"What holiday did you celebrate this year?"
This essay deals with the various ways that the holiday which we call 'Christmas' is celebrated. It does not addresss the holidays of Ramadan, Hanakkah, Kwaanza or other religious celebrations which also occur around this time of year. My question is "Which version of Christmas did you celebrate?"

GIFT-Mas:
This is the most widely celebrated holiday; a product of capitalism and economic systems and clearly the most popular of the Christmas versions for Americans. This is where Santa Claus is the sacred personage, and the almighty dollar is the object of worship.

Most Americans (and others) would readily deny that they actually celebrate Giftmas instead of Christmas, after all, most of us grew up with the yearly anticipation of Santa Claus delivering us gifts and toys. And it was always presented to us as part of the Christmas celebration even though most of us only superficially associated any part of it as a celebration of the birth of Christ.

It surprises me that the Christian community is not 'up in arms' and boycotting the department stores that so overtly subscribe to the need to commercialise the Christmas holiday and spirit. Christmas trees, toys, gifts, tinsel, lights, blow-up snowmen, lawn-decorations; none of these have anything to do with the birth of Christ, and yet, more than 85% (speculated value) of persons claiming to celebrate Christmas include some or all of these idolic and vulgar decorations and rituals into their celebrations.

Yet they would be appalled that one would even suggest that they do any sacrilege to the holiday we call Christmas. Such is the arrogance of the religious sect in general and the Christian religious sect in particular.

X-Mas:
The second form of Christmas is the celebration of X-mas. An attempt to extend the holiday to persons of other religious persuasions by eliminating the Christ aspect of Christmas, and more or less giving rise to a permutation of Gift-mas instead.

With X-mas, one can say "happy holidays" or "season's greetings" to anyone of any faith and then offer gifts and rituals that are already more associated and becoming of the Gift-mas celebration. So X-mas clearly is a sub-product of Gift-mas and the desire to extend the worship of the almighty dollar to others outside the Christian faith.

In an attempt to be more 'politically correct' and in our celebration of X-mas, we find our homes, work spaces, social centers, and churches displaying a colliage of various images some religious like nativity scenes, and some mythological like snowmen, or Santa Claus. X-mas is another widely celebrated form of Christmas in America and abroad.

GUILT-Mas:
An extreme version of Giftmas that is celebrated in hesitance and trepidation of and for the holiday. A result of being pummelled by a barrage of commercialism, and the sudden increase in general well wishers. A person who celebrates Guiltmas would not normally subscribe to the holiday if they did not feel compelled to do so because they have received gifts or well wishes from others who may or may not normally be close to them in friendship or relation.

While they typically become part of the well wisher frenzy, they do so with internal disdain for those they spout return well wishes to. They are annoyed by the commercialism of the holiday, and they would rather be doing something else. But having been given a gift they are then filled with guilt that is only subdued by purchasing a gift for those who have given them gifts.

It is not uncommon for the celebraters of Guiltmas to have at hand a collection of generic non-descript gifts ready to give to those who have chosen to give them a gift. These non-descript gifts rarely have any thought, purpose or relevant meaning to the person receiving them, and may include gift cards, presents re-wrapped from previous Guiltmases, or other non-personal item given without any real well wishing or concern for the person to whom they give the gift.

Guiltmas persons are more than happy to see the holiday over with and life in society returning to the mundane status quo with which they are comfortable. The holidays are always too long, and the quicker they are finished the better things are as they return to the normal everyday life activities.

Mixed-Mas:
Most who say they celebrate Christmas do not celebrate Christmas completely in its true form and more than often celebrate some mix of all the other forms of Christmas, a sort of Mixed-Christ-Mas, or Mixedmas, with Christmas supposedly taking a prominent role.

While some are truly pious in there worship, others show there prejudice by restricting there activities to other Christians only; Or they show their arrogance by volunteering to do community service to the homeless, the infirmed, or the destitute, when actually they hide a hidden agenda that proposes to manipulate and attempt to convert non-believers to the Christian faith by their pretended acts of kindness.

