Things I thought on waking up this morning--I'll try to remember 5 things; I'm sure I had 5 thoughts

[capri0mni]

(Not necessarily in the order I thought them, just in the order that I'm remembering them).

1. How odd it is (is it odd?) that I've become a Born Again, Spiritual Atheist, and yet, still believe in "Santa Claus," "Jolly Old Nick," "Chimney John," "Pelsnickel" (or whatever you choose to name him).
   
   1. This probably makes me an opposite of most Christianly-raised adults, who want kids to grow out of belief in Santa at some point, while still keeping their faith in God.
      
   2. The thing is, "The Solstice Gift-Giver (of whatever name)" is a personification of Nature, and of Generosity on the mortal plane, in the Here-and-Now. And in my personal ethics schema, it's the Here-and-Now that is the most important. And being a personification is just as powerful as being tangibly "real." So maybe that's why.
      
   3. Also, "Santa" is one of those Otherworld / Realm of the Dead figures who makes housecalls (unlike the ghosts and ghoulies of Halloween, who wait for you to venture out), and he brings you gifts / presents from his Otherworld Realm, which is an infusion of magic and creativity into our here-and-now lives, and maybe that's why Santa is extra magical, and losing belief in him strikes many as extra-sad.
      
   4. BUT -- I still cringe at the thought that Belief = Good. You don't have to believe in God, or Santa, or the Sandman, or anything else, to have a strong, ethical character.
   
   
   
2. I wish those relatives who send me Christmas cards, each year, would include their email addresses. The Internet is the bestest, most accessible way for me to stay in touch with the world.
   
   
3. Cake gingerbread is the Bestest thing in the whole world, especially this time of year. And I want some. I'm really grateful that I have no food allergies.
   
   
4. I like to watch How-to / Crafting Vids; Many focus on small, homemade gifts. Many are all about creatively wrapping up foods / candies as appreciation gifts for teachers / service providers, et alia. But this strikes me as risky, because so many people do have food allergies, and you may not know about them. If I had kids in school, or had more contact with the outside world, and needed to come up with a long list of people to give small gifts to, at the end of the year, I think I'd choose to do something like artsy refrigerator magnets, attached to post-it notepads -- something useful. Or maybe make a bunch small desk calenders. Something like that. Food makes wonderful gifts, but I'd only give them to family or friends, so I'd know if anything was off limits.
   
   
5. My Doctor Who, Mary-Sueish daydreams (yes, I have them -- doesn't every DW fan, at some point, daydream of being a companion?) are less about the adventures on far-away planets, then they are about the day I return to Earth, and reestablish my relationships with friends, and how to deal with folding in all the experiences I've lived through back into my Earthly life. I got stuck in such a daydream, yesterday, and couldn't get out of it.
   
   I think this means that I wish my life had a reset button... (and that I could meet up with friends, and get/give hugs) :-/

I almost didn't include the first item on this list, for being atheist-centric, because I know many on my reading-friends list are Believing Christians. But I went ahead with it, because I intend it merely as a statement of my own beliefs, and in no way a criticism of anyone else's.

Also, it give me context for this vid -- "Zat you, Santa Claus?" by Louis Armstrong. And I was in the mood to share some music, and a vid:

It takes a while to load, even with my broadband, but if you can watch it, it's worth it. :-)

Comments

[chronographia]

There's a lot of exitential angst tied up in good ol' St. Nicholas, isn't there? I remember being four and fretting that he wouldn't know where my family lived because we had no chimney. When you're four, that part is INTEGRAL to the mythos. But I don't particularly recall the moment I lost faith in him, I just remember being seven and looking at 'Santa's note' and thinking it was a bit of an affectionate and good-hearted game that people did:

Shh! It's a secret, I wanted to get you something nice and non-utilitatian but you are not to know it's from me, so let us use this kindly cultural figure as a placeholder. Are we agreed? Yes? Good.

And I remember being pretty ok with that. There was no teasing or peer pressure from other kids, or the need to 'spoil' it for them. It was just . . . a thing-I-began-to-understand-about-humans-for-which-there-is-no-adequate-word.

It is never a wrong time for Louis Armstrong.

Nom to gingerbread cakes too. I've cut down drastically on my holiday foods, both due to lack of energy, lack of interest, and lack of splurge money for ingredients, but gingerbread cakes are something I can and will do.

Edit: Eeee! My icon matches the layout! Well done Avon and your clever space rock.

[capri0mni]

I don't remeber the day I stopped believing in Santa. But I do remember the day I started again:

I was 21, and taking part in my dorm's "Secret Santa" game. The name I drew was one of the nursing students, who spent all of their time Studying Upstairs and never fraternizing with us Humanities students downstairs, and I didn't even really know what her face looked like, even.

But when I was in the college bookstore, perusing the shelves of knick-knacks and predesigned gifts, I heard a voice in my head -- clear as a five-minute memory -- say

Get her the chicken soup...

So I did. And put it in her sock hanging in the dorm lounge.

I heard her come in, and exclaim:

"...Just what I needed! I'm coming down with a cold!"

Now, who else could it have been, whispering in my ear, if not Pelznickel?

And I've been a believer ever since... though not a believer in the entire current cultural mythos...

Well done Avon

^Points to Icon^

[megaptera]

I gotta say I always dreamed about being the Doctor like boys do, rather than a companion like girls do. :P Yes, my Doctor was a bit of a Sue who looked like me and had a coat suspiciously like mine. Man, I need to go draw some of those stories because she really was awesome, especially when you consider that most of the Doctors are just uber-Sues themselves.

[capri0mni]

Interesting. I didn't consider that the Doctor vs. Companion daydream fell predominantly along gender lines. I just assumed (as one never should) that most people of all genders went the companion route, because the companions were the humans.

'Course, I tend, in general, to put myself in the Witness-Storyteller mode, anyway, regardless of whichever fictiverse I'm daydreaming. ... Much more likely to be a Watson than a Holmes.

most Doctors are just Uber-Sues themselves.

I think that's a built-in facet of the fictiverse: the way each actor has been encouraged to fit the Doctor's persona in each regeneration with their own persona (rather than, say, the different actors who've played James Bond, for example).

[pebblerocker]

It makes no sense from my cultural context that in the USA Christmas is considered to be for Christians only -- not only the birth of Jesus, but all the pagan midwinter celebration traditions as well. From an outsider's perspective it appears that Christianity has completely subsumed Christmas over there; am I misinterpreting? In New Zealand there are always ads organised by churches trying to remind people of "the reason for the season" but definitely no sense that you have to believe in Jesus to put up a tree and hang your stocking. Christmas is primarily pagan here even for people who are religious enough to go to church.

I loved Santa as a child and didn't want to give him up for long after I knew he wasn't real -- not out of greed but because I enjoyed the magic.

[capri0mni]

From an outsider's perspective it appears that Christianity has completely subsumed Christmas over there; am I misinterpreting?

Nope. You've pretty much hit the nail on the head. You don't have to be uberly religious to hang a stocking or put out milk and cookies, but you at least have to be culturally Christian. Jewish families, here, often put up a "Channukah Bush" But "Santa," himself, only visits the Christian kids (or the Europeanly-rooted Pagans, who celebrate him as a Winter Solstice Personage, often under the name "Holly King").

And according to the American Civil Liberties Union, people working in government offices aren't allowed to decorate their work spaces with images of Santa because, here, Santa is considered a religious icon specific to Christianity.

*sigh* It's one reason I started getting uncomortable writing my 2006 NaNoWrimo novel (which was an alternate take on The Santa-and-his-elves story), because I, myself, am a non-Believer. But I couldn't write a Santa Story in an American context without making it Christocentric.

I enjoyed the magic

Word.

(and meanwhile, I'm finding it ironic that people in your part of the world are more open to celebrating the Midwinter Festival as a Midwinter Festival during what is Midsummer, for you).