Okay, so plenty of people will tell you Christmas or the holidays are about family and jesus, the movies say it, people on Facebook ritually preach it annually.
However these days the holidays are about commercialism, capitalism, and family obligations. Maybe I'm just cynical because that's how my grandparents made it. My childhood Christmases were rushing around, driving for hours to sit still at a table and have the exact same conversation over and over again because although my grandparents would emotionally abuse my parents if Christmas wasn't at theirs, my grandparents didn't know how to actually connect with us. Yup, I'm not exactly a grinch or a Scrooge, but for a long time I was apathetic towards Christmas, or just exhausted by it.
However as I dig into my practice of witchcraft and learn about the Sabbats, I see it in a new light and want to reinvent the celebration for myself, because at the roots I see something wholesome and enriching. I think Christmas is about community, think about it, Christmas and Yule were times when the community came together and supported one another, swapping preserves and giving to those lacking the supplies they need to finish surviving the sleepy season.
So how is this going to influence my celebrations?
Well at a work meeting I'm suggesting we replace secret santa with everyone contributing to have our work sponsor something. Secret Santa has a reputation of generating waste out of obligations, instead, wouldn't it be nicer to donate to a worthy cause and not receive another soap, offbrand chocolate, or festive themed mug you won't use? Honestly I don't think wish should replace the gifting obligation with a donation obligation but my co-workers freaked at the thought of not doing something so giving to charity is a much better obligation if one must have one.
I'm also considering volunteering or donating within the local community. I live in Australia so donating items to survive the winter isn't so useful but we get bad heat waves so I'm looking into ways to help the elderly, dependent individuals, and the homeless survive and cope with the heat waves. I am also donating to bushfire recovery organisations.
Family is community too so I'm spending time with family (with new boundaries I've enforced), I'm trying to build a sense of community in my family, it's very difficult in my family. I'm trying to negotiate preparing our meal together and plan games instead of repeating the same scripted conversation each year.
And of course, as someone who celebrates the sabbats I'm combining Litha with my family's Christmas traditions that I am actually fond of. I'll do a post later on my Litha - Christmas ideas.
Note: This year I'm not seeing my family in person because I refuse to help covid spread and my grandparents are extremely fragile, I don't want to risk their lives. So this I will be vidĂŠo calling my uncle who will be staying with my grandparents and the video call the rest of my family, we sent gifts and some haven't arrived yet but the ones that have will be opened on camera. Christmas doesn't mean we're immune to tradgies, please be responsible even if everyone else is drunk on the excuse of 'it's Christmas'. Please stay safe.
