter solstice rituals and made for a good time of year to kill a tree and give presents, but I am afraid Biblical historians will tell you otherwise. All indications point to Jesus of Nazareth, because of, among other reasons, shepherds being in the fields watching their flocks, was actually born during late summer or early fall, probably in September. That also coincides with the Biblical fact of Jesus being born about six months after John the Baptist, who we know was born in the spring, probably March.

Turns out these days December 25 is just a good day for Jews to go out and eat Chinese food before going to the movies.

Sorry. That last paragraph or so sounded a little Bah Humbugish. Like the Scrooge that Stole Christmas.

But I’ve had a change of heart. And not a heart two sizes too small, like Scrooge. Or was that the Grinch? I seem to be mixing my midwinter metaphors.

Now that I am a caregiver 24 hours a day for my wife Terry, who is in the middle stages of Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, I no longer have time for all of the commercialization bullshit of the holiday. I can no longer afford to buy gifts. I don’t decorate. I don’t even have time to get out to the store to pick up too much eggnog.

And because I no longer do all of the running around, because I no longer deal with all of the commercialized holiday bull, I now believe more in the miracle of the Christmas Spirit, and look for it to arrive as soon as possible.

Because the miracle of the Christmas Spirit is something we need to believe in, as Bill Murray so eloquently said at the end of the movie Scrooged: “If you believe in this spirit thing, the miracle will happen and then you'll want it to happen again tomorrow. You won't be one of these bastards who says 'Christmas is once a year and it's a fraud', it's NOT! It can happen every day, you've just got to want that feeling. And if you like it and you want it, you'll get greedy for it! You'll want it every day of your life and it can happen to you. I believe in it now! I believe it's going to happen to me now! I'm ready for it! And it's great! It's a good feeling, it's really better than I've felt in a long time. I'm ready. Have a Merry Christmas, everybody.”

Like I used to say to the coeds when I was in college, especially the hippie chicks, “There isn’t enough love in this world, so maybe we should make a little.”

Love and Peace and Joy, that is what the Christmas Spirit is all about.

Everybody acts a little nicer when they have the Christmas Spirit. Like the way my wife Terry used to act ALL the time.

Terry was the meekest, most polite and good-hearted person I have ever met. There is not a person alive or dead who ever met Terry and did not love her, did not feel the peace and joy in her heart.

About 20 years ago Terry found a group of people who were very similar to her. She joined their Bible Study group and was very happy. About three years ago her diminished cognitive skills prevented her from following what was going on, so I began taking her to their weekly meetings and one of their annual regional conventions.

And at that convention I Witnessed something extraordinary. At a convention attended by close to 9,000 people, I saw a young mother go up to a perfect stranger and say “Could you hold my baby while I use the restroom?” And when she returned from the restroom there were three or four additional people, men and women, all helping to entertain the baby until the young mother returned.

Now how many of us would ever have the testicles to do something like that, and feel in full confidence that everything would be all right?

Is there a group you know of that if you went to their convention, you could do that? The Democratic or Republican Conventions? Maybe the Teamsters?

If I went to a ball game with 9,000 people I wouldn’t trust a stranger to hold my beer, let alone my baby.

As I said a few minutes ago I grew up Catholic.  But I don’t think I could even ask someone I didn’t know to hold my baby in church while I used the little alter boy’s room.

In over 50 years of Church-going I witnessed too many times people smiling and shaking hands with the sign of peace during Mass and 20 minutes later cutting each other off trying to get out of the parking lot in order to get home to watch the game or get a good seat at IHOP.

But these people I Witnessed at that convention always seem to have the spirit that some of us are only lucky enough to experience around the Christmas Season. 

So now I believe the longer we can experience “the miracle” of the Christmas Season, Christmas Spirit, that Bill Murray spoke about, the better.

Let’s start the Christmas Season, start spreading the Christmas Spirit, as soon as possible.

How about Christmas in July?

Until next time, spread the Christmas Spirit, and don’t stop spreading it when you take down the tacky Christmas decorations.

Bud