You better not pout, I’m telling you why

Addison Moreland Staff Writer

“I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel. I just don’t understand Christmas I guess. I like getting presents, and sending Christmas cards, and decorating trees and all that, but I’m still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed.” said Charlie Brown in the classic holiday TV special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Charlie Brown certainly is not the only one who faces melancholy during the holiday season. As we mature, Christmas also becomes less exciting for students.

The season of Advent begins just a few weeks before Christmas and culminates in the celebration of Jesus’ birth. It’s a wonderful time of year, with gift-giving, family reunions, and all the brilliant lights and decorations for the community to see. I’m fully aware that for the vast majority, Christmas is about celebrating friends, family, reindeer, and Black Friday sales rather than remembering his advent. Nonetheless, it seems that an era when we were immersed in the holiday season is now archaic.

As someone who decorates their Christmas tree on Nov. 1, I’m preoccupied with the approaching holiday season all through fall and am virtually on the edge of my seat as the seasonal commercials commence to air. And watching them only brings back cheerful memories of past Christmases.

My brother and I would rush to the Christmas tree at the crack of dawn to find an inexhaustible pile of toys. Our eyes would widen with ecstasy and wonder as our drowsy parents, roused by our shouts and laughter, hauled themselves to the sofa to witness the scene.

We yearned for this season as children. Our parents teased us all year by saying, “You better be good or you’ll get coal in your stocking.” Christmas brings a respite from school, snow on the ground, delicious snacks, and new toys. But as I’ve matured, I’ve come to view my Christmas spirit as an evolved or changed sentiment. I now wait for my brother and parents to wake on Christmas morning prior to running to the tree to see what Santa brought me.

Christmas has been stereotyped and reinvented as a gift-giving celebration. The true significance has been suppressed and obscured. The season has evolved in the same manner that we have. The change of this holiday has been so drastic that the birth of Jesus has been overlooked and lost in the bustle of day to day life.

The behaviors and attitudes that surface at this time of year are so typical that no one considers them strange or callous and should be promptly addressed. When you look back on the holidays, I’m confident your most precious memories are of a loved one unwrapping a gift that you spent so long shopping for, wrapping, and keeping a surprise. That being said, we should all take time this holiday season to give back to the community and find the joy in giving, rather than recieving. Don’t be a Grinch in a world of Cindy Lou’s.