With the darkness of the winter time comes to coziness. Outside it is dark and cold, inside you heat your room, light some candles, warm up with coffee and tea after a long walk in the snow – if there is some. Highlight of winter is Christmas. Definitely. And Christmas comes with the time of advent, its Christmas markets, warm punch, cookies, meeting friends, having a joyful time together. No stress, no hectic, just relaxing in the long nights and short days.
At least it should be like this. But the highlight of winter is the most stressful time, too! Christmas. People plan, people rush, people exaggerate. Instead of walking slowly over the Christmas market and enjoying the atmosphere they run, hit other people on their way to buy presents for everyone: kids, brother, sister, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins. Each year the same procedure:
“What do you wish for Christmas? What do you want to have?”
“Hmmm, maybe this, I don´t know. That is also very nice!”
“What about this?”
“Yeah, I always wanted to have some!”
And then it starts. People try to outclass the others. Their gifts have to be more in number and size, better, higher, more expensive, more exclusive than the ones from aunt, uncle, sister, brother or neighbors. Often it feels like a competition. In newspapers you can read headlines like these: German people never spend as much money on Christmas gifts as this year or In average every person is spending XXX € on Christmas gifts.
But is this the meaning of Christmas? Fighting a competition? Consuming as much as possible? No!
“Do they know it´s Christmas?” is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to fight with its benefits hunger and poverty in Ethiopia. The text asks if the people in Africa know that it´s Christmas time.
Do the people in Africa know Christmas? From Ghana I can say, they do! They also celebrate it, but in a different way. Most Christians go for quite a long time to church, Muslims and traditional believers don´t. But in their religion there is no thing like Christmas. They do not give huge presents. They visit each other if possible. Spending time together is as present already enough. In Ghana there is no cold during winter time, actually there is no winter at all. This reasons in no coziness as it is hotter than ever that time. Instead they go to the beach after church and celebrate with family and friends, spending a joyful time together. Or simply do the usual routine: work, as they need the money to survive and can´t risk not to work for one day.
The song would better ask the people in Europe and America if they knew it was Christmas time. What is the sense of many expensive presents on one single day in a year? You buy presents because you have to buy them, not because you like to give them with your heart. You give wrong presents people do not like because in the last moment you just buy anything and do not think about whether the person likes it or not. You just need a present.
Save this money for the right moment for someone who would be really happy about something small, something he or she really needs. Give it when someone needs it, not when you feel you have to.
That is what Christmas is about: Loving each other and being there for each other, spending time together.
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