Christmas Has Changed Its Meaning Over The Years... #UnWrapChristmas
I thank Richa to have passed the wand of festive cheer to me. So I here #UnWrapChristmas with the flavors that this day gave me over the years since childhood.
When in school, Christmas for me was winter vacation, making greeting cards with ‘Merry Christmas’ on the top in red, buying small to tiny cards from the roadside stalls costing something between two to five rupees each, visiting the church in the school, admiring the beautiful decorations and the big red star perched atop the church, and finally, and most importantly having that delicious piece of cake from Sister Margaret before leaving. It was no Christmas if there was no cake.
In that transition between school and college, Christmas
became just another holiday to pass my time home. Moving from the familiar
surroundings of a small town like Keonjhar to the capital city of Bhubaneswar was
nothing short of a tumultuous tectonic shift for me. It was a tough period and
I had resisted the change as much as I could. Christmas didn’t seem as I had
known it. I accepted that with time and in my 12th grade, Christmas
meant the joy of giving, get-togethers, book-fairs and enacting musicals in
school.
In college my views and perceptions were again contradicting
with that of the crowd. Christmas meant after-semester-exam-fun. My friends
mostly slept through the day after toiling hard for nights together for the
exam preparations. Again the change was too much for me to bear. No one wanted
to go to the Church, click a picture of the Christmas tree with the first Nokia
handset and most importantly no one loved cards anymore. No gift exchange. Rarely
anyone accompanied me to the book fairs. No card making- it was considered
outdated and old fashioned and un-cool. No
musicals. No cake. No school. I missed school. Again I felt like the victim of ‘Change’.
And again I tried hard to see the good in it- Christmas meant family get-togethers
now, and travelling to the picnic spot in a big bus dancing throughout the
journey.
After years, now, fast forward, Christmas has brought back
all those emotions I used to feel as a child. The joy of giving is back. Secret
Santa and gift exchange is cool and happening. Cake and cards are back in
scene. Church going and having a good company is back too. Even the book fairs
and the Christmas tree decoration in the office cubicles in back with a bang. Get-togethers
are always there. ‘Change’ has finally taken a circular path, back to where it
had started. And for the first time in years I haven’t resisted it.
Thank You Secret Santa For Such a Wonderful Gift!!! |
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