Christmas - 
Celebration of LIGHT and LOVE
How MEN celebrate Christmas
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At Christmas time, the house has to be perfectly clean, the families are gathering, guests are invited, and everyone, not only the working people, are in full stress. There is a deadline to watch, all the shopping has to be done, all the cleaning, all the Christmas mail, the presents have to be wrapped... And then, when it is Christmas day, most people are exhausted, tired, would rather stay in bed and sleep, hate the obligation of celebrating with the family, hate the sentimental memories, hate trying to be nice even to those they cannot stand to see... But you have to avoid quarreling at Christmas at any cost, that means swallowing whatever disgusts and hurts you, pretending to love them all... it sound familiar, doesn't it?

There are people with large families, HIS family and HER family, who are shuddering at the idea of December approaching, thinking of all the presents they 'have to' buy, of all the shopping and preparations, of the yearly questions, who visits whom, whom to invite and whom not to invite, without hurting anybody, how to achieve the optimal harmony  - and sometimes the Christmas plannings are elaborately contrived, considering the commercial, psychological and personal aspects, the laws of behaviorism and habit, the balance of favor (we were at your parents' house the last two years, now we have to visit my parents), with every detail delicately puzzled out...
And many people want to escape Christmas Day by going somewhere far away.

And many people, living by themselves, feeling alone, feeling isolated, feeling self pity, spend Christmas crying, maybe drinking alcohol, and every year the statistics report an increase of suicides around this time of the year...

And even before they learn how to speak, children are flooded with commercials, with bright pictures of things arousing their want - children are a very important target group for gaining profit - this is the psychologically contrived way to get a hold on their pocket money and the parents' income. Consciously and systematically, the children are being conditioned, especially by TV, to want clothes and toys of a certain brand - trade names are a status symbol even in preschool and kindergarden. Isn't this a sickening trend to watch? Competition without end, from birth to death, being trained to glance at whatever the others have, trained to envy and be greedy, because commercials suggest that material things make you worthy of friendship and love - not only children, but also grown-ups. It's sickening, isn't it? So very often the parents are trying to attend to the children's wishes, but there are also those who do not have the means. And the children who have not recceived the 'right' and expensive presents are disappointed and feel unworthy, being ashamed for it in front of their playmates and classmates. Sometimes parents take a loan to make their children be accepted - so the calculation of commercialism is met at all cost...
How many children may feel great sorrow for Christmas, because their parents did not have the money to fulfill their wishes, that have been awakened by the commercials? Do the people responsible for those commercials think about that or does it not matter to them at all? How much pitilessness, how much coldness of heart, how many lies, how much abuse, how much darkness is behind the commercials, that dazzling illusion coaxing you to have certain wishes. Children are helpless against it (and not only they are) - and the makers know it. They know that parents would do just about everything to make their children happy: so they are using the LOVE of the parents and the pain of the children to make profit.

So Christmas is not only a feast of JOY, but also a feast of greed, egotism, consumption, stress, loneliness and sentimentality.

Why do we become sentimental on Christmas? Being sentimental has nothing to do with LOVE, but with clinging to old times. 'How beautiful it was to celebrate Christmas, when I was a child, when grandfather was still alive, when my partner was still there, when mother was with us...', we say, and we hear the old Christmas songs and remember, and cry...
Sentimentality is not lifting you up, but pulling you down, without healing the least of your sorrow. It is terribly heavy and sad, takes all your JOY from you, your JOY of LIVING, and lets you sink deeply into sadness and self pity - the cause of  addiction, desease and other evil. Sentimentality does not solve a single problem, but creates new ones. It is one of the basic evils of mankind. When Christmas songs make you cry - and it is not JOY or the BEAUTY of Christmas that cause your tears, switch them off and give them away. Throw away all the old Christmas decorations stuffed with sentimental memories - out with them!!!
Clear your rooms from souvenirs of 'happier times', throw them all out and give them away, also your old clothes and shoes that you have not worn for some years and are keeping only for sentimental reasons, also the furniture that is loaded with the energies of the 'good old times'. Throw it all out, give it away - all that stuff tied you with heavy ropes of really dark energy, keeping your spirits on ground level. 
I know this takes courage, but courage is vital for living a new life, instead of the old one, covered with dust and tears, with no end! Then clean your rooms thoroughly, let fresh air in and sit down and think:

All progress begins in yourself. When you want a change, you must change yourself! Your heart is the KEY.
You yourself have caused your loneliness - it is not time alone that removes people from your life. Maybe you are keeping away from other people, maybe you do not like others, feel awkward in their company because you have little self respect, maybe you cannot stand others' opinions, think that all the others are fools, have quarrelled with them, are angry with them because they seemingly did not care about you enough, maybe you want to give them a bad conscience, or you feel unworthy, thinking you could never reach up to the others' expectations, or maybe you have resigned...

Nobody can help you to change yourself   - You YOURSELF have to change things in your life: You yourself, because You yourself have caused these problems. Each one of us, everyone, has created his or her problems all by himself, by herself!
By realizing this, you now may also realize that exactly THAT is why YOU ALONE are able to change things. By doing so, you take the responsibility for yourself again, that you previously had handed over to others and to society, thus living your own strength and dignity. 

Why not celebrate Christmas completely different, for a change? Why not spoil yourself by going somewhere you always wanted to go? Or invite someone who is alone, too, but is also ready to enjoy life (and not pulling you down by crying sentimentally!); or celebrate it alone, but ENJOYING yourself, maybe by staying in bed, making a comfortable day for yourself, or doing whatever is fun to you - even if it means eating chocolat icecream all day long? 

Why not do what YOU want to do, not what others want you to do? Why not leave presents be (only among the grown-ups, of course), everyone has more than enough.

Why not prepare little presents that you can give to complete strangers, maybe there are more that would join this venture... It does not matter whether you know the people you give JOY to or not - they all are your brothers and sisters!

Discover Christmas completely new - the spiritual core of Christmas, that so many people have forgotten. Christmas is not a sweet, sugar-coated, sentimental relict of old times, only good for commerce and children. All those Christmas decorations are unnecessary, you do not need them. But if you have fun decorating your home, if those decorations open the way to your heart, do it! Take those decorations out of their boxes and hang them up. Christmas is in the hearts. Christmas is happy, bright, a lot of fun and Highest JOY (The dwarves are celebrating it that way!). Christmas is silence - deep silence. Christmas ist both.

And to give you great JOY for this Festive Season, I will offer you instructions for Festive Activities on my following page, easy-to-learn exercises that have to do with the Meaning and the Spirit of Christmas. Actually, THEY ARE THE REAL SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS!