Happy Channukah

Okay so this is being written in word but I want it to go up tonight as it's the last day of Channukah so I'm holding place with this nonsense filler. Yeah.

Impossible!

I babysit a couple of kids from when they get out of school until when their mother gets home in the evening. I don't know what religion they are, other than they aren't Christian. But they do know the nativity scene. Because the older one, as I was picking him up from school on Friday pointed out the Mary + Joseph + manager for baby Jesus and told me that it was impossible.

The reason why it was impossible?

They didn't have nails back then and so they couldn't have a manger. It was a million years ago and they didn't have nails a million years ago.

I'm not a Christian, so I can't say I care if this child believes in the nativity scene or not. That's for him to look for and decide when he gets older. But he did make some factual errors in how we count time and about the existence of nails.

I tried to explain to him that the idea was that Jesus was born only about 2000 years ago, hence why we call it two thousand and ten. The idea is that Jesus was born in the year zero. He seemed to accept this.

But then I said that even two thousand years ago they had nails, they didn't look like the nails we had today, but they still had nails. Nails have been around longer than the idea of Jesus. We've had nails for thousands of years.

That however was far too ridiculous. I was flatly told that having nails for so long was impossible. "That's ridiculous! It's impossible! Nails didn't exist back then."

Scrooged.

I'm a big fan of Dicken's A Christmas Carol. In my family, it used to be a Christmas tradition that we would sit down and read it together in the month of December. At first it was just my mother reading to us, and then as we got older we all took turns. So I usually loved every version of A Christmas Carol that was ever made. Although generally, I like the traditional ones more, minus the Disney version in which Mickey is Bob Crachitt, love that and Disney characters aren't really all that "traditional." Although if you consider how old Mickey is these days, he might be crossing that line.

I'm not sure of how I feel about Scrooged though. I don't think it's quite the type of Christmas Carol movie I really enjoy, although I was rather distracted while watching it. I was writing and it was on TV so it had commercials and I was chatting with friends. So maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance. But I sort of feel that if I movie can't hold my attention...it's not really my fault and more the fault of the movie. Because there are some movies that I have a really hard time getting anything done at the same time as watching them because I get so into them.

It should have been amazing, as it has Bill Murry and Karen Allen, and I adore Ms. Karen Allen in surprising amounts. She's so adorable, with her smile and her giant eyes.

Overall the movie was enjoyable, but it didn't really put me in the Christmas spirit.

I did like this little gem at the end though: "We are the people we always hope we could be." Made me think of what I blogged about yesterday. Actually, his whole speech at the end was pretty good. Especially with the Claire, world, world, Claire.



She is so cute.

But if I'm looking for A Christmas Carol, I'll be sticking to my traditional one with everyone in period costumes.

As long as there's Christmas

"As long as there's Christmas, I truly believe
That hope is the greatest of the gifts we'll receive

So there always will be a time.
When the world is filled with peace and love."

I've always loved this bit of music. I love Beauty and the Beast, but Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas always warmed my heart more than the original did though. It might have something to do with the fact that Bernadette Peters is voicing the angel, and I've adored her forever. But I think it's this song, (and the other one "Stories") that have always touched my heart more than "Something There" or "Beauty and the Beast" ever did.

But these words basically sum up Christmas. Not just Christmas even, but the holiday season. A lot of religions have religious holidays during this time of year. It probably has something to do with the fact you get the longest night of the year and then it seems God returns the sun to us like a gift. That's pure speculation though, I have no actual idea. But there is something about this time of year. That isn't the presents, or the mistletoe, or anything to do with those traditions. Something about this time of year says, maybe the world can be better, maybe we have a chance at peace after all.

Christmas has always been a non-denominational holiday for me. My family isn't religious to say the least, so Christmas has never been very spiritual. I've found another way to be spiritual over the holiday season, by celebrating Chanukah. I like celebrating holidays as it makes me feel closer to people from around the world, which I think is kind of the point. I celebrate this, and so do so many others, it gives us something in common, and suddenly we are a little less of strangers.

In the end, that is what the holiday season means to me. It's a chance to be less of a stranger. It's a chance to be a little more human.

Sure, it's going to be stressful, all those presents and Christmas shopping, and kids get more materialistic every year it seems, people can't handle the pressure and get mad at others. But I hope that everyone around the world is able, even if it's just for a minute, get a moment where they realize that the person over there that they don't know, is a little less of a stranger. Open your hearts and let in the joy.