Russ's Ravings: Here Is What This Christmas Season Is About

Editor's note: The following is Patch Field Editor Russ Crespolini's, hopefully, weekly column. It is reflective of his opinion alone.

Every year, as the advent season arrives, I find myself pondering the holiday season and the meaning of Christmas. Usually because someone is telling me what it should mean.

Take for example, the "Keep the Christ in Christmas" slogans that pop up this time of year. Now, I was raised Catholic and I made all my sacraments, but this is one I struggle with when I see it. Sure, it makes sense because of the name, but if you move past that cursory notion it is slightly more complex.

In truth, in their quest to Christianize the world, missionaries co-opted the pagan celebration of the winter solstice and made it the birth of Christ. Whether anyone believes in the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth, there is significant evidence that points to his birth actually being in the summer or early fall.

So why lock it in on December 25th? Well because then you are able to make a pitch to celebrate this miraculous birth rather than the solstice you already had as a tradition. Interesting to note, a traditional solstice celebration included:

• Making and hanging a wreath
• Decorating a tree
• Exchanging gifts
• Hanging mistletoe

There is also overlap with the Roman feast at Saturnalia, which also included gift giving, decorating houses and lighting candles.

The point is, telling someone about the "reason for the season" is disingenuous. Because the season was being celebrated long before that reason.

So what is Christmas all about? Is it about Santa Claus and ho ho ho and mistletoe and presents for pretty girls?

No. Because Charlie Brown got that right. Commercialism is a problem when it comes to celebrating Christmas. We focus so much on the materialism and that is hard in any year, much less a pandemic year when we've lost so much in every sense of the word.

For many people Christmas is about different things. For some it is religious, for some it is material. For some it means nothing. But this year, now more than ever, it is about hope.

It is about the hope we all have for better times ahead. We've had such a challenging year, and the holiday season can be the balm everyone is looking for so desperately right now.

Christmas is about that extra smile you see on the street, that extra second to hold the door for someone, the cards you send, the phone calls you make, the connections you are growing.

It is about the hope that our best selves can exist for more than a few short days at the start of winter.

This year, that hope is going to get is through a tough winter as the pandemic vaccine rolls out. It will be too late for many. And it will be not enough for some. But I hope it will be enough to help us out of this dark tunnel.

This year, the Christmas season has given me the gift of hope. And I hope it spreads to you as well.

Russ Crespolini is a Field Editor for Patch Media, adjunct professor and college newspaper advisor. His columns have won awards from the National Newspaper Association and the New Jersey Press Association.

He writes them in hopes of connecting with readers and engaging with them. And because it is cheaper than therapy. He can be reached at russ.crespolini@patch.com