The sun, a great orange fireball, slowly descends below the horizon. But even as the flaming aurora fades, other more dazzling lights appear. Flashing in all the colours of the rainbow, ignoring American spelling... They shine out from doorsteps, radiate from plastic conifers, sparkling off the many silver bells and golden angels. Green, red and gold. In the doorway, enthusiastic people greet the relatives they waited all year to see. Grinning, winking, shaking hands. Some being more soft-spoken, shy away, but have the same warm glow in their hearts as everyone else. They step in, still exchanging Christmas gifts and flattering comments, though many of the latter were more for show than sincerity. It is only once everyone has settled in, taken a place on a poofy couch, or that nice old rocking chair, can one truly appreciate the variety of people in a family. The older ones, discussing their plans for the new year. The grown-up siblings, catching up on the years gone by. Perhaps a new business plan, or maybe someone won a lottery. Down on the beautifully embroidered carpet, small children squeal in delight as they re-acquaint themselves with the ones whom they played with a year ago. Maybe some teenagers, who pass snide comments about the family, enjoying a small inside joke. Perhaps noticing a humorous flaw in the decorations, or something... Suggestive looking. By now, parents are comparing grades, asking each other's children about school. Natural, of course. As the sky turns completely dark, and the only sounds are gentle Christmas tunes, somewhat clouded by the constant chatter and clinking of cutlery, one would realise: There's no time like Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas, Everyone! Yeah, "Everyone" with a capital E because people are supposed to be special... Or something.

It's that time of the year again. Done with the shopping, now going visiting. Those of us who celebrate Christmas would surely see this as a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and relatives, to get away from the hectic schedule of everyday life. Even if you don't, there's no doubt that you've noticed the festive cheer, and besides, New Year's around the corner, so why not?

Christmas can mean a lot of things to people. To some it's a time to go out and party, eat chips and drink. For others, it has a more religious connotation. For me... Well, it's just one of those "Oh damn I need to enjoy this last week before school" days. Plus the whole relatives thing. And the food. Can't forget the food. After all, it's the same every year. Template Christmas dinner: Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes/buttered rice, salad. Still, that doesn't stop it from tasting good.

This Christmas Eve, the traditional card games almost didn't happen. I was feeling dead tired and my brother was watching something on TV. It was only after he couldn't stand watching that mega acid trip(AKA The Polar Express) and I had decided that Christmas wasn't Christmas without a game of Bridge, did we get it underway. It was somewhat more subdued this time, though, since we were missing one important person, and one other person just wasn't in the mood. I guess having a smaller group makes it... Less fun. I shouldn't complain, but I couldn't help noticing that the laughs were becoming fewer and further between(lol improvising speech). Plus, everyone went home early this time. A few years back, we almost always stayed till midnight at least, for the traditional "Merry Christmas!" thing. But no. One family left before eleven, and the other just before the clock hit.

Christmas magic. It's all in your head, people. If you want to believe that Christmas is special, it will be. If you start thinking too much, everything just dulls down a lot. I wonder if anyone's ever thought about how the Christmas traditions came to be. Like an Evergreen tree, for example. Why that? And why hanging ornaments and lights on it? Most people assume that it's just for aesthetic purposes, but it can't be that simple. Every tradition we have today has been passed down and evolved from some ancient practice to what we're familiar with. To tell you the truth, I have no idea, either. However, I did stumble upon an article from cracked.com explaining some of it.

Why December the 25th? We all know that those Bible expert people have concluded that the birth of Jesus was actually sometime in March. I'm not going to bother reading through that whole book, so I'll take their word for it. Well, guess what? December 25th is right after a 7 day Pagan festival known as Saturnalia. It was a time when people celebrated the agricultural god, Saturn. It was also a time of merry making, public nudity, drunkenness, and stuffing of the stomach. Kind of like the Roman equivalent of "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." They did a lot of retarded things like switching roles of masters and slaves for a day. Why is this important? Because the Catholic Church would have undoubtedly wanted to distract the people from this week-long Pagan orgy. So, create a holiday on the 25th and claim it to be the birthday of Christ! How convenient.

Or, it could just be a nice date to put a holiday on.

What about those trees, you wonder. Well, believe it or not, this one has Norse mythology in it. Those Norse people, they were crazy. They would worship anything. Trees, mountains, rocks, pools, sticks that look like male genitalia. Well according to reliable(cough) history sources, there was a great oak tree that the vikings found and decided to call it Thor's Oak. They did a lot of stuff there, namely ritual sacrifice. Well one day, a Christian missionary now known as Saint Boniface came along and chopped Thor's Oak down with a sturdy hatchet. Apparently he wasn't really happy about people worshiping trees. According to Norse customs, that should actually make him the defeater of Thor, the god of thunder. But yeah... He's Christian, so he didn't accept the title. According to the reliable(ack!) history source, Saint Boniface noticed a small fir tree growing in the stump of the oak. Now here's the thing: The triangular shape of a fir tree is supposed to represent to holy trinity. Thus, any old-world Christian would immediately make the connection to his religion, and make it an integral part of an important tradition.

The part about decorating a tree... Well, that actually is just about aesthetics. Makes the room look nice, supposedly.

And you know that thing about kissing under the mistletoe? Well, that has some sick origin too. It was believed that the sticky goop that comes out from the berries was actually semen of the gods. It was a pagan thing. It's got Norse origins, too. Apparently, if two warriors were to meet under a mistletoe in the forest, they were to put down their weapons and make peace for the day. There was nothing about having sweaty viking make-out sessions in the text... But that doesn't mean they never happened.

So, leaving all of you disturbed with that last paragraph...


Good day, all. Have a happy holiday!

-Joe