Why indeed?! I’ve been asking myself, “Why are so many people, adults – well, it seems so many – eager, so eager, to begin thinking and dreaming about Christmas as early as October?” If October 1st is when this “magical thinking” starts, then there is still almost one quarter of the year left until Christmas Day!
I have a theory! A lot of people are, on the whole, quite dissatisfied with their lives. Something is missing for them. They are unfulfilled. They are craving something, but they are not quite sure what it is. What they DO know is that thinking about and focusing on Christmas, provides them with the sort of feelings that they are missing. Joy, excitement, contentment.
To me, this is sad. Because of the source of this joy, this manufactured happiness, this temporary satisfaction. It’s, one could say, slightly akin to “clutching at straws”? People are grasping at Christmas, this one day out of three hundred and sixty-five in a year, desperate to feel better.
I would, rather, encourage the early Christmas celebrators to take some time to consider what it is that is missing in their lives. What would it take to start filling the void on a permanent basis? After all, once December 25th is over – or let’s say, once January 1st, 2018, arrives – what then? What will keep you enthused, feeling “alive”, excited to wake up each morning, then?