Once upon a time sleighs were practical conveyances in wintertime. Horse-drawn wagons were impractical on icy, snowy roads, so it was logical to take a sleigh ride if you were off to visit friends or relatives.
How many people do you know who’ve ever ridden a sleigh for practical reasons? Now sleighs exist for us mostly on Christmas cards and in corporate beer commercials, selling us that nostalgia.
It’s natural for memories to attain a hearth-warmed glow. The worries and fears of a prior time are gone, and we can cherry-pick the happiness of a moment and remember it for what we wanted to be, if we choose, rather than a fuller picture of what it completely was.
And so childhood can attain that glow, or any given time gets the wistful patina, missing what is forever gone.
But nothing in modern life quite does this for us the way Christmas does. I gather that right from the start of the modern Christmas celebration (mid to late 19th century) it was developed as nostalgia — I suppose being a family celebration fosters this, too. It is a time to return to one’s family, whether from school or a new home, to return back to a place you once knew, and the trip backward began.
So Christmas is hyper-nostalgic, the original myth now wrapped in mythic wrapping paper. And its emblems and trappings ossify, trapped in a particular time: candlelit trees (become ornaments shaped as candles), stockings hung at a fireplace, sleigh bells — there may have been a time when a fur-trimmed outfit like Santa’s might have been fashionable (forgetting the fire engine red, for a moment) but that time has passed.
And yet we “harken” back, year after year, only now the trusty sleighs seem aimed at the malls more than anywhere else; a commercial undergirding propels the myth forward, fueled by the desire for a black bottom line.
More to come.
OmbudsBen 
My siblings and I decided not to give each other material stuff this year. That is a relief. On the other hand, I did go shopping the morning and it was totally fun.
I completely agree. My working theory has always been that Christmas is best for children who are creating their own nostalgia, parents who are sharing their own nostalgia to create their children’s nostalgia, or people who are just nostalgic for their own nostaligic happy memories. If you are an adult without children or happy nostalgic memories, Christmas definitely loses its luster.
But, I feel fortunate in some ways – I am not beholden to a mythical childhood and can choose to celebrate in any way I choose.
Aw, it’s not all bad though. There is a ‘spirit’ to Christmas, it just gets harder to find it seems, as the years pass.
My favorite Christmas song is a traditional folk song (“Young Charlotte”) about a young woman out on a sleigh ride with her beau on a cold snowy night. She is too vain to wear her coat, and when they get to their Christmas party, she has frozen to death! Makes me laugh. I suppose that’s sick of me, but the treacly sentimentality and crass commercialism of it all does need some counterbalance. Well, I’m just grabbing my jacket and heading out for the evening. Happy Solstice to you!
BGG, I’m with you on giving up gift-giving this year … and glad you enjoyed your shopping trip. (Do you want to go have fun doing my shopping for me, too? ;))
LB: Thanks — one of the odd things in our house is how we seem to have switched roles. Mrs. Ombud is more into Christmas than I am, but somehow she is less into it as time goes by, and I am the one who kept mentioning putting lights up in our windows. I guess it’s a relationship thing, how you pick up on the energy of the other.
One of the neat things about the Bay Area, I find, is how positive and creative people can be with traditions like this. I’ve had some pretty fun nontraditinal Christmases, err, solstice celebrations, out here.
Am., you’re right; it can be a very positive time of year. But I think it also helps to have a child, as you do, and to see it all through the kids’ eyes.
Bosquechica, I have some friends who would enjoy that one, macabre humor is a specialty. And I have friends I get together with every year to celebrate the solstice. One of our themes is taking back the pagan festival the Christians took over in the first place. Candles are involved, as well as beer or wine.
Do you know the role mistletoe played in the Celts’ solstice celebrations?
It’s really odd seeing ‘snowy’ green boughs of holly and sleighs and whatnot here in Sevilla streets (I think the last time it snowed here was over 50 years ago and people still talk about it, even though the snow had melted by midday).
I’m not sure how I feel about Christmas anymore. I used to love it and would even make a big fuss about decorating when I knew I’d be spending the holidays on my own. I think living with a ‘scrooge’ has sort of taken the fun out of it for me.
Az., I first arrived in southern California in December. It was my first Christmas away from home. Palm trees, shorts, fake snow, Santa costumes in the heat, it all seemed comical to me.
I’ve gotten used to it now, but it still feels tinselly to me. There aren’t many chimneys here for Santa to wriggle down with his sackful of gifts.
Too bad your Scrooge takes the fun out. Is there nothing about the holiday your Scrooge likes? Food, drink, candlelight during the winter solstice? Mistletoe has its merits …
I want to be done with work. Skipping Thursday was kinda dumb. I’m playing catch-up now.
I’ve been thinking that people who go to malls deserve it. Unkind thoughts…oh well. Back to work…
Christmas has lost any meaning to me. In the past it didn’t mean much, I don’t have faith or belief. Now, in a snowless land of palm trees I don’t have any physical holiday frame of reference. Yes, we have Christmas parties and celebrate on a limited scale, but there is not the same level of commercialization as North America. A good thing.
BGG, I hope you got all your work done and can now relax.
Stevo, I’ve also spent Christmas in Belize and Guatemala (rasta Christmas caroles were a kick) and in Indonesia.
The predominantly Muslim Indonesians observe the holiday. When I asked one of them why, he said to show respect.
I liked that. And yet, as you point out, it wasn’t commercialized, either.