They use the guise of aid and comfort while mentally looking down their noses at those who they consider less than human because they are not the same religious zealots that they are themselves. But even hint at the idea that you are not interested in the religion as a personal pursuit, and the aid, kindness, and support quickly dissipates away turning their energy instead to those they think that are borderline in their convictions and are more possible converts to the faith.

CHRIST-Mas:
For a tremendously smaller amount of Christian based faith people, who actually limit there celebration of the holiday with extra church going, and activities clearly revolving more around the birth of Christ concept, there is no doubt that they have Christmas in there hearts. These persons are very rare yet they seem to survive against the background of all the other forms of this holiday.

It is hard to celebrate pure Christmas in the midst of the other forms of the holiday that surround us socially, politically, spiritually, economically, intellectually, technologically, philosophically, emotionally, et al. Being bombarded from other forms of celebrations going on around us, it is hard to stay true to the concept that was to be representative of the proposed holiday and the worship of Christ.

For the sake of clarification as I write this blog, I must state that I, myself, am not a follower of the Christian faith (or any other man made religious institution), and that my comments here are based on my observations of society, and mankind/womankind as a whole during this holiday time of year.

GOD-Mas:
Finally, within the idea of a Christmas celebration there are the very very rare people who instead embrace and celebrate joy and happiness with others no matter what their religion, creed, ethic group, sexual orientation, intellect level, health, financial value, vices, criminal record, political station, physical stature, and/or other external/internal characteristics visible or invisible. They are happy and joyous to aid and support your own personal sense of being without any hidden agenda of trying to remove you from your choice of god or higher being concept or lack thereof.

For these people they are quick to wish you "Merry Christmas", "Happy Hanakkah", "Happy Kwaanza", "Happy Ramadan", "Joyous Fall Feast", or whatever your individual celebration may be and are joyous in learning about and sharing the rituals that you yourself are prone to become involved. They are not limited in what religious holiday they promote. And once they know your particular form of holiday, they are happy to share in your joy no matter what the religious rituals or social basis may be.

They are also known to expand their celebration of Godmas to other times of the year. Their acts of kindness, selflessness, and self sacrifice can be found on any day of the year. Godmas is not a one day a year celebration for them, but rather a daily form of belief and dedication to all aspects of the human race as a whole, all of society and the entire gamut of man-kind/woman-kind.

Spontaneous and random acts of kindness and senseless act of beauty is an every day event. That daily ritual of love and kindness to all becomes accentuated by the yearly 'holiday' season, as they are commonly swept up and carried along with the spirit of all the other forms of Christmas celebration.

Unlike the other celebrated forms of Christmas, those who celebrate Godmas, are not subject to stopping, delaying or waylaying their continued celebration after all the tinsel, trees, lights, and festive decorations are gone. To them, the day after or the day before Christmas is just as much a Godmas day as any other day of the year.

This is the level of celebration that I try to keep in my heart. I hope and pray that it becomes more of the status quo instead of all the other forms of celebration that I have described within this blog. Happy Godmas to all, and may you have Peace on Earth everyday of the year! : )

Summary:
Whatever your form of celebration; be it Giftmas, Xmas, Guiltmas, Mixedmas, Christmas, Godmas or other celebration; be the best at celebrating it as you can be, but be honest about exactly which form of the holiday you truly celebrate for their is nothing worse in the world then hypocrisy and deceit. Don't pretend to be something you are not, and do not 'cow-tow' to belief systems you do not subscribe to. Be strong in your own sense of belief and personal convictions and allow others to be strong in their own sense of the same.

Whether you are a person of FAITH or a person of REASON, be true to yourself and strive for a more noble pursuit beyond your own needs, wishes and desires. It is not the individuals who must survive and evolve on this planet but rather the whole of humankind that must live, share and evolve on this, our home; planet Earth!

Be Good; Stay Smart; Teach Peace!"

"Be Good; Stay Smart; Teach Peace!"