December 3, 1996

Opinion/Editorial @* The Panther Prints

I love Christmas. It is my favourite time of year. The city gets covered in a gentle white blanket ofsnow and the air seems fresher and more crisp.

I love to walk around town and weave my way through the deadlocked traf- fic. It is so nice to watch drivers station themselves beside parked cars for hours on end, blocking traffic to mark their spot like a dog pisses out its territory. The blaring din of horns and yelled curses tells me that Santa is coming.

I love to wander through the malls and look at the shoppers. The sight of Islanders running from bargain bin to bargain bin, their Christmas list trailing behind them like toilet paper stuck to their shoes, always fills me with a sense of peace. Their faces are locked into a grin of need and despair, their eyes dead and empty. Sometimes I close my eyes and just listen to the sweet jingles of a shop’s register and the clicks of its VISA ma- chines. Good ol’ Cash Kringle.

I love to visit the mu- sic store and look for just theright Christmas CD. The choices are endless, so I have to take my time. I usually buy the music of the Saviour -- the Saviour be- ing Elvis; and HIS Christ- mas is always blue. This year, the kids are buying the

hymns of some gangsta rap- pernamed Sniffy Dog Drop- pings, who has gloriously taken time out from singing the beauty of crack and cop killing to tell us that Santa is black and he be THE MAN. How can “Silent Night” compare?

I love to walk around my neighbourhood and see the annual ‘Out- door Decoration Festival.” This is a time-honoured tradition where people com- pete to see who can light up their house with the most multi-coloured light bulbs. The winner gets a con- gratulatory phone call from the astronauts of the space shuttle when they spot their house from orbit.

Christmas is all this and more. It is the sign outside the Inn on the Hill that tells me there are only 35 shopping days left. It is the frantic rush of my friends trying to kill a tree in the name of baby Jesus. The form letters from my political representative, the processed egg nog, the blinking ornaments that beep out “Joy To The World” at three different sound levels. Who could ask for anything more?

What I love the most about this season is Christ- mas Eve. It is the time when I am sitting in my parent’s living room, sur- rounded by family, with my third glass of wine slowly moving to my head.

My father is telling his latest joke while my mother is rushing around serving carrots and dip. My wife is curled up against my shoul- der and my little niece is on my knee chattering to *Unca Peter.’ For one very brief moment, time freezes; and I gradually look around the room, seeing the faces of everyone I love. It is at that point that a feeling of incredible peace comes over me and I can’t help but say to myself “This is... right.” One needs to look no further to see what Christmas is really about.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Reminder:

Submissions for the first issue of 1997 must be in HUMP mee Thursday,

January 9, 1997 at 5:00 pm. Please make

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Ye submissions.

Editorial

Why | do not like Christmas....

The snow is coming down in those big flakes that young and old alike enjoy catching on their tongues. The air is frosty but not bitter. A green tree stands in the corner adorned with ribbons, lights, and delicate glass balls. Christ- mas carols spread through the house like the smell of turkey roasting in the oven. Loved ones gather around and listen to stories of Christmas before Nintendo. Parcels of green, gold, red and silver adorned with rib- bons and bows burst from under the branches of the tree ready to spill their con- tents. Ah, Christmas. Bah Hum Bug!

No, I do not like Christmas very much. Why? It is too commercial- ized, too...overdone. I have not always had this attitude, in fact I used to love Christ- mas - the gifts, the lights, all the gaudy decorations. | grew up. There is no such thing as Santa. My family never calls me by my first name around the holidays, they call me the Grinch, or Scrooge they know their merry carolling disgusts me.

Perhaps if Christmas was celebrated in a more meaningful way I would en- joy itmore. My ideal Christ- mas would be getting to- gether with my family, en- joying a big meal, spending the evening playing board games and cards. Just like Thanksgiving. I could do without all the trimmings that stores push on us--make us think we need in order to have a Happy Holiday. Do you really need a six foot Santa on your front lawn to enjoy this time of year? I

didn’t think so. Or this obligatory need for people to spend hundreds of dol- lars on gifts in order to prove to friends and family how much welovethem? Again- no.

Christmas should be a time of just enjoying life, no bells no whistles just quality time. Celebrate the birth of Christ if you are a Christian, but I do not re- member Mary and Joseph breaking out into a rendi- tion of “Jingle Bell Rock”, or showering each other with gifts from Sears. Last week my professor brought in Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, it was supposed to be a lesson in poetry, (how rhyming po- etry is not always bad), for me it turned into a beautiful way to think about Christ- mas. The Grinch finally gets the whole meaning of Christmas in the end of the show. I can not remember the exact words, but it goes something like... “[Christ- mas] it came without boxes and ribbon and tags”. The Grinch realized, like the Who’s from Whoville that you do not need fancy gifts and decorations to enjoy Christmas.

It is time that people learned to enjoy the holi- days not for the gifts and packages they bring, but for the people who bring them.

Remember, Christmas is a time for giving not re- ceiving. Why not give atoy to the Children's Wish Foun- dation or become an angel at the Upper Room this year? Your loved ones will appreciate your kindness , your generosity and your presence.