Two thousand years (actually, its more like two thousand and eight years) ago, or so the Holy Bible says, Jesus Christ was born in a manger cold and dark, thus bringing salvation to those who believe in Him. It wasn't too long ago that Christmas was a day where we remember Christ's birth. Now, it has just become another day, another part of the festive session.

While watching "A Blessed Christmas" on Channel 5 yesterday, I noticed how commercialized Christmas has become. For those who have watched the show (it was very badly done, if you ask me…What a waste of my time), you would notice that it contains nothing but appearances of characters from various serial shows (mostly bad ones…I have lost faith in Singapore’s ability to produce good programs) and various Christmas songs dropped in here and there. I suppose that that’s all well and good, but contrary to what the ad says, that is not the true spirit of Christmas.

Let me tell you a story. A little boy’s birthday was round the corner. All his friends were overjoyed, and made plans to celebrate it in the most extravagant way possible. When the day came, his friends gather round for the party and had a great time. End of story. Notice something wrong with the story?

For the faster ones out there, you would notice that I did not mention about the birthday boy at all, besides mentioning him in the opening line, the reason being his friends were so busy making plans and enjoying themselves that they forgot to bring the boy over for his own birthday party. That is basically what is happening to us right now. We are celebrating Christmas, but to whom are we celebrating it for? What are we doing besides having a great time in our own way while ignoring the occasion?

I suppose that it can’t be helped. After all, no one can deny the power of the market. The people in charge of the economy saw the marketing potential of Christmas and set round to milk every cent they can out of the human herd. Ads and presents galore. Over the years, we slowly forgot why we are even celebrating Christmas in the first place. It is not to make little disabled children wishes come true (although that is a nice touch by Tork Kong, PCK, and the other characters that just happened to slip my mind…Heck, I got so sick of that show that I turned it off halfway through and went on to watching Mai HiME…I think that I would post a review on that sometime soon)
Anyway, I hope that this little essay here is enough to make you think on your preconceived notions of Christmas. Christmas isn’t really a time to give presents around (although, if you want to give me presents, I won’t mind :P), nor is anything else (okay, okay, I’m as much a victim of commercializing as you are. I want my presents and everything else. So there.). It is a day when we remember the greatest (well, second greatest…Try figuring out which is the greatest) event in human history. I hope that you would keep that in mind while you go on your mindless shopping and fun-making…Not that I have any false conceptions that you would…Well, see you.

And have a Merry Blessed Christmas.

XD