Days of Change

Apparently, Christmas is Coming

I’m a very color oriented person. If I make a complicated spreadsheet, the thing is color-coded like a rainbow. I also have liked electronics from the time a “computer” was a keyboard that you plugged into your computer with blocky graphics and the inability to communicate with anything outside the house. I’m a fan of Christmas lights, and I try to get some up for the year, inside and outside. When I started at my current job, I set up an elaborate Christmas display in my cubicle, with a tree, 50 feet of lights and a video Yule log.

In the last few years, I have stopped being quite as showy. I have a small set of icicle lights and I’ll still throw a few holiday movies on the video monitor. Ironically enough, there’s a high stakes decorating contest at work this year. I considered getting in early Monday with my set of decorations and making a gaudy Winter Wonderland out of my office. Instead, I’m celebrating Christmas by not decorating for money.

The so-called “commercialism” of Christmas doesn’t bother me much. It’s unfortunate that a previously obscure German saint has become the face of the holiday. Still, people of other faiths can celebrate it how they choose, as long as they don’t want to take it away from everyone else. Maybe we’re obsessed with giving gifts, but there should be one or two times of the year to do such a thing anyway.

I choose to light the way for the King of kings, rather than worship a tree. It’s a subtle but important distinction. I can buy my own gift card. I don’t need to be prodded into workplace spirit when there’s little spirit in it to move me.