This year our get together will be on Christmas eve as my older 2 children have plans to spend Christmas day with their partners families.

In my life I have enjoyed Christmases in both the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres and also near the equator in the tropics. I have spent Christmases with family, with friends and with strangers and in many different houses. We have had real trees and fake trees, potted trees. Radiata pines, Norfolk pines, cyprus pines and rubber plants and anything else that tinsel could be draped over. My mothers glass ornaments which became fewer and fewer as they got broken in moving, painted pine cones from school, paper angels with glitter… shiney new baubles of many colours and little treasures collected along the way.

Adding more later…..

…. and here is my more……..
I have had the good fortune to celebrate Christmas in a country where Christianity was not the dominant religion and my experience was that others participated, respected and joined our celebrations, maybe not in a religious sense but never the less, just as we joined and in in their respective holidays.

Holiday….holy day…….. really, what does it matter how we wish each other the best at this time of year…Happy holidays, merry Christmas, seasons greetings as long as there is good will? In our countries the 25th of December is a holiday and no matter what our beliefs are, most people take the opportunity to make this day a day of good will………. good will for our families, good will to our friends, our communities and to strangers. Some of us do this through worship, through family gatherings, serving our communities and caring for those less fortunate. We may also do this by giving to other s or accepting gifts, sharing meals or sharing worship or sharing our love for family and friends.
For those who celebrate a profoundly religious experience, that is their perogative, for those who celebrate out of tradition or even ‘just because’, I find nothing offensive in that.